Apple has purchased AlgoTrim, a Swedish firm specializing in image and video compression techniques, for an unspecified price. It could pave the way to better iOS device battery life, and much improved photo and video quality across Apple line-up of devices.
Apple has been launched a full court press on Maps ever since its disappointing launch last fall. The company has already gobbled up a few mapping companies but it’s not ready to stop quite yet, as it just purchased the map app Embark.
Embark, Inc. focuses on building free transit apps to help navigate public transportation. According to a report from Jessica Lessin, Apple acquired the small team very recently and plans to directly integrate Embark’s tech into Apple Maps.
Earlier this month, we reported that Vevo, the popular music platform, was in talks with Apple to make its own Apple TV channel a reality. The channel would allow Apple TV owners to access Vevo’s 24-7 music programming, and would be monetized by ads.
Unfortunately, there were no other details, and you know what they say, “A rumor’s not a rumor that doesn’t die.” So let’s kill off this rumor by making it a reality: the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the Vevo app could launch on the Apple TV as early as this week.
Apple doesn’t buy other companies very often, so when it does, there’s usually a very strategic reason. When it was reported that Apple had acquired Matcha a couple days ago, the reason seemed obvious.
Matcha was a small startup that specialized in aggregating programming guides from sources like Netflix and Hulu into a nice interface. Apple has been getting more serious about maturing the Apple TV, so the two seemed to fit like a glove.
But according to a recent report, Apple wanted Matcha for something else.
Apple is buying HopStop, a small company that specializes in transit directions, according to Bloomberg. Google Maps offers built-in transit directions while Apple Maps does not, so this acquisition makes perfect sense if Apple wants to makes its mapping solution more attractive.
Details are short on the ground, but The New York Times’ Brian X. Chen is reporting on Twitter that Samsung has purchaseds Boxee, maker of the Boxee Box, one of the Apple TV’s main competitors.
Spotify has acquired Swedish music discovery startup Tunigo in an effort to compete with Twitter’s new music service, AllThingsD reports. Tunigo will continue to operate as normal for the time being, but all of the company’s employees will reportedly move into Spotify’s offices in Stockholm and New York to work on Spotify’s main music streaming service.
Siri hasn’t quite lived up to the hype that most Apple fans bestowed upon it after it debuted with the iPhone 4S, but it’s still a magical piece of software, and Apple’s competitors want their own version of Siri.
Adding to months of speculation that it’s working on its own smartphone, Amazon just bought a Siri-like app called Evi, for $26 million.
What would make the next iPhone truly exciting? That’s what people are wondering. A lighter body, better camera, and iOS 7 probably won’t cut it for most. How will Apple deliver the pizazz we’ve all grown accustomed to?
Software is always evolving, and Apple has arguably the best software experience out there for mobile devices, period. But unfortunately software by itself isn’t that exciting. You need new hardware. Now it looks like Apple is working on some interesting fingerprint sensor-related hardware off the coast of Florida.
Apple has purchased a small startup called WiFiSLAM, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The two-year-old company specializes in indoor mapping, which is something Google has already been doing with Google Maps for some time.
Since Apple debuted its own mapping technology in iOS 6, it’s been working to bring its service up to par with Google Maps. WiFiSLAM’s expertise could very well be used to improve Apple Maps, and the acquisition also bodes well for another Apple service, Passbook.