“For many of the largest Silicon Valley technology companies, location software undergirds numerous applications and features in their products,” Mike Isaac reports for The New York Times. “For Apple, it has been a game of catch-up.”
“To that end, Apple confirmed on Sunday that it had purchased Coherent Navigation, a Bay Area global positioning company, further bolstering Apple’s location technology and services,” Isaac reports. “Founded in 2008, Coherent Navigation was a small firm that focused on creating commercial navigation services based on partnerships with companies like Boeing and Iridium, the satellite network operator, according to a description on the LinkedIn page of Paul Lego, the company’s former chief executive.”
“Coherent Navigation worked on high-precision navigation systems, technology that is far stronger than many consumer-grade global positioning systems, which are typically accurate to within three to five meters,” Isaac reports. “In the past, Coherent Navigation has also worked on autonomous navigation and robotics projects, according to previous company job listings, as well as projects for the Defense Department”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Maps is on its way to becoming supercharged like Siri became seemingly with the release of Apple Watch. If you haven’t used Siri lately, you haven’t used Siri. Hopefully Maps, already much-imporved since launch – is on its way to a similar transformation.
No need. Just wasting money.
Written like a good little Gaagle employee there buddy bob.
No, I fear generic ‘bob’ may be correct.
I suppose it may be possible to get something approaching an actual ‘coherent’ GPS system if it is able to ping several public GPS satellites rather than the usual three or four. Perhaps it’s possible to mass enough data over time to create a self-correcting GPS system, learning from its abundant mistakes, versus simply grabbing a few satellite pings and throwing out the usual, inaccurate guestimates. We shall see.
hey bob; coming to this site instead of getting on with your life is wasting money.
If you can’t see where you are going by the time your 10 meters away from it, heck stop, turn around and go home. I guess you two work for Coherent.Enjoy you pay day.
I will consider using Apple Maps instead of Google Maps when:
(1) Apple Maps offers bicycling and transit directions in addition to driving and walking directions.
(2) Apple Maps offers lane guidance while driving.
(3) Apple Maps learns the correct location of 405 S Santa Anita Ave Arcadia, CA, United States, which is about 1 mile northeast of where Apple Maps thinks it is.
Bryan,
You can help Apple to correct item #3 on your list…
“Users who search for a specific city or landmark and find an error can at least alert Apple to the glitch. To do so, tap on the right arrow or information icon next to the pinned area to bring up the Location page. At the bottom of the page, tap on the Report a Problem link.”
Thanks for your advice on how to correct Apple Maps. I’ve already submitted several problem reports over the last 2 years regarding the location of 405 S Santa Anita Ave, Arcadia CA, but they have been ignored.
Yep, had the same problem, Google Maps corrected in two weeks, but it took Apple five months to do the same correction on its maps!
Thanks. I have already made several problem reports to apple regarding the correct location of 405 S Santa Anita Ave, Arcadia, CA, but they have been ignored.
+1.
I and others have said since the day the damnable thing shoved Google Maps off my phone that it made the experience for millions of urban users WORSE by neglecting to integrate transit. The suggested parter-apps are a laughably bad substitute.
Which is not to say Apple isn’t capable. Clearly the integrated Google Maps app was Apple’s doing, as Google’s latecomer replacement is barely half the app of the one Apple knifed in terms of usability and interface. But it has the feature I (and millions of other NYC owners) need for 99% of our Maps interactions.
I’m curious to know what happened in the apparent “Post Purge” that eliminated the top-of-the-page post from “Mac News” and my subsequent “arbiter” response, and also his post in the “Ballmer” story.
MDN? You out there?…
“Autonomous navigation and robotics…”. Hmmm…..
I use Apple’s Maps ALL the time and find it to be wonderful!
I was playing at the Cavern Club in Liverpool this weekend and needed to negotiate the dreadful road system there, one way streets, road works, flyovers etc etc. Not only did the system mean I just relied on the verbal/visual instructions and it performed impeccably, but also the city has been ‘fly-overed’ by Apple which means it was really easy to find an apartment building entrance that was not apparent elsewhere! I will not use anything else!
MSN is spot on about Siri on the AppleWatch! I have been complaining for 2 years about the trouble & frustration with Siri on my iPhones, but she works almost flawlessly on the AppleWatch!
There’s such a thing as publicly available coherent GPS navigation? Since when?!
Did they hack into the military GPS system?