“TomTom spilled the beans in a press release yesterday, saying that Apple had licensed part of its mapping solutions and information for use in the new Maps app in iOS 6,” Ben Kersey reports for SlashGear. “Details about exactly what is being used has been intentionally left vague. How about the crowd sourced data that Apple was keen to promote at the keynote? Turns out it could be coming from Waze, a navigation app that provides crowd sourced traffic data from via user interaction.”
Kersey reports, “TechCrunch notes that Waze is listed under Apple’s legal notices among with many other mapping companies. Waze is credited as providing only ‘Map data,’ but that could extend to the crowd sourced reports that Apple alluded to during Monday’s keynote. Other companies listed include Getchee, Localeze, Urban Mapping, DMTI, MapData Sciences, and TomTom.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple takes aim at Google with new in-house Maps with amazing Flyover, even smarter Siri – June 12, 2012
Apple goes thermonuclear on Google with new releases – June 11, 2012
Apple posts video of WWDC 2012 Keynote Address – June 11, 2012
Apple shows off iOS 6 with all new Maps, Siri features, Facebook integration, Shared Photo Streams via iCloud, and more – June 11, 2012
Steve Jobs: ‘I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product; I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this’ – October 20, 2011
I hate Waze. It has consistently given strange directions and rarely wants to reroute. MotionX GPS has the best interface but they use Bing Maps which kinda suck compared to Google.
As much as I hope Apple’s efforts to provide solid mapping is successful, I also hope Google releases a solid Maps application for iOS.
I can haz waze?
Fuck Google. You can suck up to those assholes all you want buddy. Not me.
Waze isn’t the only crowd map data provider. Read the ENTIRE article.
Of course I know Waze isn’t the only map provider. I never implied that it was. If you reread my original comment, I complained about the directions and reroutes…not the accuracy of the maps.
I use MotionX GPS Drive as well, and I have never had a problem with the Bing Maps they use. Can you explain why you think the Bing Maps “kinda suck” compared to Google?
I tested some of the other nav apps for the iPhone and MotionX GPS Drive is far and away my favorite.
Looking forward to seeing what Apple has come up with.
In my experience, Google Maps search is superior to Bing Maps search. Oftentimes, I have to search Google Maps, copy the address and paste it into MotionX. Once MotionX has the address, the directions are stellar.
I also look forward to Apple Maps but I’m going to use the best tool no matter who makes it.
I guess maybe it depends on where you are located, but I haven’t had to do that. Thanks for clarifying.
I was thinking the same thing but I believe MotionX knows search is an issue because they have a feature where you paste an entire address into the top address field in MotionX. This has simplified my life when Bing Maps fails to find what I’m looking for.
Google’s Maps app, as it is now, is a joke.
I will continue to use Mapquest 4 Mobile until Apple’s home grown app shows me something better.
Apple’s maps may not be perfect out of the box and better than Google in every way, but Apple seems to be commitment to their new map data project in a big way. You KNOW it will only get better with time.
I wonder if Apple’s map data will have a web (or at the very least a Mac app) version like Google. I like the convenience of looking up locations when I’m on my laptop and sending the “link” to that location (via email or calendar) over to my iPhone.
Oh, and with Google not allowing Apple to use turn-by-turn (according to rumors I read) while allowing it on Android, Apple didn’t have any choice but to dump Google.
I always wondered why Google didn’t release their Navigation app on iOS, or even offered it to Apple as a re-branded Apple app that ships with iOS.
Its flat out awesome on Android with turn by turn and I like how it switches to street view when I reach my destination. Its been great and I have no complaints. Even offers pedestrian mode, biking routes, traffic and tagging.
I always scratched my head about them keeping it Android only. I figured they’d want to release it on iOS to keep people sending them data.
Hopefully there is some cross licensing deals, where Apple engineers can help improve upon some of the dislikes of Waze, and other shortcomings. The point here, they are an additional resource of both funding and brain power to make the entire echo system better. The license fee for Apple, almost negligible, the benefit to third party companies, unimaginable.
Sounds like Apple is just using Waze’s data (and maybe their crowd-sourcing) The software to tie it all together is Apple’s. I doubt Waze’s data is flawed, it’s probably just their software implementation thats not up to snuff.
You think Apple may be banking it’s future on location-based features? Just maybe?
I was thinking the same thing but I believe MotionX knows search is an issue because they have a feature where you paste an entire address into the top address field in MotionX. This has simplified my life when Bing Maps fails to find what I’m looking for.