“An anonymous tipster has claimed to AppleInsider that Apple is buying Cue, which was formerly known as Greplin, for between $35 million and $45 million,” AppleInsider reports. “The startup was a Y Combinator venture capital alumnus that reportedly obtained funding from both Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.”
“Cue announced to its users on Tuesday that the service is shutting down and is no longer available. Cue Premium users who bought a paid subscription, either through official iOS app or the company’s website, will receive a prorated refund,” AppleInsider reports. “Cue’s functionality was much like that of Google Now or Apple’s new iOS 7 contextual notifications, though it debuted before both of those services.”
AppleInsider reports, “Originally founded as Greplin, the company would index content from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as pulling data from Gmail. For example, a single search for ‘Jim’ would surface contacts from the user’s LinkedIn account, emails from Gmail, and documents from Dropbox.”
Read more in the full article here.
Doesn’t really sound like something Apple would buy.
Except if Apple thinks that a lawsuit was coming from that company for a patent it have and Apple would lose. Now Apple could sue Google…
Yet buy it they did.
Unless it is what they are putting in the Siri iCar or iWatch device.
Hopefully for Siri Eyes. After a lot of announcements about Siri in 7 auto manufacturers plans only BMW has made any mention. I don’t think Honda or Toyota is planning to put Siri in 2014 models. Even BMW does not call it Siri in their specs. Was really hoping to see it, my 2012 Acura MDX does a terrible job of understanding speech.
The acquisition of this company is a defensive measure in as far as I can tell. To stop rivals from acquiring it while at the same time give Apple access to rivals data with no or little chance of being sued succesfully.
This excerpt from the verge explains it all.
Cue’s original service was designed for heavy social network users, allowing them to search content across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but last year when it rebranded it switched to an offering roughly similar to Google Now. That’s a favorable comparison for Cue, however, as it didn’t use algorithms like Google Now to make intelligent (and useful) recommendations. Cue culled emails and calendar appointments, among other information, to provide a daily agenda. In iOS 7, Apple introduced a “Today” screen with similar functionality, and it’s not far-fetched to think Cue could help bolster the feature.
When it goes live, Apple will renamed it “Eddy.”