Google released a nice little update for Chrome yesterday, bringing the app to version 23.0.1271.96 (yeah, I know right). The update only brings two changes to the popular iOS web browser: a fix for a character encoding bug, and the added ability to listen to audio playing from within the app while it's in the background...
After getting off to a shaky start, more than half of consumers shopping for a smartphone plan to buy an iPhone 5, according to a new Wall Street survey. Likewise, Twitter chatter indicates a growing number of Internet users hope to find Apple's new handset under the Christmas tree.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster told investors Thursday that 53.3 percent of a group polled Wednesday said they plan to purchase the iPhone 5 over the next month. That number is just slightly below the 54.9 percent found in mid-October, following the new smartphone's launch...
There's been a lot of talk over the past few months about the reasons behind Apple's decision to kick Google Maps out of iOS 6. Everyone has their opinions, but it seems like the biggest factor was Google's unwillingness to bring voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, among other features, to the pre-installed app.
Fast-forward to last night, when Google Maps returned to the iPhone in the form of a standalone App Store app. It has the same beloved features like Street View and transit directions, but it now has voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, and fast-loading vector graphics. Maybe Apple got what it wanted....
Google released its native Maps iOS app last night and, perhaps predictably, already the much-expected software has surged to become the top free iPhone app on the App Store. This just goes to illustrate that competition is a good thing and how eager people have been to have that native mapping experience from Google on their iPhones.
The program features a sleek interface and features missing from Apple's in-house offering, namely the excellent Street View and public transit directions, in addition to a number of the usual features ranging from Zagat restaurant reviews and turn-by-turn navigation, local Google search and more...
As most of you have probably heard by now, the official Google Maps app finally hit iOS last night after several months of speculation. It's fast, looks great, and the general consensus seems to be that Google really hit a home run.
New York Times' columnist David Pogue certainly seems to like it, and he had a few interesting things to say about it in his review. The well-connected writer says that Google admits the iPhone app is even better than the Android version, and an iPad version is on the way...
As expected, the official Google Maps app has landed in the App Store this evening. The release comes following a number of rumors, which have been circulating since the summer when it was announced that Apple would be replacing Google Maps in iOS with its own in-house solution.
The app works on the iPhone and iPod touch (no iPad version yet), and includes a number of features such as voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, Google's exclusive Street View, which allows you to look at locations from street level, and public transit directions. More details after the fold...
After much wait, it seems that Google is finally set to release its iOS maps app tonight.
As you'll no doubt recall, Google Maps was the stock maps app on iOS on up until it was usurped by Apple's own flavor of maps beginning with iOS 6. Of course, that didn't go down so well for Apple, as its Maps app was critically panned for being ugly at best, and dangerously inaccurate at worst.
The Apple Maps debacle got so bad that a public apology was posted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Scott Forstall, the man behind Apple Maps, was relieved of his duties.
Now, after months of speculation and wait, AllThingsD is reporting that Google will release its iOS maps comeback tonight...
Look, digital maps are imperfect - some more than the others. Australian police earlier in the week issued a public safety warning over a major flaw in Apple Maps which incorrectly put the town of Mildura in the middle of Australia’s Murray Sunset National Park.
It wasn't Apple's fault entirely as the company was working on data from The Australian Gazetteer, a company run by the Geosciences Australia agency which supplies Gazetteer with mapping data sourced from the state of Victoria itself.
And now, we learn that the police in Colac, west of Melbourne, warn of safety concerns from Google Maps. Ouch!
Google chairman Eric Schmidt thinks his company is clearly winning the smartphone war with Apple and he goes on the record to say it in no ambiguous terms. The numbers certainly support Android's position as the world's most popular smartphone platform in terms of volume.
According to Gartner, both Samsung and Apple controlled nearly half the world's smartphone market in the third quarter, or 46.5 percent. When it comes to mobile operating system share for smartphones, Android is in the clear lead with nearly three-quarters the market, or 72.4 percent, up from 52 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple's iOS held 13.9 percent. However, when it comes to the profits, Apple leads smart device profits and by a large margin, too...
Google today announced some welcome (if not way overdue) changes to its free news aggregator platform, Google News. The enhancements are aimed specifically at Apple's iPad and, of course, Google's own Nexus tablets and include new gestures and more breathing room between articles, which de-clutters the interface. If you used to dislike Google News because it threw every link it could at you, give the updated web app another try as it does feel more natural and fluid on iPads than before...
Larry Page, who co-founded Google along with Sergey Brin in 1998, made it to #13 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans at the age of 39, with personal wealth estimated at $20.3 billion. One of the brightest computer scientists of our time, Page invented the PageRank algorithm, a secret sauce that powers Google's search rankings.
An American Jew, Page took over reigns of Google from then CEO Eric Schmidt in April of 2011, mercilessly axing many projects in order to focus the company on a few that mattered the most. He oversaw Google's acquisition of the handset maker Motorola Mobility and is now leading the search Goliath as it wages an all-out war against Apple on multiple fronts, vying for supremacy in the all-important mobile market.
The Google CEO today sat for a quick one-on-one interview with Forbes, here's what came out of him concerning Apple, competition and other interesting topics...
It is no secret that no one has cracked the code to the perfect TV yet. As multiple vendors fight for the living room with no clear leader in sight, the search monster's Google TV platform is floundering and Apple's $99 Apple TV hockey puck is still deemed a hobby business, despite sales in the first six months of 2012 doubling to 2.7 million units, almost equalling the 2.8 million Apple TVs moved in the entire 2011.
And as the prospect of an Apple-branded standalone HD TV set continues to occupy the brightest minds in the industry and Hollywood, rival Google is looking to sell off the cable box division of Motorola and has already received a few offers last week. But why is Google willing to drop Motorola's set-top box business in the first place?