news.com speculates on Apple adding new mapping service to its application capabilities for the iPhone.
Apple buy map service to compete with Google?
by Steven Musil
(Credit: Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)
We may now have a better idea of why Apple objects to Google Latitude.
It appears that Apple has purchased PlaceBase, a company that produced a maps API called Pushpin and offered a mapping service much like Google Maps. The evidence, dug up by ComputerWorld's Seth Weintraub, first appeared in the form of a tweet in July by Fred Lalonde, the founder of Openspaces.org, a company that used PlaceBase's software, stating that Apple had purchased PlaceBase:
Apple bought PlaceBase - all hush hush. Pushpin site taken offline. Hyperlocal iPhone?The next clue apparently came from Jaron Waldman, PlaceBase's founder and CEO. His LinkedIn page now lists PlaceBase under his "past" experience and now lists his current occupation as a member of Apple's "GEO Team." In addition, Placebase.com and Pushpin.com have been taken down.
Here is the LinkeIn Page.
Jaron Waldman
Geo Team at Apple
- Current
- Geo Team at Apple
- Past
- Founder & CEO at Placebase
- Director at Community Informatics
- VP Product Development at eSourceWorld
- Education
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Recommendations
1 person has recommended Jaron
- Connections
198 connections
- Websites
Experience
Geo Team
Apple
Public Company; AAPL; Computer Hardware industry
2009 – Present (less than a year)
Add this to the list of thing going into Apple’s data centers.