iOS 6 Maps app to sport an in-house car navigation mode, says WSJ

posted by Daniel P. / Jun 05, 2012, 8:40 AM

iOS 6 Maps app to sport an in-house car navigation mode, says WSJ

Due to the rumors and screenshots flying in the past week or two we know that Apple is ripe to unveil its own Maps application with iOS 6 that ditches the services of Google, and uses its own geocoding solution and mapping backend.

While the geocoding has been in the iOS Maps application since last Novmeber, replacing Google's positioning, now we learn that everything else will become Apple's piece of code too. Wall Street Journal reports today in a lengthy piece that its own sources, among which are current and former Google and Apple employees, confirm the Maps app swap.

Google, they say, started to get slightly worried when Apple bought Poly9 and other mapping and 3D companies, indicating that it is developing an in-house solution. The sources also divulged that Apple has been licensing POI, traffic conditions and local business info for a while now to include in its new application, so it will butt heads directly with Google Maps.

The big question was also if Apple will offer navigation along with the mapping software, and for the first time WSJ confirms that insiders tipped a navigational app that turns iOS gear into an "in-car GPS device". Thus we can deduce that Cupertino might indeed offer a voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation solution of its own, but whether it will be free and offline like Nokia Maps, remains to be seen.

The maps and navigation project has been shrouded in secrecy, WSJ says, to the extent that one engineer who was working on part of it, didn't know what another one on the same project was doing.

source: WSJ (subscription)

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44 Comments

1. QinEmpire

Posts: 145; Member since: May 16, 2012

Bb google, you can only blame yourself for copying shamelessly alongside Samsung.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 8:44 AM 5

2. mss1988

Posts: 41; Member since: Apr 19, 2012

Actually Apple fanboys are biggest copycats. They simply can't stop quoting Jobs's words. You are the perfect example.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 8:52 AM 7

3. QinEmpire

Posts: 145; Member since: May 16, 2012

Its being quoted because its the truth.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 8:59 AM 3

21. dcgore

Posts: 234; Member since: Feb 24, 2012

From Alec Saunders, VP from RIM (via crackberry): "Another thing about Android is — and Google even admitted it — it’s a rip-off of an Apple experience. So Apple is a five-year-old experience, Android is a clone of that five-year-old experience."

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:07 PM 2

4. hung2900

Posts: 966; Member since: Mar 02, 2012

Oh, do you know that i laughed a lot when i saw the notification bar in iOS 5? Because of the imitating but still being worse than Android!

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 8:59 AM 5

5. QinEmpire

Posts: 145; Member since: May 16, 2012

Did Google patent it? No? Did Apple Patent it? Yes. So Google stole Apple's technology.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:05 AM 5

7. mss1988

Posts: 41; Member since: Apr 19, 2012

Apple stole your mind.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:08 AM 6

10. shadowcell

Posts: 300; Member since: Mar 28, 2012

Actually, I know this is off-topic but the drop-down notification bar patent is actually pending but filed back in 2009. Here's the sauce: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090249247?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:22 AM 2

25. LAFN

Posts: 61; Member since: Jul 19, 2009

I do suppose that is different than the pop-UP notification bar I had on my Windows Mobile phone 6 years ago.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:37 PM 0

8. JSern

Posts: 282; Member since: May 22, 2011

The notification bar came from Symbian first FYI

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:11 AM 5

11. QinEmpire

Posts: 145; Member since: May 16, 2012

And again, Google didn't get the patent because they stole the notification from Symbian. Poor chap.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:39 AM 4

15. tizz06

Posts: 15; Member since: May 17, 2012

but at the end of the day that means APPLE copied 2 different companies and not just google. plus u sound like an idiot by apple patented it and google stole it then commenting later sayin o google stole it from symbian and not apple. which in turn means apple stole from both google and symbian... very innovative

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:08 AM 0

19. rudlie

Posts: 205; Member since: Mar 13, 2012

Notification centre originally shown on palm os. It's called Attention Indicator. And for apple itself, notification centre is one the UI that was stolen by android. Notification centre is in the big roadmap/blueprint of ios version. Unlucky, android implemented first. Please sue apple and prove the notification centre is the originally from android. I think google will afraid.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 11:04 AM 0

14. McLTE

Posts: 922; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Lets analyze this for a second.. Google has had a Maps app on the phone FOREVER, along with FREE navigation. Apple is now, 5 years later going to implement it in iOS, in no small part because it's done so well in Android phones.. really changing the face of GPS vehicle navigation. So Apple is rushing to get into the Nav game... Hmmm... who is copying who here? Really though.. who gives a s**t?!?! Apple coming out with their own Nav does 2 things.. makes iOS users happy, which is great. It also keeps other companies like Google on their toes and I expect to see more and faster innovation as a result of this. A win-win for everyone!

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:08 AM 2

20. QinEmpire

Posts: 145; Member since: May 16, 2012

Obviously Google is.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:07 PM 2

18. Whateverman

Posts: 3295; Member since: May 17, 2009

You really don't have ANYTHING intelligent to say do you? If so, please do, we're all getting really bored with you now.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:55 AM 0

6. theoak

Posts: 324; Member since: Nov 16, 2011

I would be game for free voice navigation. The wife has it on her Android Thunderbolt. Free is always good ;)

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:07 AM 3

9. thelegend6657 unregistered

Cant wait for the new iOS

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:18 AM 6

12. appleDOESNT.com

Posts: 456; Member since: Nov 19, 2011

"in-car GPS device" wow! welcome to forever ago Apple! Maybe you could of just stuck with the sat view, street view and indoor view of the superior google maps and devoted some of your resources to not overcharging for years ago tech? How bout that! With your every move to become a totally closed all apple or nothing company more and more of the herd will flock elsewhere. Take MS smartglass, it embraces all technology. Tech we already own not have to buy year after year to get the newest features out of a ios device.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 9:49 AM 0

16. taco50

Posts: 5506; Member since: Oct 08, 2009

A lot of companies are starting to shut out google. Facebook and Wikipedia have also stopped using google maps API's.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:17 AM 5

27. Whateverman

Posts: 3295; Member since: May 17, 2009

When will these companies stop using Google? I clicked onto a few random locations in my Facebook page and sure enough it pulled up a Google image.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 1:23 PM 1

13. pkiran1996

Posts: 166; Member since: Oct 22, 2011

QinEmpire's logic is stupid. Not to mention the amount of arrogance he shows...

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:08 AM 2

17. havoxx

Posts: 3; Member since: Jun 01, 2012

I just don't understand why people give a damn anymore, these companies are spewing crap out left and right, all "Copies" of the previous thing, that's how it is, then apple patents it, and wastes tons of money/time sueing people, but what's worse is that now other companies are following suit, pretty soon we will have dumb-ass phones that can't do s**t because they are all at a patent war one after the other. As for the facebook thing, who gives a crap what facebook does anymore, that company will fail in the next few years.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 10:26 AM 0

22. wassup

Posts: 565; Member since: Jun 23, 2011

apple is clearly copying here, as it did with the drop down notification and Siri

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:10 PM 1

23. taco50

Posts: 5506; Member since: Oct 08, 2009

Fandroids are not very bright. Having navigation isn't copying. It's only copying if it looks and feels like Google's navigation. That's like saying android copied Apple because they had a web browser and music app. Or google copied Tom Tom because Tom Tom had navigation first. Fandroids smh

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:23 PM 2

26. wassup

Posts: 565; Member since: Jun 23, 2011

actually, i'm using iDiot logic, in other words, your logic. Apple's notification bar looks and feels like Android's notification area, doesn't it? On the tom tom thing, you are mistaken, because google did it on mobile calling devices, not on stand alone GPSs. again iDiot logic, because the iPhone is revolutionary because it combined touchscreen n stuff into a mobile device, so google maps is innovative because it was first on a mobile device, wasn't it? see how stupid iDiot logic is? stop using it.

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 12:50 PM 3

29. Whateverman

Posts: 3295; Member since: May 17, 2009

Hahahahahaaaa! +1,000 for wassup! Using iOS fanboy logic against the iOS fanboys...PRICELESS! And damn funny too!

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 1:49 PM 2

31. taco50

Posts: 5506; Member since: Oct 08, 2009

Troll

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 2:15 PM 2

37. PhoneArenaUser

Posts: 5498; Member since: Aug 05, 2011

You are

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 4:40 PM 0

41. Whateverman

Posts: 3295; Member since: May 17, 2009

This is YOUR argument for the iPhone using the "first" touchscreen phone, yet that same argument can't be applied to any other phone? Ya know what sounds like to me? Sounds like fanboyism!

posted on Jun 05, 2012, 5:37 PM 1

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