The deal went unnoticed until this week, but Apple evidently bought mapping outfit Placebase this past July in an acquisition that may have undermined its relationship with Google, which provides mapping technology for the iPhone.
If 2008 (or 2007, 06, 05, 04…) was the year April Fools on the Web jumped the shark, then 2009 was the year it was eaten by it. The Web is so overburdened with pranks this year, it may that the best April Fools announcement of all proves to be Palm’s, a company promising to deliver real news and not some over-thought hoax. Google alone has posted no fewer than 12 pranks–and none of them match Pigeon Rank in wit.
An appreciative Phil Schiller welcomes the crowd and thanks everyone for showing up. He says it’s an incredibly exciting time for Apple, and offers a quick overview of Apple’s new retail stores. Says Schiller: This year’s Macworld will be all about the Mac. I’ve got three new things to tell you about. Subject No. 1 is iPhoto.
November 21. That’s the day iPhone 2.2 is rumored to arrive at market. And when, or if, it does, it’s expected to include some slick new features. Among them: Enhancements to Google Maps, including support for Google Street View, plus bus schedules and walking directions…
“The secret of success is: Start 12 years ago.” That’s how Multimap Founder and Chief Executive Sean Phelan once described the digital-mapping business. And he’s probably right. Of course, there’s another secret to success as well: acquire a business that started 12 years ago.
Which is what Microsoft did today when it purchased Multimap for a [...]
Bienvenue, iPhone: France Telecom will begin selling Apple’s cellphone this evening at selected Orange stores in Paris and other cities. … FCC Says ‘Uncle’: A proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to tightly regulate the cable TV industry has been “drastically” trimmed. … Amazon: 1; Feds: 0. The federal government has lost its bid to compel Amazon to release details about the book-buying habits of thousands of its customers. …
In a press conference following Google Analyst Day, company Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin confirmed Google’s plans to bid in the FCC’s upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, but declined to discuss the mobile-phone strategy that might make use of it–apparently leaving that task to The Wall Street Journal.
According to a [...]
Fire up the rumor mill. Apple’s .Mac service, which allows subscribers access to email, data storage and Web publishing tools for $99 a year, will go offline for maintenance tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. PDT–hours that coincide quite nicely with those of the press event at which Apple is rumored to be [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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