It can’t be easy, developing a Windows Phone sat nav app in the heavily publicized shadow of Nokia Here, but when we met the folks at CoPilot recently they were brimming with confidence. They’ve already counted 4.5 million downloads on Android and…
Google confirms acquisition of Waze
One of the more persistent acquisition rumors as of late has come true: Google just confirmed that it bought Waze. As many expected, the deal will see Waze largely operate independently of its new parent while supplying Google Maps with traffic up…
MapQuest arrives for Windows Phone 8
Let’s be frank: most Windows Phone users already have some form of navigation on hand, whether it’s Nokia’s Here Drive+ beta or one of the alternatives. However, it rarely hurts to have a free choice like MapQuest’s new app for Windows Phone 8. Th…
Report: Google Set To Buy Collaborative GPS Navigation Company Waze For $1.3 Billion
If you haven’t been following the broader tech news lately, GPS navigation provider Waze has been the corporate equivalent of a desperate college freshman, trying to find a match before the end of the first semester. The scuttlebutt is that both Apple and Facebook have shown interest in acquiring the Israel-based company within the last year. Now two credible sources, Israeli business websites Globes and Calcalist, report that Google has swooped in and agreed to purchase the company for a cool $1.3 billion.
What’s so great about Waze? Its mapping system incorporates data submitted by tens of millions of users, whose smartphones collaborate to make the GPS service more accurate and flexible.
Done With This Post? You Might Also Like These:
- Google Is Holding A Maps Event Just A Few Days Before WWDC, Could Be Big News For Google, Apple, And The Future Of Maps
- Google Maps Navigation Is Now Live In Israel
- How Google Maps Is Made: In-Depth Video Of Google Atlas, Google’s Internal Maps Tool
- Google Earth Gets Some Amazing New 3D Maps, Rubs It In Apple’s Face Just A Bit
Report: Google Set To Buy Collaborative GPS Navigation Company Waze For $1.3 Billion was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
    
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Google reportedly closing in on $1.3 billion deal for Waze traffic app (updated)
Last month news leaked that Facebook might acquire crowdsourced navigation / traffic / mapping app Waze, but now two papers in Israel say Google is about to close the deal. Globes and Calcalist both peg the potential sale price at $1.3 billion US,…
Waze 3.7 navigates to Facebook Events, shares directions with others
It’s not hard to navigate to a Facebook Event if there’s an address: it’s much harder if the organizer simply assumes that we’ll know where to go. Thankfully, we can now lean on some collective help through Waze 3.7 for Android and iOS. The update…
eTrak GPS+ melds WiFi, cellular and GPS tracking, launches at CTIA 2013 (hands-on)
We’ve come across a number of GPS-based tracking devices over the years but most are rather bulky and difficult to setup. eTrak’s attempting to remedy this here at CTIA 2013 with GPS+, a fob-like product that combines WiFi, cellular and GPS tracki…
eTrak GPS+ melds WiFi, cellular and GPS tracking, launches at CTIA (hands-on)
We’ve come across a number of GPS-based tracking devices over the years but most are rather bulky and difficult to setup. eTrak’s attempting to remedy this here at CTIA 2013 with GPS+, a fob-like product that combines WiFi, cellular and GPS tracki…
Skobbler updates Android app with turn-by-turn navigation and offline maps, offers free light option
Skobbler has had some success in the mobile mapping market, thanks in part to iOS’s historical first-party weakness in the area. But, with Apple offering its own solution and Google breaking Maps free from the OS-update chains, it’s facing a more …
Google unveils three new location APIs for developers
Save battery life and improve location data for every app
We’re live here at the Google I/O 2013 keynote, where Google has started off with talking about APIs for Android. As one of its first announcements, Google is rolling out three new APIs for developers to access the location of a device. First up is “Geofencing”, which lets apps define virtual fences around areas to then do actions when the user enters or leaves the area. Every app will be able to set up to 100 different geofences.
Next, we now have “Activity Recognition”, which tracks movement without the use of GPS. Using different sensors like the accelerometer, apps can track the location and movement of a device. Finally, we have a new service called “Fused Location Provider”, which sounds fancy but the end result is that it improves GPS efficiency for apps. GPS will drain no more than 1-percent per hour when locking to a user’s location.
We’ll keep on bringing you more from Google I/O 2013 as we see it!
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