The brand new iPhoto for iOS, released last week, includes the ability to identify the location a photo was taken by plotting it on a map, or allowing the app to do it for you if the file contains location metadata. Until now, Apple has used Google for all of its mapping tools, but on Friday, the OpenStreetMap Foundation confirmed that Apple had used its data and placed its own ’tiles’ (the graphic representation of an area) on top.
This raises several questions, starting with why Apple is using data that’s nearly two years old and why it hasn’t credited the source.
Perhaps of more interest, however is why Apple has moved away from Google’s mapping API and why, having done so, it’s not using the data licensed by Placebase, the mapping company it acquired in 2009?
The answer to the first question may be in this OpenStreetMap Foundation blog post from Saturday. Google has started to charge customers who send more than a specified number of calls to its mapping APIs. The precise limit before charging applies and the cost imposed when it does varies depending on the API. But it would make sense if Apple and Foursquare, which also recently swapped Google for the OpenStreetMap Foundation, had decided they didn’t want to pay Google for the privilege of using its Maps and found an alternative.
In Apple’s case, it had an in-house alternative in Placebase, which had its own mapping API using data licensed from a third party when Apple bought it in 2009. So why not use Placebase? The answer to that question might be in this Guardian blog post from 2009. Placebase’s data was somewhat lacking in detail beyond major US cities in 2009. Whether that data has improved since then or whether it has been updated at all, we can’t know because Apple has never publicly discussed Placebase. It could be that the maps in iPhoto are created using Placebase tools with data from the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Apple’s mapping ambitions don’t end there, however. It bought two 3D-mapping companies last year, including C3 technologies which renders remarkable 3D photo-realistic animation and photography based on aerial and street-level photography. Take a look, below.
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What does iPhoto for iPad tell us about Apple’s mapping plans?
by Kenny Hemphill on March 12, 2012
The brand new iPhoto for iOS, released last week, includes the ability to identify the location a photo was taken by plotting it on a map, or allowing the app to do it for you if the file contains location metadata. Until now, Apple has used Google for all of its mapping tools, but on Friday, the OpenStreetMap Foundation confirmed that Apple had used its data and placed its own ’tiles’ (the graphic representation of an area) on top.
This raises several questions, starting with why Apple is using data that’s nearly two years old and why it hasn’t credited the source.
Perhaps of more interest, however is why Apple has moved away from Google’s mapping API and why, having done so, it’s not using the data licensed by Placebase, the mapping company it acquired in 2009?
The answer to the first question may be in this OpenStreetMap Foundation blog post from Saturday. Google has started to charge customers who send more than a specified number of calls to its mapping APIs. The precise limit before charging applies and the cost imposed when it does varies depending on the API. But it would make sense if Apple and Foursquare, which also recently swapped Google for the OpenStreetMap Foundation, had decided they didn’t want to pay Google for the privilege of using its Maps and found an alternative.
In Apple’s case, it had an in-house alternative in Placebase, which had its own mapping API using data licensed from a third party when Apple bought it in 2009. So why not use Placebase? The answer to that question might be in this Guardian blog post from 2009. Placebase’s data was somewhat lacking in detail beyond major US cities in 2009. Whether that data has improved since then or whether it has been updated at all, we can’t know because Apple has never publicly discussed Placebase. It could be that the maps in iPhoto are created using Placebase tools with data from the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Apple’s mapping ambitions don’t end there, however. It bought two 3D-mapping companies last year, including C3 technologies which renders remarkable 3D photo-realistic animation and photography based on aerial and street-level photography. Take a look, below.