Apple has reportedly bought HopStop, a New York based location company that provides real-time social transit navigation in 7 countries, for 700 transit agencies, on 20,000 lines, and 750,000 stops. According to Peter Borrows and Sarah Frier for Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. (AAPL) agreed to buy online transit-navigation service HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to improve mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last year.
When Apple relaunched their Maps app with iOS 6 in 2012, it was without the transit directions that many users of the previous, Google-powered versions depended on. Apple will bring their Maps to the Mac later this year with OS X Mavericks.
If, when, and how a HopStop acquisition will help Apple Maps in that regard isn't immediately clear. What is clear, however, is that Apple continues to invest heavily in mapping companies and their technology. To date, that includes HopStop, Locationary, WiFiSLAM, 3C Technologies, Poly9, and Placebase.
That being said, it'd be nice to see at least basic transit directions return to the built-in Maps app, wouldn't it?
Source: Bloomberg
What was it like working on the set of 'Cherry'?
I worked on the set of the film 'Cherry' which will be released on Apple TV+ on March 12. It was a pretty incredible experience; here's what it was like behind the scenes.
March 23 Apple event could bring AirTags, new iPad Pro, AirPods, Apple TV
Apple might be set to lift the lid on a ton of new hardware.
Apple VR leak suggests 2022 release date, key features
A new research note from Apple supply chain guru Ming-Chi Kuo indicates Apple's VR headset is coming next year, and will be highly integrated with products like Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade.
Get better back support with a great cushion
Sitting all day can be a real pain in the back. Find some comfort with these memory foam cushions.