Despite statements by Google's former CEO that Apple had "just" renewed their Map partnership with Google, there appears to be evidence that Apple has been working on its own mapping solution in iOS 5.
It's certainly no secret that Apple is actively working on some sort of mapping solution. In the past few years, Apple has acquired two mapping companies Placebase and Poly9. The company has also been actively recruiting for job applicants with navigation software experience and has even revealed work on a future crowds-sourced traffic database.
Now, a look at the legal disclaimers found in iOS 5 reveal a new section called "Map Data". (full text) This section lists licenses from an extensive number of third party companies that provide mapping data and related services.
This entire section is new in iOS 5's legal section and does not appear to be related to Google's own mapping data licenses. Google's own legal terms for their map data is distinct, and many of the companies do not overlap. In fact, one of the listed traffic-data companies is a competitor to Google's Maps.
The companies listed in iOS 5's legal notices include the following diverse companies under the "Map Data" section:
• CoreLogic offers Parcel data which marks boundaries for of properties to provide positional accuracy in location-based solutions. • Getchee provides location and market data on China, India and Southeast Asia. • Increment P Corp provides location and traffic data for Japan. • Localeze provides local business listings. • MapData Sciences Pty Ltd. Inc provides mapping data for Australia and New Zealand. • DMTI provides postal code data for Canada. • TomTom offers global TeleAtlas mapping data which is also licensed by Google for their map solution. • Urban Mapping provides in-depth neighborhood data such as crime, demographics, school performance, economic indicators and more. • Waze offers real-time maps and traffic information based on crowd sourced data.
The last two companies are perhaps the most interesting. Urban Mapping offers extensive additional data over traditional mapping products. The company was even a partner of Placebase's back in 2007 before Apple's acquisition. Meanwhile, Waze seems to be exactly what Apple was talking about when they hinted at crowd-sourced traffic data. Waze offers mobile apps that can be used to send data back to a central database to show realtime traffic data.
Given the news of Apple's recent agreement with Google, it may be that Apple's own solution wasn't ready for iOS 5, so we may have to wait a while before we see what Apple's been working on.
Tuesday December 16, 2025 8:44 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu.
As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas.
We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features.
Transfer to Android
Apple is making it simpler...
Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by Juli Clover
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
Wednesday December 17, 2025 3:50 pm PST by Juli Clover
There's now a dedicated Apple Music app for ChatGPT, which allows ChatGPT to make music recommendations and build playlists.
Apple Music can be added to ChatGPT through the Settings section in the Mac app, website, or iOS app. Apple Music is listed under the apps option, and connecting to it requires signing in with your Apple Account for authorization purposes.
ChatGPT can be used to...
Tuesday December 16, 2025 11:06 am PST by Joe Rossignol
We have been covering iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 17e, and iPhone Fold details from The Information's report about future iPhone models, and next up is the iPhone Air 2.
The report says that Apple aims to make the iPhone Air 2 more attractive in two ways.
First, Apple is apparently considering adding a second rear camera to the device, which would resolve a key limitation. The current iPhone...
Apple is developing a high-end iMac featuring the M5 Max chip, according to information from leaked internal software.
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The finding comes from leaked kernel debug kit files used by Apple engineers. These kernel debug kit files enumerate unreleased Apple hardware by internal identifiers, such as codenames and platform names, and they...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Tuesday December 16, 2025 4:42 pm PST by Juli Clover
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond.
We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
With the remaining problem that you cannot (literally cannot - it is impossible) create as comprehensive a business location database as Google maps has unless you own the world's most important search engine as well to encourage busineses to submit up to date listings.
I don't believe that. You're suggesting that Google Maps gets all its data from user submissions? Link?
According to Google (http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/legalnotices_maps.html) they get at least some of their business listings from Acxiom Corporation and/or infoUSA Inc.
Google Maps is fantastic. The app itself on iToys could be improved, but why go to the effort of making a whole new map format and collect data when Google has it all already?!
Invention for the sake of invention is pointless, at least commercially. Google have an excellent database, there is so much data at their hands.
Call me Mr Paranoid, but I don't trust Google, with their vested interests across a range of industries now, with the only copy of such a database. It's too easy for them to decide to manipulate its data for their own ends if it were to suit them in the future.
It's good that competitors like Apple and Microsoft should come up with their own such systems to ensure no one dominates and that what constitutes the 'truth' is not the domain of one organisation.
Maybe it's just because Google Maps also use third party companies providing mapping data where Google Cars didn't go. And Apple had to mention them ?
If you read the article, it says that Google uses different sources for some of the same data. Also, one of the companies listed is a competitor to Google Maps local traffic feature.
Google Maps is fantastic. The app itself on iToys could be improved, but why go to the effort of making a whole new map format and collect data when Google has it all already?!
Apple probably feels that it's not a good idea to depend so deeply on a direct competitor for such an important data source. Although I don't think Google would actually do anything malicious to sabotage Apple's maps, it seems like they have been holding back some of the goodies for themselves - the 3D maps in Android, for example.
