Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Acquires Embark to Further Improve Mass Transit Navigation
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin reports that Apple has acquired Embark, a small Silicon Valley company focused on apps for navigating mass transit. The acquisition is Apple's third in recent months focused on mapping services, following transit navigation service HopStop and local business search firm Locationary last month.We don’t know how much Apple paid for the several-person team it acquired very recently. But we heard from people knowledgeable about the deal that the company plans to directly integrate Embark’s technology into Apple Maps.Apple has confirmed the acquisition, but declined to comment beyond the company's usual statement about acquiring smaller companies "from time to time".
Embark, founded in 2011, builds apps for mobile devices powered by Android and Apple’s iOS with information about transit systems in about half a dozen U.S. cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Its iOS apps are still available for download, but its Android apps aren’t, according to our checks.
Embark currently has ten iOS apps in the App Store, focused on transit systems in the Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco Bay areas.
[ 69 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
77 months ago
Embark NYC is so helpful to me when I go to the city. I am glad to know that hopefully this will some how be implemented to maps and its an extra app I will no longer need to download!
77 months ago
I'm glad Apple hasn't given up on Maps. But given it's interest in mapping, I'm amazed that they let Google take Waze
----------
But these startups have the data for mass transit. That's surely more than a pretty coat of paint :rolleyes:
----------
Not unless they acquire Google. All these startups do is provide nice GUI. None of them actually creates the maps.
But these startups have the data for mass transit. That's surely more than a pretty coat of paint :rolleyes:
77 months ago
I already know what mass transit possibilities for my commute are:
None.
Same :(
----------
Not unless they acquire Google. All these startups do is provide nice GUI. None of them actually creates the maps.
No, they tend to provide their own data and/or collect data from users.
----------
Let's see what we might see here:
- "Apple should innovate, instead of buying out companies. At least google uses their talent (even though they also bought out companies)"
- "They should change the iOS 7 icons!
- "This is good, I can't wait!"
- "Google maps is waay better"
- "Where's my rMBP?"
- "I miss Steve"
Anything I'm missing here?
You forgot the "let's see what we might see here" posts.
77 months ago
It's great that Apple's improving their Maps service, but I don't feel that it'll affect me much since I don't live in a major urban city.
77 months ago
Just got their DC app to try it out. It's easily the best Metro app I've tried yet.
Great buy on Apple's part. I hope they put it to good use.
EDIT: Holy cow, it shows our bike-share stations and HOW MANY BIKES are currently in each one! This is exactly the kind of stuff Apple needs to be doing.
Great buy on Apple's part. I hope they put it to good use.
EDIT: Holy cow, it shows our bike-share stations and HOW MANY BIKES are currently in each one! This is exactly the kind of stuff Apple needs to be doing.
77 months ago
I don't see why they don't just buy The Transit App. It supports so many regions, and is arguably one of the best transit apps around. It even supports live bus tracking.
77 months ago
Best part of Apple Maps, they are basic.
Yeah, not being able to find any near by POI or transit directions is a great feature.
77 months ago
Do you get that they will not likely run two apps, rather, they would likely take the intelligence behind one and merge it into another.
Easy, way to much common sense in this post.... :D
77 months ago
Let's see what we might see here:
At least google uses their talent (even though they also bought out companies)"
Google has acquired 127 companies.
Apple has acquired 34 companies in the same time period.
It is amazing to me when people say things like what is quoted above, given the massive disparity between Google and Apple with regard to acquisitions.
[ Read All Comments ]
After a busy few weeks of news and rumors, things slowed down a little bit this week, but there were still some major stories worth highlighting. Those include our first hands-on look at dummy models...
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Reolink to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an Argus 2 wire-free rechargeable home camera and a solar panel for charging it up outdoors.
...
Apple Music has renamed its "The A-List: Hip-Hop" playlist to "Rap Life."
Ebro Darden, global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B at Apple Music, will host a companion...
Samsung is believed to be Apple's exclusive supplier of OLED displays for iPhones, but it may have company soon.
In a research note shared with MacRumors, Barclays analysts said fellow...
1Password has restored the option for customers who originally purchased its iOS app to create a local vault during setup, after users queued up online to voice their frustrations with the fact that...
Apple is planning to open an office in highly desired location in Vancouver, Canada reports Bloomberg. The company has leased space in a 24-story office building at 400 West Georgia owned by...
Elevation Lab, known for its line of popular iPhone charging docks, today released the FamilyCharger, a multi-charging setup designed to allow you to charge all of your devices in one place.
The...
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS Catalina update to its public beta testing group, two weeks after seeding the second public beta and a day after seeding the fourth developer...
