AppleInsider Staff
When iPhoto for iOS was released in March, the software lacked required attribution to the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The organization highlighted Apple's switch to OSM, and the missing necessary credit, in an official company blog post.
But this week's update to iPhoto rectified the error, and viewing the software's "Acknowledgements" in the iOS Settings application shows the proper attribution.
The change was made after OpenStreetMap reached out to Apple directly through the foundation, and also through a third-party developer, according to Talking Points Memo. Richard Fairhurst, a board member at the foundation, said he believes it was the involvement of an iOS developer, who is also one of the group's volunteer mappers, that led to Apple adding the attribution.
"Obviously we'd rather that Apple had attributed right from the start, but nonetheless this is a big step forward," Fairhurst said. "If the biggest computer company in the world, one with a perfectionist instinct, feels that OpenStreetMap data meets its needs and is happy to publicly attribute us, then that's a great vote of confidence in our community's work."
Once iPhoto for iOS was released, users immediately began to notice that the software uses a different style of map that isn't credited to anyone. That's a change from all of Apple's previous iOS devices, which have relied on mapping data from Google Maps.
The shift could be a sign of things to come, as Apple is expected to be developing its own mapping solutions in a transition away from Google Maps, after the company acquired a number of mapping companies. In addition, last April Apple publicly admitted it is building a "crowd-sourced traffic" service for iPhone users.
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9 Comments
Now if only it were actually vector images.
I don't understand this. Google is a service provider. Apple is a hardware maker. These two companies can be matched with great result considering Google make a lot of money from OSX and iOS, much more than their own Android anyway. Yes, I understand that Google see mobile as a future and want to control it, or don't want others to completely control it. What I don't understand is it's really wise to break up with your partner who makes a great products?
It's sure looks very wise for Google to be a friend to everybody rather than be a foe. Now Apple has no choice but to make their own map and search (Siri) and Samsung looks to be about to fork their own Android version. I just don't understand Google.
Now if only it were actually vector images.
OSM is user contributed so there are a variety of different map types being served. Even Google maps is not 'vector' because it is not SVG. It is 12 different tile based levels using a proprietary kml data structure with text superimposed. OSM is just that, 'open' and apparently Google feels threaten by their gaining popularity.
Read about Google vandalizing OSM data:
http://opengeodata.org/google-ip-vandalizing-openstreetmap
Post.
Wrong thread, maybe?
Read about Goole vandalizing OSM data:
http://opengeodata.org/google-ip-vandalizing-openstreetmap
I'm sorry, I was raised to know that if something got vandalized and we knew who did it, that person got charged an amount equal to or greater than the loss of whatever it was they ruined, and often they had to fix it themselves.
So explain to me why Google isn't being sued for incalculable sums of money for this infantile behavior before I pop a gasket…
Better to pop a gasket than to 'blow a seal'.
'Just fix the damn thing and leave my personal life out of it'
Great line from the wet dream video posted yesterday.