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Intel Makes Its First Acquisition Since Brian Krzanich Became CEO

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on May 28, 2013 at 12:45 pm PT

The chip giant buys the navigation chip business from ST-Ericsson.

Voices

Alibaba Buys Into Mapping Company

Juro Osawa and Paul Mozur, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on May 10, 2013 at 9:17 am PT

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is spending again to gain the upper hand as it competes to sell to China’s rapidly growing number of smartphone users.

Maps Are for Mobile What Search Is for the Web, Says Waze CEO Noam Bardin (Video)

Liz Gannes in Dive Into Mobile on April 26, 2013 at 7:00 am PT

Of course the CEO of a mobile mapping company is going to say maps are super important. But Waze CEO Noam Bardin has an interesting way of putting it.

As Mapping Costs Rise, Waze’s Volunteer Army Will Give It an Edge (Video)

Arik Hesseldahl in Dive Into Mobile on April 15, 2013 at 1:09 pm PT

Does Google have 44 million robotic cars prowling the roads?

More Apps Coming to Cars, but They’re Still Miles From Perfection

Lauren Goode in News on March 27, 2013 at 11:35 am PT

This year’s New York International Auto Show is pretty app-happy, with companies like Facebook and Google offering their two cents to auto makers.

News Byte

Google Maps for iPhone Update Adds Contacts Integration

Bonnie Cha in News on March 5, 2013 at 10:37 am PT

Google Maps for iPhone is getting its first major update today. In version 1.1, users can now search for any address stored in their Google contacts list. In addition, tapping inside the search bar brings up the option for finding nearby places in 13 different categories (e.g., restaurants, hotels, gas stations). Google is also rolling out the app to seven new countries, including Egypt, Lebanon and Bahrain. Google Maps for iPhone launched in December and was quickly downloaded by iPhone users frustrated with the poor Apple Maps experience.

Google Maps for iPhone Returns Better Than Ever

Walt Mossberg in Personal Technology on December 18, 2012 at 6:05 pm PT

The new iPhone version of Google Maps isn’t just better than Apple Maps, but also better, in most respects, on the iPhone than it is on Android phones.

News Byte

Glympse Gets Bundled Into Garmin Apps

Liz Gannes in Mobile on December 18, 2012 at 6:27 am PT

Real-time location-sharing app Glympse is getting a distribution partner in Garmin, which will add free Glympse functionality to its iOS and Android mapping and navigation apps. The famously pricey Garmin apps — currently on sale for about $50 — have more than four million users worldwide. Glympse, you may recall, does something simple and often incredibly useful, which is help people share a map of their current location for a short time — often with the person to whom they’re en route.

News Byte

Longtime Garmin CEO Min Kao Steps Down

Liz Gannes in News on December 17, 2012 at 8:50 am PT

Min Kao, the co-founder and CEO of navigation company Garmin, is stepping down at the end of the year. The new head honcho is Clifton Pemble — who joined Garmin as an engineer in 1989, and has most recently been president and COO. Shares of Garmin were trading up slightly this morning. As Arik Hesseldahl recalled this summer, Kao had long resisted the encroachment of smartphones, dismissing them as a commodity business.