New Technology Reviews!.: Acquisition

Apple acquires 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

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Apple has extended its mapping services to a number of mapping companies over the past few years. The company has reportedly been working on building its own solution to maps and navigation on the iPhone, beginning with its acquisition of Placebase in 2009 and continuing with a "crowd-sourced traffic" service this year. Although Google and Apple have recently renewed their partnership and kept Google Maps in iOS 5, if Apple makes full use of its latest acquisition, Apple may have no need for Google's services for much longer. In fact, Apple may have something up its sleeve that makes Google Maps look like a dog's breakfast.<br />
According to 9to5 Mac, back in August Apple acquired a Swedish 3D mapping firm called C3 Technologies. Former high-level heads of C3 are now all working within Apple's iOS division, though they're still doing all their work in Sweden. C3 Technologies uses some rather science-fictionish techniques to create photorealistic 3D maps with a breathtaking level of detail. Buildings, landmarks, and geographical features all render in 3D automatically, without mapmakers having to mock them up in CAD.<br />
Using missile technology developed by the Swedish military, C3 Technologies' mapping service is able to create 3D maps with a stunning level of detail. Google Maps has Street View and a couple of other 3D-ish hackarounds, but it's got nothing on the level of what C3 Technologies has shown. This is no pipe dream service that may work on iOS devices <em>someday</em>; in one of the videos below you'll be able to see a C3 rep scrolling through a 3D representation of London in real time on an iPad. That video came out in February of 2011, and the technology is almost certainly even farther along now that Apple has thrown its resources into it.<br />
If Apple is able to implement this tech into a homegrown Maps application, it would blow the current Google Maps app out of the water. The applications for 3D mapping at this level of detail go beyond its obvious utility as a navigation aid -- if third-party app developers were granted access to the Maps APIs, it could be a huge boon to game developers.<br />
Evidence has been mounting for years that Apple is moving away from its dependence on Google for several internet services, presumably because the two companies now find themselves in the paradoxical situation of being direct competitors as well as partners. Apple has already branched out to Yahoo! and Bing for web searches (although Google remains the default), and Siri does an end run around Google for many of its search functions. If Apple can have this mapping technology available in time for iOS 6's release (presumably coming sometime in 2012), Apple may be able to extricate itself from Google Maps once and for all.<br />
Below you can view a video showing an aerial view of Oslo rendered in 3D, plus a second video showing how well the service functioned on a first-gen iPad earlier this year.<br />
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Apple acquires 3D mapping company C3 Technologies

Apple has extended its mapping services to a number of mapping companies over the past few years. The company has reportedly been working...

Samsung may also be seeking their own OS alternative to Android

Samsung may also be seeking their own OS alternative to Android

Samsung has a lot on their plates. With the recent failings of HP’s WebOS many have speculated the possibilities of Samsung or even HTC ...

Samsung Welcomes the Google Motorola Deal, See it as Protection

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="134" mce_src="http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6651/motogoogle540x224.jpg" src="http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6651/motogoogle540x224.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="moto-google" width="324" />When Google dropped the news yesterday that they had acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion we quickly saw an uproar of comments from everyone. It seems even Google gave notice to their top few OEM partners as they all had statements ready and Google nicely posted those up on their blog. It seems pretty widespread that everyone is looking at this as protection in some form or another.</div>
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We covered this a little bit yesterday and you can read about that here. With statements from HTC, LG, SE, Samsung and even Nokia its safe to say everyone has welcomed the deal and are looking forward to what it may bring in the future. Google does mention that Motorola will be a separate entity and will not get special treatment on future Nexus devices and things of that sort, but we are hoping to at least see a few benefits from the deal and most likely we will.</div>
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Samsung was one of the few to respond with nice comments regarding the acquisition but today we’ve got another reply from team Samsung that further explains how they feel about the Googorola deal.</div>
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Samsung welcomes Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which we believe will provide intellectual property protection for the Android ecosystem. We do not expect this to have any impact on our mobile business.</div>
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- Kim Titus</div>
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Samsung Mobile US PR</div>
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The above comment from Samsung PR closely echo’s what we also saw from HTC who is another OEM that has been hassled as of late with lawsuits over their devices and Android.</div>
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HTC</div>
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We welcome the news of today’s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”</div>
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While we still don’t know exactly what to expect, or what the outcome will be from the entire Google Motorola deal it looks like a few manufacturers are hoping for a bit of protection from the likes of Microsoft and Apple who both have been a little lawsuit happy as of late. We don’t know if this was timed or not but today we learned HTC filed three lawsuits of their own against Apple and plan to fight back with some hardball. Maybe the Google Motorola deal gave them a little more faith in Google and the protection they may be able to offer.</div>
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It appears this initial deal is Google’s way of trying to clear up and fix the entire shaky lawsuit and patent situation we have going on, its gone on far too long already and hopefully everyone can get back to innovating. With the recent statements from everyone including the second reply from Samsung for now its safe to assume everyone is on board and happy to see what the future will bring. The comments do have a similar tone so they could have been asked for a similar response from Google to show one unified and strong front, but that is doubtful.</div>
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Do you think the acquisition of Motorola will help provide protection to OEM’s and the entire Android ecosystem? They didn’t buy Motorola, they made an investment to help protect Android as a whole. Feel free to comment below or join this discussion over on Google+</div>
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Samsung Welcomes the Google Motorola Deal, See it as Protection

When Google dropped the news yesterday that they had acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion we quickly saw an uproar of comments f...

Importance Of Security Assessment During Company Merger Or Acquisition

<br />		<p>What are the general components to review in the event there is a merger, acquisition from IT Point of view? A thorough technical security assessment and audit should be conducted on-site to provide assurance on the following:</p><p>Confirmation if there are already existence of trojans, worms, viruses, spywares in the office servers and PCs. In the event there are very damaging viruses or trojans, these threats can infect your network and possible spreading via e-mail, ftp and network sharing drives. Further, they can also be transported via portable hard disk, USB Thumb drives, DVDs, CDs carried by office personnel.</p><p>Confirmation if there is a firewall. Firewalls provide more flexibility and capacity expansion in the network design. If there is a business requirement to have Internet facing servers, a firewall will allow creation of separate network segment to house these servers and at the same time provides network security.</p><p>Assurances there are no weak points in the network e.g. modem connecting to the servers and PCs. This can be the backdoor for intruders to penetrate the office network.</p><p>Other security controls such as confirmation if wireless network is encrypted, unnecessary services running in the servers, authorized personnel have access to critical data (Not everyone!), non business software which may have viruses.</p><p>Existence of a Security Policy</p><p>The responsible IT personal can then provide more information on the state of IT security in the offices. Further, a more detailed proposal if additional/reconfiguration servers, applications and equipment such as UPS, Gen-Set, Fire Suppression System to better support the business.</p><p>A more detailed study to review if the existing servers, storage systems are capable to support the current business requirement and future expansion.</p><p>This is my view of a Security Assessment based on my experience of setting up IT strategies of merging companies. Of course there will be a lot more information to review once the on-site audit/assessment is carried out. An IT Auditor/Security Consultant can then provide a more precise recommendation on the most feasible plan for the merger.</p>	<br />	<br />		<br />			<br />				<br />					<br /><br />						<p>Gabriel Ng is a professional IT Security Consultant, IT Auditor (CISSP) and author of [http://www.comsectutorial.com] This site is setup to provide information, recommendation on hacking prevention, controls to minimise security threats from viruses, trojans, spywares, hacking based real life experience while conducting security assessment and penetration tests.</p>					<br />

Importance Of Security Assessment During Company Merger Or Acquisition

What are the general components to review in the event there is a merger, acquisition from IT Point of view? A thorough technical securit...