Apple Buys WifiSLAM

Apple has bought WifiSLAM, which is a company providing indoor mobile location services. This lets people figure out their location inside a building using the strength of its wi-fi signals. The Wall Street Journal says that Apple bought the company for $20 million (that's £13 million). The Tech Giants are wanting to improve their maps, in order to compete with Google. The new feature will hopefully allow users to explore the insides of well known buildings and shopping centres, this will help people navigate through them with ease. The iPhone maker stated "Apple invests in smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not comment on our purpose or plans." I think we can all work out where Apple are going with this. They are going to map the insides of certain buildings soon, it's obvious. 

Google have accepted more than 100,000 floor plans from businesses which want to be featured in the indoor mapping, will Apple do the same? Nokia's maps have more than 4,000 indoor locations mapped in 38 countries, while Bing has only 3,000 indoor maps. If Apple follow this lead then their maps could finally be a huge hit, if everything goes to plan. When the company's own maps app was unveiled in iOS 6, a couple of months ago, complaints were piling in as users weren't satisfied. Some locations on the maps were completely in the wrong place and roads looked distorted. Apple have fixed some of this but we are still waiting for a better update.