Originally Posted by wcked (Post 417091)

It amaze me how competitive the technology market is. check this story.

We may now have a better idea of why Apple objects to Google Latitude.

It appears that Apple has purchased PlaceBase, a company that produced a maps API called Pushpin and offered a mapping service much like Google Maps. The evidence, dug up by ComputerWorld's Seth Weintraub, first appeared in the form of a tweet in July by Fred Lalonde, the founder of Openspaces.org, a company that used PlaceBase's software, stating that Apple had purchased PlaceBase:

Apple bought PlaceBase - all hush hush. Pushpin site taken offline. Hyperlocal iPhone?

The next clue apparently came from Jaron Waldman, PlaceBase's founder and CEO. His LinkedIn page now lists PlaceBase under his "past" experience and now lists his current occupation as a member of Apple's "GEO Team." In addition, Placebase.com and Pushpin.com have been taken down.

All this leads one to believe that Apple has snapped up PlaceBase. However, Apple representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Not long after Apple's reported purchase of PlaceBase in July, Google released a version of its Latitude mobile application for the iPhone. But Apple, curiously, decreed that it be a Web-based app and not a native iPhone app, which raised some eyebrows.

the rest of the source here