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Google Backpedals On Turn-By-Turn GPS For iPhone

Posted by timothy on from the unforeseen-circumstances dept.

Smurf writes "Last October Google's Vic Gundotra announced that Google would bring turn-by-turn GPS navigation to the iPhone: 'However, Google is working with Apple on bringing it to the iPhone, and it's not ruling out licensing the software to makers of portable navigation devices used in cars throughout the world, said Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers.' Nevertheless, after such plans were confirmed during a press conference in London yesterday, today the 'Don't be Evil' company backpedaled on them: '"We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we've had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms, but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all," a Google spokesperson told PCWorld.'"

1 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I suspect... by jmichaelg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Android has always been a predominantly Java platform and that's been known since day one.

    True.

    iPhone has never, ever, supported Java in any form (since Javascript is not Java as you point out) and that's also been known since day one.

    True.

    Nothing has changed besides a growing animosity between the companies.

    False. Apple just decreed that any app written for the iPhone must be written in C, Objective-C or C++. Google has tools that translate Java into JavaScript that runs correctly on any platform. Translating Java to Objective C or C++ isn't a stretch. Apple's *new* policy disallows Google from doing that.

    How anyone who isn't an Apple employee can defend that policy eludes me.