New York — In a surprising twist, the latest power struggle in Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs’ rivalry against Google remains alive, even eight months since the Apple co-founder died; Apple is intensifying the animosity between two of the world’s most influential companies by forging new ties with social media humongous Facebook but dumping Google from its maps service as an in-built feature on most iPhone and iPad this autumn, in the latest realignment of forces in Silicon Valley.
Even though there is no mention about the iPhone 5 at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple and Facebook are finally making it official: Apple’s new mobile operating system iOS 6 will, for the first time, feature deep integration with the world’s largest social networking service.
This harsh disregard is part of an upgraded mobile operating system that Apple previewed Monday to kick off its 23rd annual developers conference in San Francisco.
Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference gets underway in San Francisco. Photograph: Charles Arthur for the Guardian…
The freshly disclosed Facebook-enabled features, comes exactly a year after Apple linked up with Twitter to allow users to tweet directly from Apple’s operating system, a move that, at the time, left Facebook out in the cold.
As the hostility between Apple Google escalates, Scott Forstall, Apple’s Senior Vice President of iOS software, graced the stage to demonstrate the new version of Maps app, readied for the iOS 6 mobile operating system, to be released later this year.
“We are doing all the cartography ourselves,” said Forstall. “This is a worldwide effort, we are covering the world.” The software, to be released later this year, includes turn-by-turn navigation and voice direction — eventually putting it on a par with Google’s Maps app on Android phones — and also includes crowdsourced traffic conditions from other iOS users, putting it marginally ahead of Google’s product.
The latest Facebook integrated attributes will empower users to post photos to Facebook directly from Apple’s Photos app, post their location from Apple’s Maps app, and update their Facebook statuses using Siri.
Some essential key elements include crowdsourced traffic updates from other Apple users, setting the app apart from Google’s offering. Among other things, Apple will also showcase Facebook Events and Facebook friends’ birthdays in the Calendar app and link contact information between Facebook and iOS. “Likes” from users’ Facebook friends will also be featured in the App Store and in iTunes to create a more personalized storefront.
In addition, iOS 6 will make it effortless for users to sign in to apps using their Facebook logins: once they have entered their Facebook username and password under Settings, they would not have to do so when opening new apps from the App Store. (See photos of what the integration will look like here and here)
“We have been coordinating very closely with Facebook to create the best Facebook experience ever on a mobile device,” said Forstall.
Moreover, Twitter witnessed a significant boost from its integration with iOS 5, and now Facebook is likely to reap the rewards as well. According to Apple, more than 10 billion tweets have been sent from its mobile devices, and the micro-blogging service has seen its number of iOS users triple since the integration as well.