Stefan Mileschin

While iOS was a big yawn as far as technology is concerned, it seems that one of the headline changes is based on material from Microsoft.

Apple released its mapping software which it said made Google's software redundant.

So far only a few screen shots of the new iOS6 have come out but sharp-eyed kiwi developer Cody Cooper noticed something familiar with the snaps of the mapping software.

The snaps were leaked iOS 6 beta screenshots showing TomTom attribution and nearly 16 map providers but fails to acknowlege Apple's old sparring partner Microsoft.

Cooper thinks this is odd as some of the maps come straight from Microsoft's Bing Maps.

While the images belong to Microsoft, they are not listed in the full attribution list provided by Apple.

For years Apple and Microsoft have been rivals, based mostly on marketing that dates back to the 1980s. While it seems that Apple is using Bing Maps for its new service, it does not appear to want to announce the fact. Either that or it just pinched the maps and hoped that no-one would notice. What appears to have happened is that Apple did not check its partners particular closely.

One of the more important map makers is OpenStreetMap which is well attributed by Apple.

OpenStreetMap has been closely allied with Microsoft for nearly two years and uses Bing Maps.

As a result, Apple fanboys will be dependant on Microsoft to tell them where to go. Jobs will be spinning in his vault.

http://news.techeye.net/software/ios...crosoft-images