dailylicious!

Apple’s not the only company having trouble depicting images of Earth in its map application. Google Earth has some pretty shocking photos of the surface of the planet as well, it’s as if Salvador Dali paid a visit to Mountain View and waved his magic brush around.

Apple has forbidden developers to use unique device identifiers (UDID) to track the behaviors of iOS device owners starting from iOS5, and in its place, it implemented Advertising ID and Identification for Vendors. This post explains how these two new identifiers work in comparison to UDID and what Limit Ad Tracking in iOS6 means. Essentially these were designed to provide better privacy options for consumers but Nick Arnott says it’s not as clear cut.

Simon Thomas noticed that all the talks about smart watches being made by Apple and its competitors have all the markings of the tablet talks from 2009-2010, all you have to do is replace the term smart watch or wearable tech with tablet. All of the sudden everyone is betting on a smart watch from Apple regardless of the fact that the company issued no such announcement, and everyone else decided to pre-empt any actual Apple announcement by making one of their own. We’ll just have to wait for the boom from Cupertino.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt yesterday said to ask Apple about the availability of Google Now on iOS, citing Apple’s policy to review apps prior to publication on the App Store. Schmidt’s statement implies that the app is indeed waiting in review, when in fact Google hasn’t even submitted the app for review. Either Schmidt didn’t know that his company hasn’t sent the app to Apple or he was deflecting the question for obvious reasons. Both Apple and Google gave statements to CNet saying that Google Now has yet to be submitted to the App Store.

While Google now is tied to Search, according to Rene Ritchie of iMore, a source from Google informed him that the Google Search app for iOS and Google Now will be two separate apps as Google Now will not come as an update to the existing mobile app.

Starting 1 May, Apple will not be accepting apps that don’t support the tall screen orientation of iPhone 5 and the latest iPod touch. Apps that use UDID, the unique identifier commonly used to distinguish iOS devices in the past, will also be rejected from the App Store. In its place, Apple has implemented Advertising Identifier starting with iOS 6.

The requirement to support iPhone 5 means iOS app developers will have to use the software development kit for iOS 6 which no longer supports iOS 4.2, ending any ability to create apps that support iPhone 3G and cameraless iPod touch.

Adobe’s staunchest supporter of Flash joins Apple as Vice President of Technology reporting directly to Senior VP Bob Mansfield. Mansfield’s department at Apple oversees exploration of new technology and wireless connectivity but Lynch, during his time at Adobe, hasn’t been the best identifier of new technology, nor has he recognized the prevailing patterns even as they were staring him in the face. It’s not inconceivable that he may end up like John Browett and Mark Papermaster, both were senior vice presidents who lasted no more than a year at Apple.

Apple’s iOS is the only mobile platform on which every popular mobile app exists (except maybe for BlackBerry Messenger). Apple does not make mobile apps for other mobile operating systems but all other major mobile platform owners make apps for iOS. The simple reason is because the others are almost pure play software people while Apple makes most of its money selling hardware. Selling its apps on other people’s platform will obviously undermine that.

Google and Microsoft on the other hand rely on wide adoption of its applications and services and Apple has sold over 500 million iOS devices as of January of this year with the majority of them having been sold in more recent years. Apple’s customers are crucial for companies like Google and Microsoft.