Apple acquires Embark, another public-transit app developer

Apple is once again on the acquisition train, if you will. The company confirmed to former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin that it has bought Embark, a Silicon Valley-based maker of public transit apps.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because exactly a month ago, news broke that Apple had acquired HopStop, another maker of transit-related apps. Unlike HopStop, which sold but a single app that incorporated transit directions for many cities, Embark sells several individual programs for various transit systems, including BART in San Francisco, the MBTA in Boston, the New York City subway, and more. As of this writing, Embark’s apps remain in the App Store—however, the company’s Android offerings, which included iBart and NYC Subway, are no longer available on the Google Play store. A similar fate befell the Windows Phone version of HopStop upon that company’s acquisition.

Combined with the HopStop purchase, it seems a lock that Apple will bring its own transit directions to a future version of iOS—at present, the company’s Maps app still routes transit information through third-party apps (of which HopStop and Embark were but two). And with Apple’s earlier purchase of business-data-location company Locationary, it’s clear that mapping is of intense interest to the company. That’s little surprise, given the public reception of iOS 6’s Maps, unveiled last year, which even prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to apologize.
The only question is when such an update might appear. To date, there has been no mention of substantial Maps improvements to the upcoming iOS 7, which would likely accompany new iPhone hardware expected to be launched next month. That would peg such enhancements to be introduced alongside Apple’s next major iOS update, presumably announced at WWDC 2014.

Of course, Apple has already been on quite the run this year, as far as acquisitions go, and there’s no telling if the company has already set its sights on a new target. Though, to be fair, it may soon run out of quality public-transportation apps to buy. 

Apple acquires Locationary for local listings

Apple has acquired Locationary, a start-up based in Toronto that provides a platform for aggregating and managing local business listings.

Apple confirmed the acquisition Friday, but declined to disclose additional details about the plans it has for the company or its business information management technology, which is called Saturn.

"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," said Alan Hely, Apple's senior director of corporate communications in Europe, via email.

According to Locationary's website, its Saturn platform manages 175 million business profiles from 253 feeds and repositories. The technology's goal is to standardize the data and keep it up to date.

Apple faced widespread criticism last year regarding the quality and accuracy of its Maps service in iOS 6. The backlash even prompted a public apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook who promised that the service will be improved.

The acquisition of Locationary may be related to that effort.


Apple Maps is already using data from Yelp, a provider of local business information and user reviews. However, Locationary's Saturn platform may allow Apple to add such data from other sources as well, and more importantly, keep that information up to date.

Puppet acquires DevOps startup Cloudsmith

Open-source IT automation software vendor Puppet Labs has acquired Cloudsmith, which provides tools and services that can help administrators and developers more easily use the Puppet software.
Puppet bought Cloudsmith both for its technologies and its engineering expertise, said Luke Kanies, CEO and founder of Puppet Labs. All seven of Cloudsmith’s employees will continue to work for Puppet, he said.
“They built developer-like tools for an operations world, taking developer workflows to help operations people work in a mixed developer/operations world,” Kanies said.

Puppet is a well-known name in the emerging practice of DevOps, which seeks to shorten development time of software by having software developers work more closely with system administrators and other IT operations staff.

The New York-based Cloudsmith offers two products, both of which complement Puppet’s own IT automation software.

Cloudsmith’s Geppetto is a graphical user interface-based editor for building and publishing Puppet modules, one that runs as a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE (integrated developer environment).
Puppet relies on the use of modules, or bundles of code and data that provide Puppet with the instructions to automate routine operations such as software updates and new server deployments. Puppet Labs and software vendors provide some of these modules, and users also create their own.

Geppetto offers syntax highlighting, content assistance, error tracing and debugging, all based on the Puppet module DSL (domain specific language).

Puppet has offered its own plug-ins for editing Puppet modules, most notably for the Vim and Emacs editors, though those were written primarily for operations folks, Kanies said. Geppetto, a plug-in for Eclipse, “fits the core developer market very well,” he said.

Puppet will relaunch Geppetto next month at PuppetConf, the Puppet user conference to be held in San Francisco on Aug. 22 and 23.

Cloudsmith also offers Stack Hammer, a service for integrating, testing and deploying collections of software, including sets of Puppet modules, as pre-assembled stacks. Customer stacks are stored on GitHub, which users can then run on Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute).
Stack Hammer eases the developer burden of deploying software for testing and production, by providing the pre-built stack of software needed to run the program.

At this time, Puppet hasn’t disclosed its plans for Stack Hammer.
“The core technology absolutely will resurface,” Kanies said. “We will provide far more services in the cloud, and Stack Hammer will be the heart of that.”

Created in 2005, Puppet Labs offers software for managing an organization’s computers and software. The software provides a declarative language that administrators can use to specify machine configurations, which then can be used to automate reoccurring deployment and maintenance routines.
In January, VMware invested $30 million in Puppet.

Terms of the Cloudsmith acquisition were not disclosed. 

Netflix Acquires Australian TV Series 'Mako Mermaids'

SYDNEY – Netflix has acquired the exclusive first run rights to Jonathan M. Shiff Productions’ live action kids series, Mako Mermaids for the USA/Canada, England, Ireland, Scandinavia, Benelux and Latin America.

Netflix will release the series simultaneously in those markets in line with the series' Australian premiere on Network Ten on July 26. ZDF Enterprises is the series' international distributor and ZDF will air the show in German-speaking territories.

The deal includes the exclusive premiere rights (outside of Australia) to the first season, including a first-run window, as well as a second season for the same territories.

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The show tells the tale of three mermaids who are tasked with protecting their magical Mako Island from trespassers, but are thwarted by the arrival of 16-year-old Zac. He acquires amazing powers and merman qualities. Threatened by his existence, the mermaid pod is forced to move away, abandoning the three young mermaids. In a bid for survival they must get legs, venture onto land, and take back Zac's powers -- or risk being outcasts forever.

A spin-off from the internationally successful series, H2O: Just Add Water, the 26 half-hour episode series is produced by Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, in association with Screen Australia, Network Ten, ZDF Enterprises and Screen Queensland, with assistance from Gold Coast City Council’s Business Gold Coast.

"This exclusive first-run deal, and Netflix’s commitment to the brand, is unprecedented -- not just for children’s, but for any Australian program. It is a game changer,” said executive producer Jonathan M. Shiff. “With the instant delivery of first-run series, as seen with their series House of Cards, Netflix is an exciting and prestigious platform.”

Screen Australia CEO Ruth Harley added: "This is an extremely significant deal for an Australian television program and reinforces that our children’s television sector is highly regarded internationally for the high-quality content it produces. There’s clearly an appetite for quality Australian children’s television content both at home and abroad."

Netflix is yet to launch its vod platform in Australia.

 

BoxTV Acquires Indian VOD Rights of Shaw Brothers' Martial Arts Movies

HONG KONG – Shaw Brothers' martial arts movies will be available in India on digital VOD for the first time, after their rights owners Celestial Pictures concluded a licensing deal with the newly-launched streaming portal BoxTV.

In an announcement Wednesday, the Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures said BoxTV, which officially launched in February, will be granted multi-year digital VOD rights to more than 100 martial arts movies from its Shaw Brothers library, including films ranging from Chang Cheh’s hard-hitting Blood Brothers to Taylor Wong’s fantasy action film Buddha’s Palm to Return to the 36th Chamber, directed by the late Lau Kar-leung.

“Martial arts content has always been very popular content genre in India. Our association with Celestial Pictures brings to us the Shaw Brothers catalogue, one of the foremost and largest producers of kung-fu/martial arts movies,” said Pandurang Nayak, BoxTV’s business head.

“This is in line with our unique push to get the best of world cinema in a legal and high-quality experience for Internet and mobile users in India,” added Nayak, whose company offers the streaming of movies and television programs on a monthly subscription fee of $3.32 (199 rupees).

Kristen Tong, Celestial Pictures’ head of legal and business affairs, said the distribution deal “affirms the incredible value of our library titles, and also provides our content with great exposure on a new digital platform”. The company has already inked digital VOD agreements in Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.