Apple sneakily removes Google's location service in iPhoto for iPad

The New iPad was launched in full swing, a day ago and part of the announcement came for an overhauled iPhoto for the iPad, which came with features like multi touch gestures and a visual brush pallette. These features are not available in the desktop version of iPhoto. Another change that Apple has seemed to have made in the iPad version of iPhoto is the removal of Google's service for location information embedded in pictures. If you check the location information of the photo in the desktop edition, you will see a map with a Google logo visible clearly at the bottom. However, according to Mashable, when you bring up location information in iPhoto for iPad, the logo is missing and even the way the maps are labeled is different. 

Apple's slowly shooing Google away, one app at a time

It seems iOS iPhoto is getting its information from a service called OpenStreetMap. The service even confirmed in a blog post that Apple was in fact getting its location information from OpenStreetMap, which is a community created mapping project. OpenStreetMap is a free service and anyone can use it. The Foundation does ask that whoever uses information gathered from OpenStreetMap to attribute credit back to its contributors. Apple so far, hasn't mentioned any contributors. Given the mystery surrounding the missing Google logo, Apple hasn't acknowledged which service they're using either.

Apple is still using Google products in its other iOS devices, like the in built Maps application on the iPhone. However, Apple's relationship with Google isn't exactly rosy and it's very apparent that it's trying to cut whatever bridges with Google it has as soon as possible. Apple has even been reported to be beefing up its own location data service and has made acquisitions of many mapping companies over the year.