It was a busy day for Apple today. First they bought up a company, Polar Rose, that specializes in facial recognition, and then they made a deal with Rovi regarding licensing some of their technlogies and patents.
Both moves were independent, and have very little in common to our knowledge, but they could also be hints at what’s to come from Apple down the road.
So what’s Polar Rose?
The swedish based Polar Rose specializes in facial-recognition, and recently they have closed down a free face-tagging service. If you still use iPhoto, you’re probably aware that there is some facial recognition software already at work in the photo management package. Faces identifies people in photos, and lets users tag them based on computer generated results and recommendations. Could this be a move to make the Faces technology better, or how about a new bioinfomatic login system for the mobile and Mac lineup? Only time will tell.
Who the heck is Rovi?
Apple also reached a “confidential” deal with Rovi Corporation, which many are speculating involves the licensing of Rovi’s interactive program guide. Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster thinks it’s evidence that Apple’s still working on a HDTV that would have an integrated Apple TV. And Munster isn’t alone either. AppleInsider also thinks it’s evidence that Apple’s working on a live TV and DVR features for the Apple TV.
So, where does that leave us? Speculating, at best, just like the rest of the internet right now. We’re guessing that we’ll see these two things make a debut at some point in the future, but if you remember anything about the Lala acquisition, it should be that Apple’s time table is a lot different than our time table.
Article Via MacRumors, Your Mac Life, and Apple Insider
Photo Credit: Apple Insider
