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Chomp

Five 'Chomp' stories April 2012 - April 2016
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9to5Toys Last Call: UE BOOM 2 Bluetooth Speaker $150, DJI Phantom 3 Drone $399, Free App of the Week, more

Avatar for Justin Kahn Apr 1 2016 - 9:35 am PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Last Call Updates:

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (newest version): $800 shipped (Reg. $999)

UE BOOM 2 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker in all colors: $150 shipped (Reg. $200)

DJI Phantom 3 Standard Drone w/ 2.7K HD Camera drops to $399 shipped (Reg. $450+)

App Store Free App of the Week: CHOMP interactive storybook goes free for the first time ($3 value)

Game Dev Story for iOS now matching its lowest price ever: $1 (Reg. $5)

Apple offers Day One 2 iOS journal app for free ($10 value)

Take It Easy iOS puzzler/brain teaser goes free for the first time in years (Reg. $2)

Sprint customers can now (but probably shouldn’t) pay monthly for Amazon Prime

Apple 21-inch Retina 4K iMac 3.1GHz/8GB/1TB (newest version): $1,300 shipped (Reg. $1,499)

Buy a refurbished Apple AirPort Express Wi-Fi router w/ 1-yr warranty for $49 shipped (Orig. $99)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Smartphone Accessories: BYTECH 14,000mAh Power Bank $17 shipped (Orig. $40), more

[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/715887017247313921 align=’center’]

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

iOttie Car Mounts for iPhone/Android Devices: Easy One Touch 2 $13 (Reg. $20), w/ Qi Charger $40 (Reg. $55)


Hit the road w/ TP-LINK’s 802.11n Portable Travel Router for $8 Prime Shipped (Reg. $13)

Apple Watch 42mm Space Gray Milanese Loop Band + Aluminum Dock: $27 Prime shipped (Reg. $35)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

Seagate unveils the “world’s first” USB-powered 8TB desktop hard drive

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Former Chomp co-founder and Apple TV designer Ben Keighran leaving company

Avatar for Zac Hall Jan 19 2016 - 12:45 pm PT
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Chomp co-founder Ben Keighran is exiting his role at Apple according to a new report out of Re/code:

Ben Keighran, who joined Apple four years ago when it bought a startup he co-founded, says he is leaving soon and eventually intends to start something new. “I want to create not just a killer product, but my own iconic company,” he said.

Keighran joined Apple in 2012 when it bought his firm Chomp to overhaul iTunes and App Store search. Universal search among key media partners is a major feature of the new Apple TV. Chomp’s other co-founder Cathy Edwards joined Apple through that acquisition and worked on Maps Quality before leaving in March 2014.

The report notes that Keighran oversaw “the look and feel of the software on the new Apple TV” and ranked three steps down from Eddy Cue who runs the iTunes team. Here’s to hoping whoever takes Keighran’s place Chomps down on the finicky Siri Remote and creates something a little more ergonomic … kidding, Keighran likely played a key role in Apple TV’s universal search feature through Siri which works pretty well.

It is an interesting pattern to observe Apple employees brought on through company acquisitions leave Apple after the product they were brought on to help make ships to customers. Beats Music’s Ian Rogers comes to mind. My guess is people that create these companies are better suited at creating on their own versus working within a major company like Apple.

More on why public transit directions got lost in iOS 8 Apple Maps

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jun 9 2014 - 6:53 am PT
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TechCrunch is out with a story today with details on why some of the mapping features originally scheduled for iOS 8 didn’t make the cut at Apple’s WWDC keynote last week. The report quotes a few sources close to the mapping teams that say most of the improvements originally planned for iOS 8 weren’t finished on time due to talent departures and internal politics:

Why didn’t they appear? One tipster says it was a personnel issue: “Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time. Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project.”… It’s a take that is both contested and corroborated by our other source. “I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group,” the source said.

We reported leading up to WWDC that the transit directions in iOS 8 might be pushed back to instead focus on other priorities.

While the TechCrunch report doesn’t mention any names, we do know that the mapping team has lost a few key people recently. Back in March, reports popped up that Cathy Edwards, who happened to be in charge of Maps Quality after joining Apple through the company’s acquisition of Chomp, was leaving the company. The reason behind Cathy’s departure was unknown at the time, but we’ve learned from sources that disagreements with employees on the Maps team working under Edwards and an opposition to her management style lead to problems on the Maps team and ultimately her leaving in April. Apple also lost key Maps team member Jared Waldman from Placebase who worked as Head of Geo at Apple Maps until late last year. In addition, we’ve heard from former employees of the mapping team that recently left the company due to issues with Edwards and management of the Maps team. 
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Is Apple already juicing its App Store search results with Chomp acquisition?

Avatar for Jake Smith Jun 23 2012 - 11:01 pm PT
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It is no secret that Apple’s search results within its App Store for both the iOS and Mac do not always turn up the best results. In return, many hoped that Apple’s recent acquisition of app search engine Chomp, which revealed in February, would start leading to better results. That time may now be here.

TechCrunch reported earlier this afternoon that developers of popular, high quality apps with good ratings have seen better search results for their apps. This certainly makes it sound as if Chomp is behind the technical change. Chomp’s technology has been described to search for what apps can do, and not keywords and other buzzwords in an app’s description. Users are then able to get better search results with listings for high-quality, useful apps. You know—the good stuff.

It is certainly a hard thing to judge now, because search results are different from region-to-region. TechCrunch pointed out that the developer of the Best Parking app found his app jumped to the top of results recently, which is a place it has never been before (historically overshadowed by lower quality apps). For example, an app including “best parking” certainly does not look like it would be the top of an “sf parking” search. You would rather think an app that has “sf parking” in its title would be selected, but things seem to be changing for the better. The App Store now looks to be recognizing apps with more downloads and user reviews—like Best Parking (see screenshot below).


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Apple axes Chomp for Android following acquisition

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 27 2012 - 8:37 am PT
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We reported in February that Apple acquired discovery app Chomp and was thought to be using the company’s technology to help improve the App Store and iTunes experience. We later confirmed Chomp’s CEO Ben Keighran and CTO Cathy Edwards already started working at Apple on the iTunes teams. Today, it appears Apple has shut down Chomp for Android with Chomp’s website now only listing links to iOS versions of the app, as noted by GigaOM.

The “Download Chomp” tab in the upper right corner of the Chomp.com now leads directly to the iTunes download page and only iPhone and iPad options are available for searching online. However, when searching for apps on the website, changing the platform to “Android” in the URL still allows you to view Android apps. As we noted earlier, Chomp helps power Verizon’s Android market, so it is unclear what will happen with that partnership going forward.

[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/g_____________n/status/195900431413673985]

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