AlgoTrim
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Daily Update for August 28, 2013
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Apple acquires AlgoTrim
AllThingsD is reporting confirmation by Apple that the company has acquired a Swedish data-compression company by the name of AlgoTrim. As usual, Apple spokeswoman Kirstin Huguet trotted out the familiar line: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." So, what is known about AlgoTrim? The Malmō, Sweden-based company was founded in 2005 by Anders Berglund, Anders Holtsberg and Martin Lindberg, and develops data-compression technology to shorten processing times and reduce file size. As AllThingsD's John Paczkowski notes, this is "just the sort of thing for optimizing mobile imaging and video on devices like the iPhone and iPad." AlgoTrim's website is still up and running as of this morning, and shows that the company's "flagship product is the Code Compression Library, a lossless and proprietary codec for compressing code, that is, the processor instructions. Its main use is to reduce the size of the firmware of a mobile device using NAND flash as non-volatile memory." The company has also done work for Android device manufacturers, which will most likely cease after this acquisition.
Apple reportedly buys mobile data compression startup AlgoTrim (confirmed)
Data compression isn't the sexiest of subjects, but after Facebook pledged to slim down its digital footprint, it's suddenly hot news. You might be interested to know, then, that Apple has reportedly snapped up Swedish startup AlgoTrim, which specializes in lossless compression algorithms. TechCrunch believes that AlgoTrim's know-how will slim down iOS device data usage -- as the outfit's JPEG files are apparently six times smaller than the average. CultOfMac, however, believes that the deal may hint at a move towards computational photography -- hinting that we may see Apple's version of Nokia's pixel oversampling tech pop up in future devices. While the thought of a PureView iPhone would set plenty of hearts aflutter, there's probably more chance that Elon Musk will build you your own private Hyperloop. Update: Yup, an Apple spokesperson has confirmed the deal to AllThingsD.
