Apple Has Reportedly Acquired Personal Assistant App Cue
by Brent Dirks
October 3, 2013
According to AppleInsider, Apple may have acquired personal assistant app Cue for somewhere in the range of $35 to $45 million.
The service shut down earlier this week, and users were left with a somewhat cryptic message on the company’s site:
We appreciate all of the support from you, our users, as Cue has grown over the last few years. However, the Cue service is no longer available. Cue Premium users who registered through the website will receive a prorated refund. Cue Premium users registered though the iPhone App can request a refund through iTunes. In accordance with our privacy policy, your data and personal information will not be stored or transferred; it has been permanently deleted. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you. It’s been an incredible journey that wouldn’t have been possible without your loyal support.The app has had a long and interesting journey. Started as Greplin in 2011, the app provided personal data search. It transitioned over to the Cue name in mid-2012 and changed its focus to being more of a personal assistant, like what is found in the Notification Center of iOS 7 or Google Now. Here’s a quick description of the app:
With Cue, you can spend more time enjoying your life and less time shuffling through your accounts and apps for the things you need. Cue intelligently ties together and surfaces useful information at the right time across all your accounts. From email, contacts and calendars to Facebook posts, Dropbox files and LinkedIn -- Cue makes it easy to contact the people you care about, get to where you are going, and to know what’s next.If Apple has indeed purchased the app, it will be interesting to see what is done with the technology. I never used Cue, but it definitely sounds interesting, especially if Apple can improve on what has already been built.
