Apple Hiring 'Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist' in Australia

rdlink · Feb 24, 2013

macsrcool1234 said:
Have you reported it? We could go blow for blow between Apple Map mistakes and Google Map mistakes and I guarantee you would run out of ammunition years before I would...

I live in New York City and this happens quite a bit with Apple Maps.
Somehow I think it's worse in NYC (and other large metropolitan areas) than an obscure English village.

But can we talk about the fact that Google had a nearly decade head start, and still isn't anywhere near perfect? Or the time that Google maps had me driving far out of my way in the SF bay area while Apple Maps provided the quickest and most direct route?

macsrcool1234 · Feb 24, 2013

rdlink said:
But can we talk about the fact that Google had a nearly decade head start, and still isn't anywhere near perfect? Or the time that Google maps had me driving far out of my way in the SF bay area while Apple Maps provided the quickest and most direct route?

Or lets talk about how Apple Maps had entire oceans and countries in the wrong location. You know, first grade geography.

Try again.

gnasher729 · Feb 24, 2013

macsrcool1234 said:
Have you reported it?

Google's sole purpose is making money from advertisements. I am not willing to support them in any way.

doelcm82 · Feb 24, 2013

Compile 'em all said:
What fact? May be a fact in YOUR opinion. I never had a problem with Apple Maps and it has been improving constantly since months ago.

I've had a few problems, but nothing major. It's definitely improving. I tried to show the "melted bridge" at Hoover Dam to a friend recently, only to find that it has been cleaned up gorgeously. I had to switch over to the Google Earth app to show the effect. Apple's bridge looks better even than the Sketch-Up bridge in the desktop version of Google Earth, which still shows the melted bridge below it.

Then I tried to show a friend's house, where the houses on the opposite side of the street were in full flyover 3D, while my friend's home was still flat. But when I did that, I discovered that my friend's house was now 3D as well.

alternateroute · Feb 24, 2013

Apple did eventually fix the issue in central Australia,

Mildura (where the problem was) is not in the area generally referred to as Central Australia. It is in Victoria, which is more southern Australia.

As far as the question of Google Maps vs Apple Maps, they are both only as good as the data behind. Many streets in my area were mislabeled on Google maps and I had to submit corrections, which were applied in about 3 months. The corrections have now flowed thru to the GPS products which rely on Google data.

gnasher729 · Feb 24, 2013

alternateroute said:
Mildura (where the problem was) is not in the area generally referred to as Central Australia. It is in Victoria, which is more southern Australia.

I think the problem was that Mildura and possibly some other provinces of Australia were named after the capital of that province, and people trying to find the town of Mildura got directions to the physical centre of the province. About as useful as asking for directions to Florida.

Someone processed a database of about 300,000 locations in Australia and didn't figure out that a few dozen of these locations were actually areas, and not locations, and using the centres of these areas was a bit pointless.

On the other hand, Mildura is a town with a population of 30,000, and I cannot imagine wanting directions to the whole town. You would most likely want directions to some address within the town, and when you entered that into Maps, you _always_ got the correct destination.

rdlink · Feb 24, 2013

macsrcool1234 said:
Or lets talk about how Apple Maps had entire oceans and countries in the wrong location. You know, first grade geography.

Try again.

Haven't been lost yet, and my feet are still dry.

retroneo · Feb 24, 2013

This is essential for Australia as there are many life-critical government services that were built using MapKit such as fire alert systems. Google Maps was developed in Australia before Google bought it, so it's pretty good here for a while. We have all been hammered by the government to use these apps, especially when driving during fires so we don't have a recurrence of the massive deaths in 2010. This is on top of the automatic SMS system that all phones are permanently enrolled in.

These government apps which had correct mapping data all of a sudden had incorrect data when users upgraded to iOS 6. People have been unable to report bushfires correctly. Police have been called to people getting lost over and over again. Survival alerts have been incorrect. The headlines just keep coming week after week. It's not a good look.

MacDav said:
Question: Is Parlous a word commonly used in Australia? Just wondering because it is rarely used in the U.S. In the U.S. it would more likely be "perilous" or "precarious".

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=parlous

The map on this page shows that it's more likely to be used in Australia or the UK than the US or Canada.

jashic · Feb 24, 2013

rdlink said:
What is a hard known fact? The fact that I use Apple Maps every day, and it works nearly flawlessly for me? Or the fact that Google wouldn't give turn by turn to iOS maps unless Apple let them take control (i.e., mine our data and sell it)?

Apple, do me a favor and continue to develop your already nice app. I look forward to the day when Google won't have to be in my life. Notice how I spoke for myself, and didn't display the arrogance of assuming that I spoke for "us all"?

I guess you're one of the 50 Yahoo Search users? Or maybe one of the 12 Bing Search users out there? lol

Maybe you search for videos on Vimeo only? lol

Gaining turn by turn yet sending you the wrong place. Hmmm, whats wrong with that picture?

ds2000 · Feb 25, 2013

Got to be honest, since the googlemaps app landed, I am yet to fire up amaps. Can't see that changing. I'd love to see the server traffic reports from iOS devices for both mapping solutions..... I know who I'd back as a winner.

VulchR · Feb 25, 2013

doelcm82 said:
I've had a few problems, but nothing major. It's definitely improving. I tried to show the "melted bridge" at Hoover Dam to a friend recently, only to find that it has been cleaned up gorgeously. I had to switch over to the Google Earth app to show the effect. Apple's bridge looks better even than the Sketch-Up bridge in the desktop version of Google Earth, which still shows the melted bridge below it.

Then I tried to show a friend's house, where the houses on the opposite side of the street were in full flyover 3D, while my friend's home was still flat. But when I did that, I discovered that my friend's house was now 3D as well.

You live in the US. Not everybody does. Indeed, a rather small minority of people on the planet live in the US. People in the UK typically pay more for iPhones than people in the US, yet services like Siri and iOS maps are incomplete at best, and in the case of iOS maps, unacceptably inaccurate. Apple could and should do better. They're sitting on a wad of cash they cannot move into the US for fear of taxes, so perhaps they should invest in their international services rather than relying on second-rate third parties.

b-dogg · Feb 25, 2013

VulchR said:
You live in the US. Not everybody does. Indeed, a rather small minority of people on the planet live in the US. People in the UK typically pay more for iPhones than people in the US, yet services like Siri and iOS maps are incomplete at best, and in the case of iOS maps, unacceptably inaccurate. Apple could and should do better. They're sitting on a wad of cash they cannot move into the US for fear of taxes, so perhaps they should invest in their international services rather than relying on second-rate third parties.

Yep. Try asking Siri what time the Rugby starts at or a premiership score. No dice. Unless Basketball/Baseball/A.Football is your bag she's useless. How hard would it be to get this localised. Siri is as half-baked as aMaps.

rdlink · Feb 25, 2013

jashic said:
I guess you're one of the 50 Yahoo Search users? Or maybe one of the 12 Bing Search users out there? lol

Maybe you search for videos on Vimeo only? lol

Gaining turn by turn yet sending you the wrong place. Hmmm, whats wrong with that picture?

Yawn.

If you bother to follow the trail of the comments, you will find that the point of my original post was that the commenter who said Apple should just scrap maps and go back to Google was being arrogant enough to speak for everyone. Fact is, there are millions of users for whom Apple Maps works. Plain and simple. That was my point.

Funny you should mention Vimeo, though. Yesterday I watched a bunch of videos on Youtube, Crackle and Vimeo. Interestingly enough, the most entertaining and least ad intrusive ones I watched were on Vimeo and Crackle. YouTube is becoming quite annoying to me.

ncaissie · Feb 25, 2013

Small White Car said:
Oh, sure, I loved the idea of picking either 'no-turn-by-turn' or 'ads in my maps.'

I dont recall ads in the Maps of iOS4. Am I loosing it? There is turn by turn now. So what is the real reason you prefer to get lost?

ncaissie · Feb 25, 2013

cocky jeremy said:
The only "Fact" is that the only people that are really going to say anything are the ones having issues. How many every day people will come on here and post about how well Apple's maps work? None. I've yet to have a single issue with it myself. It's been completely perfect for me.

The Fact is there are a lot more complaints over Apple Maps then there are Google.
Google held back but they have shown dedication (or just wanted to make Apple look bad) lately. Either way Google maps makes Apple maps look 20 years out of date and has a ton of errors.
There are plenty of errors here in Ottawa Canada the Capital city for the county. I have seen Google street view cars driving around this city twice now. How may times has Apple done that? Oh yeah, None!

jkichline · Feb 25, 2013

Because...

gmanist1000 said:
They require a bachelors degree for this job? Why?

Everything requires a bachelors degrees these days.

charlituna · Feb 25, 2013

nicwalmsley said:
The source of the problem is that it adds a marker on Maps that looks like it is meant to designate a town or city (and it looks like that because that is what it does do, some of the time)... but often the marker is actually placed at the geographic centre of a District. And the marker gets a label that is the District name. Which has nothing to do with the location or even existence of a town or city.

Based on information provided by the local government etc. so perhaps you should start the griping there

Small White Car · Feb 25, 2013

ncaissie said:
I dont recall ads in the Maps of iOS4. Am I loosing it? There is turn by turn now. So what is the real reason you prefer to get lost?

Read the rest of the comments. We are talking about what Google wanted to do when their contract with Apple expired in 2013.

I wasn't entirely accurate, it wasn't "ads" they wanted, but Google did want more personal information about iPhone users and what they are doing in order to extract more advertising revenue out of them.

Apple said no, we don't want you to do that, and this is the core of why Apple decided to ditch Google's maps.

MacDav · Feb 25, 2013

retroneo said:
This is essential for Australia as there are many life-critical government services that were built using MapKit such as fire alert systems. Google Maps was developed in Australia before Google bought it, so it's pretty good here for a while. We have all been hammered by the government to use these apps, especially when driving during fires so we don't have a recurrence of the massive deaths in 2010. This is on top of the automatic SMS system that all phones are permanently enrolled in.

These government apps which had correct mapping data all of a sudden had incorrect data when users upgraded to iOS 6. People have been unable to report bushfires correctly. Police have been called to people getting lost over and over again. Survival alerts have been incorrect. The headlines just keep coming week after week. It's not a good look.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=parlous

The map on this page shows that it's more likely to be used in Australia or the UK than the US or Canada.

I would have believed your personal observation. Didn't expect you to provide documentation. Thanks though.

iGrip · Mar 27, 2013

Tknull said:
I agree with you.... but you are beating a dead horse arguing with him. Some people will never acknowledge or remember that prior to apple ditching google for maps, it had no turn by turn, nor was google going to add it. Now we have two options to choose from. How/Why anyone would argue this is worse off is completely and utterly baffling.

One reason is that Apple will not allow you to use the better choice as your default mapping app. Instead, you are relegated to the inferior, proprietary app because Apple made it.

So yeah, you have a choice. But you have to dismiss the inferior app and fire up the good app and then navigate to where you want to go on the good map app, instead of just clicking a link and having it "Just Work".

Apple's choices are less than complete choices. Either use the apps Apple forces you to use as the default, or have a PITA experience.

I choose neither, thankyouverymuch. On my phone, I can choose any mapping app as the default.

----------

avanpelt said:
I wonder if Apple could eventually do something similar to Street View but better?

Tknull · Mar 27, 2013

iGrip said:
One reason is that Apple will not allow you to use the better choice as your default mapping app. Instead, you are relegated to the inferior, proprietary app because Apple made it.

So yeah, you have a choice. But you have to dismiss the inferior app and fire up the good app and then navigate to where you want to go on the good map app, instead of just clicking a link and having it "Just Work".

Apple's choices are less than complete choices. Either use the apps Apple forces you to use as the default, or have a PITA experience.

I choose neither, thankyouverymuch. On my phone, I can choose any mapping app as the default.

----------

Image

You are effectively saying that having zero options to choose from was BETTER than having two options but not getting to set the default you wanted. That you were happier with google as the default as it was, but lacking turn by turn. I assume then that you have not upgraded iOS, so that you still have the old google app, as default...?

iGrip · Mar 27, 2013

Tknull said:
You are effectively saying that having zero options to choose from was BETTER than having two options but not getting to set the default you wanted. That you were happier with google as the default as it was, but lacking turn by turn. I assume then that you have not upgraded iOS, so that you still have the old google app, as default...?

Before, you had a pretty good app as default. Now you have a crappy app as the default, but under certain circumstances you cn also use a better app.

Six of one, you say tomato.

Tknull · Mar 27, 2013

iGrip said:
Before, you had a pretty good app as default. Now you have a crappy app as the default, but under certain circumstances you cn also use a better app.

Six of one, you say tomato.

yea, I guess its different for everyone. For me personally, google as it was was in no way decent. I tried using it for navigation and it was so painfully tedious (having to keep hitting the Next button for intructions, ugh!) that I never wanted to use it. I use Apple Maps for navigation frequently, and dont have any problems (granted, I live in a major US city where coverage is bound to be better than in many other areas). So for me, I am sooo much happier than I was when google was all we had. Apple's Maps to me is not inferior. And it baffled me that people I knew that had some of the cheapest Android phones all had better navigation than iPhone users had. That is no longer the case.

manofscience · Apr 13, 2013

randomly curious: what kind of salary do you think these guys will make?

saha-med · Apr 14, 2013

rdlink said:
Yawn.

If you bother to follow the trail of the comments, you will find that the point of my original post was that the commenter who said Apple should just scrap maps and go back to Google was being arrogant enough to speak for everyone. Fact is, there are millions of users for whom Apple Maps works. Plain and simple. That was my point.

Funny you should mention Vimeo, though. Yesterday I watched a bunch of videos on Youtube, Crackle and Vimeo. Interestingly enough, the most entertaining and least ad intrusive ones I watched were on Vimeo and Crackle. YouTube is becoming quite annoying to me.

Oh yeah i mean nowadays who has time to look through millions of videos right... I'd just visit a website that has about 50 videos and if i cant find the video im looking for, i'd just go cry in a corner

Apple Hiring 'Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist' in Australia

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