Apple Fixes Australian Map Error That Caused Police Warning, Issue Traced to Official Gazetteer

[Oletros]

Fixed our half fixed?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vic...-1226533592620

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by coolspot18

Why in the world did Apple ditch Google Maps? Was it a case of "Not Invented Here Syndrome?"

Seriously strange - I mean does Apple have a YouTube site, a Facebook clone, or what else? It's strange that they decided to ditch Google Maps.

Or why not just purchase a company like Garmin?

Google was using their Maps as a weapon against Apple in the Mobile Wars. Apple, not wanting to be dependent on a hostile competitor for a major service, with their customers clamoring for feature parity, did the only thing they could do. They're screwed either way since mapping takes time to get right, due to the complexities of incompatible reference points for local data, transforming a 3D mostly-spherical object onto a 2D plane, inaccuracies created by out-of-date and imprecise measurements done at different times with different tools and methods, and of course the imprecise nature of floating points in the digital environment. The world is a very big place, and mapping it on a computer isn't easy.

Faced with the choice between getting screwed over by Google for another year, or putting their customers through an error reporting process they'd need to do anyway to get more accurate map data, Apple made the logical decision to release Apple Maps sooner rather than later. It gets the necessary growing pains over with sooner.

Maybe you don't remember how bad Google's maps were in the beginning, or people just gave them more slack since it was a minor, experimental part of their business at the time (they used to be a web search company).

[warwickharry]

Still broken Apple, they haven't fixed anything. Mildura is still in the wrong spot!

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by BuckusToothnail

For all of Apple's talk about "innovation" and "invent your own stuff", why is it then that Apple is blatantly RIPPING OFF Google Maps, and quite badly at that?

I know, it's terrible. And MapQuest should sue Google for ripping off their product, too.

[Shin3r]

I guess I'm going to be the jerk here. So yes, apple has screwed up maps, but the bigger problem is that people are literally using maps as a stupid guide rather than for convenience. We should use our brains when going places we are unaware of and be aware of how to retrace our steps if we are wrong. But that's just me I guess.

[haruhiko]

Originally Posted by WestonHarvey1

Ripping off Google Maps, or just maps? Google did not invent maps. They didn't even invent digital maps, or digital maps on the internet.

If Apple really ripped off Google Maps there won't be "life threatening issues"

[warwickharry]

I have reported multiple errors and none of them have been corrected here in Western Australia. Surely they can just disable the region text that is causing the problem.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by maxwelltech

Just fixing this error is not enough, Apple. You guys need to fix your whole Map database as quickly as possible, and bring Google Maps back as an interim solution .

Maps.google.com is totally accessible via safari

[BuckusToothnail]

Originally Posted by mrxak

I know, it's terrible. And MapQuest should sue Google for ripping off their product, too.

Like Google has sued Apple?

Having said that, if Apple owned MapQuest NO DOUBT you'd see a lawsuit!

[Millah]

Originally Posted by maxwelltech

Lots of angry customers are switching to other platforms because of this, but I am still sticking around because I expect you guys to fix it very soon.

"Lots?" Define lots. I don't see iOS users abandoning in droves. Hasn't the iPhone 5 boosted Apples marketplace for this quarter, indicating that people are in fact switching to the iPhone 5 from Android?

It's funny how a survey done showed something like 3/4 of iOS6 customers were "satisfied" with maps. Don't let the general press and blog community fool you into thinking that they resemble the voice of the majority. Most of the time it's a very loud and vocal minority who simply get heard over the vast majority of satisfied people. People who are always angry and nitpicky make the most noise, not people who are satisfied with their phone and instead just focus on using it rather than poking holes through it.

I'm not saying Apples maps aren't flawed and in need of serious work. But only a minority have ACTUALLY experienced real problems while USING it in the real world. People in Australia being among them. But they aren't the majority of the 500 million iOS users. In Florida, I have yet to experience any issue, and I haven't heard a single friend complain. I've even discovered new stores that weren't in GMaps due to Yelp integration. It's a shame the GREAT things in Maps get thrown aside for all the negativity and sensationalism.

[Xenu007]

They should send Scott Forstall there as punishment.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by haruhiko

If Apple really ripped off Google Maps there won't be "life threatening issues"

Yes there would be. Google has had and still has major issues, even with their 7 year led. Directions going to the wrong place, bad timetables saying there's a bus run an hour after the last one, driving the wrong way down one way streets etc

[a0me]

Originally Posted by shurcooL

Most people seem not to notice them.

I don't think that "Most people" is a very accurate description when Apple Maps are completely unusable for whole countries, particularly when these countries are some of Apple's biggest markets.

[WestonHarvey1]

Originally Posted by BuckusToothnail

EXACTLY what I wrote. Ripping off Google Maps, the PLATFORM, the features, the functions, the look-and-feel, basically EVERYTHING.

Unlike Apple however, Google isn't suing them, just making a FAR SUPERIOR product and letting the consumer decide.

You're in the weeds here. Google Maps was a cleaner, slicker evolution of products like MapQuest. It really didn't implement anything radically different - just improved the interface and responsiveness and later on added value with Google's search results and Street View.

It certainly won me over as a former MapQuest user, but it's evolutionary and not revolutionary, as all maps applications from here on out will be.

Apple has done a great job with Siri integration - navigating with your voice is better than Android or Garmin's offerings - and their take on turn by turn navigation with incorporated 3D views really has some nice advantages over their competitors. They've royally messed up the data in some areas, but they've built a compelling platform for the future.

[FrizzleFryBen]

Originally Posted by camnchar

Ouch. Has an app ever been labeled as "life-threatening" before?

Mere hours after the I-40 landslide a few years ago, in NC, my Garmin put me on a forest service road that was impassable with my 4WD Jeep Wrangler with 33" ProComp MTX's. Another Garmin put an 18 year old collage student on the same road (if you could call it such). If my wife and I had not been there, she may have never made it out.

In my experience, yes, apps can be life threatening. I learned my lesson and no longer "rely" on apps.

EDIT: Ironically I went to college :P

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by Shin3r

I guess I'm going to be the jerk here. So yes, apple has screwed up maps, but the bigger problem is that people are literally using maps as a stupid guide rather than for convenience. We should use our brains when going places we are unaware of and be aware of how to retrace our steps if we are wrong. But that's just me I guess.

Yup, according to people in the last topic about this, the roads are clearly marked with signage in that part of Australia, correctly directing people to the real Mildura. So everyone who got lost in the desert specifically ignored the road signs, and basic common sense about the type of road they were being directed onto, and the terrain.

It's the Milgram Experiment all over again. People listen to the authority (their phone) telling them what to do, and ignore the gut feeling that something is terribly wrong. I'm happy to say I always check map directions before I start my car, and I use it just to help me know what road signs to look for. If something doesn't seem right, I stop right away and try to figure out where I'm really going. I'm not the kind of person who blindly electrocute another human being if told to by a doctor in a white coat, or drive into the middle of a desert because the emotionless voice of a robot told me to do so.

[WestonHarvey1]

Originally Posted by Xenu007

They should send Scott Forstall there as punishment.

Punishment? It's a beautiful country.

[g0odfr1end102]

I also heard it makes this whole area more snappi... You know what? Screw this joke

[dankly]

This is ridiculous! Mildura isn't a difficult place to miss. Just follow the road and the signs!! My god...this technology is making people more stupid.

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by BuckusToothnail

Like Google has sued Apple?

Having said that, if Apple owned MapQuest NO DOUBT you'd see a lawsuit!

I'm making fun of you. Nobody ripped off anybody.

[BuckusToothnail]

Originally Posted by warwickharry

Still broken Apple, they haven't fixed anything. Mildura is still in the wrong spot!

This just goes to show "fixing" Apple Maps is a lot TOUGHER than people realize. Considering the worldwide negative publicity this is generating for Apple, if it was "easy" to fix it would have been done in the first hour.

Nearly two days have passed now and it's still not completely fixed, and they can't even change the LABEL of Mildura to show the correct location.

Now if it's THAT difficult and time-consuming to make this ONE seemingly easy correction which is generating global negative media coverage about endangering people's lives, then how quickly do you think Apple will respond to the everyday user corrections submitted to them by the THOUSANDS?

As I mentioned in another thread, I've submitted at LEAST a couple of dozen corrections to Maps the past few months since I got my iPhone 5 and NONE have been updated yet. And reading other people's post it doesn't seem my experience is uncommon.

In comparison the few times I needed to send a correction to Google Maps, all POI-related like a store having moved or being on the wrong side of the street, it was usually fixed within a couple of weeks.

Sadly it seems this whole "crowd sourcing" and "the more people use it the better it'll get" mantra is all just smoke-and-mirrors RUBBISH. What's the point of "crowd sourcing" if Apple isn't going to utilize the user data?

----------

Originally Posted by mrxak

I'm making fun of you. Nobody ripped off anybody.

And I'm making fun of YOU.

Yes, nobody "ripped off anybody", just like nobody ripped off Apple.

[xkiller45x]

Originally Posted by coolspot18

Why in the world did Apple ditch Google Maps? Was it a case of "Not Invented Here Syndrome?"

Seriously strange - I mean does Apple have a YouTube site, a Facebook clone, or what else? It's strange that they decided to ditch Google Maps.

Or why not just purchase a company like Garmin?

Because google wanted more access from their maps app into other areas of iOS & they wouldn't give apple free turn by turn navigation mainly

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by Millah

"Lots?" Define lots. I don't see iOS users abandoning in droves. Hasn't the iPhone 5 boosted Apples marketplace for this quarter, indicating that people are in fact switching to the iPhone 5 from Android?

It's funny how a survey done showed something like 3/4 of iOS6 customers were "satisfied" with maps. Don't let the general press and blog community fool you into thinking that they resemble the voice of the majority. Most of the time it's a very loud and vocal minority who simply get heard over the vast majority of satisfied people. People who are always angry and nitpicky make the most noise, not people who are satisfied with their phone and instead just focus on using it rather than poking holes through it.

I'm not saying Apples maps aren't flawed and in need of serious work. But only a minority have ACTUALLY experienced real problems while USING it in the real world. People in Australia being among them. But they aren't the majority of the 500 million iOS users. In Florida, I have yet to experience any issue, and I haven't heard a single friend complain. I've even discovered new stores that weren't in GMaps due to Yelp integration. It's a shame the GREAT things in Maps get thrown aside for all the negativity and sensationalism.

It's Antennagate all over again.

Step 1: Find a minor problem that exists in all similar products, that most users don't encounter.
Step 2: Write lots of articles about it online and in the press. Because it's Apple, it gets an inordinate amount of attention.
Step 3: Get the television media involved, because they're slow and only get their news from newspapers already in a panic.
Step 4: Get as many customers as possible to do something they'd never do in order to encounter the minor problem, making the problem appear widespread.
Step 5: Force Apple to apologize publicly, then criticize them for using reality as a defense.
Step 6: Get the fandroids to never shut up about it, and badmouth the Apple product everywhere on the internet.
Step 7: ???
Step 8: Apple still sells more of the product than they've ever sold before, since overall it's a superior product for most users in most situations.

[WestonHarvey1]

Originally Posted by BuckusToothnail

This just goes to show "fixing" Apple Maps is a lot TOUGHER than people realize. Considering the worldwide negative publicity this is generating for Apple, if it was "easy" to fix it would have been done in the first hour.

What it shows me is a couple of things:

1. If you wanted to do maps and not be subjected to a lot of ridicule, you probably should have started in 2000, and not any later than 2005. No doubt products back then had problems like what we're seeing today, but no one was yet relying on the data for mission critical applications. The novelty of the thing completely eclipsed any data problems users encountered.

2. That said, Apple Maps proves you CAN take on a huge mapping monopoly in 2012 - and still create a great product and platform. You'll have to take your lumps and fight through the pain, enduring a level of scrutiny your competitors never had to, but you will see light at the end of the tunnel.

[mrxak]

Originally Posted by BuckusToothnail

And I'm making fun of YOU.

Yes, nobody "ripped off anybody", just like nobody ripped off Apple.

So you now admit that Apple didn't rip off Google like you said they did a few minutes ago? Okay, thanks, that's all I wanted.