Seriously? I certainly hope the USPTO turns this down on grounds of being way too obvious. Our patent system seriously needs to be completely revamped.
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Newly Published Apple Mapping Patent Details Route Feedback System, Real-Time Accident Reporting
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Seeing these changes/additions to the maps app is great! Apple realized their mistake, said sorry (or did they?) and DO look determined to make the app a better experience, if not the best!
If they keep updating the app at this rate, a couple of years from now, it could be a serious competition to Google Maps!
If they keep updating the app at this rate, a couple of years from now, it could be a serious competition to Google Maps!
What exactly doesn't work in Maps? It has been improving all the time. For mobile use, it uses tons less data than Google maps. And then there's obviously the question who you would trust, Apple or Google.
It should be covered by "blocked roads" really. I guess the difference is a road that's blocked for a special event (bicycle race, marathon, parade) would have actual barricades and police presence. Although, around here, protests are registered and often have the same protections a special event would so they're treated the same.
I guess this is for those random unplanned protests. Wonder why Apple would be expecting those...
That's right. One of them is giving data to the NSA and the other... oh, wait.
Interesting. I wonder how close this patent application is to the wide scale adoption of Waze, which seems to be right around that 2010/2011 time frame.
Also, in regard to Apple maps, which the more I use, the more I find that it is working fairly well (besides the occasional horrible search result)... I am still waiting for Apple to update the satellite images for the city I live in (the 7th most populous city in the U.S.). The reason is that their map editors seem to ignore error submissions because their maps are old and don't even show buildings in the correct places due to years of construction and growth.
Also, in regard to Apple maps, which the more I use, the more I find that it is working fairly well (besides the occasional horrible search result)... I am still waiting for Apple to update the satellite images for the city I live in (the 7th most populous city in the U.S.). The reason is that their map editors seem to ignore error submissions because their maps are old and don't even show buildings in the correct places due to years of construction and growth.
It's Possible To Patent Route Planning?
Really?
Honestly this is just ridiculous. How the heck Waze or Apple or anyone can claim that they invented stuff as obvious as avoiding blocked roads and public events while planning a route is beyond me.
US patent law is currently run by Donald and Mickey, and to my mind Apple and other innovative companies need to take a very noisy public stand against this nonsense. It's anti-competitive and just serves to take vital funding away from innovators and into the pockets of patent trolls and rent collectors.
Really?
Honestly this is just ridiculous. How the heck Waze or Apple or anyone can claim that they invented stuff as obvious as avoiding blocked roads and public events while planning a route is beyond me.
US patent law is currently run by Donald and Mickey, and to my mind Apple and other innovative companies need to take a very noisy public stand against this nonsense. It's anti-competitive and just serves to take vital funding away from innovators and into the pockets of patent trolls and rent collectors.
It was a way to keep it away from Facebook. Apple didn't bid on Waze.
I agree, it's been improving... basically, when maps is crappy, people complain; when they try to improve it people still have negative comments.
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I recently moved from Jersey down to Florida. Drove the "trucking" back route through Pennsylvania as to avoid bridges due to my phobia of them.
Apple Maps was used the entire and not once led me astray. Not once.
Not too long after getting down to Florida I snatched up a part time job delivering pizza. Used Apple Maps the entire time and has only been wrong... at most... 3 times. At least one of those can be attributed to a human error on my part.
Apple Maps works. And works well. For me.
Apple Maps was used the entire and not once led me astray. Not once.
Not too long after getting down to Florida I snatched up a part time job delivering pizza. Used Apple Maps the entire time and has only been wrong... at most... 3 times. At least one of those can be attributed to a human error on my part.
Apple Maps works. And works well. For me.
RTFA:
However, the two of you and this person:
have jumped the gun because the deal is on hold while the Federal Trade Commission studies its potential implications for consumers.
Having read horror stories from pizza delivery guys, my condolences. Unless you were that guy in Florida who pocket-dialed his last customer, an African-American, at an inopportune moment.
What someone patented this? Shows a complete lack of practicality and common sense!
1. You're driving, if there is traffic it rarely is at a stand still, even still you might not have any routes to switch to in time.
2. Laws prohibit phones behind the wheel pretty much world wide.
3. Apple maps doesn't even list basic data on places especially mainstream ones you'd have expected, traffic is way off
If it was me I would merely patent a system that looked at car speed vs road speed and look at that to predict a block or jam, no need to mess with a drivers navigation experience or divert. Very few false positives if setup correctly, you could even confirm traffic with user input to adjust parameters.
Apple need to take all the data for maps they have and let people crowd source it for a laptop on iCloud or something too as well as updating everything they already added, they've got enough money to throw at the issue.
I hate google mainly because they don't employ anyone in my country and pay no corporation tax despite huge profits but they do lots of investment in new tech and broken bits of their portfolio.
1. You're driving, if there is traffic it rarely is at a stand still, even still you might not have any routes to switch to in time.
2. Laws prohibit phones behind the wheel pretty much world wide.
3. Apple maps doesn't even list basic data on places especially mainstream ones you'd have expected, traffic is way off
If it was me I would merely patent a system that looked at car speed vs road speed and look at that to predict a block or jam, no need to mess with a drivers navigation experience or divert. Very few false positives if setup correctly, you could even confirm traffic with user input to adjust parameters.
Apple need to take all the data for maps they have and let people crowd source it for a laptop on iCloud or something too as well as updating everything they already added, they've got enough money to throw at the issue.
I hate google mainly because they don't employ anyone in my country and pay no corporation tax despite huge profits but they do lots of investment in new tech and broken bits of their portfolio.
Why apple is applying patent for each & everything recently
After Samsung incident... Apple had to patent everything before it released.
Just imagine if there is no patent.. Samsung will be smiling.
Patents with rounded corners, people complain. Patents without rounded corners, guess what: People complain.
Google Maps being the holy grail of maps is getting quite old... because it isn't. I've had Apple Maps give me wrong directions... I've had Google Maps, TomTom, and Waze give me bad directions, and I've had Garmin give me utterly atrocious directions. I have several navigation apps on my phone when one of them fails, but I mostly use Apple Maps and it's worked for me 99% of the time. When I go on long road trips I use TomTom because it stores the entire country map on the phone, so even if cellular connection is lost, it'll still give you directions (I accompany the TomTom with a full on paper map as well... archaic... I know).
There aren't any perfect GPS apps, but Apple Maps continues to improve noticeably. They're obviously putting a lot of thought into it, but it's nice that we have multiple options because of their flaws. I used to hate driving, honestly... because I utterly suck with directions. But this "just use Google Maps" garbage is becoming tiresome. I do like Google Maps, but give me a break.
There aren't any perfect GPS apps, but Apple Maps continues to improve noticeably. They're obviously putting a lot of thought into it, but it's nice that we have multiple options because of their flaws. I used to hate driving, honestly... because I utterly suck with directions. But this "just use Google Maps" garbage is becoming tiresome. I do like Google Maps, but give me a break.
Whine some more. You don't have to use the features if you don't want... and why would you be setting up all this while you drive anyway? That would be stupid. And generally when input is given via crowd-sourcing, you are generally driving very slowly. You're not flying down the highway at 90 mph going "hey everybody! there's like an accident 20 minutes behind me!"
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It depends where you are. In my country, what doesnt work in maps is putting in a location/POI and having it show up. I can have the name of a major hotel chain on screen, type it in exactly as it is on apple maps, and it comes up with cannot find location. It has about a 5% hit rate here.
I hate google maps strongly, but its the only way I can navigate, unfortunately.
Folks love to say that but I've had just as many issues with Google maps over the years. Including several times the driving directions tried to send me the wrong way down one way streets that have been that way for a decade, sending me to the wrong address (about 20 miles off in another city when I gave it the zip even) etc
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Why apple is applying patent for each & everything recently
Because that is how the game is played. Every other company is doing he same thing. But they don't get the page hits so the blogs don't talk about it
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Even better, an easy system to register that an event is going to happen, where no when. And then the maps system, knowing this data, routes folks around it.
And an easy way to write your own route and submit. Because sometimes the routes that come up are just crazy. Locals know the tricks so let us help mprove the system with more than picking the least wack of the choices.
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Many folks forget that Mapquest and Google have been around for a good decade and were as shist when they were not even a year old.
glad they are continuing to work on their maps and trying to add more features. just make sure i don't get lost first though