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So... Are Apple Maps improving yet?

M

matttye

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
We all know that Apple has indicated they are working around the clock to fix the problems with Maps, but has anybody actually noticed improvements yet?

I reported a number of errors on iOS 6 release day but none of them have been fixed yet. :(
 
I'm not sure if I've ever read that someone's corrections have been implemented yet. I've sent them a few over the past weeks and none are corrected :/
 
saving107 said:
You're disappointed by unrealistic expectations?
Click to expand...

What's unrealistic?

Google, Bing, Waze, and others generally make changes to their maps within 2 weeks (often less).

With Apple, there have been numerous reports of errors being reported over 3 months ago with no changes in sight.
 
Using Tom Tom and teleatlas a few years ago with a standalone device it took years to see corrections. I imagine it will be similar, months at the soonest. There is just too much information to process quickly. Often on Tom Tom I'd see things that were correct suddenly be changed to incorrect.

I had a tom tom for years when after a map update my road in my neighborhood disappeared. That's when I gave up on tomtom/teleatlas and moved to a Garmin standalone with lifetime map updates.
 
i submitted several reports yesterday. mostly moving incorrect locations around and adding my office and a sandwich shop across the street to the the map. so far non of the errors have been corrected but my office was added today along with the sandwich shop.
 
saving107 said:
You're disappointed by unrealistic expectations?


This sounds about right for an Apple forum.
Click to expand...

Having a decent Maps apps is not realistic...especially how Apple is already incredibly late.

You'd expect they would blow Google maps out of the water.
 
cynics said:
There is just too much information to process quickly.
Click to expand...

That, and you can't just go around changing stuff based on one report because it may be even more off than what was there before. So there has to either be some kind of verification, or a large amount of identical or highly similar reports so they can find out what is the right information. Otherwise, this happens:
Often on Tom Tom I'd see things that were correct suddenly be changed to incorrect.
Click to expand...
 
If they intended to fix the issues immediately, they wouldn't have come out with that formal apology. As stated in the apology letter itself, maps will improve over time and with user usage and input. In the maps application, flip up the map to where the drop pin and hybrid/satellite and all that are and there is an option for "Report a Problem". Maps relies on crowd-sourcing to find problem areas so they know where to fix. They aren't exactly going to rebuild every square inch of the application.

Google and the like have had a massive head start on Apple...they've been at this for years....don't expect them to magically fix everything in a matter of a fortnight (man I always wanted to use that word in a sentence).
 
iRooney said:
...don't expect them to magically fix everything in a matter of a fortnight (man I always wanted to use that word in a sentence).
Click to expand...

Sadly, the biggest issue for many of us is that they took away something that did work just fine and didn't offer a proper solution for all of the caused problems or a way to return to 5.1.
 
cyks said:
Sadly, the biggest issue for many of us is that they took away something that did work just fine and didn't offer a proper solution for all of the caused problems or a way to return to 5.1.
Click to expand...

It's not that they took it away. They wanted to offer turn by turn and Google said no (of course they did...its their trademark android feature). They went their own way instead. A smart business move, yes....but a stupid one at the same time...they should have kept maps in R&D for a while before going public (or you know...saw this coming and started development in like 2008).
 
iRooney said:
It's not that they took it away. They wanted to offer turn by turn and Google said no (of course they did...its their trademark android feature). They went their own way instead. A smart business move, yes....but a stupid one at the same time...they should have kept maps in R&D for a while before going public (or you know...saw this coming and started development in like 2008).
Click to expand...

You can word it however you choose, and I'm not saying their reasons aren't valid, but Apple removed working maps and it's associated features that no longer work properly.
 
I spotted an error in Google Maps a while back - a simple typographical error in the name of a neighborhood. I submitted it and it took over a year for them to implement the change.

If it takes Google a year to make corrections, I don't have much hope for Apple.
 
kajoob said:
I spotted an error in Google Maps a while back - a simple typographical error in the name of a neighborhood. I submitted it and it took over a year for them to implement the change.

If it takes Google a year to make corrections, I don't have much hope for Apple.
Click to expand...

Yeah there's a spelling error in Apple Maps on one of the roads in my neighborhood....but I'm not going to report it until they fix the rest of the stuff...mainly because it doesn't matter to me. They wrote Steeple instead of Steele.
 
matttye said:
I'm disappointed that Apple Maps are barely usable right now, yeah.
Click to expand...

How exactly are they unusable, you haven't stated that yet.

I will say this though, I do agree that some of the 3D mapping is showing up distorted but I don't see it as an issue because to me the 3D mapping is more of a gimmick and is unpractical in a real use case scenario, its a feature to show off to people, but I don't see myself using it often, if ever.

img0321.png
 
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