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Apple Transitions 'Find My iPhone' Web Maps for iCloud.com From Google to Apple

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Earlier this year, Apple ceased using Google Maps for its Find My iPhone web app on the beta iCloud.com site in favor of its own Apple Maps, and as of today, the main iCloud.com site has also been updated to utilize an online version of Apple maps.

applemaps.jpg
Visiting Find My iPhone on iCloud.com will now display Maps rendered using Apple's own mapping engine, cutting out the company's final bit of reliance on Google Maps. Apple first began shifting away from Google Maps in 2012, when it introduced an in-house mapping solution.

Though iOS apps like Find My iPhone and Find My Friends began using Apple Maps data shortly after the release of iOS 6, iCloud.com has continued to use Google Maps data up until now.

Apple Maps was highly criticized for its inaccuracy and poor implementation at the time, but since 2012, Apple has made a vast number of improvements to the mapping service and continues to work to this day. Currently, Apple is said to be working on adding indoor mapping and transit features to Apple Maps with iOS 8, but internal politics have allegedly delayed the launch of Maps updates.

Article Link: Apple Transitions 'Find My iPhone' Web Maps for iCloud.com From Google to Apple
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/12/09/apple-find-my-iphone-web-maps-updated/
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,469
43,390
Makes sense. I've had almost no issues with apple maps, so I'm not concerned. Of course I live an area that Apple seems to be on their game with keeping things accurate.
 
G

greekappi

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2007
55
8
Google just does maps better. End of story.

I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.

I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
 
lincolntran

lincolntran

macrumors 6502a
Jan 18, 2010
843
471
greekappi said:
Google just does maps better. End of story.

I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.

I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
Click to expand...

Time is the key here. Google got at least 10yrs head start. In time, Apple will catch up and surpass Google map.

----------

Cue the same old complains about Apple map...
 
jrlcopy

jrlcopy

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2007
548
840
lincolntran said:
Time is the key here. Google got at least 10yrs head start. In time, Apple will catch up and surpass Google map.

----------

Cue the same old complains about Apple map...
Click to expand...

The real problem is that apple doesn't know search and has always been bad at search and that's the main reason why google maps is key.

When I type in 34 w 4th st, Google knows that I'm saying 32 West 4th Street (Near me), Apple thinks I'm talking about a place called 32 West in Panama.

lol
 
nutmac

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
6,055
7,319
greekappi said:
Google just does maps better. End of story.

I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.

I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
Click to expand...

For POI, public transit, and traffic data, Google is better.

But for turn-by-turn and address lookup, Apple caught up quite a bit. It's still lacking in some places, of course, but Google gets things wrong from time-to-time as well (although not as often).

And I just much prefer Apple Map's user interface.
 
Icaras

Icaras

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2008
6,344
3,393
Finally! One less Google product in my life. Happy to see Apple Maps take over.
 
S

shotts56

macrumors 6502
Sep 23, 2008
391
64
Scotland
lincolntran said:
Time is the key here. Google got at least 10yrs head start. In time, Apple will catch up and surpass Google map.

----------

Cue the same old complains about Apple map...
Click to expand...

People have been saying the same about every Apple entry into the cloud market, and years later they are still hopeless at it. After years of trying to perfect their skill in this space, iCloud Drive still lags years behind the competition.

Sir, I admire your blind optimism.
 
A

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
greekappi said:
Google just does maps better. End of story.

I've tried and tried to use Apple Maps for my turn by turn directions, but Google Maps simply outperforms it.

I want to love and use Apple Maps, it just isn't as good.
Click to expand...

I used to love Google Maps and have used them exclusively up until the past two months or so. Somewhere along the line, Google Maps introduced a nasty bug where the app will reroute you to a slower or longer route without giving you any audible indication that it has done so.

I was on a recent trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta and somewhere around Orlando, Google Maps began adding 60 to 90 minutes to my ETA. At first I thought it was a strange fluke so I cancelled navigation and restarted it and the ETA went back to normal for about 20 minutes and then all of a sudden it was pushed back again with no audible or visual notification about what was going on.

Upon closer examination, I discovered the problem: Google Maps was directing me to get off I-75 in middle of nowhere south Georgia (about 300 miles up the road from my current location at the time), drive 80 miles in the wrong direction (away from Atlanta), and then get on I-85 and continue toward Atlanta. There was no reason for Google Maps to do this. I-75 was not closed, nor was there any road construction going on at the time.

On another recent trip, Google Maps automatically rerouted me to a slower, longer route through the Georgia mountains without any audible notification that it had done so -- all while showing me on its own map that there was another route (my original route) that was about 30 minutes quicker than the route it had decided I should take for no apparent reason. This has happened with my iPhone 6 as well as my wife's iPhone 5s. It's a nasty bug and Google needs to fix it pronto.
 
lincolntran

lincolntran

macrumors 6502a
Jan 18, 2010
843
471
shotts56 said:
People have been saying the same about every Apple entry into the cloud market, and years later they are still hopeless at it. After years of trying to perfect their skill in this space, iCloud Drive still lags years behind the competition.

Sir, I admire your blind optimism.
Click to expand...

It's not blind optimism. I'm a dev so I know the challenges they're facing. We all know that their "old cloud services" are not as good as competition. So, in order to be competitive, they have to replace lots of legacy codes/architectures with modern systems and implementation.

iCloud is a new foundation for anything cloud-related for Apple. For anything as huge and new as iCloud, you don't want to implement everything in one go. You do it incrementally. So, in saying iCloud Drive is still lags years behind others, I once again remind you that "time" is the key. I've been watching iCloud development very closely and they're doing a very good job at it. iCloud was laggy and buggy when it debuted, but it's working flawlessly now. Everything sync pretty fast and seamless. In time, they will add more features that are missing. So yes, I'm pretty optimistic about iCloud. I think the only valid complain about it is the pricing structure but technology wise, iCloud is solid.
 
S

Snookerman

macrumors 6502
Jul 6, 2008
391
9
I've been defending Apple Maps ever since they got it together, but I must say I'm really disappointed about this update. With Google Maps, I could see buildings and other things that helped with the locating. Now, all I can see are lines for the roads. This is what I get:

BOcgCcD.png


I'm sure it looks better in the US, but that means they should have waited with rolling this out to other countries until they had better data.

The Find My Friends app, which used to be really useful, also has this problem. It's now just a bit better than a compass.
 
M

macintologist

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2004
637
878
It's interesting when you drag around Apple Maps on the web it's choppy, but when you drag around in the Maps app, it's like 60fps. Shows you how much better native apps are than web rendering.
 
thewebb

thewebb

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2014
213
196
AZ
Snookerman said:
I've been defending Apple Maps ever since they got it together, but I must say I'm really disappointed about this update. With Google Maps, I could see buildings and other things that helped with the locating. Now, all I can see are lines for the roads. This is what I get:

Image

I'm sure it looks better in the US, but that means they should have waited with rolling this out to other countries until they had better data.

The Find My Friends app, which used to be really useful, also has this problem. It's now just a bit better than a compass.
Click to expand...

You can still select "satellite" view for apple maps
 
FightTheFuture

FightTheFuture

macrumors 68000
Oct 19, 2003
1,876
3,029
that town east of ann arbor
avanpelt said:
I used to love Google Maps and have used them exclusively up until the past two months or so. Somewhere along the line, Google Maps introduced a nasty bug where the app will reroute you to a slower or longer route without giving you any audible indication that it has done so.
Click to expand...
I get this with Google Maps from time to time too. I was driving from a normal route on I-79 to I-80/90 and Google Maps alerted me of traffic issues and rerouted me to one lane state roads for 45 minutes. Made no sense since Google Maps or Waze didn't have any signs of bad traffic.

None of these navigation systems are perfect, even before with TomTom's and Garmins, so folks shouldn't assume they would be. The issue I have though is the assertion that Google Maps is a "Bible" of mapping data. It's just not true and is severely over-infalting it's value over Apple Maps.
 
T

ttss6

macrumors 6502
Mar 28, 2014
333
58
California
The only problem I've had with Apple Maps so far is that it suggests I drive to the other side of town then come back halfway to get to my dentist instead of a more direct route.
 
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