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Apple Acquires Crowdsourced Local Business Search Firm Locationary for Improved Maps
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Under Steve Jobs, anyone who "realises" that would have been fired. Probably the same with Tim Cook.
If my boss told me "we need to have a maps application that is better than Google's" I wouldn't say "that can't be done", I would say "give me an hour for a list of things I need".
Under Steve Jobs, I doubt Apple would've released Maps to the public in the state it was in a year ago.
Say what you will about the guy, he did understand that first impressions are important. About the only good thing you could say about Apple Maps when it first came out was "I'm sure it'll improve over time". Even now, people don't think too highly of it, despite the fact that it's finally starting to find its footing and become a good, competitive product.
My goodness, someone is a little miffed. I guess its your billions going to the Maps project then? The mods are doing their job, this is not a free for all forum there are rules here if you don't want to follow them don't comment, really as simple as that. No one here is brainwashed. Don't you understand, this is how products become better. What if one day, Apple Maps becomes better than Google. Then if they take your advice, and scrap that project, we never get to experience something better.
Exactly, why don't they just act on the crowd-sourced data they already have? They haven't changed any of the nonsense that I've raised.
I am sure Apple Maps is doing pretty well in the US but - and this is Apple's problem - they need to realise there is a world beyond the US. The POI Information in Apple Maps here in England is useless. As good as the maps may look, there's no point using it until they get addresses correct and remove duplicate companies (not to mention shops that closed 10 years ago) off the map.
Is someone one day going to activate the "update information from users" button? Will "the better maps" work on iPhone 5S Only?
Will they offer integrated public transit information, or are we forced to buy apps so Apple can make 30% off their own lack of information?
Until they do - Google gets me everywhere, every time.
Is someone one day going to activate the "update information from users" button? Will "the better maps" work on iPhone 5S Only?
Will they offer integrated public transit information, or are we forced to buy apps so Apple can make 30% off their own lack of information?
Until they do - Google gets me everywhere, every time.
So this basically confirms that Apple would have liked to have Waze but somehow missed the boat like they have with many potentially beneficial purchases.
Is it really a huge deal to have to download a 3rd-party mapping app? They left Google because Google was giving them restrictions on their Maps, so they could either not make a mapping app (and let people download from Google) or make one (and let some people download, others use Maps). Apple Maps has been just slightly better in terms of accuracy than Google Maps for me, and Maps is way better, so I'm sticking with it.
Could they just correct my street name already. It's Pear Tree Ct, not Peach Tree Ct Apple. I've only submitted like 30+ corrections over the past year.
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That's exactly the problem and why I still use Apple Maps mostly even though it's inferior to Google Maps.
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That's exactly the problem and why I still use Apple Maps mostly even though it's inferior to Google Maps.
I've had problems with POIs, but never a problem with navigation/turn-by-turn directions when Apple Maps has an address to work with.
I'm inclined to agree. Fixes and improvements are coming way too slowly.
I'm visiting Europe at the moment and using Apple maps is very frustrating because it doesn't draw enough detail or the right details at appropriate scales. Often important features that I need like metro stations and tram lines aren't visible until you zoom in very close, at which point the features lose their context within the wider area. Apple needs to give public transport greater priority and improve its display settings significantly. Being vector based you'd think that such changes and improvements would be easy, so why is it taking so long?
Any of the mods want to explain why my post was removed?
I'm trying to figure out how someone could possibly think that is appropriate to remove.
I'm trying to figure out how someone could possibly think that is appropriate to remove.
Because if Apple took his advice. We wouldn't have OS X, Macs, iPods, iPads, iPhones etc.
We'd still be using White/Black Windows NT boxes, Blackberry OS 4/5 or Symbian or Windows Mobile CE as smartphone interfaces, or Rio MP3 players etc
I for one i'm eternally grateful Apple didn't/doesn't have the mentality you both seem to share.
Google has a better mapping solution...so what?
Other companies should surrender and not try to match/surpass their product? Putting aside the fact that that line of thinking is questionable at best...in what universe is that a good thing for the consumer?
One word; MobileMe
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How EFFING cheap is Apple?
Rather than get professional, comprehensive data, it goes crowd sourced, again and again !!!
For a company which runs an ad service, they don't know about something unless its record has been created and reviewed by a member of the public?? Talk about amateurs! And they wonder why users laugh at their service. Maps is a decent app, gets me from A to B just fine; but the search data behind it is a joke.
Now, I'm in Australia, which I think is outside the Cupertino city limits, and I ask for, let's make it really easy, a world famous american burger franchise, and Apple "maps" gives me 2 options, 12km away, in the centre of the city, because, they're the only 2 reviewed in Yelp (a service relatively unused in Australia).
Now this company is big enough that I'm sure they have all their locations listed in every service imaginable, but Apple couldn't find them if I were standing outside the front door!
Google, of course, will give me every franchise for kilometres around me (and a picture of the front door), but frankly, I want to distance myself from AS MUCH as possible from Big G these days.
And there's my dilemma - my preferred INFORMATION provider is too cheap to buy up at least white & yellow pages listings, for a starter!
I want to know where it is, first. How lovingly created the review for the place is, comes a d-i-s-t-a-n-t second.
Apple, your maps search data is amateur and damaging your brand in the most embarrassing and AVOIDABLE way.
Getting white & yellow pages listings might not sound very cool to you, but it's INCONCEIVABLE that you would start with LESS information than that.
You have GPS partners with better data than your own, why not use their data??
A street address with approximate GPS co-ordinates beats zero information at all by well infinity, actually.
NOBODY wants Apple Maps to succeed more than I, but the message doesn't seem to be getting through. Crowd sourcing might work for some real-time data, like traffic -maybe- but not for a search engine database.
Apple's Maps are much more pleasant to use than Google's, and this is a magnificent technical feat, most especially given the short development time.
I'm sure they'll figure out the detail problem and stop drawing what looks good, rather than what's helpful won't you Apple?
If i have a pin in the map, I need to know the name of the suburb it's in, not the names of suburbs around it don't I Apple?
Main roads and railway lines need to be visible at all zooms don't they Apple?
Again, clueless, but I digress.
Where Maps fails, is at the simplest, oldest, most commonly solved problem - getting a list of businesses. This problem has been solved since the invention of writing, but Apple can't grasp it??
Apple maps deserve every gram of ridicule, because Apple stubbornly refuses to take the simplest steps to succeed. That Maps is such a good app, technically, actually makes the simple and fundamental mistakes even more embarrassing. And that's just pathetic.
Buy up all the user created data you like, Apple.
Keep trying to dig yourself out of the hole you've created for yourselves.
Keep hiring ground-truth executives.
Keep sending Apple Store staff to fix what's irreparably broken.
Remain the laughing stock of the tech industry.
And watch your share price tumble. Even Wall St can't believe how clueless you are.
Some people need the laughs.
Just not me.
Rather than get professional, comprehensive data, it goes crowd sourced, again and again !!!
For a company which runs an ad service, they don't know about something unless its record has been created and reviewed by a member of the public?? Talk about amateurs! And they wonder why users laugh at their service. Maps is a decent app, gets me from A to B just fine; but the search data behind it is a joke.
Now, I'm in Australia, which I think is outside the Cupertino city limits, and I ask for, let's make it really easy, a world famous american burger franchise, and Apple "maps" gives me 2 options, 12km away, in the centre of the city, because, they're the only 2 reviewed in Yelp (a service relatively unused in Australia).
Now this company is big enough that I'm sure they have all their locations listed in every service imaginable, but Apple couldn't find them if I were standing outside the front door!
Google, of course, will give me every franchise for kilometres around me (and a picture of the front door), but frankly, I want to distance myself from AS MUCH as possible from Big G these days.
And there's my dilemma - my preferred INFORMATION provider is too cheap to buy up at least white & yellow pages listings, for a starter!
I want to know where it is, first. How lovingly created the review for the place is, comes a d-i-s-t-a-n-t second.
Apple, your maps search data is amateur and damaging your brand in the most embarrassing and AVOIDABLE way.
Getting white & yellow pages listings might not sound very cool to you, but it's INCONCEIVABLE that you would start with LESS information than that.
You have GPS partners with better data than your own, why not use their data??
A street address with approximate GPS co-ordinates beats zero information at all by well infinity, actually.
NOBODY wants Apple Maps to succeed more than I, but the message doesn't seem to be getting through. Crowd sourcing might work for some real-time data, like traffic -maybe- but not for a search engine database.
Apple's Maps are much more pleasant to use than Google's, and this is a magnificent technical feat, most especially given the short development time.
I'm sure they'll figure out the detail problem and stop drawing what looks good, rather than what's helpful won't you Apple?
If i have a pin in the map, I need to know the name of the suburb it's in, not the names of suburbs around it don't I Apple?
Main roads and railway lines need to be visible at all zooms don't they Apple?
Again, clueless, but I digress.
Where Maps fails, is at the simplest, oldest, most commonly solved problem - getting a list of businesses. This problem has been solved since the invention of writing, but Apple can't grasp it??
Apple maps deserve every gram of ridicule, because Apple stubbornly refuses to take the simplest steps to succeed. That Maps is such a good app, technically, actually makes the simple and fundamental mistakes even more embarrassing. And that's just pathetic.
Buy up all the user created data you like, Apple.
Keep trying to dig yourself out of the hole you've created for yourselves.
Keep hiring ground-truth executives.
Keep sending Apple Store staff to fix what's irreparably broken.
Remain the laughing stock of the tech industry.
And watch your share price tumble. Even Wall St can't believe how clueless you are.
Some people need the laughs.
Just not me.
After all the outrage in the last thread that commenting about Apple Maps in a thread about Google Maps on an Apple device in an Apple related forum is off topic, I'm wondering when we'll see the same people step up with outrage about commenting on Google Maps in a thread about Apple Maps on an Apple device in an Apple related forum.
Where's the ranting about Apple-hating propaganda and the people who think Google can't do anything wrong?
Instead we get this:
If you really think everyone else disagrees and opposes that comment, I think you might be inside the brainwash looking out...
Where's the ranting about Apple-hating propaganda and the people who think Google can't do anything wrong?
Instead we get this:
(emphasis mine)
If you really think everyone else disagrees and opposes that comment, I think you might be inside the brainwash looking out...
I take it you are not a fan of Tim Cook. Otherwise you would not have made such an asinine post. Jobs had his share of failures.
Nokia paid billions to buy itself into the maps game. I don't know how much Apple spent, but I still prefer to use Google Maps.
There's a jailbreak tweak for that!
In all matters of relevancy to non-jailbroken iOS users, though, iOS 7's Siri does allow the use of alternative maps applications.
There's a jailbreak tweak for that!
In all matters of relevancy to non-jailbroken iOS users, though, iOS 7's Siri does allow the use of alternative maps applications.
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Hahaha... I know it could be done in iOS 6, but I haven't looked into jailbreakin on iOS 7. It should be that easy!!
It is a huge task. Hard for us to assess how aggressively they are working on it. Tim admitted publicly, they fell short, and has promised they would use all their resources to rectify the situation. If you're not satisfied with it, there are a half-a-dozen or more alternatives out there.
This is not to justify APPLE, but it took GOOGLE years also, to get their 'Maps' to where it is today.
GOOGLE is mostly in the information business, it is to their advantage to make their software available as widely as possible, much more so than APPLE, who (so far) is mainly in the hardware/software business. They are both great companies, and are working together to some degree, but in the phone business, they are also fierce competitors, and business sometimes makes strange bedfellows.
I personably don't believe that it's out of the realm of possibilities, that the iTunes store might come to ANDROID, sometime in the future. But only if APPLE was certain that, similar to iTunes for Windows, it would have a great user experience.
yes because under steve jobs were unanimous world champion in everything they did. apple is doing the opposite of what steve jobs told larry page to do. apple wants to enter every market where someone else is successful and they seem slower than everyone else.
i dont know if you think you are responding to someone who just heard of apple.
what exactly is the comparison between apple going into the maps market and them entering any of the markets you listed?
all of them had no clear cut leader that offered a great product. the smartphone industry was stagnant and crossroads since it was entering the touchscreen era, rio mp3 playes were never dominant. you cant say that about the maps market. and apple is not entering the maps market because they think or know they can offer the best solution (wouldnt have released the mess they did last year then) they did it purely out of spite and jealousy as was obvious in so many of jobs´s last statements.
the end users ie the people who pay for this all in one way or another end up getting served a worse solution. if apple cared so much about the consumer we could pick default apps on our ios device.
mention the success of ping, safari on windows, quicktime and itunes on windows, mobileme, ipod hifi, ichat, imessage, facetime etc and many more and realize not everything apple does is pure gold.