Apple Acquires Transit Service HopStop to Further Improve its Maps App

[theBB]

Having to go to a 3rd party app to get transit data when you live in a city is really unacceptable and it's good to see Apple finally realized that. People are shifting away from cars and the mapping apps need to keep up with that.

Actually I am glad Apple Maps provide a simple way to find transit apps that cover the directions I am searching for. Google does not seem to have any transit data for Ireland and it is limited to intercity rail in German cities I have tried. (In Japan it looks quite extensive, but station and train names comes up in Japanese alphabet making it pretty useless for me as a tourist). Searching online or the app store for transit apps that are accurate at specific cities I was interested in were fruitless, but when I click on the transit button of Apple's Maps app, the automatic suggestions were surprisingly good. There were some duds in there, but it was easy to guess which ones were generic impostors based on the app names. The top few suggestions have been quite good so far.

 

[macsrcool1234]

Those 7000 people include contractors that they have let go since then. Apple hired some of them to help with Apple Map now.

For mountains and landscapes, they are generated with satellite images, "flyover" airplanes, and human effort (professional cartographers). Store employees should help in Map *especially* after they have incorporated Locationary. These services are crowd sourced after all. Someone should jumpstart it. Other Apple users, including myself, will contribute too.

Your complain on Apple Map's 2nd grade geography seem to be in 2012. Let it go. Google makes mistakes in 2013 too, despite all your raves.

http://www.digital-lifestyle.com/2013/07/google-street-view-camera-trekker-to.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7799557&page=1

With a little bit of luck Apple will be caught up enough to send somebody up for these at the turn of the century.

 

[viacavour]

http://www.digital-lifestyle.com/2013/07/google-street-view-camera-trekker-to.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7799557&page=1

With a little bit of luck Apple will be caught up enough to send somebody up for these at the turn of the century.

Doesn't mean Apple is not doing it now. They are secretive. HopStop has bike routes. They may take a crowd sourced approach with Locationary though.

Climbing mountains still doesn't excuse them from nuking the island of Jura from Google Maps in 2013 for no reason.

Apple may also take a different direction with Apple Map. They may focus more on iOS in the Car. As I mentioned, they are not equal.

 

[theBB]

In my experience, most of it is because the POI database is incomplete or not up-to-date enough.

Google is also pretty good at finding a restaurant despite spelling errors. I suspect Apple's database is almost as extensive, but it has a hard time finding them unless the user enters the full official name without any spelling errors, think "Better Coffee" as opposed to "Batter Cafe".

Apple also seems to be overly reliant on Yelp for location data, so unless the errors get corrected in Yelp, it seems to ignore error reports from users. I have reported a few corrections in November just to see what would happen. So far? Nada...

 

[TMay]

And your list only includes on real failure. The Google TV

The Nexus Q was more an experiment that was quickly taken off the market.

Motorola's acquisition might not have served them in court nearly as well as they would've liked, but it has given them access to tons of nice patents and technologies.

Google Glass? Why are you even counting this as a failure? It's not even out yet. Might as well call Google's self driving car an embarrassing mistake while you're at it. Show your bias.

I might've had to reach far back into the past for my list, but yours is nothing more than biased BS.

The Nexus Q was marketed to consumers, but found wanting. Nexus Q was named one of the Top 10 "fails" of 2012 by CNN in December 2012.

Motorola's patents haven't given Google the defensive patent portfolio that Google thought that they bought, so Google now owns a struggling Android OEM that will certainly create more friction amongst the OEM's.

Google Glass at best fits a niche product category. Google hyped this even to the point that Sergey Brin stated that phones are "emasculating"

http://www.theweek.co.uk/technology...n-ridiculed-saying-mobile-phones-emasculating

Eating your own dog food is one thing, dissing the larger public another.

 

[samcraig]

Oh enough already with the Apple Maps vs Google Maps.

Both exist - use whichever you want and CTFD.

 

[viacavour]

Google is also pretty good at finding a restaurant despite spelling errors. I suspect Apple's database is almost as extensive, but it has a hard time finding them unless the user enters the full official name without any spelling errors, think "Better Coffee" as opposed to "Better Cafe".

Apple also seems to be overly reliant on Yelp for location data, so unless the errors get corrected in Yelp, it seems to ignore error reports from users. I have reported a few corrections in November just to see what would happen. So far? Nada...

Yeah I reported some errors too. Some made it, some have yet to change. If Apple follow through with Locationary, these user reports will be associated with rewards and tickets. We should be able to track our contribution better. I hope they backdate our contribution so our old reports can earn some reward points right away when it's launched.

As for misspelled name match, I just tried on iOS7 beta. It seems to know how to work around it (and find similar names). But more improvement is definitely even better.

 

[theBB]

It does not seem like Apple is trying to improve Maps data on a case by case basis internally. They seem to be on the lookout for tech solutions to make "algorithmic" improvements.

Has anybody suggested corrections to Apple and saw them implemented?

 

[viacavour]

It does not seem like Apple is trying to improve Maps data on a case by case basis internally. They seem to be on the lookout for tech solutions to make "algorithmic" improvements.

Has anybody suggested corrections to Apple and saw them implemented?

Yap ! 2 of my contributions made it (A friend suggested one of them). It's just small road changes. May be it's a coincidence where they also adjusted some algorithm or database ?

There should be some map changes too since I noticed some satellite maps and flyovers are already better.

Some things (e.g., misspelled search) behaves better in iOS7 compared to iOS6.

 

[MacFan782040]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD can you please place the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA in the correct location?!? A city of over 40,000!?

 

[Gasu E.]

600 cities sounds a lot at first, but considering it includes Europe, Canada, Australia, USA and New Zealand it is actually not that many.
It is a beginning though and there still is hope Apple will please us with their offering in the end.

The 200th largest city in the USA is Waco, Texas, at 127,000. The 300th largest city in the EU is Telford, UK at 138,000. There are 30 cities in Canada over 130K, 15 in Australia, 4 in NZ, 4-6 in Switzerland. That means 600 covers every city over 130K in the above areas and still leaves 40 for cities in non-EU Europe. 600 sounds like a lot, because it IS a lot.

 

[viacavour]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD can you please place the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA in the correct location?!? A city of over 40,000!?

Image

I don't live there. Is it possible that "Wilkes-Barre" is also the name of a county or other geographical region ?

...coz I tried "Wilkes-Barre city, PA", it gives me the location you want.

If so, Apple should definitely prioritize their duplicated entries in their database better.

 

[samcraig]

I don't live there. Is it possible that "Wilkes-Barre" is also the name of a county or other geographical region ?

...coz I tried "Wilkes-Barre city, PA", it gives me the location you want.

I didn't realize that it's user friendly to have to guess what needs to be inputted instead of typing what one would normally - especially if they live there or are familiar with the area...

 

[viacavour]

I didn't realize that it's user friendly to have to guess what needs to be inputted instead of typing what one would normally - especially if they live there or are familiar with the area...

It's definitely not a user friendly goal to do this.

It may be a duplicated entry problem, and the Map app/service picked the region instead of the city. If so, this is something they will have to address with Locationary's solution. Or perhaps, they should highlight both.

As long as people don't invent a fake street name like Motorola did to try to foil Apple Map, Apple should be able to solve most or all of these issues.

 

[Gasu E.]

I can offer no rebuttal and have absolutely no idea what im talking about.

It's good that you have humility and can admit this. Not as great as Tim Cook, who wasn't posting anonymously when he admitted Apple screwed up; but still, pretty, pretty good.

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I didn't realize that it's user friendly to have to guess what needs to be inputted instead of typing what one would normally - especially if they live there or are familiar with the area...

When would people familiar with the area ever have the need to type in "Wilkes Barre"? They would type in an address or the name of a point of interest. The only time you would ever type in the name of a significant town is if you were driving long distance from another region. It's an interesting bug, but not remote related to being "user friendly." That phrase only applies to realistic use cases.

 

[theBB]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD can you please place the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA in the correct location?!? A city of over 40,000!?

Image

Did you report it? (Not that users should be in the reporting of errors business, but I am curious how quickly Apple responds to corrections suggested by users. So far, I have seen only one person reporting a correction and that is on this thread.)

 

[Chatter]

At least the island was there to begin with (just disappeared as a bug )

Apple's Map had incorrect 1st grade geography from beta well into release.


The difference between Google and Apple here is simple. Google has thousands of people dedicated to this one task alone.

Apple doesn't even have 100. They just throw dollars in every direction and mash everything together in desperation.

Give up. You come across as a fool and while its amusing, you should be more aware. Good luck.

 

[theBB]

When would people familiar with the area ever have the need to type in "Wilkes Barre"? They would type in an address or the name of a point of interest. The only time you would ever type in the name of a significant town is if you were driving long distance from another region. It's an interesting bug, but not remote related to being "user friendly." That phrase only applies to realistic use cases.

I disagree. I enter city names frequently. Many neighborhoods around here are actually officially incorporated as independent cities: An accident in *sometown*, the proposed new bridge in *wheresthat*, let's meet at *nearville*, how about a hike near *thosehills*...

A maps app should be able to tease out a county name from a city name. One of the cities near here has the same name as the county, but the city at the epicenter of the county is not the one sharing the name. I'd be pretty ticked off if the maps pointed me to a random town in the geographical center of the Shared Name county when I enter "Shared Name, PA" in the search box.

 

[macs4nw]

Yes, awesome. Apple maps is severely lacking in NYC subway information, for instance. This is great!

Apple's heading in the right direction

Glad they're improving maps! I've personally never had any issues with them, but it's definitely great to see they're improving them for the people who actually do have issues.

Locationary, and especially HopStop, a good move, or rather, two good moves indeed!

.....Apple just needs to let Apple Maps die. They are going to spend the next decade throwing away lots of money for a product that will never be as accurate as the competition.....

Not likely to happen. Tim has admitted publicly, that they fell short with Maps http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/, and has promised they would use all their resources to rectify the situation. Buying up much needed talent/expertise is a shortcut to that goal. Eventually Maps will be an excellent component of their software offerings.

 

[rdlink]

You seem to miss out on what important feature - Google didn't completely and utterly fail like Apple did.

Looks like you're the one that didn't do his research.

Apple didn't fail, either. I've been using Apple Maps since launch, and while i have Google Maps loaded on my phone I don't use it. Apple Maps has never let me down. Google did it plenty when it was the only choice I had.

Google stayed in beta for years. Not even sure when it went gold.

 

[macsrcool1234]

I like to chime in the middle of conversations without contributing anything useful.

Look! I can edit quotes to accuracy too! How bout that

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD can you please place the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA in the correct location?!? A city of over 40,000!?

They are too busy trying to find out where the oceans are.

 

[a0me]

In before Google fanboys coming to complain about Apple trying to improve its Mapping solution. Because how dare they

I'm not complaining but it seems like Apple is buying companies to help them in countries where their map data is already pretty good (US, Canada).
At this rate, it doesn't look like the rest of us is going to switch to Apple Maps anytime soon.

 

[e-coli]

Oh wow. This is huge news. Not sure if I like it. Hmm...

 

[walnuts]

Hmm...its all well and good that Apple should improve its service. Competition is good. I tried several times in the beginning to use Apple's maps and they did not serve me well. I switched to (back) to Google and was not disappointed. I might try Apple maps again, but really only if it offered some compelling reason to do so.

I'm actually concerned though...isn't the usual follow up story to "apple buys company x" is "company x removes its apps and ends all public services" shortly before apple announces adding the benefit of that first company as part of its own? A la Siri? Hop Stop is a good service available to many (not only iOS users with the latest devices)...I'd hate to see it go that route.

 

[AppleScruff1]

And, no thanks, I'd rather not have Apple use Google's maps. I like to NOT have Google's greedy and evil hands in everything I do.

At least Apple isn't greedy and trying to monopolize everything to maximize profit like Google does.

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What are you talking about? Android was complete crap in the face of the much superior ios, now they're equal. Apple maps has very similar origins and will one day also catch up. The only thing keeping you blind from that is misguided fanboyism. Yawn but why am I wasting my time on you? I've already call you on your b.s, you have no real rebuttal, so conversation over.

Android caught up because they made improvements and changes much faster than Apple. And do you think that while Apple is trying to catch up on maps that Google is just going to stop and rest on their laurels? My guess is Google is going to keep moving along as they have been.