Apple Actively Recruiting Ex-Google Maps Employees

[Renzatic]

Its not anything most people use. I have never needed it, If your at the place then your own eyes and not a 3 year old picture will tell you more.

It's not like I'm using it to get an address then firing up Streetview cuz olol, it's like I'm looking into the future. I'm using it to get a better idea of exactly where I'm headed down to the tiniest detail.

Knowing you're going to a house at 384 E. Westmore street is one thing. Being able to get a ground view of the house itself and the lay of the neighborhood before you head there is so much more convenient.

 

[Herdfan]

Am I the only one that hasn't had a problem with Maps so far? I'm guessing yes.

Probably.

The Maps app couldn't find a popular car dealership in Pittsburgh. Really?

I had mapped it on my iPad (5.1) and didn't think much more about it until I went to locate with my new iPhone 5 and it couldn't find it. So I had to pull into a parking lot and use the web version of Google Maps to locate it. But since google maps couldn't locate me (the instructions I found online didn't work), I had to transfer the address back to Apple Maps and was OK from there.

But that was way too much work to do something that the day before was simple. I doubt SJ would have let that app go out like that.

 

[Renzatic]

no one would of downloaded or least would of downloaded in and never used, it would be a "why do i want that when i have this" situation and apple maps would of been doomed from the start.

Yeah, they would have. There are, I dunno, millions of people who are Apple fans. People who have enough expertise and drive to help Apple expand upon one of their products. It might not be as widely used, but it'd still get plenty of support. Support that would be used to make it that much better of a product when Apple eventually makes it the default map app.

...and no one would be complaining.

 

[McCool71]

The Apple standard vector map is so much faster and smoother when scaling than the bit map tiles. I'm sure google will copy this technology soon because of it's obvious advantages.

Google Maps on Android have been vector based for 2-3 years already, this is nothing new...

 

[lordofthereef]

Same! This problem is so overhyped and I LOVE the new maps!

The fact that you don't have an issue with maps doesn't mean the problem is overhyped. Have you seen examples where you ask maps to show you a bar and it tells you the closest is 20 miles away yet there is a bar across the street? Have you seen examples where there are streets literally mapped into the water? And for those who live in the city and rely on public transportation (literally millions of people) Apple's maps provides nothing. I'm happy that you are enjoying maps. But saying its issues are overhyped is down right ignorant.

 

[Renzatic]

Sorry. But it means the problem is reduced to those features.

Yeah. Say I'm looking up something on the internet. I find it, and want a location. It fires up Apple's map app, which might not be able to find it, or places it in the wrong location.

So I have to copy the location, go to maps.google.com, paste the location into the search bar, and find it then. What used to be a single click is now a little more involved. Or what if I'm searching for something in an app that won't allow me to highlight the text. Then I gotta go through all that, plus manually type in the location.

And all this time I thought everyone loved Apple products because of the polish and convenience. Apparently when it's not, it's just a "little" problem I have to deal with.

 

[subsonix]

Knowing you're going to a house at 384 E. Westmore street is one thing. Being able to get a ground view of the house itself and the lay of the neighborhood before you head there is so much more convenient.

Yes, and 3d view serves the same purpose and is in by opinion better, because it's easier to zoom, pan and quickly move around to get and idea of how that point relates to it's surroundings. Going from satellite view to street view is quite dramatic and you are again "lost" because you don't have any point of reference anymore.

 

[McCool71]

If I hear another person complain about not having street view I'm gonna do a back flip!! Seriously, that feature isn't even available in 2/5ths of the world!! Just look at countrys like Germany! Germany is a pretty well know country I'd say but it's street map coverage is pretty much limited to Berlin and a few other cities. If you look at other major places still in the world like Russia, China, Turkey, Chile all have almost not cover. So basically only 20% of the entire world lost street map coverage of there area with this update. Wow, pretty much no big deal.

I think you are missing the point by a country mile here. It takes a lot to be lost on a long stretch of highway or on any major road, so very few people use it in locations like that. Even though Google has done so in the US, mapping 'all' roads all over the world is not necessary for it to be useful.

Street view is immensely more useful in large cities than in the countryside. I use it all the time when visiting cities I haven't been to before.

 

[rearviewmirror]

Apple needs all the help they can get. The new maps are horrendous, especially if you use your iPhone for navigating off-road tracks and bike paths. Terrible maps and more Facebook integration, iOS 6 is a step in the wrong direction.

 

[Renzatic]

Yes, and 3d view serves the same purpose and is in by opinion better, because it's easier to zoom, pan and quickly move around get and idea of how that point relates to it's surroundings. Going from satellite view to street view is quite dramatic and you are again "lost" because you don't have any point of reference anymore.

I don't think anyone has ever been overly confused by streetview. You pin the location, hit the little guy icon, and it zooms you in. Click the little circle with the map in it, and you're right back to the same spot you were before. If you move around, it centers the map at your current location, at the same level of zoom as you went into it at.

I think the 3D maps are pretty nice, and do serve a purpose. But I don't think they completely supplant streetview altogether. The best case scenario would be having access to both.

Plus, as of now, there are far, far, far more places covered by Streetview than there are 3D maps. Seriously. Those Google vans go everywhere.

 

[subsonix]

Yeah. Say I'm looking up something on the internet. I find it, and want a location. It fires up Apple's map app, which might not be able to find it, or places it in the wrong location.

What fires up Apple's map app on the internet? See the difference here is that I tried to add a suggestion to the problem. You are trying to find problems.

 

[NumberNine]

Makes sense, they need all the help they can get.

 

[subsonix]

I don't think anyone has ever been overly confused by streetview.

It's great if you want to see the street view, it isn't as helpful if you want to say find your way by answering a question like "How do I best get to this location" for example.

 

[a0me]

It will take more than hiring Google's leftovers to get the job done. Why even bother instead of adopting the far superior Google maps?

The problem with Apple Maps is not that it lacks features compared with top-tier mapping services but that the maps themselves are wildly inaccurate and thus completely unusable to most people. I don't see how hiring a couple of engineers will solve the problem.

 

[Renzatic]

What fires up Apple's map app on the internet? See the difference here is that I tried to add a suggestion to the problem. You are trying to find problems.

If you've got a link to an address, you click it, and it brings you to the default map app...which is currently Apple's maps.

And since I find it currently lacking in comparison to Google's old offerings, it's not exactly convenient.

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It's great if you want to see the street view, it isn't as helpful if you want to say find your way by answering a question like "How do I best get to this location" for example.

All you'd have to do is zoom out and hit the required buttons. The only issue there is that Apple/Google didn't add the option to do it from inside of streetview itself.

 

[subsonix]

If you've got a link to an address, you click it, and it brings you to the default map app...which is currently Apple's maps.

What kind of link address? Most map links on the internet seems to be Google maps link, created by their api. Can you provide a link at opens Apple's app?

 

[tardegrade]

In the UK my old town of Leamington Spa is listed as Royal Spa, so no name just the titles. The adjacent town of Warwick is not named despite the fact that it is the county town of Warwickshire. Perversely the small village where I live in Devon is represented in greater detail and with more up to date imagery than Google maps.

Zoom in on Birmingham, UK in satellite view and you get a pixelated mess. Birmingham is Britain's second city. That's just lame.

The Apple maps app is just not ready for anyone in the UK by at least a year or more at a guess. I'm left wondering just how desperate Apple were to not have to renew the agreement with Google for their app, or even if Google point blank refused to renew the license to Apple to use Google maps, once they knew that Apple were working on there own maps system, because no competent software engineer would look at the app as it is and deem it suitable for release to the general public as anything other than an Alpha release. And no CEO or Software VP would approve it's release knowing the damage it would do to overseas public relations unless they either had no choice whatsoever or they were a consummate Muppet.

What happened? Really.

 

[Mr Fusion]

Shouldn't they have...you know...done this before they released the app? I know I'm not the CEO of a fortune 50 company, so I can't make a call from experience here, but it seems wiser to make your product as complete as possible before you release it, instead of giving it to everyone half assed then rushing to make it good after pissing everyone off...

Seems like we've been seeing a lot of half assed stuff released from the Mothership lately.

- iPhone 4S's main selling point was Siri, an admittedly beta software release.

- The New iPad was thicker and heavier than its predecessor (two of Apple's most important benchmarks) because they couldn't wait a few months for IGZO displays.

- iOS 6 & Maps

- iPhone 5 and its WiFi connectivity issues (though this sounds software related) and a huge design oversight (not realizing anodized paint jobs don't stick to sharp edges.)

If you say these aren't "big deals" you're forgetting (much like present-day Apple management) it's the ATTENTION TO DETAIL that separates Apple from every other electronics manufacturer. If they don't get their act together, they'll lose their identity and go the way of Sony.

 

[G51989]

Ah, so whenever Microsoft makes a tablet, they were " poaching apple engineers ", but when Apple goes after google employees its just " recruiting "

Oh yeah, lol@ people defending the new terrible Map App.

 

[a0me]

When it comes to routing and accuracy and rendering of the vector based view, then Apple Maps are fine.

Apple Maps biggest problem is accuracy. The maps are completely unusable in Japan, one of Apple's biggest market after the US.

 

[cdmoore74]

If you can't beat them buy them.

 

[G51989]

What skills? To able to drive a car and operate equipment to steal WiFi passwords and other information?

Really? If it was that easy.

Why did Apple fall flat on their face with their Map application?

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If you can't beat them buy them.

I personally can't see a ton of current google engineers going over to apple, unless Apple offers them huge salarys, which I can't see happening. And lets be honest, when it comes to key people, anything Apple offers a current google employee. Google will most likely match and go above.

 

[KdParker]

What skills? To able to drive a car and operate equipment to steal WiFi passwords and other information?

I am sure there is more to it than just that.

 

[SPUY767]

Am I the only one that hasn't had a problem with Maps so far? I'm guessing yes.

Nope. Not a peep thus far. In fact, I find the 3D skyscrapers in major cities to be incredible. And the turn by turn works better than that which I've seen on other phones.

 

[iphoneclassic]

Google reportedly makes about $2bn annually by bombarding Mac and iOS users with adverts. Now divide $2bn by 7,100. That's about $280,000. And Google can't complain if Apple actively headhunts Google employees for creating maps, since Google, Apple and others have just recently been told that any agreement to do no headhunting is actually illegal.

Whether we like it or not iOS has only 17% Smartphone market share. Android has 32%. Google can and will continue to advertise thru standalone app on iOS. Apple can definitely hire former Google Maps employees but they cannot copy any of the logic behind Google Maps. It is always tough to side skirt best working algorithms to get the best product. Eventually they may get there.

So according to you, nobody should ever try to improve what they have? Google maps must be rubbish then if they have 7,100 people working on it, according to your logic?

This is where Apple stepped into it, by thinking few smart designers and programmers can come up with a perfect Maps/Nav app. There are several blogs by experts in this area.