I was talking to my Grandad today, in a busy shopping centre. He looked at me wistfully: "You know, son," he whispered: "When I was a lad, all this were fields."
Sure enough, I checked Apple maps, and he was right!
Best comment of the day!!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Actively Recruiting Ex-Google Maps Employees
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Best comment of the day!!
Same here. Living in Tokyo means that I'm using Google Maps on my iPhone almost on a daily basis. I haven't updated to iOS 6 for this very reason, and I put off buying the iPhone 5 until Apple gives us back Google Maps or someone finds some workaround (jailbreaking ?) to get it back. Everyone I know who were going to upgrade their iPhone 4/4S with an iPhone 5 has either cancelled their pre-order or started looking into Android models.
Apple Maps is helplessly useless, not because of its features or its UI but because the info it's based on is totally inaccurate. It'll probably take years before it gets to the level of usability of the original iPhone.
You're missing the point. As long as Apple continued to use Google Maps, we would have the severely handicapped (compared to the Android version) Maps that we had in iOS5, and would never have had turn-by-turn navigation.Problem is that google maps was short of information SEVEN YEARS AGO! It is 2012 now, and apple is trying to compete with Google. Why would you release an app not on par or CLOSE to google maps 2012 information?
THis shows the arrogance of apple, they should of just paid google whatever the amount and then spent the next 4 years behind closed doors making there maps perfect, meanwhile customers would still have a fully functioning map app.
And in the end, Apple needed to have a massive group of users giving feedback on Apple's Maps. How else do you build such an enormous, ever-changing database? The longer Apple took to build and mainstream its own in-house Maps application, the farther behind Google it would have become in this area.
I do expect that Apple's mapping will lag behind Google's for several years, but the gap will gradually close as Apple gets more and more input from users. But for now, it certainly would be nice to have the option to use Google's Maps in iOS6, possibly via the rumored Google Maps app. I guess time will tell.
I like it too. I think people forget how long google had their maps in development for and because there was no real competitor to it, people accepted its bugs and slow development. Now that there is something to compare to. A bunch of years google matured maps vs very new maybe 1 year development Apple maps. People call Apple crap. IMO the maps look better and load faster (vector). Sure they have some glitches/bugs but I bet google had the same during their development.
Like my trainer always says, "It is too easy to punish someone."
Just checked on my PC and it's definitely Google Maps.
I guess it's a good thing since Apple Maps couldn't find where I am even if I'd give it my location.
how would they get sued? There were maps dating back to the dinosaur ages mate lol
----------
This is the biggest problem with short sighted people
Also why the world is in chaos status
There it is again - why is it You think Google's offering doesn't evolve further while Apple catches up?
Back in 2005-2006, Google Maps was already a billion time more accurate than present day Apple Maps.
I was using the Java app on my clamshell cellphone back then and even though the app was lacking in terms of features and speed, the maps were still accurate enough to be usable.
According to some of the satellite imagery, horse and buggy is exactly what's being used.
Agreed. And I guess I'll be in the minority and say I prefer flyover already for this because you can look at an area from many different angles and see how it relates to the other stuff around it. With streetview you are constrained to the angel they took the picture and also what they decided to take a picture of if you can even see where you are going from it (many times I haven't been able to see the actual place I'm looking for). Like last time I could see it was in some strip mall but not enough info that some strip malls before it looked like they potentially were it. With flover I could see the exact shape of the strip mall especially in relation to the ones beside it and maybe the sign on the restaurant so I could know where in the strip mall to look to see if I got the right one.
...well, if somebody took your phone and you had apple maps, good luck finding where it went
The maps are grossly inaccurate: missing buildings (including major landmarks), missing roads, rivers/lakes shown as terrain, misspellings, mixed-up languages (some locations in Japan are shown in Korean and others in Simplified Chinese), etc.
Since you're mentioning it, it seems that Apple Maps is being anti-Korean with their app. Disputed islands known as "Dokdo" in Korean and "Takeshima" in Japanese will only show up if you search for the latter (screen on the right show the successful search in Japanese).Didn't you hear? Korea and China are now claiming territorial rights to those places.
For the Senkaku Islands, group of islands claimed by China and Japan however, Apple Maps aren't taking sides: they've simply cloned the islands and let the pin float somewhere near their general location.
As reported elsewhere, it's missing all the data on buildings. Go to any university campus and google maps shows all the buildings and can give you walking directions. This is true for many other areas as well, when you can simply see labels for entire retail districts allowing you to walk around without having to tap on the few icons apple has on its maps. You can research nearby areas when visiting new places without having to search to find out what's there because of all the labels google has on its maps. Street view is helpful finding where things are by giving you an image of the actual storefront or street. Just today I used apple navigation to take me to the San Diego IKEA. it took me about half a mile away to an apartment complex! Apple maps is horrible. The navigation itself works well, but I hear googles can even tell you what lane to be in, but that's on android.
Yeah living in DC using the 4S, Apple Maps botched so much this weekend. First trying to find a place in Columbia Heights left me in one of the more shady areas in the city. Wasn't a comforting experience, to say the least. My friend used his HTC and we eventually found it. Then I used it to get to the zoo today (RIP panda cub), and ended up about eight blocks away and going in circles. The maps app probably varies case-by-case, but in my instances it was virtually unusable. It also thinks the CVS next to my house is two blocks down the street. Junk. Fix it fast, please.
Not really. I go as fas as saying that i like it better then google's map. But surely they are ppl out there having different experience.
You can't foist non-compete clauses on line employees when it would prevent them from making a living once they left your company, and especially when you aren't offering said employees some major share of the company in exchange for not competing. It would be one thing if we were talking about Apple poaching some high level executive from Google's mapping division, but when it comes down to the programmers and engineers, non-compete clauses NEVER apply.
You are no longer allowed to install old versions of iOS on your phone, even using the option-click on Restore.
So, if you upgrade to iOS6, you are trapped. Literally.
This.
No one seems to remember google maps at it's first years. Even now, there are lots of 4-5 years old, unupdated google maps. Even here in Manchester where i live, the funny thing is that googles map is over 3 years old (buildings that have been demolished years ago are still on google maps) and Apples map is pretty up to date. Talk about pinnacle of maps, lol.
Cool story. You had me until you invoked the mythical, magical SJ. That meme is so tired.
I hope you have no intention of traveling outside of your regular routes then. If other people have reported issues with the maps then there ARE issues. Just because you haven't yet encountered an area with a problem...doesn't mean the problem won't affect you one of these days when you travel out of your normal route.