Apple Issues Statement Over Day 1 'Maps' Glitches, Maps Team Reportedly Under Lockdown to Fix Issues

[SimonMW]

Apple's Maps IS sick! And it's gonna get even better.

It's already leaps and bounds ahead of Google in terms of 3D Mapping image quality and landscape (Cars, Trees, Geography, Etc)

I'd like whatever this guy's smoking!

I prefer Apple maps over Google maps. It looks clear and rotates freely.

Yes, so clear in fact that it is hard to distinguish road and landscape types without squinting, and even then they are hard to read. I don't know which mapping app you were looking at, but it certainly wasn't Apples!

Wow, it rotates freely. I'll remember that when I'm lost because the damn thing doesn't show anything accurately or with any degree of clarity. I forgot that I don't need a map to actually find my way around, I need one to be able to rotate smoothly instead.

it's almost like they purchased the bargain basement 2003 map pack or something.

2003?! Some of the so called satellite images are from around 1945!

 

[doelcm82]

Some people made a Tumblr about all the issues.
Maybe it's a good way to report them !

Once Apple's developers get through all the problems that have been reported via the links in the app itself, they might look at Tumblr.

Or they might not.

 

[nick_elt]

Since the iPhone is so far ahead of the pack in overall integration as a smartphone, the media chooses one aspect to pick on with each new model - - the antenna, Siri, and now Maps.

As history proves, these petty attempts at bullying all fail in the face of Apple's persistence in improving any weak spots up to the exemplary level of the whole iPhone experience.

This is the biggest load of bollocks that I have ever read on here. I like apple products just as much as the next guy on here but i call a spade a spade. And Ios6 maps is nowhere near google maps, they hav some good ideas but the overall implementation sucks.

 

[doelcm82]

Some crazy guy took the decision to remove Google Map for various reasons and the team has to pull the impossible magic!

It is easy to offer apology and get the Google Map in place until they really find out how to get this done correctly.

Phone without proper Mapping solution will be considered more or less a desk phone and will NOT be considered as a Mobile Phone. I am regretting my upgrade to 6.0. I don't think the poor Apple team is responsible for some unrealistic crazy decisions.

You don't use the other features on your iPhone besides Maps? Why not get a standalone GPS and a desk phone instead?

For people who use Email, web browsing, games, the camera, FaceTime, iMessage, Siri, Facebook, etc., losing the maps entirely wouldn't turn THEIR iPhone into a desk phone. Not to mention, it's still a phone you can take with you.

The maps will get better as time passes. (Plus they'll serve the needs of many, right from the start. I used turn-by-turn this evening, and it worked flawlessly for me on the 90-mile journey.)

 

[ktmelvis]

The more complaints, the faster most (or atleast some) companies will act.

 

[Singin Hobo]

This is great news... another couple of days at work should fix it right up!!

 

[ktmelvis]

This is great news... another couple of days at work should fix it right up!!

I hope they get the lake out of my backyard

 

[Bezetos]

This is great news... another couple of days at work should fix it right up!!

This is nothing that they can fix in a 'couple of days'.

They might fix the faulty route finding system. They might fix some graphical issues. But given the enormous number of inaccurate and outdated information, they need to rebuild their database with more recent information.

 

[mofish]

I hope they get the lake out of my backyard

you might want to get yourself a speed boat since you have your own lake?

 

[sjsutton]

What's funny is that Apple maps uses the same imagery as Google maps. My hometown in the lower Hudson valley of NY had a festival going on when Google shot their satellite picture, and that same image is being displayed in Apple maps. Difference is, the Apple version is much lower res.
Googles shot was so hi-res you could see the people's shadows, now with Apples version those people are just blobs.
By using Google Earth, I can now view the Googles higher res version.

 

[kumrabai]

Beirut

Was in Beirut this week. One day I could see a map w English titles, the next day it was just Arabic (and yes, the settings were correct....)

 

[ktmelvis]

you might want to get yourself a speed boat since you have your own lake?

Im outside in the backyard now, I dont see a lake, but after a few drinks, Ill go on the web and order the boat

 

[Renzatic]

This is the biggest load of bollocks that I have ever read on here. I like apple products just as much as the next guy on here but i call a spade a spade. And Ios6 maps is nowhere near google maps, they hav some good ideas but the overall implementation sucks.

I'd say the overall implementation is decent, but the huge, huge, HUGE lack of data is what's holding it back. The interface is nice, the 3D cities are generally cool looking, and it is quick, but...

...compare Google maps on top to Apple maps on the bottom.

Yeah. How can anyone honestly defend this? How can anyone claim Apple's offering is even remotely close to Google's?

 

[everything-i]

Google Maps on Android had vector maps for you a long time now (and many, many other cool features like offline maps, indoor maps, bike routes etc.), so if Google are working on a native map app then this might be incorporated there.

I am talking about the difference between the old iOS maps app and the new one. If Apple can stick with this and bring it to a point where it can compete with Google then that will be a good thing. I don't care what Google had on Android ages ago I don't use Android. I don't use maps all that often so its not that big a deal for me personally, my argument is about needing competition in this area so your retort discussing Android is pointless.

 

[Renzatic]

...my argument is about needing competition in this area so your retort discussing Android is pointless.

And what is Google Maps on Android if not competition? It's currently the gold standard Apple should be striving for.

 

[tatonka]

I haven't heard the term mapgate yet ..

 

[Renzatic]

I haven't heard the term mapgate yet ..

And I'll punch someone in the neck if I hear it again.

 

[mnemonix]

Apple's corporate-speak response is as insulting as it is meaningless.

How is our use of it going to fix the staggeringly poor satellite imagery? Or the poor cartographic design whereby different road types such as motorways and A roads should be in a different colour, or subway station icons different from mainline icons? Notwithstanding the lack of streetview and transit. Do Apple really need to be told that they've misplaced entire towns and cities outside of the US?

And no acknowledgement that they have quite literally downgraded a service for millions of their customers from the one we originally bought their products to provide?

It's not even truthful. This is not their first mapping product. Whether they like it or not the previous maps app was. Not only did Apple write it (whoever the data was sourced from) it was delivered as an integral part of the product we paid them for.

If they think all that is needed is a few Starbuck's POI added they are deluded, and if they think we'll accept this and believe they're not treating us with complete contempt they're even more deluded.

 

[Yixian]

As i've said in another thread, you can buy full world mapping from Ordnance Survey for approx £500,000. I am sure Apple could have done a few deals with the three of the top Mapping agencies around the world. OS, USGS and IGN.

But no they wanted to be tight, and bought second rate data.

It boggles the mind, I wonder how this happened, lack of communication? Stupidity of the management? Tightness of the accounts department and board of directors? What?

A couple of big acquisitions and a major new Mapping division at Apple sifting through customer data and sending out cars and planes etc. is needed, it's like getting into the TV business in 2013 by releasing a 15" CRT.

 

[Dr McKay]

Siri was a "bonus" feature, though, and it is much improved. Maps is a core app.

It didn't feel like the bonus feature to me, they marketed the heck out of Siri as the 4S's defining feature, and it's taken until iOS 6 for it to be able to do anything but set reminders and alarms outside of the US.

 

[mofish]

Good luck with that...

 

[NumberNine]

The world wasn't built in a day!!

The brainwashing of the sheep didn't happen in a day either, it took a few years.

 

[Starfishrjb]

That time was spent reporting errors with TOWNS and I've only scratched the surface!

Hardly any of the towns in the West Midlands are labeled and the ones that are aren't in the right places. It's not worth worrying about street names when the town itself is seven miles away from where it should be.

The biggest issue is one of trust.
Mapping applications are like fire extinguishers.
If they do not work the first time you do not get a second chance.

 

[Bezetos]

I am talking about the difference between the old iOS maps app and the new one. If Apple can stick with this and bring it to a point where it can compete with Google then that will be a good thing. I don't care what Google had on Android ages ago I don't use Android. I don't use maps all that often so its not that big a deal for me personally, my argument is about needing competition in this area so your retort discussing Android is pointless.

Easy dude, I was merely pointing out that since Google had those things on Android they will most likely be introduced on the iOS app. That wasn't a retort.

 

[KnightWRX]

As if Google Maps on iPhone was fully functioning...

The Apple written front-end was pretty bad sure. But the back-end data was sound and complete. It also provided quite a few extra features. The problems people are talking about here are not with the front-end rewrite, that's mostly fine, it's with Apple's shoddy back-end data.

So we lost a good data set that was complete and offered quite a few interesting and useful features to gain... a bad data set that's incomplete, removed features and

All for the sake of what... exactly ?

I say Apple should have just dropped Maps alltogether if they aren't competent at it. They showed us they weren't really willing to update it from iOS 1 to 5 by never really making their own in-house app better aside from a few trinkets here or there even though the back-end data kept getting better on Google's side, and now that they do pay attention to it, they completely screw up the dataset users have access to making it near worthless in certain areas.

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The difference is that there was no antenna problem (if you look at the numbers), and Siri was a new feature.

Uh ? When the mass media report things wrong with Apple products, why do some people persist in calling them myths and attacks on Apple ?

There was an issue with the antenna, hence why they fixed it in the 4S design by changing the way it works. And Siri and still is a big gimmick sorry. I've pretty much given up on it, never use it anymore at all.