Apple "Just" Renewed Maps and Search Partnership with Google

[ten-oak-druid]

Map apps need an orientation option that puts the direction facing at the top instead of north. Well it should be an option.

I generally prefer north at the top but when traveling it is nice to have right turns be on the right no matter the direction of travel.

This is a problem with paper maps. Take a look at emergency exit route maps in hotels. They all have the same orientation. So for rooms on one side of the hall, the map tells you to turn in the direction you would on leaving the door. But for the other side of the hall, you need to know to flip it over in your mind. If you know the building it is no problem to recognize. But if you checked in late at night and wake up to an emergency in the middle of the night, the map could be confusing.

The same thing with driving in a strange city. Some people would prefer to have the direction of travel be the top of the screen so orientation is correct.

 

[chasemac]

In other news, Apple is expected to finalize negotiations with At&t and Verizon on the release of a phone with voicemail.

 

[appleguy123]

Map apps need an orientation option that puts the direction facing at the top instead of north. Well it should be an option.

I generally prefer north at the top but when traveling it is nice to have right turns be on the right no matter the direction of travel.

This is a problem with paper maps. Take a look at emergency exit route maps in hotels. They all have the same orientation. So for rooms on one side of the hall, the map tells you to turn in the direction you would on leaving the door. But for the other side of the hall, you need to know to flip it over in your mind. If you know the building it is no problem to recognize. But if you checked in late at night and wake up to an emergency in the middle of the night, the map could be confusing.

The same thing with driving in a strange city. Some people would prefer to have the direction of travel be the top of the screen so orientation is correct.

Every iPHone since 3GS has done this. You need to tap the location finder twice. Then it uses the compass to rotate the map. It's quite useful!

 

[Skoal]

Give us a maps app like Google has on Android devices and I'll be happy as Hell. The current maps app was outdated long ago and needs a serious revamp.

 

[Skoal]

Every iPHone since 3GS has done this. You need to tap the location finder twice. Then it uses the compass to rotate the map. It's quite useful!

LOL, all this time and I didn't know this. Buried in the fine print somewhere no doubt and I'm surprised I overlooked it. This little tidbit is helpful!

 

[AppleScruff1]

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Horrible comparison. Yikes.

It wasn't That bad, was it? I was just pointing out that becoming isolated and controlling everything without looking to the outside isn't necessarily a good thing.

 

[joshuarobi]

I spent the winter using google maps on a Droid to deliver packages in Humboldt and Trinity Counties (far northern California) and I'm now using the iP4 map app. Haven't really noticed that much of a difference.

 

[caspersoong]

Good IMO. But the app needs improving.

 

[Northgrove]

I hope their agreement let them improve their maps app a bit.

I'm happy they didn't go with Bing. They have terrible international coverage in their street view.

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Horrible comparison. Yikes.

It wasn't That bad, was it? I was just pointing out that becoming isolated and controlling everything without looking to the outside isn't necessarily a good thing.

Well that I can agree with, certainly. Unless Apple can do a better job on their own, which they're known to do.

I still think it's a good idea to work with Google on maps. It's not that big of a deal to take advantage of some of their services if they're good and integrate with them with iOS as necessary.

 

[HMFIC03]

Voice Integration from the user would be welcomed too, especially when paired via bluetooth on microsoft's Ford Sync systems. Yes I said microsoft in a positive light.

 

[talkingfuture]

I'm not sure how the licensing of all this works but surely it would make sense for apple to keep Google's maps as they have done all the hard work of taking aerial photos, streetview etc. But Apple could build their own interface and tools like turn by turn on top of it.

 

[Watabou]

I hope the Maps app gets updated to include the type of route you want (eg avoid tolls, minimize freeways, etc). It could do with some improving. I love Google Maps but the app needs to be better.

 

[Hueyfreeman]

This makes me ask the question, as much as I love my android, WTF did google make it. Google's business model generates revenue from the iphone. Infact google has been making money off of iOS since day one. I wonder why they made android? Not that I don't love it. It seems they jump intp something creating competitipn just to say "we can".

 

[SilianRail]

This makes me ask the question, as much as I love my android, WTF did google make it. Google's business model generates revenue from the iphone. Infact google has been making money off of iOS since day one. I wonder why they made android? Not that I don't love it. It seems they jump intp something creating competitipn just to say "we can".

Google has to cough up like 30% of revenue they get off iPhone search revenue to Apple. Android costs almost nothing to make (I think they have around 50 engineers working on it) and they get to keep 100% of the revenue, which is already over a billion per year.

Of course, sometimes they get screwed when Microsoft pays off the carriers to put a Bing skin on Android, but that's the breaks with open source.

 

[jowie]

I'd love it if there could be a locally stored vector-based map of my country or something, so if I don't have signal I can still see exactly where I am and work out how to get home. Waiting for maps to load around my blue dot is frustrating especially when I know they've all been loaded before.

I don't think it would be that difficult to just automatically cache the map data for a requested route. This wouldn't take up too much storage space and would be a good compromise.

 

[jowie]

Map apps need an orientation option that puts the direction facing at the top instead of north. Well it should be an option.

It does, there is a compass mode. Admittedly, it's not very good and should be calculated using the assumed direction of travel via the GPS, but it's good when you're walking around and just want to see the map rotate as you spin round.

 

[Cod3rror]

Why don't they use OpenStreetMaps? They are incredibly detailed. Maybe because of the lack of Satellite imagery?

Anyways, Google maps is fine, I really hope they improve the Maps app though, tons of things need to be added.

-Route priority - Shortest, Fastest, Optimized.

-When routing display all kinds of routes to the point all with distances and arrival time pop ups when you tap on them. This is good cause it'll give you an overview of all possible routes and from there you can select the one you want. If you take no action, it should select the route it thinks is the best or your prioritized route from options(Shortest, Fastest, Optimized, etc...)

-Option for 3D orientation of the map

-"Align map to route" Maps does not have that you can turn on compass but it sucks cause it asks for a recalibration every time, and if you have an iPhone already in the cradle, it's a pain to remove-recalibrate-place back.

-Routing priority

-Day/Night mode, with auto switch option

-Route recalculation, for when you divert off-route. Should also have an option of when recalculating showing you again, all possible routes, and if you take no action it should take the route it thinks is the best or the type of route you have selected in options(fastest, shortest, optimized, etc...).

-You should be able to drop multiple pins and route between them, also be able to add/drop transit pins

-Avoidance - Toll roads, Ferry, Unpaved roads, etc... Avoid, Allow, Ask.

-Map caching, first when you set a route it should start caching it, so if you set it up at home, you'll have all the data loaded when you leave. Also there should be an ability to download maps for a specific country or a city, it's very handy when you travel abroad. Are you going to Spain? Download the Spanish map before you leave and you're set.

-Search by coordinates, photo(GPS coordinates from a Photo in your Camera Roll or Library)

-"Home" location

-Display speed limits

-Points of Interest display




iOS Maps is terrible and needs a LOT of work.

 

[KirkL]

That's what China thought too when they built the Great Wall. And look where that got them.

No China thought they'd be protected from invaders by building the Great Wall.

If you're making some claim on how self-sufficiency wrecked the Ancient Chinese economy, you'd be wrong there too. It was more like internal corruption that hurt them. Did you know Adam Smith (huge proponent of free trade) said China didn't need free trade because they were perfectly self sufficient?

Stepping away from your flawed analogy...if Apple depends so heavily on Google, Apple will left with half-baked products like the Maps app. Compare the Android version to the iOS version and you'll know what I'm talking about.

 

[TurnerMan]

While I love my iPhone, I do miss the Google Maps on my Droid and the external volume level of the Droid when announcing directions - Maps sucks and I've had to use it for road trips several times. When I have to go somewhere new, I pull out the TomTom. And Verizon Navigator - LOL yeah, it's beyond terrible.

 

[BLACKFRIDAY]

Lovely Google Maps are amazing.

It might be very hard for Apple to beat them in the next 5-10 years, yet alone the next iOS release.

 

[LeMarsu]

url for allthingsd incorrect in this post

....interview at AllThingsD 9, he revealed......

you are linking to http://allthings.com when I think it should be: http://allthingsd.com/ (with the "d")....

LeMarsu

 

[Xenc]

They have a basketball court!

 

[KnightWRX]

I'm not sure how the licensing of all this works but surely it would make sense for apple to keep Google's maps as they have done all the hard work of taking aerial photos, streetview etc. But Apple could build their own interface and tools like turn by turn on top of it.

This already is how it is. Apple builds their own interface, that is what you are using on iOS right now, an Apple built app that uses Google Maps as a data provider.

The fact it is stale and in need of improving is an Apple problem. Let's hope that now that the data provider thing is settled, the acquisitions Apple made in the maps arena will result in a better front-end to the Google provided data. It's in dire need of a revamp.

 

[unlinked]

This already is how it is. Apple builds their own interface, that is what you are using on iOS right now, an Apple built app that uses Google Maps as a data provider.

The fact it is stale and in need of improving is an Apple problem. Let's hope that now that the data provider thing is settled, the acquisitions Apple made in the maps arena will result in a better front-end to the Google provided data. It's in dire need of a revamp.

The current state suits Apple because it makes it look like Google is neglecting iOS when really Apple is. Witness the number of times it needs to be pointed out that Apple are the maker of the maps app.