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Apple Maps don't suck! (merged)
- Thread starter mcdonoughdr
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3D flyover is like Google earth, more of a 'cool, look at that' type of thing. Maps are for a more practical use as is streetview. Just yesterday I used to to find the right building to go to. A helicopter view is nice to look at, but not actually useful in any way.
I think Apple will continue to improve.
In my area (Columbus, OH), the maps are pretty good, with what seems to be a good number of POIs and such. I used it to navigate home from work (just to test it out) yesterday, and while I think I'll stick to Navigon or MotionX for longer trips (just because of their feature sets), I did notice some very nice things about the turn by turn with Apple maps.
1) If you are navigating and open another app, such as a radio app or something...I like the fact there's a green bar to quickly return to navigation, and that it uses that bar as a banner space to give you an upcoming turn. This is really handy, and is something the other mapping programs can't do on iOS...you won't miss a turn if you have the voice turned off and enjoy looking at album art or something.
2) Similarly, if you have your navigation on and you lock your phone because you don't need to see 100 miles of highway map on your screen, the maps will show on your lockscreen along with your next turn. This too is REALLY nice...it'll also briefly wake up your phone (without unlocking it) to show you when a turn is upcoming. Saves battery on the backlight and still wont cause you to miss turns. And you can just click the home button if you want to see your current status on the trip, rather than unlocking the phone and going to the app.
3) While the in-map controls are pretty sparse, you can ask Siri about points of interest along your route. This still needs a little work, as Siri should really concentrate only on POIs that are FORWARD in your route, but if I asked "are there any gas stations along my route", siri brought up a list of gas stations along the route (or within 1 mile of the route) and showed me where on the map to the nearest one. They need to allow this to add that POI as a mid-route stop, though..now if you want directions to it, you need to change your navigation to the POI. ...maybe in a future update.
In my area (Columbus, OH), the maps are pretty good, with what seems to be a good number of POIs and such. I used it to navigate home from work (just to test it out) yesterday, and while I think I'll stick to Navigon or MotionX for longer trips (just because of their feature sets), I did notice some very nice things about the turn by turn with Apple maps.
1) If you are navigating and open another app, such as a radio app or something...I like the fact there's a green bar to quickly return to navigation, and that it uses that bar as a banner space to give you an upcoming turn. This is really handy, and is something the other mapping programs can't do on iOS...you won't miss a turn if you have the voice turned off and enjoy looking at album art or something.
2) Similarly, if you have your navigation on and you lock your phone because you don't need to see 100 miles of highway map on your screen, the maps will show on your lockscreen along with your next turn. This too is REALLY nice...it'll also briefly wake up your phone (without unlocking it) to show you when a turn is upcoming. Saves battery on the backlight and still wont cause you to miss turns. And you can just click the home button if you want to see your current status on the trip, rather than unlocking the phone and going to the app.
3) While the in-map controls are pretty sparse, you can ask Siri about points of interest along your route. This still needs a little work, as Siri should really concentrate only on POIs that are FORWARD in your route, but if I asked "are there any gas stations along my route", siri brought up a list of gas stations along the route (or within 1 mile of the route) and showed me where on the map to the nearest one. They need to allow this to add that POI as a mid-route stop, though..now if you want directions to it, you need to change your navigation to the POI. ...maybe in a future update.
I live in the UK and have been looking at small towns and villages and the satellite imagery is much better than Google's was. Also there are lots of business listings. Flyover is just a bonus.
Overall, extremely happy with Apple Maps!
Overall, extremely happy with Apple Maps!
Could you specify some examples? Satellite imagery wise, everything I've seen is universally worse.
Try a major city like York. It's all in black and white. Businesses are missing or misplaced and names have to be spelled exactly right.
Just what I need - pictures of buildings in a country that I don't live in.
It doesn't matter that the points of interest where I live simply aren't there or are miles out, or that street names are missing, so long as I've got the buildings!
Thank you for making me see the light.
Apple maps are the BEST!
/s (if its needed)
It doesn't matter that the points of interest where I live simply aren't there or are miles out, or that street names are missing, so long as I've got the buildings!
Thank you for making me see the light.
Apple maps are the BEST!
/s (if its needed)
Have you got an example? I live in the middle of the countryside and Google had both Street view past my house and satellite imagery that was so clear I could see my car on it. The satellite view on Apple's maps is a big blob of colour
This is a positive Apple maps thread, can the negative people please proceed to the nearest negative thread. 
Apple Maps doenst suck ??? Naaaa world war 2 also wasnt a mess.
Apple Maps list 2 streets in Vojens in Denmark that hasnt been there since 1944. How can that happen???????
And also. Vojens is BLACK BLURED - Even my Commodore 64 has better graphics there.
And also ... There is list 8 stores aroung over railroad station. Nice - just... They are misplace by 4 cities over 12 miles away :-O WTF ???
It's so bad it's tragic. ePad is now supirior to iPad :-D Funny actually
Apple Maps list 2 streets in Vojens in Denmark that hasnt been there since 1944. How can that happen???????
And also. Vojens is BLACK BLURED - Even my Commodore 64 has better graphics there.
And also ... There is list 8 stores aroung over railroad station. Nice - just... They are misplace by 4 cities over 12 miles away :-O WTF ???
It's so bad it's tragic. ePad is now supirior to iPad :-D Funny actually
--- They took out the transit option and that triangle option where it shows what place in the map you're facing.
some of the images are actually laugh out loud bad. That one of the dam is hilarious and i think it was the brooklyn bridge one as well.
My city looks like a pixellated mess, if I zoom in any further it jst gets worse. On top of that I noticed one particular area, Spondon, is spelt Sponden, so when I search my map to get there it doesn't find it. The state of maps at the moment seriously worries me.
For the first time ever I can actually see my house in a rural area of Kerry.
Before, unless you searched through the Ordanance Survey Ireland site, all you could see we're blobs of varying shades of green and brown. Even the smaller roads didn't show up.
Now I can see the house, sheds cars and the heavy machinery scattered around as well.
Before, unless you searched through the Ordanance Survey Ireland site, all you could see we're blobs of varying shades of green and brown. Even the smaller roads didn't show up.
Now I can see the house, sheds cars and the heavy machinery scattered around as well.
