Apple Maps Now Supports Transit in Minneapolis–Saint Paul

[Gasu E.]

Phoenix is on the 'pretty soon' list, along with New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Manchester + National Rail in GB.
On the 'in some time' list are Houston, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Italy.

What is your source?

 

[demodave]

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for Minnesota's twin cities Minneapolis and Saint Paul, enabling iPhone users in the metropolitan area to navigate using public transportation, including Metro Transit buses and trains.

[snip]

Article Link: Apple Maps Now Supports Transit in Minneapolis-Saint Paul

Hooray, Apple! Hooray, Twin Cities! Hooray.

I am happy to hear these continuous improvements, especially when they relate to a place I really care about. Those who are like "who cares?!?" should consider that someone out there does care, so it matters.

If you really don't care, personally, congratulations, and you have no need to comment further, unless you really want to prove that you really do care.

 

[dan110]

It only took them how long?

 

[DingeZ]

What is your source?

Looking at the maps. I could see Minneapolis coming from miles. You can see for yourself. In Salt Lake City and New Orleans for instance the stations and lines are already there.

 

[masterhiggins]

Phoenix here too. How the hell does Minnesota get something before us?! We are 6th and used to be 5th largest!

If you look at Apple Maps you can even see the train lines there but no routing or anything!

And driving directions are broken, ask Siri about the talking stick resort and see how she pronounces Scottsdale! (Scottsfowler? Way off!)

Because Minnesotans need to wait around in the damn freezing cold.

 

[Hustler1337]

You're right. Google doesn't sell this data, because then they would lose most of their company's value. They make more than 90% of their revenue from selling ads, so Google does compile a "dossier" on everyone that it can. They scan every email sent and received, they log every song you play, every movie you watch, every post you make, every appointment you make, everywhere you drive your car, every photo you've ever taken, every search you've ever made, etc. They do that because it's enormously valuable to advertisers to know everything about you, so they "give away" all their products to get people to use them and share everything about their lives. They "force" you to use a Google log in, which gives them access to your info from other people's products.

I know people will say "I don't care what Google knows about me. I have nothing to hide." and so on. But when you go through the list of things and show people how every aspect of their lives, and their family members' lives, often who don't have any choice, (it's also why their is a lawsuit about Google scanning every email sent to someone who has a gmail account as those senders never consented to Google storing every one of those emails forever), then many people react in surprise. Once that info is assembled by Google, it is available to law enforcement in the US and elsewhere. It is also available to hackers, intel agencies around the world, and of course, governments.

As one of our intel leaders experts once said, i"f Google didn't exist we would have to invent it." Thankfully, Tim Cook and Apple are trying to stem this tide and protect our privacy, and they haven't built a business model dependent on selling you to advertisers, e.g., Google, Facebook and others, who would go out of business if they ever stopped collecting your private information.

I think a lot of users, like yourself, are over-thinking what exactly Google does with your data. Google does not sell your personal information or data. They use the information that they have gathered about you from using their service to sell their own services to third parties through targeted ads and the like. If Google did sell your personal data, especially without your consent, there almost certainly would have been various lawsuits filed against Google as this is illegal in most countries.

Personally, I'd rather have Google target ads for me or recommend me places to eat or visit from what their machine-learning algorithms have learned about me rather than seeing adverts for a window cleaning services at $5 per window. Yes, ads are annoying and I'd rather not live with ads, but its a price to pay when services are provided free of charge. It also benefits advertisers in getting better value for money with targeted ads and Google and the end user in providing/receiving a more personal service.

You also need to think outside of Google. The reality is most of the things you do are already being collected, logged and stored anyways. That metro journey you take to work at 6:10am from 86 St to Montrose Avenue arriving at 6:52am, that $3.22 Burger with extra cheese from McDonalds you get every morning, that particular brand of cookies and courgettes you buy every week on a Sunday, that Apple Watch you bought from the Fifth Avenue Store last week, that iTunes purchase of Madonna's latest Album, that Uber journey to your friend's 40th, that home insurance policy you enquired about last week on your new apartment etc - they're all being logged and used for commercial purposes and research. It's no different to what Google is doing, except they hold a greater range of information than perhaps your local supermarket which tracks your favourtie grocery items each week and the time of day you shop. But they all have one thing in common - the data they hold should be protected according the local laws on data protection. That's why I don't understand how people can use the privacy card on Google when a lot of their activities are already being monitored in their day-to-day lives - it's no different.

 

[Gasu E.]

Who cares about Apple Maps when there is a much better Google Maps available? Why don't they put their energy in product development or QS?

You should sign the online petition to have Apple stop working on Maps.
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Looking at the maps. I could see Minneapolis coming from miles. You can see for yourself. In Salt Lake City and New Orleans for instance the stations and lines are already there.

Interesting. You should write a longer post; you may be on to something.

 

[cmmncw]

Here are some cities that I've seen orange station outlines start to appear: New Orleans, LA; Salt Lake City, UT; Houston, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Detroit, MI; St. Louis, MO (just a couple stations); Singapore; Hong Kong; Amsterdam; Liverpool; Manchester... I'm sure there are more.

 

[truthertech]

I think a lot of users, like yourself, are over-thinking what exactly Google does with your data. Google does not sell your personal information or data. They use the information that they have gathered about you from using their service to sell their own services to third parties through targeted ads and the like. If Google did sell your personal data, especially without your consent, there almost certainly would have been various lawsuits filed against Google as this is illegal in most countries.

Personally, I'd rather have Google target ads for me or recommend me places to eat or visit from what their machine-learning algorithms have learned about me rather than seeing adverts for a window cleaning services at $5 per window. Yes, ads are annoying and I'd rather not live with ads, but its a price to pay when services are provided free of charge. It also benefits advertisers in getting better value for money with targeted ads and Google and the end user in providing/receiving a more personal service.

You also need to think outside of Google. The reality is most of the things you do are already being collected, logged and stored anyways. That metro journey you take to work at 6:10am from 86 St to Montrose Avenue arriving at 6:52am, that $3.22 Burger with extra cheese from McDonalds you get every morning, that particular brand of cookies and courgettes you buy every week on a Sunday, that Apple Watch you bought from the Fifth Avenue Store last week, that iTunes purchase of Madonna's latest Album, that Uber journey to your friend's 40th, that home insurance policy you enquired about last week on your new apartment etc - they're all being logged and used for commercial purposes and research. It's no different to what Google is doing, except they hold a greater range of information than perhaps your local supermarket which tracks your favourtie grocery items each week and the time of day you shop. But they all have one thing in common - the data they hold should be protected according the local laws on data protection. That's why I don't understand how people can use the privacy card on Google when a lot of their activities are already being monitored in their day-to-day lives - it's no different.

I guess you forgot to read my first sentence when I made it clear that Google doesn't generally sell your information directly. It wouldn't make sense because it's your dossier that is their secret sauce. Unlike the corner grocer you falsely analogize them to, Google makes 90% of its revenue from selling information about you Hustler to the rest of the world, so they are going to hold on tight to that info until law enforcement serves a subpoena on them, or an intelligence service, foreign or domestic decides to off load all of it, or until some more despotic government takes it, or until Google's model changes and the data is more valuable to sell directly or use in some other way.

Also unlike Google, the corner grocer (who may or may not have your digital info depending on whether you use something like Apple Pay or other means), won't have been able to:

• Read and keep every email, text or message you've ever sent or received.
• Have maps of every place you've ever gone to for business, pleasure or whatever, and information about those places and the people in them.
• Have a record of every website you've ever visited and what you've done on each page.
• Have a copy of every photograph you've taken or received, no matter how personal.
• Have a list of every book you've read, movies you've watched.
• Have a copy of every posting you've ever made on any social media site
• Keep copies of every Twitter account or blog you follow.
• A recording of everything you've ever said to Google voice.
• Copies of every spreadsheet or other document you've posted
• A record of everything you've ever purchased
• Know what music and podcasts you listen to

And so on.

So, it is understandably a defense mechanism to reassure ourselves by whistling as we walk by the graveyard, but I'd encourage more effective defense mechanisms if you care an iota about your privacy and security and don't want Google to have all of the above and much more.

Oh, and by the way, you need to get informed about the infamous Google "terms of services" that you've consented to. Here's just two examples that shows how wrong you are about Google selling your personal information.

"When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services"

We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.

*** And the thing that should alarm you most of all, and that makes it clear that your dossier may be sold in the future

"If Google is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give affected users notice before personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy."

 

[ignatius345]

The reality is most of the things you do are already being collected, logged and stored anyways. That metro journey you take to work at 6:10am from 86 St to Montrose Avenue arriving at 6:52am, that $3.22 Burger with extra cheese from McDonalds you get every morning, that particular brand of cookies and courgettes you buy every week on a Sunday, that Apple Watch you bought from the Fifth Avenue Store last week, that iTunes purchase of Madonna's latest Album, that Uber journey to your friend's 40th, that home insurance policy you enquired about last week on your new apartment etc - they're all being logged and used for commercial purposes and research.

I withhold as much data as I can. I never use Uber, and normal everyday purchases I just use cash anyway to cut out the middle man. So no, "they" don't know quite as much granular information as all that, but we're surely getting there.