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Apple Maps to Be Rebuilt 'From the Ground Up' With First-Party Data Over the Next Year
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Yet they are one of if not the most valuable companies in the world...and it didn’t stop you from still buying their products. They must be doing something right.
Siri is totally optional, though. The voice directions can easily be turned off and Siri itself is not required to use Maps.
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Coming in iOS 12, along with Waze.
I totally understand your position. I don't like advertising either. That said, I find the extreme position some people take regarding Google in particular to be ridiculous. Do these same people have grocery store cards? Award credit cards? Etc. We're tracked and profiled by so many different companies and we really have no idea what those companies are doing with our data. At least all of the large tech companies are quite forthcoming in that regard. The only way to avoid data collection is to pay in cash, never join a reward program, never go online. In other words, live in a cave.
I have seen no evidence whatsoever of Google abusing the data it collects. And it's simply untrue to say that Google "sells your data". I personally have no issue with Google's business model. Providing services for free in exchange for having one's data mined for the purpose of receiving targeted advertising is just as valid a model as Apple's hardware sales model. Some question the ethics/morality/etc of Google's model. I question the ethics of overcharging for stale hardware or, worse, abandoning expensive applications that people relied upon for their livelihoods.
I used to be far more concerned about privacy than I am today. Do I still care? Yes. But I'm far less fanatical about it these days. I don't use a lot of Google services, but they are certainly the gold standard in search. I recently switched to Gmail from iCloud mail, more out of curiosity than anything else, and I haven't gone back. I love the way Gmail automatically groups my advertising, updates, and social media emails into their own mailboxes without having to set up a bunch of rules. It works really well and has made dealing with those emails much easier, in addition to more effectively highlighting the emails I care to read. It's simply better than what Apple offers with iCloud mail.
Anyway, I get your point and I can't argue with your distaste for advertising/tracking. I guess the thought just doesn't bother me as much as it used to where Google is concerned. I think they're doing some really interesting work in a number of areas and I suppose I've come to trust them with my data, certainly as much as I trust Apple with the data it collects.
Google's business model relies on people not knowing how much their data is worth. It's only just recently that some people have started to realise how valuable their data is and how much power companies can wield when they know so much about you.
I saw a poll recently that asked people how much they'd be willing to pay for Google's products and services if they had to pay. The largest group of people voted for 'they wouldn't pay anything' followed by '$5pm'. It staggered me that people value their own data so little that they assign it zero value.
I believe if Google want my data, they should be paying ME to get hold of it. It's my asset to sell and it's worth a LOT more than nothing or even $5pm.
I am running the iOS pubic beta, but I hadn't looked at Maps except to use it. So I cruised around in it, and it seems I'm seeing a lot of the things they're talking about already, that the rest will be seeing in September or so. It looks MUCH better. On an iPhone X, it is as fast as HELL, and using the Satellite view gives you terrific detail in many areas that today are blank. Now, this is Los Angeles, not the Bay Area. When I go there, it is very rich, and will only get better, if reports are too be believed. The sign that Apple thinks it will have a "good enough" version to compete is shown easily by the fact that, when Google writes a new version of Maps and Waze for iOS 12, you will have the choice in Car Play.
if i am to believe most of my fellow Apple users, this move is a complete waste of effort since they repeatedly said that Apple maps has been more accurate than google maps.
Ya, but its easier to tear something down, and start from scratch, and to build on something that may not be possible. Could be allot of reasons, code based, performance increases, "depreciated code" most likely. (speaking of the devil)
Every time Apple announces something, all of Apple fandom proclaims this is the day, Google, Samsung and all other companies will go out of business, Apple will be the only company left in the world, and so on. Yet we seem to keep missing this so-called apocalypse. How is this time any different?
There is a difference between rearranging a bookshelf and rewriting an entire application. At least when rearranging books on a shelf, you know when you left something out. I think a lot of Apple users have become distrustful of Apple's "from the ground up" rewrites based on previous experience with Maps, Final Cut Pro, iWork, macOS Console, and others. It's almost as if developers are just trying to rewrite an application from memory rather than working from established documentation. Which leads to the next question. How much is an application rewrite influenced by:
Methodical, scientific user testing
Developer's personal preferences
Personal preferences of the management
Business/political agenda
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Oh Apple maps. A major highway was completed and opened in one of the largest cities in the country about 6 months ago and you STILL require me to route around or get off when I am floating through the aether on a commute that thousands are using every day. And since I am still forced to use only apple maps in car play....
You've been traveling this route for about 6 months and still require a mapping software to get you through it?
Analytics 101. You use a service that is not your own, you can bet that the service will mine your data while complying with regulations.
It isn't just Google either. Apple may not "sell" your data to 3rd parties, but you can know damn right that your data is important to them too. Do you think whenever you make a call to Siri services, it can't record your IP? It's enough where it can uniquely identify you while still being anonymous.
Any free service will always have a tradeoff. It truly can't be free for good will, right? It was comical with the Facebook disaster, but thankfully it definitely educated people that you can't simply trust a major website blindly.
So many things can be deduced from my post and you decided to take away that I require the guidance of the mapping software, on only that road, regardless of my start and end point of the trip? Or that I have been traveling it for 6 months? Your comprehension, logic, and deduction skills can only be matched by the great Holmes. Another open and shut case Watson. You must excel in everything you do. It’s too bad this is the internet. We would be best pals.
Hmmmm...not a single person in this thread (or any other thread I can think of) has said that....you're being a little dramatic, aren't you?
And this time is "different" because this is the first time since launch that they claim they are doing something different and better than what's out there. It won't happen overnight, but I started using Maps again exclusively yesterday after reading this news and so far so good...found everywhere I was looking for and took the appropriate route (I kind of know where I'm going around where I live...so...)
And as some others have said, it is so damn fast, looks great (IMHO) and features like lane guidance and for me, the female Irish Siri voice that was added in the beta, is so pleasant to listen too.
( I tried the South African voice too...but...meh...)
With sarcasm and wit like that it's a deal! Forum pals it is!
Thanks for the info. I didn't really consider the software set up. That does make sense. I commute 40 mins each way to school and about 40 mins each way to both of my jobs, with lots of highway time and Waze has been great for the real time hazard and police part. But I agree, the UI, especially the new turn by turn looks great in Apple Maps.
I must have missed the memo. It’s always about Apple being doomed when another company releases a product that Apple doesn’t seem to be involved in.
On a side note, anyone notice how the excitement over smart assistants seems to have all but died down. It’s almost as if people have realised that it wasn’t the revolutionary new paradigm of computing that Apple was in danger of missing out on.
A story in another source says that Apple has been working on the 'new' maps for five years. Also said it would include a street level view.
Mobile maps should include traffic snarls and directions around such.
Mobile maps should include traffic snarls and directions around such.
Contrast. Apple maps doesn’t have it, Google does, even in this revamped version. That’s what matters. Eddie Cue ruined the music player, now his “design over function” mentality is still going strong.
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WWDC is for developers. Since they likely won’t change much API wise this won’t need developers to care.
This announcement would likely go in September alongside other consumer focused iOS 12 features that were not yet discussed.
WWDC doesn’t have it all...
How much do you think Apple should pay you to use Apple maps? Cause in the first post summary, it says Apple is using the maps app to continuously track their speed and direction every microsecond.
"The secret sauce here is what Apple calls probe data. Essentially little slices of vector data that represent direction and speed transmitted back to Apple completely anonymized with no way to tie it to a specific user or even any given trip. It's reaching in and sipping a tiny amount of data from millions of users instead, giving it a holistic, real-time picture without compromising user privacy."