feelings of "oh good" and paranoid all at the same time
Apple is putting together a team of robotics and data-collection experts who will use drones, and "new indoor navigation features," to bolster and further improve the quality of Apple Maps. The move is said to be positioned as a method to catch up with Google, the longtime leader in the mapping field (via Bloomberg).
The drones will be able to capture and update Apple Maps at a far quicker rate than Apple's collection of GPS data-collecting minivans, which began appearing in the United States in early 2015.
In addition, a new feature is said to be coming to Maps that will let users view the insides of buildings, thanks to its Indoor.io and WifiSLAM acquisitions, and overall improvements will be made to navigation within the app.
According to documents gathered by Bloomberg News, Apple already filed for an exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to fly drones for commercial purposes, and was granted approval to "operate an unmanned aircraft system to conduct data collection, photography, and videography." According to current rules, Apple's drone fleet would be restricted from flying over people and buildings, would be designated to operate only in daytime, and could only be flown by licensed pilots.
One of the pilots is said to have already been hired from Amazon's fledgling Prime Air program, and they will join the Apple Maps drone team at its base in Seattle, Washington. The indoor mapping initiative is said to be moving forward at the same pace as the drone fleet, with Apple's hope being to help customers navigate airports "and other high-traffic buildings like museums" using their iPhones. This feature, along with a Maps update that will provide users "better guidance for changing lanes while driving," is believed to launch next year.
Article Link: Apple Plans to Use Data-Collecting Drones in Order to 'Catch Up' With Google Maps
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Apple Plans to Use Data-Collecting Drones in Order to 'Catch Up' With Google Maps
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The last airport that I went to made it quite difficult to find the airline that I was looking for. No signs whatsoever. Walk around, ask some employee who has no idea, until you find it. And that with two floors.
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Navigating by stars doesn't work well in a shopping mall :-(
Sorry, but I have to. "iDrone?"
Ah. So if its motor fails and it falls from the sky, then it becomes... an "iDrop"?
They were for the first few years not sure why no one was complaining then
Let's face it, even hardcore Apple Map fans will use Google Maps for the simple fact that they have street view.
If Apple can replicate this feature through drones, in a timely and accurate manner, it'll be a horserace.
If Apple can replicate this feature through drones, in a timely and accurate manner, it'll be a horserace.
Just allow users to choose their own default map service and *blam*, you just caught up. Then the maps team could be reassigned to making more ports disappear.
There are lots of people who cannot and will not ever learn to read a map. Some people have no sense of direction, and a map would do them no good anyway.(*)
-- Not just airports:
As for interior mapping, one major usage will likely be for shopping malls. Many map makers already include interior maps for those.
However, those companies that Apple bought (some of which started with Android devices) are really about mapping non-public spaces, such as office buildings. So, for example, someone could get directions directly to a new doctor's office on a certain floor. (My wife could use such help a lot lately.)
--
(*) I've noticed that one of the major differences with various people is what kind of directions they need. Some like coordinate directions such as "go 2 miles north on highway 5, then go east on route 100".
Others need visual directions, like "go up highway 5 until you see a Burger King on your right, then turn right there". What's amazing to me is that no major navigation provider has yet to cater to the latter type. (There was a tiny company that used to sell such directions.)
I agree a 100% that at the moment Waze is a clear leader for driving. Unfortunately, it has already been bought by Google. Apple could have snapped it a while ago, but somehow decided it did not make sense. A missed opportunity.
Waze is only good for people who are interested in saving a few minutes by driving through residential streets. Google bought Waze years ago, but they were smart enough to know that it wasn't good for masses, so they kept it apart from Google Maps.
I want to share a few news articles about Waze that clearly show that Waze is not good for mass usage.
How directions on the Waze app led to death in Brazil’s favelas
If you use Waze, hackers can stalk you
Is Google’s Waze app making traffic worse?
This is just stupid and ignorant. The whole reason Apple built their own Maps app is because Google was deliberately withholding features from their iOS app to give Android an advantage. Google only released a full featured iOS app after Apple built Maps and Google lost access to all of that data. Why would Apple go back to relying on a rival company for one of the most used features of their product? If Apple shut down Maps, what's preventing Google from stripping features out of their iOS app again to try to push people to Android?
What demand was that?
What is known is that Google wanted a couple of things:
1. Branding on their maps (they used to say "Google" in the corner but Apple apparently wanted that gone).
2. The ability to offer their Google Latitude service. That's the one which let users opt into sharing their location (general or specific) with friends and family. However, as is well known, Apple dislikes any competition with their own core services, and Family Sharing and Location came out in iOS 8.
It's not like Apple is really against anyone making money from user info. Heck, for a decade Apple has made over a billion dollars a year, sharing in Google Search ad revenue, in return for letting Google be the default search engine. Sometimes access to Apple customers is indeed a product to be sold.
Maps already is good enough, it just need the next step
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I'm a customer and care about all those things.
If people really don't care about these things, then sales should reflect it...right?
Nope. It's just missing a few things that I like from google maps - like lane alerts and biking directions. Besides that, Apple maps is fully usable and better than Google maps aesthetically speaking. It's just a smoother and better experience.
I would consider it good versus 'barely good'. It's a couple features away from being head to head with Google.
I moved to a small town of 28,000 people 6 months ago, lots of cafes and restaurants. I have had to submit 100+ changes to Apple Maps as the data was so bad, loads of closed businesses still showing, wrong location by a mile, no opening hours or no website, they use Yelp and Trip Advisor for this data, its lousy. The reason I'm helping is I hired a car and it had CarPlay, amazing experience but if Maps are so lousy its pointless.
Apple could use a few human editors. When I find an error in Google Maps, I report it. Soon after, Google updates and let's me know, "you are right!".
I have reported several errors to Maps and Apple never makes the change. Among them, Apple insists that I live in a town not near me, rather than my town and postal address. I have sent Apple numerous corrections including copies of addresses mail to no avail. Delivery people have trouble finding me. So I have stopped using Maps and have warned delivery people and visitors not to use it. But my photos are still identified by Apple with the wrong town.
Go away Apple Maps.
I have reported several errors to Maps and Apple never makes the change. Among them, Apple insists that I live in a town not near me, rather than my town and postal address. I have sent Apple numerous corrections including copies of addresses mail to no avail. Delivery people have trouble finding me. So I have stopped using Maps and have warned delivery people and visitors not to use it. But my photos are still identified by Apple with the wrong town.
Go away Apple Maps.
Anyone using a web search in a browser is giving the search provider information (how much depends on the search provider and the technical means, starting with cookies, that are used). Any web page has the same access and the same technical tools available to them. Providing web services via an app (as the Maps app in iOS does) can be much more restrictive in regards to what information the web services provider has access to.
There is a huge difference between making something the default (search) URL in a browser and letting non-web-browser apps give out the same amount of information (or even more) than what a browser would. You cannot restrict a web browser too much without inhibiting a lot of websites. A web browser is a general purpose tool that is the fallback solution if no other options exist to access a given web service. You can restrict things much, much more within an app that only has to provide a very narrow amount of information.
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Except that they didn't of course. Google upped their demands significantly in return of implementing new features like turn-by-turn directions and vector-based maps.
As long as people complain about default apps taking up space when they cannot hide them but don't complain anymore about that space when they can hide them, I cannot take their criticism seriously. In fact, I rather feel the need to point that they are irrational and are misinforming others and thus harming others.Delete / Hide whatever.....Out of sight, out of mind
Couldn't agree more. Maps has a pretty streamlined and intuitive interface, for the most part, while Google Maps more than ever just feels like another ad platform (which of course it is).