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Apple Reportedly Had Over a Year Left on Maps Contract with Google
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It is. But most 3D mapping solutions are.
Apple's may be more inaccurate, but it's not hard to go on, say, Google Earth, and find some pretty odd 3D renderings.
I'd gladly pay a dollar or more to have Google Maps back (the one that comes on Android would be even better).
Maps will be improved much faster with customer feedback than they could have been in private.
Being a software developer doesn't have anything to do with it. The software is done. It's the data that's lacking.
I prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps.
I agree completely. Of course the data for my area seems complete and accurate. The turn by turn is a very nice addition, and very nicely implemented. Hopefully they'll get the data sorted out quickly.
I would really like to see a Mac version, with the ability to create a route on the Mac and send it to my phone.
I'm also one of those that also prefers the new Apple maps - really digging the turn by turn directions.
Oh the humanity of these first world problems.
I've been using Apple maps, including the turn by turn, and so far so good. I like it better than Google maps and some of the UI features (overview, zoom in and out) are even better than the Tom Tom GPS app.
I have no doubts that with the iPhone community's help and Apple's hard working developers that everything will get sorted out.
I've been using Apple maps, including the turn by turn, and so far so good. I like it better than Google maps and some of the UI features (overview, zoom in and out) are even better than the Tom Tom GPS app.
I have no doubts that with the iPhone community's help and Apple's hard working developers that everything will get sorted out.
and I hate when updates wipe out perfectly functional apps and replace them with crappy ones. Is it hard to understand?
Adding features like Turn by Turn navigation is pointless when the mapping data is fundamentally not fit for purpose.
As far as I see it, you can only test something like Apple maps for so long in Beta. At some point it had to be released, and what better than 100 million users to help fix up your data.
This is a very new service, and it will get better with time.
I remember Google maps being a bit off too. For example, I worked on a street in Melbourne that Google believed was a one way street. Whenever I would get directions out of that street, it would always redirect around the one way street. It took years to finally get fixed on their system.
So everyone, calm down a bit, it will be fixed, and it will end up better than google one day.
This is a very new service, and it will get better with time.
I remember Google maps being a bit off too. For example, I worked on a street in Melbourne that Google believed was a one way street. Whenever I would get directions out of that street, it would always redirect around the one way street. It took years to finally get fixed on their system.
So everyone, calm down a bit, it will be fixed, and it will end up better than google one day.
Perhaps an iPhone dev can explain, but why can't Google just submit the app that has been on the phone all along as an App Store app? How can they be "months away" from something that already exists?
Also, what the folks criticizing Apple seem to be missing is that Google was screwing all of us for years, by hobbling their iPhone Maps app (the Android version is much better, including turn-by-turn directions). Apple reasonably figured that only by making their own app the default could they get the usage they need to make it high quality, and so it was a trade off between improving it slowly, but letting Google continue to own this application with a subpar offering, and launching it with data issues that would get fixed quickly. As for the, "Steve never would have done this"--I have one word: Siri.
In any event, if you really need the Google Maps app, just link the web app on your home screen, done.
Also, what the folks criticizing Apple seem to be missing is that Google was screwing all of us for years, by hobbling their iPhone Maps app (the Android version is much better, including turn-by-turn directions). Apple reasonably figured that only by making their own app the default could they get the usage they need to make it high quality, and so it was a trade off between improving it slowly, but letting Google continue to own this application with a subpar offering, and launching it with data issues that would get fixed quickly. As for the, "Steve never would have done this"--I have one word: Siri.
In any event, if you really need the Google Maps app, just link the web app on your home screen, done.
In light of this information and the other facts we know, and if its true, I'm of the opinion that Apple should have waited to deploy their maps until next year when the contract ended. Another full year of development would have been wise.
Hingsight is a wonderful thing but I think Google Maps has been glorified recently due to Apple Maps' failure but overall, like the YouTube app, it was barely ever really updated and lacked a lot of basic features.
You have lots of choices. There are several nav apps in the app store and you can still use maps.google.com
Because Apple actually made the old app, not Google. Google was just a data pipe.
It was always Apple's app.
The previous app was Apple's code and Google's data, so Google can't just submit that again. I do think Google should have been able to put together something by now, its not like they found out the day iOS 6 was released. The rest of us found out in June, so they've had at least 3 months to get something ready.
This is prob where the " 1 year left on the contract" comes in.
To support IOS 5 and below for another year for people yet to upgrade to IOS 6
- just a thought.
Happy to hear that it works for you. Apple Maps are totally unusable for millions of other iPhone owners.