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Apple Reportedly Had Over a Year Left on Maps Contract with Google

steve-p said:
Well, maybe, but I'm not convinced the quality of the feedback would have been useful. I suspect the average normal person would have tried it out of curiosity and then given up with it as not fit for purpose. Only the hardcore Apple-obsessives with no critical faculties would have kept using it and provided feedback such as "it works in my street so it's perfect!", "I love the new clearer maps with no colour coding even though they are illegible, they're so pretty", "who needs POIs and accurate maps when we have turn by turn!", "it's really fast to draw a map with no detail!" etc, which is no use whatsoever for addressing the problems most people seem to have with it.
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If it was like Waze with feedback and updates, it would have worked just fine.
 
penguy said:
first, apple did update the maps app over time...it was far better than it's initial introduction. The point others have made is that they could not add turn by turn, which many considered vital.
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Why couldnt they add turn by turn? Was that something Apple had to stipulate to in order to have access to Google's Maps database? Google didnt create the Maps app, Apple did. Google just supplied the data behind the app.
 
KnightWRX said:
You're saying there are no... Apple... fanboys ? or iPhone fanboys ? :eek:
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Yes, that's precisely what I'm saying. Don't assume that the people who hang around in forums are enough to test an app like this. The iPhone has a far lower proportion of geek users. I know a few people who have upgraded to ioS6 and hadn't realised that Maps application had changed.


You do understand the difference between Mac market share in 2001 vs iOS market share in 2012 right ?
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You do know the difference between a computer and a consumer phone based mapping application, yes?

Computers are likely to have a far higher percentage of geeks in front of them, and if the screaming nutjobs on this forum are anything to go by then it looks like most geeks are using Android.

While you're happy to guess at the number of people who would be willing to put time and effort into testing an application voluntarily, Apple doesn't have that luxury.

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ZirkC said:
"
10.2
Apps that look similar to Apps bundled on the iPhone, including the App Store, iTunes Store, and iBookstore, will be rejected"


https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html
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Then don't make it look like a bundled app.
 
gmanist1000 said:
They hate Google. Is it hard to understand?
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yeah, we all understand that i think, but i think the difference between Tim and Steve was that Steve would never have sacrificed the user experience to demonstrate that they were mad at a company


I hate to say it, but every day more and more I feel like

Tim Cook = John Sculley :'(
 
Rogifan said:
im assuming the person responsible was either Cook or Forstall. And wasn't it Steve who decided to go thermonuclear on Google? Steve deserves a lot of the blame for this IMO.
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Agreed, let's face it, it's the Adobe Flash problem all over again. It still annoys me when I brows the web and cannot access data because Apple/Steve decided to not support Flash.

Flash might not have been the best software and I also don't believe Adobe are a great company, but the net is still flooded with this technology and it still does not work on iOS.

Apple vs the world.. They should use this as a slogan in their marketing adds.
 
arn said:
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.
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Everything has a price, including data. Lets be straight up about this: Apple wants to be their own master; unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the users.
 
Apple is slowly going to same old apple company without steve job in the mid 90s......

I wont be surprise if they get even lower from this point on.
 
Apples maps thinks the coles sports center, a nyu gym, is south of Houston when it's north of Houston. That's a big screw up
 
fel10 said:
Well, they should've used it. And also used that time to fix all the issues with Apple Maps before releasing it.
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Google Maps didn't have perfect data until they released and crowdsourced. Why should Apple magically be able to sidestep that critical step?

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mathewr said:
Apples maps thinks the coles sports center, a nyu gym, is south of Houston when it's north of Houston. That's a big screw up
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Did you submit the report in the app so that they fix it, or did you just rush here to complain?
 
Renzatic said:
The big point you're missing here is that they forced their alternative upon us knowing it was incomplete, and then (for the most part) expect us to fix it.
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I'm not so much missing it as ignoring it. For one, because it is quite obvious and has been pounded upon by everyone and their cousin for the past few days.

Also, there is not much to be done about this point either than changing smartphone providers (which I don't intend to do) or whining about it (which I don't find productive at all).
 
the read said:
Flash might not have been the best software ... but the net is still flooded with this technology and it still does not work on iOS.
Apple vs the world.. They should use this as a slogan in their marketing adds.
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"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." - G.B.Shaw
;)
 
Here's why our panties are tied in a bunch ...

donrsd said:
I dont mind the Apple maps. I dont understand why so many people have their panties in a bunch.
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Virtually every small town in Ontario, Canada is mislabeled or non-existent!! Even towns near our big cities like Toronto ... This is not a POI problem - this is a MAP problem - towns don't exist.

Search for "Beeton", "Alban", "Mono Mills", "Elmira" I could go on ... THOUSANDS of small towns in Ontario which were on the previous maps app can no longer be found.

Worse Apple Maps directs you to a similar sounding town or store in some other country most times. For some reason when something doesn't exist the Search Engine decides that I must be from some other country??

Search for "Bracebridge" and you end up in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE ..
Search for "Port Perry" ... you end up on Scugog island
Search for "Priceville Ontario" and you end up on Riceville Road 600km away ...

Search for "Alliston Hospital" on the old Maps and the first pinpoint is correct.

Search on the new Maps and "No Results Found" ... people have come to rely on maps for general directions, business productivity, and help in emergency situations.

People like myself upgrading from an older iPhone have expected maps to work - because they always have. Now Maps is no longer usable.
 
xdext3r said:
Virtually every small town in Ontario, Canada is mislabeled or non-existent!! Even towns near our big cities like Toronto ... This is not a POI problem - this is a MAP problem - towns don't exist.

Search for "Beeton", "Alban", "Mono Mills", "Elmira" I could go on ... THOUSANDS of small towns in Ontario which were on the previous maps app can no longer be found.

Worse Apple Maps directs you to a similar sounding town or store in some other country most times. For some reason when something doesn't exist the Search Engine decides that I must be from some other country??

Search for "Bracebridge" and you end up in the MIDDLE of NOWHERE ..
Search for "Port Perry" ... you end up on Scugog island
Search for "Priceville Ontario" and you end up on Riceville Road 600km away ...

Search for "Alliston Hospital" on the old Maps and the first pinpoint is correct.

Search on the new Maps and "No Results Found" ... people have come to rely on maps for general directions, business productivity, and help in emergency situations.

People like myself upgrading from an older iPhone have expected maps to work - because they always have. Now Maps is no longer usable.
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Did you submit the report in the app so that they fix it, or did you just rush here to complain?
 
Kaibelf said:
Did you submit the report in the app so that they fix it, or did you just rush here to complain?
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The the error reporting tool defaults to satellite view. And in Canada the Satellite view outside of the major cities looks like pudding. How are we supposed to report an incorrect pin location when the view they give you to put the pin in the proper location looks like a dogs breakfast?
 
Kaibelf said:
Google Maps didn't have perfect data until they released and crowdsourced. Why should Apple magically be able to sidestep that critical step?

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Did you submit the report in the app so that they fix it, or did you just rush here to complain?
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I've complained to friends then reported it then complained to you guys. I also hate yelp with a passion. So the fact maps uses yelp also annoys me.
 
Kaibelf said:
Did you submit the report in the app so that they fix it, or did you just rush here to complain?
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The the error reporting tool defaults to satellite view. And in Canada the Satellite view outside of the major cities looks like pudding. How are we supposed to report an incorrect pin location when the view they give you to put the pin in the proper location looks like a dogs breakfast?

Yes I have tried submitting errors but there are too many to count. And when I am looking for a location it means I don't know where it is. So how am I supposed to give Apple good info?

The whole thing is a mess as far as I am concerned. In Canada we are talking about entire towns missing ... and really blurry satellite views .. not just misplaced points of interests. Makes it hard to impossible to actually report probs as well.
 
I wish American users would stop posting comments like "Oh they work fine for me, what's the problem..?"

The quality of the data here in the UK makes it unusable. It can't find businesses, POI, and struggles at times with addresses. A lot of the roads are old, the satellite images are terrible (most of them are severely pixelated, if not they are just black and white clouds).

I was in London yesterday and without google maps on the web I would've struggled to find the clinics I was visiting (some are >100 years old and don't exist on Apple maps).
 
Count me in as somebody who prefers Apple Maps. For me it's all about the turn by turn directions. I live in the burbs and don't need access to public transit information and although Google Maps clearly had a ton more data about local points of interest I don't mind doing a Google Search to get an address to plug in for those instances where something I'm looking for doesn't come just so long as Apple is working to improve things.

With that being said, Apple was stupid not to keep Google maps as the default maps app while offering Apple Maps right next to it on the home screen until iOS 7 at which time Google maps would be removed. That way iOS 6 users would have something to fall back on while the inevitable bugs in the v1.0 release of Apple Maps are found and corrected.
 
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This may have been mentioned already, but what happens to devices unable to update to iOS 6 with Google Maps installed on them after this contract between Apple and Google expires? One would assume you'd be out of luck, no?
 
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