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Apple's New iOS 6 Maps App Drawing Significant Criticism

Just installed iOS 6 and had a look around the area near the house I recently moved out of (don't know the area around my new house well enough yet) in maps to see what all the fuss is about.

Unless there's been some radical changes in Brixton in the last month, there's A LOT of mistakes. It's mad. I don't think I'm going to be able to trust iOS 6 this with the amount of missing/fabricated/inaccurate information.
 
AbSoluTc said:
Incorrect. Apple needs lots of time & money. The problem is the time aspect. Who wants to wait years for a product that is equal to or close to what Google maps is now?

Not I.
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Then they shoulda waited longer and renewed the googletract.
 
The first time I tried using IOS6 maps for navigation, it was a little rough around the edges for sure. Missed one road change completely without saying a word. Google Maps does work better, but it's hardly infallible. Waze beats them both by a large margin.
 
I was looking forward to Apple maps, but I'll continue to use Navigon until Apple Maps is working properly.

Navigon came out with an update today and a map refresh. Looking forward to getting my new iPhone tomorrow!!
 
I use maps everyday

I drive about 150-250 miles a day in rural West Tennessee. I was worried about the change because rural areas often get this stuff last.

I have now used it 3 times in the last day, and I have to say I like it better.

Now, my use is simply to follow roads and get to a residential address. But, the turn by turn, the look, and the fact that it can work in landscape on my dash, and even in the lock screen, makes it far superior.

Also, it seems to have done better with knowing which town in TN my address was in without me typing it. Lately, Google maps would send me to "Riverdale St" in Texas, when there was clearly one 5 miles away.

Again, I'm in a rural area, and I don't use it for restaurant finding or building scouting. And, I've only used it 3 times. But, so far it got them all right and was a better experience. Maybe my use case is just different.
 
kas23 said:
The very first iPhone, back in 2007, had Maps on it. This was its first release onto a mobile platform and was a very decent version. And remember, Apple was the producer of this app, they just borrowed Google's data. Now, 5 years later, Apple has made its own version of Maps yet again. Like the first time, they used borrowed data (but this time from TomTom). Now, what has happened to Apple over the last 5 years where we saw them release a beautifully functional app back in 2007 to now, where they have released a piece of garbage? Complacency? Arrogance? Interestingly enough, Apple didn't even have any competition breathing down its neck in 2007 and now they do.
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Your right. It is a poor showing on Apple's end. We can only speculate on why they went about it this way. It would help to know this inside information as well as their long-term goals. Currently this mapping attempt is not doing iOS6 any justice, and I'm sure users are counting down the days/hours/minutes/seconds/#breaths until Google releases their Map app.
Personally I wouldn't use Apple map app. I have a nav in my car, and i use a specific metro/public transportation app.
 
Compile 'em all said:
Actually the reason Google Maps was removed from iOS has everything to do with Google and their API licensing terms, which they changed.
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jGrgC.png
 
While the actual app and the presentation is pretty decent, the quality of the maps is abysmal. This is alpha stage software at best.

I have three gas stations in my street, which are actually just normal shops. A bar is located one block away from its actual position and my street doesn't have a dead-end, which will naturally lead to incorrent directions.

And that's just from five minutes of checking my neighborhood.

How can any respected company go public with this joke? And especially Apple? This will blow up into their faces big time since the maps app is heavily used by pretty much everyone, and the problems are very visible. It will be a running gag for months to come. They need to fix this with a high priority.

I wonder if Google will release an app anytime soon. They would actually do the platform a big favor and I'm not sure if that's what they want.
 
This was Apple's biggest mistake ever. No Google Street View and this app is completely broken. Epic fail.

Also this is the reason I won't upgrade my iPod touch to iOS6.
 
theluggage said:
But will it be integrated with (e.g.) Contacts or Siri or (as others have pointed out) all the other map-based iOS Apps?
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It likely will not be integrated, but I am willing to screw integration. Integration with Siri is worthless if maps isn't finding basic locations and is completely devoid of public transit.

----------
Sora said:
So true.
I guess that disconnect between customers expectations and a companies novel entrance into a domain don't really compute. Customers just want it to work. No if's and's or but's.
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This is basically the success of iOS in the first place isn't it? The "it just works" is a cliche I have heard for a LOOOOOOONG time. :)
 
I have taken some time this afternoon to dig a bit deeper into the maps and some of the mistakes are just ridiculous. Fortunately, there is a reporting process to make corrections under the flap of the maps.

I must say that some of the errors - like having a Red Cross on the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and listing it as a hospital - are just a bit mind-boggling. I also don't understand some of the labels in the hybrid view - like "Big Hotels" over the area of 17th and Race as well as "Parkway Museums" which is uninformative and south/east of the majority of the Parkway museums.

It just seems very sloppy to me.
 
I read here that there is a "report problem" type button or something in iOS 6 maps. If it is then i suggest people to report that current app is crap and they want google maps back.
 
Sora said:
Your delusional.
Google Wave
Google Buzz

The list goes on....
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To be fair, none of these products had much to do with Google's core product offerings, which at the time were: Search, GMail and Google Docs.

Like many large tech companies, Google has a lot of R&D projects in play at any given time. They just seem to be more open to putting them out for the public to use in beta format.

Maps is a pretty essential component of a Smartphone today. Apple touted their maps as a better alternative to Google Maps during the iOS6 keynote a while back. I think this is where a lot of the anger and disappointment comes from.

I have to echo some of the others and say that this probably would not have happened under Jobs' leadership.
 
honestly i'm actually really heartbroken

i used the old maps app in iOS 5 to commute by bus everywhere

iOS 6 maps obviously does not support public transportation

and none of the public transportation apps on the app store don't even support my area! (Los Angeles to San Diego)

:mad:
 
Well actually...

Nathan20 said:
Wow. Everyone is criticising an app they didn't use much before iOS 6...
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Some of us use the maps app almost daily! And its a big fail for me ... at least I'm 'stuck' with the original maps app on my (still incredibly excellent) 1st gen iPad ... but due to maps iOS6 might be heading to a downgrade on my 3GS 8-(
 
darijoe said:
Lower satellite resolutions and no street view are the things I don't like about the new maps. Taking out the old YouTube app in iOS 6 was also very disappointing (and now for the moment there are no official YouTube apps for iPad!!), but I'm pretty satisfied with the rest of the update.
Click to expand...

Lower Satellite Resolutions? If anything I have MUCH better resolution on the new maps. I'm not terribly satisfied with the accuracy and lack of street view, but resolution is the LAST thing I will complain about. I live on a lake and when I do the satellite view I can see actual boats and their wakes on the lake. The resolution is STUNNING.
 
Spend some money and fix this quickly.

This is what Apple's war chest is destined for. They have $100billion that needs to go into buying a couple of mapping companies. 1. Buy Garmin for their points of interest and maps... hostile takeover.. paying way more than they're worth... whatever. 2. Buy a company (or companies) that deal with worldwide public transportation information. 3. fund a satellite program for better images. This 3rd one is over the top, but it would show Apple is willing to do what it takes to become a leader in the face of a very serious debacle and address their shortcomings in no uncertain terms. Apple needs to think big... like Google big. Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to laser the Google logo onto the moon when they first started their marketing efforts. They actually decided to have cars drive all the roads of the world to make Street View work. They are working on self driving cars and making the all the world's information searchable. Apple needs to get in this kind of mindset if they are going to replace this company without looking stupid. This is not a time for boutique and aesthetically pleasing responses or thinking that 3rd party apps will address their failings. Apple needs to become a logistics company very quickly.

You can't use the excuse of this being Apple's first go at maps. Apple's maps exist in a world where a 10 year old Google maps DOES exist. You wouldn't accept a new airline flying you around in the Wright Brothers' Kitty Hawk even though they're new to the game. You expect them to compete at the level of their competition. Apple's shortcomings are their problem and we live in a world where this problem was solved by another years ago.

If you know any public transport information companies, it might be a good time to buy stock.
 
Absolute no excuse for spelling mistakes and Apple have been working on this for some time. This app is amateur, very amateur. Hopefully Google will release their maps back into the store soon. More ammo for Samsung. Why on earth would you ditch the best mapping solution available just out of spite?? Schoolboy error Apple, schoolboy!
 
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