Prediction: This thread gets incredibly out of hand, with people imagining that this new Maps app will do all sorts of impossibly amazing things, and then when it comes out they all say how much Apple sucks because they didn't include whatever stupid, obscure feature they imagined!
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Evidence in iOS 5 that Apple is Building Its Own Mapping Solution
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The problem is that they often release half-baked stuff only to never update it again, or before a long time has elapsed. They start strong, only to then let the competition catch up, pass them and they seem to concentrate ressources again only when they are then playing catch up themselves.
This often leads to situations like the current one with the Maps application on iOS.
Completely different situations that have nothing to do with each other. Apple did not compete on features against KDE, they used KDE's hard work and created more work for them in the process, both profiting and leaving the work on integrating back their "contributions" to the community. It created a lot of ill will and disappointment after they had made promises of working closely with the KDE developers.
This has nothing to do with 3rd party vendors trying to add functionality to the device that should simply be there in the first place. A lot of App Store fluff is like that, stuff that Apple should've implemented themselves long ago. You do realise Apple gets a lot of their "new features" ideas for iOS straight from App Store submissions right ?
i got the tomtom app (all western europe) £40 and i can listen to music at the same time as it all charges and is a great solution. data charges? what data charges? its all on the device!
between that and the fact that more and more cars have satnav built in i guarantee the stand alone will become a very niche product.
specialist hikers ones will survive but not much else
Waze is awesome. It is an Israeli-based company. Virtually any smartphone user in Israel uses it, on iPhone, Android, Nokia and Windows Mobile. The traffic data and accuracy is unbelievable. Sometimes it takes me through weird routes just to bypass traffic jams. You also have ways to report accidents, speed cameras, traffic police etc.
Here's a link to a typical daily use in Waze, every car you see is actually a person using the software while he drives, shown up on my iPhone screen in real-time.
http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20090521/waze-Israel_screen_shot_610x328.jpg
Oh, and did I mention that it is completely free?
Here's a link to a typical daily use in Waze, every car you see is actually a person using the software while he drives, shown up on my iPhone screen in real-time.
http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20090521/waze-Israel_screen_shot_610x328.jpg
Oh, and did I mention that it is completely free?
Once Google Maps enables full offline navigation capabilities everyone else can just close up shop.
So the application isn't a mess, it provides a lot of mess of your driving experience. Two different things.
And the application isn't barely functioning. It's providing barely the function you need, since for example I don't need that function and for me the app functions as great as any other maps app. So it's about the features of the app being insufficient for your needs. Not that the app is not working well.
Here is the funny part in all of this.
Google could have OWNED the mobile market.
Originally Google didn't compete with Apple in the mobile market so there was an incentive for Apple to use Google services on the iPhone.
Now that Google is in direct competition with Apple, Apple has an incentive to keep Google services off the iPhone.
Same goes with Nokia and RIM.
None of these companies has an interest in search (user data/advertising) and would have been happy to help Google dominate the market.
Yet Google felt the need to come out with Android to get a market it already owned. Now that Google is competing with these other companies, they have an incentive to invest in technology instead of leveraging Googles technology.
In a round about way, its all pretty pointless.
Google could have OWNED the mobile market.
Originally Google didn't compete with Apple in the mobile market so there was an incentive for Apple to use Google services on the iPhone.
Now that Google is in direct competition with Apple, Apple has an incentive to keep Google services off the iPhone.
Same goes with Nokia and RIM.
None of these companies has an interest in search (user data/advertising) and would have been happy to help Google dominate the market.
Yet Google felt the need to come out with Android to get a market it already owned. Now that Google is competing with these other companies, they have an incentive to invest in technology instead of leveraging Googles technology.
In a round about way, its all pretty pointless.
To be honestly I do not see it. The map finding of lets say my Atrix with its navigation is still not as good as my older dedicated Garmine Navi from 2007 (even with outdated maps)
I have used google map to help find the address then I would enter it into my Garmin and use that for finding the route.
I would not think they are removing Google as their source of map data but more doing away with good for the mapping algorithums and route finding.
The current reason Maps sucks on iOS is Apple failure to updated. It lags way behind everything else.
Also...
.. i think a lot of the fun things you get with the iphone, eg: google maps with XYZ function only works in the US, with (if we're lucky) slow roll outs to the rest of the world. Then on top of that you have the issue with data services like maps being very slow if your provider has a less then reliable network!
My point being, I personnely wouldn't be using this as a "should i buy or not" reason. If it does work in my given country, then its a brilliant extra!
.. i think a lot of the fun things you get with the iphone, eg: google maps with XYZ function only works in the US, with (if we're lucky) slow roll outs to the rest of the world. Then on top of that you have the issue with data services like maps being very slow if your provider has a less then reliable network!
My point being, I personnely wouldn't be using this as a "should i buy or not" reason. If it does work in my given country, then its a brilliant extra!
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Hmmm maybe there is a new Map app on the iPhone 5 (4gs or what ever they call it) and Googles agreement is for iPhone 4.... Which I assume will be the discounted phone when 5 comes out....