Google Maps Photos Apparently Pulled from New iPad Promotional Content at Last Minute

[VinnyChau]

Apple have been using these "Ye Olde" style maps from OSM for years!

If you have iPhoto on your Mac, open it up, select an album and click Slideshow at the bottom, then select the "Places" slideshow. Thats where all these OSM maps have been hiding, and I'm sure they are sufficient for iPhoto use on iOS

I believe these stories are irrelevant until Apple do not renew their contracts and Maps.app on all iDevices move away from Google.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

IMO this is not a good move. Google Maps are highly reliable, and the licensing fee is negligible. OSM on the other hand are usually inaccurate unless someone who lives in the area has manually gone into their system and fixed it.

A stupid move all over a stupid feud between the two companies.

Everyone has said that all the lawsuits and stuff haven't affected customers. They will soon if Apple moves to OSM.

Not the first time that Apple has cut its nose of to spite its face (or those of its customers), and I doubt that it will be the last.

Apple's bought a number of mapping companies. Their product isn't ready yet. iPhoto, meanwhile, needed some maps, and since Apple's presumably transitioning away from Google Maps anyway, they used OSM rather than signing another contract. Because who cares? It's rough vacation positioning, which I'm sure is correct. You don't use it for directions.

It's not stupid, nor is it cutting off any noses. Have you even made an iPhoto collage recently?

Someone speaking sense around here! Quick, someone get the pitchfork. We don't need his kind round here. We only deal in biased dribble and incorrect wild assumptions.

 

[jettredmont]

I would love to get a free turn by turn a la Andriod in iOS6, and with Siri, that would be amazing.

Waze. Not based on OpenStreetMaps, but has very accurate maps based on GPS coordinates as users drive around. A few kinks yet to work out, but works rather well. And, better than Google's maps, allows searches of multiple directories for addresses.

I don't expect Apple would adopt Waze or anything similar. But, it proves that crowdsourcing maps data for populated areas of the globe is not impossible at all, and providing turn-by-turn directions isn't something Apple needs to contract with someone else to do. Throw in Siri and some of the visualizations tech from the companies Apple has gobbled up over the past year or so, and Google is unnecessary and just in the way of real innovation.

 

[SockRolid]

New iOS mapping system? I'd bet a dollar.

New maps for ios6?

I'd bet a dollar that iOS 6 will feature massive improvements to the Maps app, the Location Awareness API, and general Siri integration with maps. And it'll all be based on the technology Apple acquired over the last few years. They bought C3, creators of an ultra-high quality 3d mapping technology, last October. They bought Poly9, a more conventional 2d web-based mapping company, back in summer of 2010. And they bought Placebase, another 2d mapping company, way back in 2009.

There's still 3 months until WWDC, so Apple must be putting the final touches on all that new mapping goodness. I can hardly wait.

 

[Scott-USA]

Google Maps is still #1

I am a faithful iphone user, having owned every generation of iphone since the first one. As far as I am concerned, Google maps it still light years ahead of Bing or any Mapping division Apple is developing. When I start seeing Microsoft or Apple vehicles taking "Street View" photos around my neighborhood, then I will believe that they are becoming serious about competing with Google Maps.

 

[iCarabma]

I am a faithful iphone user, having owned every generation of iphone since the first one. As far as I am concerned, Google maps it still light years ahead of Bing or any Mapping division Apple is developing. When I start seeing Microsoft or Apple vehicles taking "Street View" photos around my neighborhood, then I will believe that they are becoming serious about competing with Google Maps.

You won't see Apple branded vehicles.

You might see Apple's contracted partners or scary unmarked vehicles, but you won't see Apple logos.

 

[669532]

maybe it's just reading MacRumours every day but it seems like Apple is making lots of enemies at the moment.

Why can't companies just play nice? iOS devices gain a lot from using Google services.

 

[petsounds]

IMO this is not a good move. Google Maps are highly reliable, and the licensing fee is negligible. OSM on the other hand are usually inaccurate unless someone who lives in the area has manually gone into their system and fixed it.

A stupid move all over a stupid feud between the two companies.

Everyone has said that all the lawsuits and stuff haven't affected customers. They will soon if Apple moves to OSM.

A stupid move? I disagree. Apple has been doing too much licensing of technology instead of developing it themselves. They got burned, badly, by Google when they decided to declare war on the iPhone. Now Apple is scrambling to get rid of all Google dependencies, and I guarantee you as soon as they have an in-house mapping solution they'll drop Google.

Will it be good as Google's? Well obviously they have to play a lot of catch-up to get to Google Maps level. A LOT. The APIs, Street View, all that stuff. But Apple certainly has the cashflow to make it happen.

This isn't about the lawsuits directly. This is about a relationship and a trust between two complimentary companies which was broken when Google decided it wanted Apple's slice of the pie. Google is now a competitive threat, and they should be treated as such. That's just good business sense. Not to say that they can't work together on things, but something as crucial as mapping and geocoding for a mobile device can't be depended upon by a direct competitor.

For now, it sucks for everyone. But eventually it won't and Apple will come up to feature parity with Google mapping. And hey, it's probably a good thing to have competition for mapping services.

 

[macUser2007]

A stupid move? I disagree.
...
Will it be good as Google's? Well obviously they have to play a lot of catch-up to get to Google Maps level. A LOT. The APIs, Street View, all that stuff. But Apple certainly has the cashflow to make it happen.

This isn't about the lawsuits directly. This is about a relationship and a trust between two complimentary companies which was broken when Google decided it wanted Apple's slice of the pie....

Come on now....

Android was born in 2003, way before even rumors of the iPhone were around. Google acquired in in 2005, also before there was a whiff of the iPhone.

Google was simply making sure that it was not left out of the mobile advertising space. Advertising was one of the main reasons for iOS banning Flash, and Apple did try use its mobile dominance to muscle out Google with iAd.

True, Google did borrow visual cues from the iPhone, but then you can argue that the iPhone borrowed from Palm, as well as from Windows Mobile. The new iPhone notifications scheme is borrowed straight from Android, just like Folders are. I expect that iOS will get Widgets soon, too.

Apple is doing the right thing by making sure that they are not overly dependent on a competitor for something as vital as location services, but the reality is that Google Maps is the superior product right now, and Apple users will be shortchanged if Apple moves away from it.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Data Center initiative

You don't build data centers on both sides of the US and eventually around the globe to continue to use Data sources from Google for Mapping. You license the rights from the Fed like Google and everyone else and then you deploy your own mapping solution that allows Apple to differentiate it's iOS from Android.

End of Story.

It's a smart business move.

 

[petsounds]

Android was born in 2003, way before even rumors of the iPhone were around. Google acquired in in 2005, also before there was a whiff of the iPhone.

You can be sure that the iPhone/iPad/iWhatever was already far in development (2.5 years prior to the iPhone launch in jan '07, according to Apple) when Eric Schmidt joined the Apple board in 2006. Android at that time was still targeting Blackberry devices with an Android phone that looked similar to those devices. There's certainly a case to be made that Schmidt told Google to make a hard right when he saw was Apple was cooking up with the iPhone. When the iPhone was launched, they rapidly retooled the concepts of the Android UI to match the iPhone. Some might say too rapidly without foreknowledge.

Regardless of that history -- and it's not something I really care to hash out again -- the business case for cutting out Google is clear, and I believe Apple has been working towards this since the iPhone was launched. Acquisition of mapping companies, data centers. They've already implemented their own geocoding API, a role formally played by Google. That was low-hanging fruit.

Apple Maps is coming, and as a stockholder, developer, and product owner I think it's a great thing and will enable Apple to innovate and combine technologies in ways they simply can't when constrained by Google's APIs and policies.

 

[burne]

Google Maps are highly reliable

Perhaps in your part of the world. But, did you realise that 'you' is just a handfull percents of this world's population? Google me a route from boston to sydney. And tell me the difference between the shortest and longest route.

Yes, there is quite a few sydneys and bostons.

 

[lowey16]

And Canada...

http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/features/

And Australia...
http://www.apple.com/au/ipad/features/

 

[rmwebs]

Perhaps in your part of the world. But, did you realise that 'you' is just a handfull percents of this world's population? Google me a route from boston to sydney. And tell me the difference between the shortest and longest route.

Yes, there is quite a few sydneys and bostons.

Ok let me modify that statement.

Google Maps are highly reliable when compared to every single other online map option. Better? Because that's the facts.

 

[Supa]

Privacy

I suspect this mapping decision has more to do with keep users photo locations private by keeping it in Apple's data centers rather then feeding this data into Google's data centers.

 

[burne]

Because that's the facts.

Suppose that I wanted to walk from the south-western tip of England to the north-eastern tip of Scotland. Why do I need to visit four other countries and take no less than nine different ferries?

http://www.nutz.nl/grab/fe65c719.PNG

I tried something similar two years ago, and got different but equally bewildering results:

http://www.nutz.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/screenshot-2010-01-04-at-16.55.51.jpg

Fact is that computers, even those at Google, are horrible at things people find easy. And yes, me, my bike and my Garmin with a openstreetmap.org map did find our way and had a wonderful holiday.

 

[rmwebs]

Suppose that I wanted to walk from the south-western tip of England to the north-eastern tip of Scotland. Why do I need to visit four other countries and take no less than nine different ferries?

http://www.nutz.nl/grab/fe65c719.PNG

I tried something similar two years ago, and got different but equally bewildering results:

http://www.nutz.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/screenshot-2010-01-04-at-16.55.51.jpg

Fact is that computers, even those at Google, are horrible at things people find easy. And yes, me, my bike and my Garmin with a openstreetmap.org map did find our way and had a wonderful holiday.

That's funny, because I've just done Lands End to John O' Groats and got this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr...3R_ynDUr64It-aSDF0xbX1N9v4hg&t=h&mra=prev&z=6

I completely agree that Google maps are not perfect. But you cant deny that out of all the options out there, they are the best - which was my point. At no point have I said they are flawless!

As long as you aren't stupid about putting in your to/from locations it usually picks it up very well. I've got Google Maps based GPS in my car and I've never had it give me any of the silly routes that the TomTom gave me, despite it being based around the same mapping system.

There's also another big difference here. Google have the ability to fix map results within a few hours. Using 2 year old OSM data does not give you that option. You're stuck with the same crap maps until someone at Apple can be arsed to update the entire app.

Whatever way you spin it, the fact is that OSM is not even close to being at the level of Google Maps, so my original statement still stands: The consumers are the ones that are now being affected by the childish hate of Google that Apple and die-hard fans have, for no real reason other than they have a competing mobile OS.

 

[El Capitano]

I completely agree that Google maps are not perfect. But you cant deny that out of all the options out there, they are the best

Yeah, that's right. Looking at Google Maps now, their footpath coverage is vastly superior to Ordnance Survey. They have so many more cycle routes than OpenStreetMap. And they get every new road on the day it opens. They are so good no-one has ever set up a blog about their foul-ups.

Oh wait, no, that's bollocks.

 

[rmwebs]

Yeah, that's right. Looking at Google Maps now, their footpath coverage is vastly superior to Ordnance Survey. They have so many more cycle routes than OpenStreetMap. And they get every new road on the day it opens. They are so good no-one has ever set up a blog about their foul-ups.

Oh wait, no, that's bollocks.

Dont be stupid.

My statement stood and still stands and nobody has proven me wrong. Instead you've said that OSM is superior in a very minor niche, and certainly not globally.

So here it is again: Google maps is annoying as hell, BUT is the most superior option OVERALL across the GLOBE (I'm not talking about some narrow minded 'US only' crap here- I'm talking above overall, as that is what counts).

If you wish to prove me wrong please do, but as it stands all I've had as responses is tiny snippets of single results (e.g OSM mapped my road better than GMaps) - nobody has a complete global look at it because they know that GMaps is superior.

Get out from under the rock and face facts - as it stands, nobody provides a better online free mapping solution than Google, thats fact, plain and simple.