Just going to point out Google does work with Cities to get map date. They buy it from a 3rd party. Chances that 3rd party does not have anything better.
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Google to Show Off 'Next Dimension' of Maps on June 6
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Just going to point out Google does work with Cities to get map date. They buy it from a 3rd party. Chances that 3rd party does not have anything better.
Exactly. I'm not sure why people are hung up on Google Maps, it's rubbish! And being that TeleAtlas is owned by TomTom I doubt it's hurting TomTom ^that much^. Offline map's is a big deal, especially for me when driving through 4 or 5 European countries.
I have navigon and it licks b@lls it is so laggy it takes forever to enter the adress you want to get to. I am sure it would be an easy fix if the company cared enough to fix the software
Damn, I am just so sick of the invasive methods. Next time I see this digital ape sticking its head out of a hybrid google stupid car in front of my property, I am going to ax it right off. Whatever anyone does, stick to freaking maps only. Next I will see, what?, a mother f....g drone in my yard and inside my bedroom to map my ass?
why? works splendidly on my iPhone. Garmin is da bomb, or $2 for MotionX.
Invasive what ?
Some people sure like to over react on the Internet.
I find street view quite useful, especially when planning out trips to areas I have never been. Let's me get familiar with the sights before getting there, so when I do actually end up getting there, I'm not freaking lost with just an address on a piece of paper.
I know for a fact that Google is limited on how frequently they can take pictures (for privacy reasons), but I'm sure they can update more frequently than they do now. A house that was torn down a while back is still standing in my neighborhood.
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Google makes sure that it's not invasive. They don't want to get sued by paranoid people.
There's just so much wrong with this post I don't know where to start.
First up: Apple is a software and hardware company. They've been making software, real software, for decades. Advanced, fully featured operating systems, creativity software, word processing and presentation software, coding software, browsers and the rest. Some of this software has been among the best software ever designed by anyone and people have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase and use it.
Google, on the other hand, is an advertising company that make software in order to sell adverts. Few consumers have ever paid for google software. The vast majority of them use Google's software for free and would balk at the idea of handing over cash for it. Android phone makers don't even pay to use Android.
The idea that Google is "one of the top software companies that has ever existed" is astonishingly laughable. I don't mean to be rude but do you have any idea about what you're saying? Google makes some good software and a lot of software that's only good enough for people to use for free. They bought in Android. They bought in Maps. They have very powerful search algorithms and great advertising placement software but the rest is acquired and a lot of it is only good enough to hand out as freeware.
Google Maps is really good. Apple will have to pull something out of the bag to be better. But please don't spout of nonsense like this in public. It just makes you look ignorant.
No they don't make sure. They just roll on public roads taking pictures of public facing objects. If you find their pictures invasive, maybe you need to plant some trees or install some drapes, because they haven't photographed anything that wasn't public.
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We've covered this. Systems. Vertically, integrated, systems. 90% of their revenue. Apple is neither a software or hardware company. They're a systems company.
with the level of fanboyism and Google hate I am almost surprised someone hasn't tried to say Steve Jobs discovered the Earth was round and Eric Schmidt stole his cartography studies to make Google Maps
Sounds like PEBKAC to me. Why dont you post the address and I'll run it through gmaps and see if it literally gives you directions to an address 20 miles away.
Eric Schmidt isn't worth the time.
He's a hack who has never had an original idea, ever.
Although I agree on Schmidt you can't blame him for that. His role in Google is to manage the company, not to develop products. He has employees to do that for the business.
LOL like apple bringing out their own mapping solution isn't a reaction to google maps in the first place.
You and probably most of people posting about how google is "reacting" to apple really have no idea how robust google maps for android is. Maps for android has terrestrial mapping, navigation, street view, lattitude, realtime traffic, public transit directions, walking directions, even indoor maps of shopping malls and airports. On top of that, gmaps has 7 years worth of POI data and has full OS level integration and search.
Google has never announced a feature for maps that did not make it into the app shortly after. Gmaps is constantly being improved and updated. Whatever apple shows for their mapping solution will pale in comparison to the existing product google has had for years already.
Quoting this to make it easier for you to come back and eat crow after WWDC.
Google Maps is just like any mapping tool - Google wasn't innovative when they came out with it. If it's so groundbreaking and remarkable, how come I've been able to live without it for at least five years now?
True but pretty much all anyone else at Google is steal ideas.
They're not innovative in the least. :\
Technically they are both a software and a hardware company. They don't manufacture their own hardware but that doesn't make them not a hardware company, it just makes them not a manufacturing company.
What matters, specifically, is that the initial post, the one that I was responding, claimed that Apple is not a software company while Google is. This is factually inaccurate and my reply is focused on that. What Apple actually does is, of course, more complicated than can be covered in a short forum post. Broadly, however, I would say their revenue stream is based on their platform and ecosystem.
Why don't we make it interesting then? If apple's mapping solution is better than google's then I will never post here again. If it's not, then you never post here again. And just to make it clear, when I say better, it needs to match ALL of the features of gmaps and then some.
How do you know gmaps is like any other mapping tool if by your own admission you've never used it for at least 5 years?
Apple doesn't need them.
They just used their relationship with Starbucks and asked them to please provide a few snapshots looking out from every Starbucks store front.
95% of the world covered in one fell swoop.
IIRC Google has some kind of exclusivity on certain pieces of information from their mapping providers. They get some sort of deal as they have improved the maps, basically when streetview cars go around, it's remapping the entire path, getting a precise location for each road. This is basically done to correct errors in the maps that are provided to Google, so that eventually they wont need a 3rd party for anything other than Satellite photos, even then this is being replaced as Google now has their own imaging satellite in orbit.
Basically the copyright notice is only there as there are still patches of photos that were not Google's and were instead licensed.
Going back to my earlier post, this is where Google has the advantage, BIG TIME.
Apple does not have its own Satellite, they will rely on the likes of DigitalGlobe for aerial photography, of which they will have zero control. Google can whip the satellite around and grap a couple of new snaps whenever they like.
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As a sidenote, I still find it really odd/foolish that those who quoted my last post (where I said that statistically Google will do maps better than Apple) people's responses were effectively 'look at the music industry'. While I see where these people are coming from, what exactly am I supposed to look at? Tanking iTunes sales due to Spotify? We're talking about VERY different markets. When Google took on the music industry, it was a case of buy "buy music on CD and rip it, or buy online". Here we have "Use up to date maps from a map provider, or use Up to date maps from another map provider with less features and experience". Apple have zero experience in this field, and will rely heavily on 3rd parties to provide their information. Apple aren't exactly going to launch a Satellite and map out all the roads over the next few weeks.
I haven't seen any fanboyism here unless you count that guy who was worried about Google Maps invading his privacy.