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Lack of Maps Updates in iOS 8 Said to Be Caused by 'Internal Politics', Developers Leaving
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The client is the hard part
They get data from TomTom like google gets raw data from other companies
Not immediately by choice in some circumstances. Tell Siri where you want to go and she's not launching Google Maps.
Morale on Maps must be pretty low with its long unsuccessful history.
I still won't use maps - not enough functionality, and more important, still, too unreliable.
One item that still hasn't been fixed - searching for a street name often doesn't search the local area first. Instead I get results from other cities, sometimes in the states at the top of the search list, thousands of kms away.
I still won't use maps - not enough functionality, and more important, still, too unreliable.
One item that still hasn't been fixed - searching for a street name often doesn't search the local area first. Instead I get results from other cities, sometimes in the states at the top of the search list, thousands of kms away.
Last time I checked, a non-mapping app calling the mapping API got Apple Maps, and clicking on anything in the built in apps or Facebook took me to Apple's Maps with no ability to divert.
Let me change those things and I'd care a lot less.
Scott Forstall refused to apologise for the Apple Maps debacle, that was one of the many contributing factors that lead to the ouster.
Whether Steve Jobs would or wouldn't have allowed it is 100% irrelevant; he's passed on and can't come back. More relevant questions include:
1) Has Tim Cook taken measures remedy the problem
and
2) why hasn't he been effective getting Maps up to speed since the botched Maps launch?
In the past couple of years there have been plenty of stories about political infighting and power grabs. This is one more, but also accompanied by programmers quitting.
Programmers being rapidly switched from one project to another, as needed, is not new at Apple, so these discontented programmers have to have some other reason. Jobs was, from stories, and his own admission, a brutal boss at times yet programmers stayed on. So it has to be something other than not being coddled.
Federighi said it best during the keynote when he said, "You can't believe how much time we spent designing a trash can [icon for Yosemite]." Pretty much sums up the whole mess for me.
My error, I'm clearly not up to date with Google Maps. It seems it became vector based on iOS 18 months ago.
POI are still totally misplaced. Last time I tried apple maps, was when I took to New Zealand for holiday. It started barking non sensical commands... looking at the phone, it claimed we were driving sideways on the road... Neither google maps or the 5 years old built-in gps had any problems, but apple maps was not worth the space it took on the phone.
In fairness, OSX icon design is completely separate department from programming Maps functionality. Frankly, I want Apple to pay attention to detail to every part of its OSes, including icons. Would you prefer Apple just Google's "trash can" and chooses some public domain clip art? The problem here is a cat fight in the Maps hierarchy.
The problems in Apple Maps are structural, and endemic, and Apple aren't doing anything to fix them in what has been years now. I'm not surprised the staff turnover is horrendous, can you imagine how it looks on someone's CV?
Cook has been ignoring the problem and hoping it will magically go away for far too long now.
Cook has been ignoring the problem and hoping it will magically go away for far too long now.
This is only somewhat true these days. As a developer, I can tell you that Google's iOS Maps SDK is a buggy, poorly-performing mess compared to using Apple's SDK, which is why you don't see a great deal of apps using it.
Apple maps, on the other hand, has improved vastly since the iOS 6 days. The only really significant problems with it today, IMO, relate to the quality of its points-of-interest database and location searching.
Google still certainly wins in terms of the quality of their maps data and search, but the actual implementation of their app and SDK on iOS leaves much to be desired.
I don't know about that. I understand why Apple have to release their own Mapping application, I honestly do. But when it initially launched it was an Alpha build at best and it's clear that even in its current state it's still very much work in progress.
As I said elsewhere on this thread, it's years behind Google Maps. I just wish Apple allowed Google Maps to become the default Mapping app rather than the in-house app that clearly needs an awful lot of work.
Fantastic but what does your using it for driving have to do with the fact Apple hasn't implanted specific walking or public transportation routes? That is what's at issue and where Maps is truly lagging behind Google right now.
So what you're saying is the only problem left with Apple Maps is finding places and them being on the map.
Oh, well that's okay then.
(Also, the main reason developers use the Apple API is because it's free, not because it's good.)
Yes, pretty much. I admit its a terrible problem and it's inexcusable that Apple haven't fixed it yet.
Nope. Google's SDK is also free. Developers choose Apple's SDK because it's easier, but also because it's better. It has much better performance, far fewer bugs, has more features for customization, etc...
