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Roundup of Features in Google Maps for iOS: Better Design than Android Version, iPad Version Coming

KnightWRX said:
Revisionist history at its best. That's not how the story goes at all.

Apple asked Google for the new features provided by the back-end and for permission to implement turn-by-turn using Google's data. Google asked in return for more prominent branding in the app and for Apple to integrate Lattitude (Find my Friends, but by Google) into iOS. Apple didn't see this as acceptable and thus leveraged their mapping acquisitions to build their own.

Google never refused anything. They simply made an offer Apple didn't accept.
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IMO (assuming this is correct) I've always thought it was a pretty fair deal. I'm sure Apple could have extended that deal ever so slightly to get the latitude 'find my friends' on the iCloud site.

In hind sight, it's a hugely better option than the one we have now.
 
CausticPuppy said:
Ironically, we wouldn't have gotten this Google Maps app at all if Apple didn't kick out Google from their own maps app and try to make their own.

We'd still be stuck with a non-voice-navigation limited functionality app.
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You know why, right? Apple didn't want to allow Google to brand their app. And they preferred their own version of "Find my Friend" vs Google's Lattitude. Since they didn't want to concede those (and possibly other) points, they did what they did.

I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that Google had no desire to give iOS users TbT functionality. They did.
 
comatose81 said:
Nah, you're wrong. Do you even realize how many people 80% is?
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Whilst the OP's 80% figure is obviously made up, he's not wrong. In the UK we've had a huge amount of media coverage on the Apple Maps cockup, and comments on news sites, and even when people are asked on TV, they have pretty much all said they wouldnt buy an iPhone with Apple Maps. Obviously this isn't official stats, and we wont actually know until next year when the Q4 figures are out.
 
I'm so happy about this!!!! Thank you Google. Apple Maps sucked so much in Austria. It couldn't find the most obvious things.
 
apolloa said:
Erm, really? What free apps were there? And no Nokia doesn't count as it only came out a couple of weeks ago.
So what free apps with the same functionality of Google maps did we have then?
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What does free have to do with it ? The point is, the developer sets the price, Apple's review has nothing to do with price and they approved navigation and mapping applications long before this ever was in the app store.

The fact that it is Free changes nothing to Apple's review process. There is much precedent here, Apple is admitting nothing new.

Anyway, to answer your question : Maps+.

(and incidently, they reverted to Google Maps earlier this year after having been forced to Apple Maps by virtue of being a MapKit application).

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rmwebs said:
IMO (assuming this is correct) I've always thought it was a pretty fair deal. I'm sure Apple could have extended that deal ever so slightly to get the latitude 'find my friends' on the iCloud site.

In hind sight, it's a hugely better option than the one we have now.
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The problem is at the time it was made, Apple probably thought it had what it took and quite a decent change at breaking out on their own. Why give up branding and a good data collection feature like Find my Friends to a competitor if they could get all that data collection for themselves ?

In hind sight, I'm sure quite the few Apple execs are thinking the same thing right now, they should have simply gone with that deal.
 
hmmmm.....I dunno about this..

I'm excited as almost everyone else to get this. However, in just the last 10 minutes of using it - it's taken my phone from 100%-96% in battery life! Whoa!

Totally unacceptable.


I haven't even turned on or tried the turn by turn nav!

Also, where is the street view? (this is the main thing I was looking forward to, honestly)

I hadn't had much issue with Apple maps - until I recently went to Costa rica and found a ton of errors. Some streets were completely off scale and inaccurate.... I would be driving along a fairly main road and the Apple maps would be 80 feet off in another direction and not following the same path. This happened frequently. I reported a few to apple.
 
i.mac said:
why is it embarrasing?

every one should thank apple every day. else we would not have maps at all and a phone with 147.3 keys in it with 2000+ key combinations.

i see google maps and say 'thank you apple for showing how is done to every one'. where is the shame?
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I agree. It shows that Apple cares what its customers think. It would be much worse if they rejected the app. Allowing API keys is a great move also.
 
rmwebs said:
Whilst the OP's 80% figure is obviously made up, he's not wrong. In the UK we've had a huge amount of media coverage on the Apple Maps cockup, and comments on news sites, and even when people are asked on TV, they have pretty much all said they wouldnt buy an iPhone with Apple Maps. Obviously this isn't official stats, and we wont actually know until next year when the Q4 figures are out.
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So because there has been a lot of media coverage and survey data, this means casual users will flock to the App Store to download this app and/or rush out to buy an iPhone now?

I have yet to talk to a casual user in real life who cares one iota about what maps app is on their phone.
 
kis said:
not better. better designed .
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That sounds like a developer comment. We've (devs) all released stuff that we didn't like and wished we could redo it with all the lessons learned... Seemed like some Google engineers got their wish realized!
 
Icaras said:
What an awkward turn of events for Samsung. So do they now have to remove that anti-iPhone ad talking down about iOS Maps in Australia now? :rolleyes:
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The ad people at Samsung are obviously a bunch of children.
 
Definitely better than apple maps. Directions. Traffic. Complete map info with all the block numbers at least here in singapore. Way to go google. Until now i dont know what was apple thinking when they ditch google maps. Apple wake up
 
Haha, and so Apple wins in the end. They wanted Google to add turn by turn to Google Maps. They wouldn't. Apple plays the Apple Maps card. Now Google produces a "better than Android" version of Google Maps for iOS. Seems to me that Apple got what they wanted from this deal, and win-win for the users.
 
Regardless of the rumors, both Apple and Google are going to be driving a hard bargain. Both are competing heavily in the mobile space, and both had leverage. Apple figured it had an easy out, but made an early release of a product that wasn't ready. The new Google maps app is quite nice and is certainly better than the previous (even though I won't use most of the functionality).
 
convergent said:
Haha, and so Apple wins in the end. They wanted Google to add turn by turn to Google Maps. They wouldn't. Apple plays the Apple Maps card. Now Google produces a "better than Android" version of Google Maps for iOS. Seems to me that Apple got what they wanted from this deal, and win-win for the users.
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Are you crazy? How exactly did Apple win anything? If anything this is a win for Google.

Instead of being completely cut off, they now have an app that's better than Apple's alternative, thus can mine more data as people will use it more.

Plus Apple has not only tarnished their reputation, but now have to keep maps running, crippled for years. It's likely cost them millions.

For Google, creating their own app was never going to be a challenge - they have 7,100 people working just on maps, and it shows.
 
I'm glad google was able to provide us iOS users a quality app, when apple couldn't get the job done.

Hopefully there will be more collaboration, amd less litigation in the future
 
Firstly congratulations to google for putting out such a polished app.

Secondly, I can only see this as being damaging to apple. Google are going to roll out an SDK that can link developers app to the full google maps.. Surely it will reach a point when more apps are going to google maps than apple maps, and apple will have to make a decision to either scrap apple maps, remove google maps (will affect so many apps, by this time) or sign a contract to have google maps as default.
 
comatose81 said:
I have yet to talk to a casual user in real life who cares one iota about what maps app is on their phone.
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Same here. Of course there will be some media attention when apple guides some Australian couple way into the bush, but I've never actually heard ANYONE complain IRL. And the 80% figure is crazy. I have a hard time believing ANY app have that kind of market penetration, much less an app replacing something that ships with the product.
 
I don't know how much Apple have invested in its maps system. But I think they know they've made a mistake entering the map market
 
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rmwebs said:
Street view is there. Zoom into a road and drop a pin on it.
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comatose81 said:
junker said:
Also, where is the street view? (this is the main thing I was looking forward to, honestly)/QUOTE]

Pull up the bottom bar when looking at a poi or address. There will be a street view image you can tap on.
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Oh great - many thanks!

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Has anyone else noticed a horrible battery life, when using this app?
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30secondstosam said:
WTF - how is it "better than the android version". what a ridiculous TYPICAL apple fanboy thing to say.
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It's Google developers who said it. Are you accusing them of being Apple fanboys ? And frankly, their logic for saying so is quite sound :

Maps App for iPhone Steers Right
This, it turns out, is the best news of all. The brand-new, completely rethought design is slick, simple and coherent. Google admits that it’s even better than Google Maps for Android phones, which has accommodated its evolving feature set mainly by piling on menus.
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30secondstosam said:
Good luck setting this as your default Maps app. Oh wait.....
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That's what the Google Maps for iOS SDK is for. You as a user won't be setting it as default, developers will by using Google's SDK instead of MapKit.
 
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