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So....shall we talk Maps?

steveza said:
Search works for me and I've just checked Berlin and there are satellite images. Perhaps they haven't covered everywhere just yet.
Click to expand...

Would you mind checking something for me, too? :)

I live in Tokyo, and really like that Google Maps offer transliteration when the iPhone is set to English. If you zoom in on Tokyo, do you see kanji in addition to English names for places like train stations, etc? Or is it all English (or all Japanese)?

If you could check that out, I'd really appreciate it. It's the one thing I'm worried about with the new map app ... :(
 
The satellite images for where i am are within the last 6 months, google maps is about 6 years old, as it only shows a quarter of my estate built. i can tell apple's is within 6 months as we had our roundabouts painted red within the last 6 months (5 months is my best guess actually). so woot! :)

guessing 3D will take its time, like street view did back in the day. i remember everyone bitching about streetview not being great as it doesn't cover everything, yada yada yada, this is no different.
 
So Apple has partnered with TomTom for their turn by turn navigation?

Just as well I own the TomTom app then, which works perfectly on my iPhone 4 yet Apples own turn by turn, aided by TomTom, doesn't ...
 
I tried the turn by turn directions and it gave me distances in yards. I could ave cried. :(

(UK user)
 
I really won't want to give up transit times and go through a different app for each city. I'll stick with google maps and dare I say BING maps.
 
chrf097 said:
Woah dude, calm down. This is a BETA. Not the final version. Obviously when the final version comes along, Apple will have gotten much more Hi Res imagery. Remember, THIS IS A BETA, not the FINAL.
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I'm fully aware of what BETA means. I'm also aware that I upgraded my 4 to a 4s largely to take advantage of Siri and here I am almost a year later waiting for 50% of the functionality advertised.

Siri is still officially in beta - will maps be for the rest of the world in a years time? I wouldn't be surprised.
 
mavis said:
Would you mind checking something for me, too? :)

I live in Tokyo, and really like that Google Maps offer transliteration when the iPhone is set to English. If you zoom in on Tokyo, do you see kanji in addition to English names for places like train stations, etc? Or is it all English (or all Japanese)?

If you could check that out, I'd really appreciate it. It's the one thing I'm worried about with the new map app ... :(
Click to expand...
As far as I can see the place (like train stations) names are in Japanese only - the area and town names are in English only.
 
OzyOly said:
I tried the turn by turn directions and it gave me distances in yards. I could ave cried. :(

(UK user)
Click to expand...

We do officially use yards and miles for distance on the roads here though. If Apple made it give distances in kilometres or speed in kph in the UK there'd be outcry. And it doesn't make sense to have metres for short distances and miles for long…
 
RocksterX said:
What really bothers me, is that it is so obvious that Apple is doing it not as a customer advocate. There is significant functional loss.
Click to expand...

That's very true, in fact the whole update has a "for corporations" feel to it, it's like a platform to sell you things, instead of a user oriented OS.

Also, while this is beta and all, the problem is that things like Streetview, satellite imagery and other things of that sort aren't going to be fixed quickly, that takes years! That's why Google Maps is so far ahead of everyone.
 
What about the various settings?? Can you avoid tolls, can it alert you to red light cameras?? Also, what about taking phone calls and using the iPod during navigation?
 
amorya said:
We do officially use yards and miles for distance on the roads here though. If Apple made it give distances in kilometres or speed in kph in the UK there'd be outcry. And it doesn't make sense to have metres for short distances and miles for long…
Click to expand...

Mine gave me distances in miles and feet.. would prefer yards over feet!

The worst thing in turn-by-turn this morning was when I came to a T junction and it said "Head South on Main Street"... not helpful to those of us outside the US who don't navigate by compass points!
 
To those yelling back at the OP that it's a beta. I think this is nothing to do with it being a beta. It is the fact that whomever Apple is using for imagery does not have high res images of everywhere.

For example. Petersfield in Hampshire has low res images, however Portsmouth is high res.
 
WordMasterRice said:
This isn't a bug, this is the problem when you go to your own mapping solution. Google has decades of satellite maps, not something Apple is fortunate to have.

It will be years for the Maps data to get up to par with what we use to have with Google.
Click to expand...
Apple bought more airplanes to ramp up it's data gathering. I don't know how many due to their extreme secrecy. But given the massive cash reserves, Apple could have a sizable number in the air.
 
af123 said:
Mine gave me distances in miles and feet.. would prefer yards over feet!

The worst thing in turn-by-turn this morning was when I came to a T junction and it said "Head South on Main Street"... not helpful to those of us outside the US who don't navigate by compass points!
Click to expand...

I haven't actually tried the new maps yet (all our modern enough test devices are currently in use, and I'm not putting it on my primary phone), so I'll reserve judgement until I do. I agree that "head south" is not helpful!
 
ixodes said:
Apple bought more airplanes to ramp up it's data gathering. I don't know how many due to their extreme secrecy. But given the massive cash reserves, Apple could have a sizable number in the air.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt Apple is buying aircraft for imagery
 
For me the worst thing about the app is just how unreadable the maps actually are. I can understand the lack of data, and hopefully that will improve before the proper release, but I am worried that Apple seem to think that the colour schemes are ok.

I find it almost impossible to see minor roads unless you zoom in enough. They need to increase the contrast between the road, road edge and background colours, or widen smaller roads (especially when they are the only roads around). When you compare the old Google maps app next to the new Apple one showing the same area it is very worrying just how poor the new maps look IMHO. Maybe it's subjective and I'm in the minority but the four or five people that I've shown it to have all said the same thing.

The good thing is that this should be very easy to change, but the worrying thing is that it is so easy that I wonder why they haven't done it already. Hopefully it is because they are using temporary colours until they regionalise it (Motorways in blue in the UK for example).

Another problem in urban areas is not having different colours for built-up areas. They have green areas but not urbanised areas, which makes the sizes of towns difficult to identify. I don't know if this is a data or style issue.

As a developer writing a map app that uses the Apple maps extensively I am pretty annoyed at how much worse my app now looks, so I really hope they sort this out prior to the proper release.
 
Is there lane assistance? (showing what lane to be in for turns with warnings to get in lane, etc)
 
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