I never said anything about someone being lost. Reading comprehension is a great skill.
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Tim Cook Publishes Open Letter on Maps for iOS 6
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I think the Maps apps's problem comes down to poor QC. I bet the software manager promised a finished product, and for whatever reason, likely didn't go through stringent testing before release. I've worked in software development before, and I've seen how easy is it for things to be missed - especially post-launch.
Yes it has taken Google years to collect data which is why Google maps shouldn't have been taken away until apple maps had collected more data.
C'mon People
I see a lot of very opportunistic replies in this thread, especially at the beginning.
Ok, fine...in some people's view, Apple effed up royally. I'd wager that 75% of those anonymously flaming apple right now are the same who very vigorously backed SJ in his comments of "waging Thermonuclear War" on google. To those 75%: Shut up. You're being flat out hypocritical, and you need to eat your words. Speaking just for myself, the TxT application of A Maps has been working fine. If you want to tear a company down on details, then have at it. Nothing is perfect at launch, and at the end of the day, nothing ever is perfect.
If anyone thinks Google Maps started as perfect: Step out onto the front lawn of your glass house and throw a big ass boulder at your neighbor.
Now: Tim Cook did something virtually no CEO does, especially for a company this damned big and successful. He apologized. Wow. Beat him up for it, the man acted like a human being and provided alternatives for an admittedly sub-par product. (/Sarcasm for you morons out there.)
Everyone relax. It will improve. And if you don't want to relax, just sit back and bitch about something you have zero ability to create or improve upon.
I see a lot of very opportunistic replies in this thread, especially at the beginning.
Ok, fine...in some people's view, Apple effed up royally. I'd wager that 75% of those anonymously flaming apple right now are the same who very vigorously backed SJ in his comments of "waging Thermonuclear War" on google. To those 75%: Shut up. You're being flat out hypocritical, and you need to eat your words. Speaking just for myself, the TxT application of A Maps has been working fine. If you want to tear a company down on details, then have at it. Nothing is perfect at launch, and at the end of the day, nothing ever is perfect.
If anyone thinks Google Maps started as perfect: Step out onto the front lawn of your glass house and throw a big ass boulder at your neighbor.
Now: Tim Cook did something virtually no CEO does, especially for a company this damned big and successful. He apologized. Wow. Beat him up for it, the man acted like a human being and provided alternatives for an admittedly sub-par product. (/Sarcasm for you morons out there.)
Everyone relax. It will improve. And if you don't want to relax, just sit back and bitch about something you have zero ability to create or improve upon.
Exactly, it's going to get worse and worse. After reading so much bickering over *******g cell phones I am ready just to go back to my old flip phone and stay right there.
Especially knowing for a fact people watch movies on those tiny screens (even 5.5 is tiny) when they probably have a tv right in the other room. I hope the smartphone thing is just a fad that wears off.
15 years ago we used our brain more. All this stuff is nice but not nearly a necessity in life.
Someone would have to take them to court and WIN.
Even then, providing the hooks to allow other vendors to integrate would take development time and testing. For Apple and for the other vendors.
I was responding to someone who said "Give us Google Maps NOW." Your suggestion is something that doesn't accomplish that.
Please do a little research before rendering an opinion. They are several cartography experts blogged on this subject. Google it.
Fact: The new iphone is inferior to the old iphone.
Solution: You forgot to mention that people can choose to use an android phone that now has superior mapping and street view.
That sentence explains what their aim is, he clearly said that they are continuing to improve the maps and also offered some alternatives meanwhile.
Too much ****ing up and backpedaling going on. At least the environmental certificate thing, olympic ads and now these maps. Apple shape up man! It's far easier to lose the trust then to earn it. Don't apologize, fix it. And don't do it again!
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Agreed. Flip phones save you time everyday from facebook toilet sessions and cost is 10x less. Im starting to hate smartphones. Pretty sure iPhone 5 will last me until 2016 at least.
Nice one. Safari was the only app with disabled location service - good call ! Thumbs up !
I disagree. If everything they did was done solely to make their products the best in the world then they wouldn't have released apple maps until it was better than google maps. It's pretty simple.
There is nothing to disagree about, it's a simple exercise in reading comprehension. That sentence explains their aim, it is not saying that the new maps is better in the current state.
I think this depends on where you live. For me it's a mixed bag. I prefer the new app for some things, but miss some other features from the old one. All in all this is not that big a deal though.
Better: Traffic info
I'm in Los Angeles, and the new maps app is better on traffic information than the google-based version was. The new version includes hazard alerts (similar to Sigalert), where the old version did not. So now I can see whether traffic is associated with an accident or not, whereas before I would just see traffic, and it would be unclear if it was normal traffic or something much worse (as accidents often are).
Better: Turn-by-turn and faster performance
The turn-by-turn directions are nice. And the vector maps zoom quickly, but I can't tell if that's just because I'm using a much faster phone (iPhone 5) on a much faster network (LTE), or the vector nature of the maps itself (probably both).
Worse: loss of streetview and transit directions.
I don't use these features most of the time, but they were handy when traveling to unfamiliar places. Not sure how big an impact it will be yet, but I don't look forward to added hassle and uncertainty.
Flyover is a fun toy (zoom in on Griffith's observatory in flyover mode and rotate to view the city and it really feels like you're in a helicopter over the real place. lovely.) But I haven't found it to be actually useful yet. I expect it will be helpful for scoping an area, but not a helpful as streetview was.
Better: Traffic info
I'm in Los Angeles, and the new maps app is better on traffic information than the google-based version was. The new version includes hazard alerts (similar to Sigalert), where the old version did not. So now I can see whether traffic is associated with an accident or not, whereas before I would just see traffic, and it would be unclear if it was normal traffic or something much worse (as accidents often are).
Better: Turn-by-turn and faster performance
The turn-by-turn directions are nice. And the vector maps zoom quickly, but I can't tell if that's just because I'm using a much faster phone (iPhone 5) on a much faster network (LTE), or the vector nature of the maps itself (probably both).
Worse: loss of streetview and transit directions.
I don't use these features most of the time, but they were handy when traveling to unfamiliar places. Not sure how big an impact it will be yet, but I don't look forward to added hassle and uncertainty.
Flyover is a fun toy (zoom in on Griffith's observatory in flyover mode and rotate to view the city and it really feels like you're in a helicopter over the real place. lovely.) But I haven't found it to be actually useful yet. I expect it will be helpful for scoping an area, but not a helpful as streetview was.
Apple can't do that! How will they get all these location data if people started using the old Maps app?
People can still use the web alternative if they have problems with the new Maps app. I really don't see that as a big issue.
Apple's only mistake was that they didn't set the expectations right. At the end, Apple will have a much better product than everybody else, or at least a very good one, on par with other solutions. The interface of Apple Maps is great. They just need more quality data. Time will heal everything.
Definitely. Seeing people (friends) browse the net for half an hour on those smartphones is sad.
I always dreamed of browsing the web on 4-5 " screens 10 years ago, so awesome.
I think there's some strategy behind this "mea culpa" that isn't just PR related. It will actually encourage people to compare the products rather than just listen to the hype, and I think Apple knows that those comparisons aren't always going to be in their competitors favor.
Yeah but when you're a company that charges retarded prices for your products and markets them as the crown jewels of the industry, then don't deliver, you should acknowledge it. Just in my local Apple store there were dozens and dozens of returned iPhone 5's, I personally went through 3 damaged ones in store and witnessed several people going through multiple phones.
This has been my experience also....never been an issue since IOS 6 went live.
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ya'll must be unpacking them wrong. J/k
I recall when google maps came out, for a year or so I would still go to mapquest and print out directions when i had to travel. It wasn't a bad product, just immature at the time.
What Apple has done is try to create a new system to replace one full of user data. I'm sure if they tried to make their own Wikipedia, people would be up in arms because an episode from the third season of Knight Rider was inaccurate.
What Apple has done is try to create a new system to replace one full of user data. I'm sure if they tried to make their own Wikipedia, people would be up in arms because an episode from the third season of Knight Rider was inaccurate.
Anybody remember how good google maps were when they first launched?
That's not the point. The point is that Apple chose to downgrade the user experience ... taking away a highly useful mature product (google maps) and substituting a half-baked replacement. I have no doubt that Maps will improve with time, but it shows a bit of disrespect for their customers to by fiat make their experience worse.
It would have been better to release it as a beta during the last year of the google contract (and still provide the google maps of old)... but of course that does introduce other issues.
There are plenty of issues wrong with Maps that aren't tied to crowd-sourcing. For example the satellite images (in the US) are much much worse than Google's. There are plenty of other non-crowd-sourced deficiencies.
It will no doubt become an excellent product but they've chosen to make their consumers suffer in the mean time. That degrades goodwill. This letter is a step in the right direction but they've got a lot more to go.