Found an awesome video poking fun at Apple's new Maps app!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjBcK41cjZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjBcK41cjZk
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Wow. Apple Maps is a disaster.
- Thread starter b24pgg
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Yes it has, noticeably, in some places, and not one whit in others. I was in Japan for the past couple of weeks, allowed my iPad to upgrade to 6.0 while keeping 5.x on my iPhone.
The difference was appalling.
When the biggest, busiest train station in the world (Shinjuku) is reduced to a grey polygon, which doesn't even show up in search results, that's an incredibly big problem. And it's still like that right at this moment.
On the other hand the satellite image of my home went from being a fuzzy undefinable patchwork last week to razor-sharp yesterday.
They're working on it, but there's a long way to go.
Still sucks for me, no changes or fixes for me yet. It still doesn't know about the missing tube stations in central London, missing buildings and missing popular high street shops.
Some people have reported fixes though.
tl,dr: slightly in some areas, but almost not at all for the most part (I still haven't seen a single improvement in London at all).
Not only are they spelled wrong on many occasions (how does errors like that even come up?), they are also in the wrong place and, to top it off, it's completely random on what zoom level they pop up or not.
Not all the time is my point - just yesterday I tested it - Maps wanted to take me in the complete opposite direction of were I was going. As for labels "working"... well they are certainly there, but most major roads in my town are mislabeled.
Not saying that Google Maps doesn't have it flaws - just submitted a bunch of updates to it. The thing is though - Google updates their maps fairly quickly, Google have a great tool for doing so and Google seems to know that this is a complex thing that goes beyond turn-by-turn.
Yes, because this is a geolocation issue with their Yelp data. So they should have this fixed a long time ago.
No it doesn't - first of all there's no refinement of "congestion" - it's either congested or not. If a major road were slightly congested, I would still use it because the alternative route won't save me any time. Their triggers for congestion is also way off - just this Friday it sent me into 5 (yes FIVE) major queues over a 300 km distance, two alternative routes were also congested - it didn't notice at all. I get that this is crowd-sourced and some poor schmuck needs to be the first in there to save the others, but I refuse to believe that I was the first one in there on all five occations.
No I suggest that Apple get's their fingers out of their asses and start improving this thing in a faster pace than we've seen during Beta and since launch. Because when Google Maps lands people are going to switch and when they have another preferred Maps app they will be updating that. I've said this before - if every iPhone user updated maps they would still be 10% of the people actually updating Google Maps. Get this on OSX and on the web and make it into something you want to use instead of the joke it currently is.
I don't feel the need to make excuses for it, i think the criticism is fair - the app IS that bad and the dick-move of adding it, thinking the users wouldn't notice is just that... a dick-move. NOW is when they are scrambling to improve Maps? I think it's safe to say that Apple doesn't know what they are doing in this case...
If I only wanted physically correct maps I could just as well use paper maps. We're returning to the pre-smartphone age of getting around the city.
The tiles - while usually correct - are hard to read, with major roads hardly distinguished from others, and landmarks hard to make out. Compare the are around e.g. King's Cross. While the Apple map is correct in the sense that roads are where they should be (that's the easy part), you would be hard-pressed to argue that the Apple version are easier to read, understand and use for basic navigation compared to the Google version. This is especially true on certain zoom levels, but even the case when you zoom in.
LOL at EVERYONE attacking Apple Maps. You've read the posts here from people not having problems with the software, myself included.
Works both ways y0.
You mean not working for the number of people coming online to complain about them? More people complain online than praise - that is common. With the amount of devices running iOS6, there are plenty of people who don't mind the maps and plenty of people who don't like them. Swings both ways.
Such extreme reactions for, lets face it, a feature on a mobile phone. Sure, I'm not thrilled that Apple Maps needs this much work but I'm not foaming at the mouth ranting and raving, I'm seeing the argument from both sides.
I've not come across that myself, I have to say (during day to day usage anyway - looking at the reported problem areas I can see that, but its not affecting me in my area).
Absolutely. However, Swindon was completely missing for nearly a month, it just depends how busy they are at the time.
If only it were that simple, and if only the data was coming from Yelp!
In my area, there are four "High Street"'s. I live in Orpington, however for some reason mapping applications list Orpington as a part of Bromley. St Pauls Cray also has a High Street.
Wherever the data has come from, it is not importing postcodes or town names. It's importing a wide area, number and street name - this data is NOT from Yelp. Quite a large number of missing POI's in my area DO appear on Yelp, but not on Apple Maps.
Red dashed lines for heavily congested, orange dashed lines for minor congestion, clear for clear.
Maybe nobody else is using Apple Maps in your area!
Well, they're going to have to hire a lot more staff. That's all I can say.
They didn't announce it correctly IMO. If it was launched as a beta, same as Siri, then this would have been better. Because they advertised it as better than the previous version thats the mistake they made. I honestly do not think it was a "dick move" on Apple's part.
I'll say it again, without these problem reports from the mass public, how would you get them to improve it before it launches?
Are you really still in denial about there being a major problem? That it's only people here complaining, and everyone else is happy?
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/apple-maps-usage-down-to-just-4-per-cent-1100766
Apple will have exact statistics about how much usage has declined at the server end. Probably that's what triggered the unprecedented action of apologising and then suggesting rival products.
Thanks (To bp1000 and The Phazer as well) I have not upgraded anything to iOS 6 yet. Just waiting it out.
How did they get it right with their first Maps application back in 2007? That was Apple's first foray into making a maps app and from reports, it was thrown together at the last moment. It still didn't have blaring errors.
Anyways, to answer your question, Apple does not need user feedback to produce a great maps app. They've done it before. All they need to do is use superior data, which they obviously neglected to do this time around. The data is out there and it is readily available, Apple just feels that they need to reinvent the wheel.
Read my posts again. I'm not in denial. I know there are problems with Apple Maps, and I much prefer Google Maps.
Because they built a UI. All the back-end stuff was done by Google. One company. Apple Maps bring map data from one acquisition, satellite data from another, POI data from yet another, Traffic information from a fourth... etc etc. This is a massive, massive, massive job compared to building a simple UI to ping requests to Google's servers.
Nobody has as reliable a data source as Google. Due to the contract issues, Apple cannot use that data any more. Yelp is crowdsourced, OSM is incomplete, where else would you get fully up to date reliable POI data for the entire world?
Apple aren't trying to re-invent the wheel. They've done exactly the same as Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia Maps and Bing Maps both started with exactly the same issues as Apple Maps has - however because it is bundled with a much bigger selling product, its a bigger issue.
guy in my work just came in and started ranting about apples maps. "my house is just a big cloud wtf?!!"
"went to use streetview yesterday to check parking but no streetview, do you have streetview on yours? (android)"
"oh yes" i say - very smug
"cant even get streetview on the web page, they have a year to run they should never have done this its shocking"
me: (very smug)
p.s this is the iphone guy who said i should be buying an iphone and he didnt even know what widgets were didnt know android has had voice to text and turn by turn directions for nearly 3 years.
I was talking about getting a nexus 7 and he just drones on about the ipad. I hope he shuts up now.
"went to use streetview yesterday to check parking but no streetview, do you have streetview on yours? (android)"
"oh yes" i say - very smug
"cant even get streetview on the web page, they have a year to run they should never have done this its shocking"
me:
(very smug)p.s this is the iphone guy who said i should be buying an iphone and he didnt even know what widgets were
didnt know android has had voice to text and turn by turn directions for nearly 3 years. I was talking about getting a nexus 7 and he just drones on about the ipad. I hope he shuts up now.
Nokia Maps didn't started nowhere to scratch. NAVTEQ rings a bell?
The same NAVTEQ that has one of the best maps coverage in the world. Much better that crappy TomTom that cheap ass Apple is sing right now.
apology with a daft suggestion
Here's the Apology Letter:
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/
"While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google ... maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app."
Trouble is, the Google web app does not have the functionality.
On IOS 5 if you do a route plan it exits Safari and launches the standard Google Maps app.
On IOS 6... what happens?
Here's the Apology Letter:
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/
"While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google ... maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app."
Trouble is, the Google web app does not have the functionality.
On IOS 5 if you do a route plan it exits Safari and launches the standard Google Maps app.
On IOS 6... what happens?
For the US and UK, Apple Maps use has plunged to 1 in 25
http://gigaom.com/apple/after-fast-uptake-apple-maps-use-plunges-to-1-in-25-ios-owners/
Apple's not gonna get much crowd-sourcing out of that!
http://gigaom.com/apple/after-fast-uptake-apple-maps-use-plunges-to-1-in-25-ios-owners/
Apple's not gonna get much crowd-sourcing out of that!
It may vary with the provider used - I twitched when I read they were going with TomTom because they have a record of sucking big time in my area.
They usually have local admins engaged - but I couldn't say in Your case, don't know. There are areas of the UK that haven't been updated for some time for no obvious reason - it may be the amount of editions that trigger another run with the StreetView car.
I think most (if not all) the POI's are. The Yelp locations are correct in Yelp itself, it's when we get to Apple Maps they seem to scatter all over the place - that looks like something went wrong when importing the data and something like that should be fixable rather fast.
This is actually a major point. Google knows search and they know context, this is why You get better results in Google Maps. The POI's may be in both apps, but only one of them finds it. Searching in Apple Maps just seems "linear" and hardly ever gives any logical result. The search function won't find things that are POI's on the map even and the weird thing is that Siri will. Don't know if this is a bug or not - but I fear that context search for maps is a rather complex thing for them to work out and something that's going to be a bad experience for quite a while.
Apple kinda set the stage for a major catastrophe when deciding to use various sources for this - various sources, various countries, means various ways of writing that same address. Hell... even Amazon can't provide a unified way of writing my address.
Haven't seen orange before - but You are correct, just found an example - the size, the orange they have chosen and the zoom level does make it hard to distinguish.
There really isn't anything to say - it's out, it's a mess and Apple apparently haven't got either QA or a clue on what a maps app should be (or do). We'll just have to see what happens.
I think the alternative to Apple knowing about this is more scary, so let's just hope they did. They knew this was going to be a feature regression even with the added value, but choose to not explain this. Scott Forstall painted the perfect picture during WWDC, limiting his demo to something they knew would work perfectly and not saying anything about the majority that wouldn't (dick-move right there - it's misleading). There was a lot of feedback on this during the Beta (posters in this thread amongst others provided a lot of feedback) and yet Apple didn't change any of the rhetoric or marketing material - at this point they could have slapped on the "Beta" sticker and avoided some of the backlash - still nothing (even more of a dick-move - thinking they could sneak this out under the radar). When trouble started they were oh so humble... You know, this is what they should have been from the start, not all of a sudden -this just makes me think it's theater.
Better tools and an acknowledgment: we're changing our maps engine, it will be lacking POI's and some detail. Please help us making it better - "operators are standing by" and we made some kick-ass tools for You to use with ease. ******* Google! Long live Apple!
...or something like that...
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None in Denmark and Germany too.
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Nokia Maps didn't started nowhere to scratch. NAVTEQ rings a bell?
Apple could have bought Nokia, snatched NavTeq and thrown the rest curbside. With the added benefit of stopping the train wreck that is Windows Phone.
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Google is the only party that has mapping data? Not true. Parties that own mapping data include Bing and Nokia (as you point out), but also Navigon, Magellan, and Garmin, plus a slew of other entities like Waze, MotionX, and Telnav. Then there is TomTom, whose stand-alone app works very well. So Apple must be butchering TomTom's data somehow. So, yes, Apple is reinventing the wheel. With the money they have they could either buy this data outright or at least license it. They may have to do this until they get their stuff together.
I was just remembering how some people were complaining as recently as a month ago about how terrible the Google Maps app was on iOS 5 because it hadn't been updated since 2007.
Now, some of those same people would give their right arm to get the old Google Maps app back. It's amazing how your perspective can change in just a few weeks.
Now, some of those same people would give their right arm to get the old Google Maps app back. It's amazing how your perspective can change in just a few weeks.
Well yes, we wanted Apple to update the app to use the new features available in Google Maps, we didn't want them to change the whole backend data they were using. Apparently, Google's terms for turn-by-turn and vector maps were branding and built-in Latitude (whereas Apple now has Latitude in the app store and builds-in "Find my Friends" instead).
Maybe Apple should've just accepted those terms in hindsight uh ?
Sure, when you ask for something better and you get something worse instead, there's nothing surprising about wanting the old thing back. It doesn't change that the old app needs a feature update, but the new app with those features doesn't have reliable data backing it.
Maps are only as good as the data behind them, otherwise, Apple might as well have mapped Middle Earth for all the good it does.
I remember being hammered over wanting NFC - the argument used the most was: "it's not ready for prime time, Apple won't add features before they think they are ready... just look at LTE"
Same people come here (still) and try to defend Apple Maps - You're right... perspective can change quite a bit.
They could have released their new maps as a standalone beta product while leaving Google's maps in the main app and in the Map Kits.
While not as many people would have used it as they are now, they wouldn't have pissed off the masses, had to publicly apologize, or endured the onslaught of negative press. Not to mention, those who would have used it would have been far more understanding and eager to fix and update the maps.