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Wow. Apple Maps is a disaster.

xofruitcake said:
heh heh, if you believe what you said, I have a bridge to sell you. That is not how corporate American work. The map team just humiliated their CEO and forced him to issue an apology because of their screw up. And you think they won't do everything possible to fix their problem????
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They may want to - but they can't. Not only was Cook forced to apologize but was also forced to list the very same Google Maps that started this "adventure" in the first place. The sole reason for switching to another maps implementation was to get rid of Google and yet - there they are, in a "how to switch from us to them" on Apple's own home page. If that isn't a sign of being neck deep in **** I don't know what is...

xofruitcake said:
A lot of these errors look to be a problem of matching data source and location (e.g. POI on wrong part of town). The fix of the problem is systematic in nature (to put all source of data in a common starting point) and not one POI at a time. Stay tune, they fix some of the easy one and the harder one will be on deck..
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No it isn't, because the errors aren't "systematic" - this doesn't come from a few errors during conversion, if it did it would have been fixed months ago during the beta - and what, in Your mind, is the difference between a "hard" POI and an "easy" POI?. Again - it's not only POI's but very fundamental errors, one example is map information being from before 1988!
 
dv8r said:
They may want to - but they can't. Not only was Cook forced to apologize but was also forced to list the very same Google Maps that started this "adventure" in the first place. The sole reason for switching to another maps implementation was to get rid of Google and yet - there they are, in a "how to switch from us to them" on Apple's own home page. If that isn't a sign of being neck deep in **** I don't know what is...
!
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I think I have more faith on Apple developers and their corporate resource. We will see in 6 months where will Apple map be.

What Apple suggested in their website is not the same Google map as in IOS5. It is the web version of Google map. There is a very big distinction. And if you cannot differential the difference, you really don't understand why Apple kick Google Map out in IOS as such a high PR and user dissatisfaction cost.

Apple is targeting the location based apps for IOS. Passport is the first location based app and I bet the next generation of applications are going to be all focus on location of the mobile device. Web based Google Map does not affect that effort, App based Google does. Apple need to cut out the middle man and have their geolocators to collect user information and get their map usage up so that they can collect travelling related information. Hence their decision to kick Google map out of IOS.

I don't think there is any question that the rollout of IOS 6 map is a disaster. There is a communication breakdown between the development team and Scott Fostall. Scott Fostall presentation during the Iphone 5 launch clearly showed that he did not know the map issue well. But that is a stretch to think that Apple, as a company, cannot recover from this problem. They don't need to have the best map out there. All they need now is a map that realiable map that is usable in daily basise. All the bell and whistle can come later or from the 3rd parties. And 3rd party application will be a big part of Apple map's attraction down the road. IOS is strong enough with other features that large portion of user base are willing to stick with Apple for now. And that fact will give Google a great deal of problem down the line. There are two companies that miscalculate the IOS 6 decision. Apple for launching it when the software is not ready and Google for thinking that Apple does have the ball to do it now. Both sides have to figure where they are going from here.
 
There's an amusing post is this forum about why Find My iPhone in the cloud uses Google Maps.

The answer is, of course, that there isn't a web-based version of Apple Maps.

But you could say that the real answer is that you actually want to 'find' your iPhone! You know? You want accurate results?

Wow! What a concept!

And you want accurate results NOW! Not 6 months or a year from now!
 
PrometheusGeek said:
iPhone works well in the US. it's made in the US. You should get one of the great, innovative phones made in England. It'll work better over there.
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I'm keen to see how your attitude changes if you ever go on holiday.

To.... you know... somewhere else in the world outside of the US.


I just did a 6 week trip through europe (germany, switzerland, italy, hungary, prague, austria, britain, ireland, france) plus canada. I relied on google maps on iOS 5 and it worked fine. It works pretty well in my home country of Perth, Western Australia.

Apple maps? its pretty crap. And the whole point of a map is to tell you where you are when you're in an unfamiliar area.

Saying "oh apple maps works fine for me at home" is totally and utterly missing the entire point of having a map. So it can tell you where you already know you are accurately? Whoopie! That's useful.

Go somewhere you don't know, then try and navigate with an app you simply can't trust without proving its accuracy against something else. It's a disaster.

3d flyover view? I don't give a crap if it can't actually tell me accurately where i am and how to get places!!
 
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PrometheusGeek said:
You're right. I do expect ALL of the awesome British technology and automotive products I buy to work perfectly in the US. As an American, I'm so ashamed of the state of current US products, and the fact that I have to rely on British alternatives all the time. I really do think you Brits have a totally legitimate gripe about our American made junk not working well in your vastly superior country. We really screwed up that whole Revolution deal. Turns out we need England after all.

Im not an Apple apologist. But I do think its disingenuous for people of foreign countries to complain about American designed and engineered tech when their own countries don't produce any kind of equivalent or alternative. If British people are so dissatisfied with terrible American products, why don't they do what Americans like Steve Jobs have done and start innovative companies to produce great European technology?

And, to answer your question, If a British company sold a car in the US that didn't work as well in the US as a US made car, then I'd buy a US car. If the US didn't make any cars for sale in the US, and the only car I could buy were a British car that didn't work as well as I'd like it to, I'd have a choice between buying it or walking. But I don't think I'd whine about it.

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It's assembled in China. :rolleyes: Conceived, designed and engineered in America. Thus designed and engineered to work best in America first. The rest of the world is a lesser priority. Sorry about that. If you're too unhappy about it, buy a Chinese designed and engineered smart phone, which everyone agrees works way better than Cupertino's.
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Not to get in a mud slinging war but the lead designer of the MacBook, iPod, iPad, iPhone is what nationality?..

And I'm pretty sure the chips that power the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch etc all use ARM's technology?

No need for any high horsing, I think most people globally, including Americans, all agree Apple Maps is pretty terrible for a company that charges a premium for its devices.
 
Brazuca said:
Google maps will always be better in android. So if that is the killer feature for someone, the is no reason not to buy a Samsung. A google maps app won't make a better experience than on an android.

Also, why haven't those people left already? Google maps on the iPhone was horribly gimped. And it was never going to be as good as on googles own competitor platform.
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This^...I have a SGIII as a secondary phone and always preferred the Android Google Maps implementation to the iPhones version. For my little corner of the world, Apple Maps serves me just fine.
 
I stillprefer Google maps on my iPad. But after using Apple maps for the last few weeks, I hardly notice a difference anymore.
 
xofruitcake said:
What Apple suggested in their website is not the same Google map as in IOS5. It is the web version of Google map.
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Well, given how there is no google maps app at the moment, I don't see how Apple could possibly have done anything else, like recommend a (nonexistent) google maps app.

While I'm sure Apple is hard at work improving maps, there's only so much they can do in a reasonable time frame, and I think the damage has already been done. Assuming Apple approves google's forthcoming maps app (and this isn't a given, given their seemingly capricious app approval process), I think a LOT of people are just going to drop-kick Apple maps.

The one thing that might save Apple is that google might release a "feature-poor" version of google maps, just to make android look better (you can already see a possible example of this in the new google web maps streetview -- the UI is klunky and limits what you can do). However, if google does release a full-featured maps app -- even without nav -- I think it will kill Apple maps.
 
TLewis said:
The one thing that might save Apple is that google might release a "feature-poor" version of google maps, just to make android look better (you can already see a possible example of this in the new google web maps streetview -- the UI is klunky and limits what you can do). However, if google does release a full-featured maps app -- even without nav -- I think it will kill Apple maps.
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With the current state of Apple's Maps, Google could easily do both at once if they so desired.

It wouldn't be difficult for it to be better than Apple's offering and, at the same time, it could be lacking one or two extra features that is offered on Android.
 
Apple Maps=Inferior iPhone Finding

So a friend of mine got the 5, and got it stolen. So we look on find my iphone, and Find my iPhone, uses apple maps. So we look on there, and it's in the middle of a lake...

We know for a fact that since we can still call it and find it, that it's not destroyed non working in a lake. This is an issue.:mad:
 
Its funny to see all the rants on this thread about how bad Apples maps are, especially over seas, and yet one country is complaining that the maps are too accurate and want certain things blurred out, like Google does.

According to The Next Web, Taiwan has complained that the satellite view of one of their military bases is too clear and showing too clearly a new billion dollar + radar installation that Google has blurred out on their maps.


You just can't please all the people, can you?:D
 
TLewis said:
Well, given how there is no google maps app at the moment, I don't see how Apple could possibly have done anything else, like recommend a (nonexistent) google maps app.

and I think the damage has already been done. Assuming Apple approves google's forthcoming maps app (and this isn't a given, given their seemingly capricious app approval process), I think a LOT of people are just going to drop-kick Apple maps.
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Let's follow your thesis assuming that the damage is already done.. What does it do to the Iphone 5 sales so far? Nothing much that I can tell.. Apple is still selling as many as Iphone 5 as they can make. If you follow the Iphone 5 forum, user decision are more affected by the scuff-gate, the wifi problem, the battery draining problem and LTE data usage problem much more than map.

The battle is not on the map, the battle is for the future location based apps. Assuming that you are correct that a big subgroup of folks will never use Apple map again. They either bounce off to Android device or just use the alternative solution in IOS. When Apple start rolling out location based apps , consumer will get drag back into Apple map because of the tie in (e.g. when passport work a lot better with more business using passport, are user continue to stick to Google map and don't use passport??). So either someone is so mad about Apple Map that they refuse to use any future location based app that tie into Apple map or Apple will regain the user base overtime. At this point, consumer already made the choice. Tomorrow, they will make a different choice base on the competitions and what they perceived as best for their money.

Apple map roll out is a disaster. There is no way to sugar coat it. It could have brought down any other company and Scott Fostall should have been fired for misleading his boss and the user alike. Fortunately Apple has enough good will and strong enough product and ecosystem to withstand the fiasco. Now moving forward, the map can only get better. Google team should double down on their location based apps development. They have the lead now and if they don't start bringing them out soon, they will loss the lead.
 
Iphone_swimming_by_COLINDAATJE.jpg



(But seriously, good luck finding it. Sucks losing your phone :( )
 
Last week I used the navi gps for a job interview I had in denver (New to colorado). It looped me all the way around, near the airport, from the north side into denver. The GPS took me on a wild goose chase before ending up at my location.

I had to explain to the Director about why I was late. I was so pissed.
 
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