Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Wow. Apple Maps is a disaster.

This may be the tipping point for me to turn to android and try out the SIII for a little bit. I am someone who drives for a living and I heavily use my maps app. Apples new maps may be accurate and good for people who live in the hubs of America (LA, SF, Chicago, NYC, Seattle, etc) and only drive the same route from home to work everyday and once and awhile to the store, but from what I've seen Apples solution looks really bad in rural or small town areas. The screenshots of European areas look even worse. It looks like stuff is missing that can not simply be thrown in before the full release of ios6. Google Maps appears to be way ahead, especially on android. Not to mention after Googles event a week before WWDC they showed off everything Apple did, along with offline viewing coming to Google Maps. That is huge. Oh well, it will be nice to try a different phone. iOS is getting stale
 
Frankied22 said:
This may be the tipping point for me to turn to android and try out the SIII for a little bit. I am someone who drives for a living and I heavily use my maps app. Apples new maps may be accurate and good for people who live in the hubs of America (LA, SF, Chicago, NYC, Seattle, etc) and only drive the same route from home to work everyday and once and awhile to the store, but from what I've seen Apples solution looks really bad in rural or small town areas. The screenshots of European areas look even worse. It looks like stuff is missing that can not simply be thrown in before the full release of ios6. Google Maps appears to be way ahead, especially on android. Not to mention after Googles event a week before WWDC they showed off everything Apple did, along with offline viewing coming to Google Maps. That is huge. Oh well, it will be nice to try a different phone. iOS is getting stale
Click to expand...

um, beta 1
 
PhoneI said:
um, beta 1
Click to expand...

They're not going to catch up to Googles detail of the vast majority of the world in a few months. I don't expect any major changes from what we see currently and what we will see at release.
 
PhoneI said:
um, beta 1
Click to expand...

Frankied22 said:
They're not going to catch up to Googles detail of the vast majority of the world in a few months. I don't expect any major changes from what we see currently and what we will see at release.
Click to expand...

Peace said:
I agree. I think all pre-release software should be the same as final release software.
Click to expand...

No I'm not asking for the software to be to release standard, but the data damn well should be. Worldwide coverage is no mean feat to achieve but the improvements to the digitisation that are desperately required cannot be quickly achieved.

I agree that the symbology and rendering can be tweaked (and I'm sure they will) - For example in the UK and Europe the road colours need tweaking to give them the international standard. (Blue - Motorways, Green - Trunk Routes, Red - Other primary routes, yellow/white - other roads. And perhaps new imagery can be sourced and updated. Those are software tweaks (and relatively easy data updates)

However my issue is with the quality of digitisation of the roads themselves. Apple made a boast about having done vector based maps, and that is a good thing because rasterised maps will pixelate as you zoom in, but unless those vectored maps are digitised accurately, they look amateur. That isn't a software issue, it's a data quality issue, and naff all to do with the software being in Beta.

Fixing the errors in digitisation will take years. In the mean time, the competition will continue to pull ahead, no matter how good the front end or the back end infrastructure is.
 
Last edited:
Many people use and love Google Maps. Whether Apple needs time to catch up or not if they came out with a final version that's less than Google Maps it's going to be a black mark for iOS and give more power to android. Consumers are not forgiving.
 
This is an easy one;

Google's reliable, accurate and relatively safe to use maps versus Apple's mess that may have me end up in China.

Gee I dont know which service to use...
 
Are people that stupid to say things that are in Beta form are a "disaster"... wow, just wow!
 
cjmillsnun said:
No I'm not asking for the software to be to release standard, but the data damn well should be. Worldwide coverage is no mean feat to achieve but the improvements to the digitisation that are desperately required cannot be quickly achieved.

I agree that the symbology and rendering can be tweaked (and I'm sure they will) - For example in the UK and Europe the road colours need tweaking to give them the international standard. (Blue - Motorways, Green - Trunk Routes, Red - Other primary routes, yellow/white - other roads. And perhaps new imagery can be sourced and updated. Those are software tweaks (and relatively easy data updates)

However my issue is with the quality of digitisation of the roads themselves. Apple made a boast about having done vector based maps, and that is a good thing because rasterised maps will pixelate as you zoom in, but unless those vectored maps are digitised accurately, they look amateur. That isn't a software issue, it's a data quality issue, and naff all to do with the software being in Beta.

Fixing the errors in digitisation will take years. In the mean time, the competition will continue to pull ahead, no matter how good the front end or the back end infrastructure is.
Click to expand...

This This This This and This again.

People who are shouting about it being a beta need to look up what a beta actually is.
 
No I'm not asking for the software to be to release standard, but the data damn well should be. Worldwide coverage is no mean feat to achieve but the improvements to the digitisation that are desperately required cannot be quickly achieved.

I agree that the symbology and rendering can be tweaked (and I'm sure they will) - For example in the UK and Europe the road colours need tweaking to give them the international standard. (Blue - Motorways, Green - Trunk Routes, Red - Other primary routes, yellow/white - other roads. And perhaps new imagery can be sourced and updated. Those are software tweaks (and relatively easy data updates)

However my issue is with the quality of digitisation of the roads themselves. Apple made a boast about having done vector based maps, and that is a good thing because rasterised maps will pixelate as you zoom in, but unless those vectored maps are digitised accurately, they look amateur. That isn't a software issue, it's a data quality issue, and naff all to do with the software being in Beta.

Fixing the errors in digitisation will take years. In the mean time, the competition will continue to pull ahead, no matter how good the front end or the back end infrastructure is.
Click to expand...

I agree - the application itself seems pretty solid and I've had no problems with other applications using maps data.

I can see no reason to beta test an application using old vectors and satellite imagery yet I really hope they are doing...
 
tonyeck said:
I will say, I am a huge fan of Google's cartography. It will be hard to adjust.

I am also excited to see what Google bring to the table regarding a stand alone app. I hope it's like the Android version
Click to expand...

Me too, I'm excited about Apple getting their own Maps because it means Google can finally bring their updated product to iOS :D
 
I get a kick out of the folks who discard every legitimate complaint about a shoddy product with, "beta!"

Its a few months from release and mostly feature locked at this stage in development, they may make some bug fixes and small backend adjustments but I would argue that Maps in its current form is essentially what you're going to get with iOS 6 when its released.
 
cjmillsnun said:
No I'm not asking for the software to be to release standard, but the data damn well should be. Worldwide coverage is no mean feat to achieve but the improvements to the digitisation that are desperately required cannot be quickly achieved.

I agree that the symbology and rendering can be tweaked (and I'm sure they will) - For example in the UK and Europe the road colours need tweaking to give them the international standard. (Blue - Motorways, Green - Trunk Routes, Red - Other primary routes, yellow/white - other roads. And perhaps new imagery can be sourced and updated. Those are software tweaks (and relatively easy data updates)

However my issue is with the quality of digitisation of the roads themselves. Apple made a boast about having done vector based maps, and that is a good thing because rasterised maps will pixelate as you zoom in, but unless those vectored maps are digitised accurately, they look amateur. That isn't a software issue, it's a data quality issue, and naff all to do with the software being in Beta.

Fixing the errors in digitisation will take years. In the mean time, the competition will continue to pull ahead, no matter how good the front end or the back end infrastructure is.
Click to expand...

Finally someone who knows what they're talking a out. People shouting beta need to releasize something like maps can't be completely overhauled in a few months. It's not safari, or mail, or notes. There is way more involved. Sure, they could tweak color schemes or some label. Maybe they will tweak turn by turn. But the actual map data is what it is, and it's no google maps. That's plain to see. Apple has a long way to go in my opinion.

Sure we can all hope that google releases an iOS google maps, but I'm not holding my breath. Google usually takes quit awhile to release iOS apps, and even then the android counterpart has better features. I look at it like this, if Google is going to release the iOS equivalent of maps on android, why didn't they just add what was missing in the last two and half years. Apples stock google maps rarely got updated at all, and was missing a lot. You're going to tell me that all this time google wanted to bring it up to par but Apple wouldn't let them because they were secretly working on their own mapping solution? I don't think so.
 
Its nice to see Google's Places and Latitude apps are now using the apple mapping data. I wonder how easy it would be for google to update the apps to use their own data again?..
 
OneMike said:
[sarcasm] How dare Apple (or any company) release non production ready betas. Shame on them. [/sarcasm]
Click to expand...

The problem is that things like maps database isn't going to be fixes by software being non-beta. It's not a software problem, it's an information/database problem and that takes a lot of time!
 
They need a few years at least, but you know what Apple are like, when they get on top of it, they'll start to innovate and that'll be good for us.

Watching Google and Apple improve map services competitively will be great in the future, we got nothing to lose.
 
Nipz said:
Are people that stupid to say things that are in Beta form are a "disaster"... wow, just wow!
Click to expand...
Do you realize how long it will take Apple to bring those maps to Google-quality? Even close to Google quality? You guys are stuck with that for years.
 
Meh, no big deal. A Google Maps app will be on the App Store in no time. And the webapp can be used as well.
Still, the Apple maps app is a great TomTom paid app killer.
 
I may be lucky but the areas I am familiar with in the UK seem to be just as accurate in the maps and more up to date with imagery. Miss street view though, loved planning a journey and being able to recognise my destination. Colours and style are just different.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back