I know that. But Apple still has their own database that they have to improve. They originally took everything from TOMTOM just to get started off. Now it's up to them (Apple) to improve information and make sure the information is accurate.
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Wow. Apple Maps is a disaster.
- Thread starter b24pgg
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I know that. But Apple still has their own database that they have to improve. They originally took everything from TOMTOM just to get started off. Now it's up to them (Apple) to improve information and make sure the information is accurate.
Yeah, you know, we're getting sick of apple releasing things on a beta basis. Siri was helpful at times, but launching the 4S with a beta software as its main selling point? And now a fully functional maps app is getting replaced with something that needs work? We can't even go back to the google-powered app that was working well while they sort it out.
Read the T&C and stop pulling stuff out your arse, TOMTOM maintains the database.
SIRI however, no matter how bad it was - was far superior to what preceded it which was nothing. So it was a POSITIVE change.
New maps on the other hand goes from 100 to 0 in one upgrade.
I don't think Apple has every downgraded any aspect of any of its OSes before... I suspect SJ would be turning in his grave right now because he was all about quality before anything else.
Good. Bad. Clean. Magic. New
Whatever.
But, When I am less than a few hundred feet from my destination and it still wants me to turn the other way and drive 2 miles... come on. This is not new stuff. Map programs have been around for a few years now.
Maybe this was just a fluke. I am just reporting what happened to me on my first attempt to just play with it.
Whatever.
But, When I am less than a few hundred feet from my destination and it still wants me to turn the other way and drive 2 miles... come on. This is not new stuff. Map programs have been around for a few years now.
Maybe this was just a fluke. I am just reporting what happened to me on my first attempt to just play with it.
Try looking up my town on maps. Kristiansand, Norway. It's in black and white on the satellite photo!?! Other parts of Norway nearby are so low resolution that you can't see anything. This is how our google maps were in this area about 5 years ago. Not a great step forward.
Meaning that the poor quality of the APP is entirely Apple's fault ?
Or TOMTOM provides the topology only - and Apple is required to add the functionality.
TomTom gets their map data from a numerous amounts of mapping companies. Read the fine print. Apple will collect and improve the database by collecting data from iOS users to reach more accurate results. You need to stop "pulling stuff out of your arse."
To all those people that harped on that we shouldn't complain about maps till it was out of beta ... It's out of beta. And it still sucks.
The cartography may look 'prettier' but it's less useful. There isn't enough contrast between roads and surroundings, let alone between major, medium and minor roads. You just can't discern enough info from a quick glance.
It doesn't display nearly as much information about pubs, shops, restaurants. There is loads missing. I imagine this will improve over time, but right now, it's not good enough.
The map symbols are too generic. For instance in London, the maps use the same generic train symbol for both the train and the underground. What's worse, It uses neither the national rail symbol nor the underground symbol (both of which google maps uses correctly) it uses the same generic train symbol. It took me a few mins to realise that was meant to indicate a rail station of some sort since unless you use high magnification it's not very clear and at some magnifications the symbol isn't there at all.
Not only is it a step down in functionality from google maps, it's not nearly good enough on its own merits. It's a decent start, but that's it. It's not good enough for prime time deployment. From a usability standpoint the cartography on google maps was better virtually from day 1, and I mean the web site, not the iPhone app.
I know loads of people love the turn by turn. But for me ( as for most people that live in a large metropolis like London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc this is a non event and a feature you're unlikely to ever use)
I really wish apple allowed you to choose your default apps, so I could skip maps entirely until it was worth a ****.
I love my iPhone. I think ios is the best mobile os out there. But the new maps app sucks in a big way.
The cartography may look 'prettier' but it's less useful. There isn't enough contrast between roads and surroundings, let alone between major, medium and minor roads. You just can't discern enough info from a quick glance.
It doesn't display nearly as much information about pubs, shops, restaurants. There is loads missing. I imagine this will improve over time, but right now, it's not good enough.
The map symbols are too generic. For instance in London, the maps use the same generic train symbol for both the train and the underground. What's worse, It uses neither the national rail symbol nor the underground symbol (both of which google maps uses correctly) it uses the same generic train symbol. It took me a few mins to realise that was meant to indicate a rail station of some sort since unless you use high magnification it's not very clear and at some magnifications the symbol isn't there at all.
Not only is it a step down in functionality from google maps, it's not nearly good enough on its own merits. It's a decent start, but that's it. It's not good enough for prime time deployment. From a usability standpoint the cartography on google maps was better virtually from day 1, and I mean the web site, not the iPhone app.
I know loads of people love the turn by turn. But for me ( as for most people that live in a large metropolis like London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc this is a non event and a feature you're unlikely to ever use)
I really wish apple allowed you to choose your default apps, so I could skip maps entirely until it was worth a ****.
I love my iPhone. I think ios is the best mobile os out there. But the new maps app sucks in a big way.
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Terrible, terrible apple. It is indeed a disaster.
Worst part it the satellite images, completely worthless.
App now please google!
Worst part it the satellite images, completely worthless.
App now please google!
It might not help that I'm an ex cartographer, but the new Maps app is about the worst thing I have ever seen Apple put their name to. Its absolutely dire, and a huge disappointment. That this is essentially being thrust upon us because of whatever beef there is between Apple and Google just makes it worse - that their issues trump what's best for the customer. Because in just about every practical sense the new App is a poor shadow of Google Maps.
I'm in the UK - I didn't expect it to have the level of detail in minor roads and place names that Google Maps has, but I wasn't expecting the level of major roads to be so poor. It doesn't even seem to show all A roads (the second most significant level of road in the UK), and it has lots of odd little bits that just stop and start almost at random.
Colour coding roads by classification is a fundamental basic of road mapping, and that they've pushed this out without even getting that right beggars belief.
The data is from TomTom - I've never used one of their satnavs, but I'd have thought their satnavs would have better data than this by now, so its a real mystery why the data in iOS6 is so close to useless.
I'm in the UK - I didn't expect it to have the level of detail in minor roads and place names that Google Maps has, but I wasn't expecting the level of major roads to be so poor. It doesn't even seem to show all A roads (the second most significant level of road in the UK), and it has lots of odd little bits that just stop and start almost at random.
Colour coding roads by classification is a fundamental basic of road mapping, and that they've pushed this out without even getting that right beggars belief.
The data is from TomTom - I've never used one of their satnavs, but I'd have thought their satnavs would have better data than this by now, so its a real mystery why the data in iOS6 is so close to useless.
I agree with this now that I've looked at London, underground stations should use the underground symbol..
Just had a go on my brothers new iPad and it does indeed suck, especially if you live out with a major city
That's probably because you don't live where we live. I have more than twenty restaurants showing on my island. Flekkerøy, Norway. But we don't have ANY restaurants in reality!... Just one shop, which is missing from the map!
Removing the Google maps app might not have been Apple's choice, y'know.
They had a license. It expired this year. For all we know, it might have been Google rather than Apple that nixed a re-up of the license, either directly or indirectly through insistence of (for example) putting ads in, etc.
For now, there are plenty of good alternatives, such as the various nav apps like Navigon, Copilot Live and Waze (which does an amazing job of urban traffic avoidance).
Apple's map app will improve over time; mapping has been an adaptive, iterative process since time immemorial. And it's not as though Google's map app was always perfect. Just last week, when I was looking for the Fairfield Inn in Tinley Park after arriving at Midway Airport, the traditional iOS 5 Google-based map app insisted it was two miles from the airport in another town with "Park" in its name. Shrug.
They had a license. It expired this year. For all we know, it might have been Google rather than Apple that nixed a re-up of the license, either directly or indirectly through insistence of (for example) putting ads in, etc.
For now, there are plenty of good alternatives, such as the various nav apps like Navigon, Copilot Live and Waze (which does an amazing job of urban traffic avoidance).
Apple's map app will improve over time; mapping has been an adaptive, iterative process since time immemorial. And it's not as though Google's map app was always perfect. Just last week, when I was looking for the Fairfield Inn in Tinley Park after arriving at Midway Airport, the traditional iOS 5 Google-based map app insisted it was two miles from the airport in another town with "Park" in its name. Shrug.
So if you live outside of a major city, the map data is terrible, but if you live in a major city, you can't get public transit directions... who is this app useful for?
I really wish there'd been some kind of disclaimer that I would be missing functionality that had been part of the iPhone since day 1. Getting their mapping data up to speed is one thing, but losing transit directions is simply unacceptable in my view.
I really wish there'd been some kind of disclaimer that I would be missing functionality that had been part of the iPhone since day 1. Getting their mapping data up to speed is one thing, but losing transit directions is simply unacceptable in my view.
OK, so this is a big misconception here. Someone I know used to work for TomTom (but nothing to do with teleatlas or licensing). I know that their code is an awful, monolithic nightmare that was written by people decades ago who are no longer with the company (and can't be changed because nobody understand it or which other parts depend on it).
TomTom's brand is dying. People don't need satnavs any more. Years ago, when they were still making money, they acquired their main map data supplier - TeleAtlas, for $1Bn. TeleAtlas provide mapping data to thousands of companies; even Google used it for their maps before they got their own data. Even now I bet Google still cross-references it with their data to make sure.
Until now, the TeleAtlas brand had always existed side-by-side with TomTom's. For example, here's a picture from Google Maps showing the TeleAtlas name instead of TomTom's. That's how it's always been for TeleAtlas.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, TomTom's brand is fading fast. That $1Bn they paid for TeleAtlas is now bigger than their whole market cap. If you've ever tried to use their app, you'd know how awful it is. They managed to score a major, major coup by getting their logo so prominently features on the iOS Maps app. It's the first time I know of that they've used TomTom's logo to represent TeleAtlas' data.
Now, Apple isn't using any of TomTom's algorithms (it's all part of this monolithic mess of code that nobody inside TomTom can understand, let alone anybody from Apple!), but that's the effect this branding exercise makes out. I've seen the source code for the iOS app, and it's basically an iOS UI layer thinly-placed over a hacky, decades-old engine. As I said, there is no way that Apple is using a single line of code from TomTom. They're using TeleAtlas' map data (probably with their own changes or corrections), but that's it.
The bad news for TomTom is that this going to totally backfire if Apple's Maps are a flop (uhum).