This. Big fan of the font too.
----------
Speaking of which, does anyone know what font they used??
Has a cool "metro" feel to it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
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.
- Thread starter b24pgg
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This. Big fan of the font too.
----------
Speaking of which, does anyone know what font they used??
Has a cool "metro" feel to it.
No, the first thing I do is jump up about 300 feet and then hover while I get a good look around.
Read the release notes. They state that majority of hi res satellite maps have not been enabled in the beta. Ergo once out of beta, there will be an improvement.....
Read the release notes. They state that majority of hi res satellite maps have not been enabled in the beta. Ergo once out of beta, there will be an improvement.....
Sorry, I should've been more specific.. We were talking about the street maps, not satellite ones.
Even so it's a little surprising they'd showcase incomplete maps!
Read the release notes. They state that majority of hi res satellite maps have not been enabled in the beta. Ergo once out of beta, there will be an improvement.....
It does NOT say they aren't enabled, it simply says they aren't there. There's a big difference between the two.
Well it's a closed beta, stuff gets held back. It happened with iOS5 too, things held back until necessary.
Plus the street maps could easily see an improvement at launch. Look at all the companies they're using for data. Could be devs are on an early build version of maps for testing until beta is done. Even if not, maps can easily be updated over time. It's not like that can't happen.
It says that the high res maps are coming. There's your difference......
I hope you're right. Betas are usually feature complete, i.e. what you see is what you get in the final version (with the exception of bug fixes), so people can be forgiven for thinking the maps are final.
They haven't. They showcased Sydney and San Francisco, which both look fantastic. Those are all the public has access to. Anything else that you've seen by running the beta is simply what's been finished so far, and has not been "showcased" in any way by them.
Bear in mind that the Maps app pulls data down from their end whenever you run it and that it's more or less trivial for them to update them whenever they'd like. It's a work in progress four months from release.
I feel like this board is full of people who downloaded that way-prerelease leak of the Wolverine movie and then complained about how silly the unfinished effects looked.
For a board full of people running a developer preview of software, there's an awful lot of ignorance of the process of working on anything, really.
If that's all that's been finished so far, then that's a big problem because half of the street names are missing from maps. Yes the maps are a work in progress, but they're not going to get THAT much more done prior to release.
As I pointed out, iOS 5 had features held back from beta at first, so it's not unheard of. Public betas are usually feature complete, this is a closed beta, stuff is there for devs to integrate into their apps, etc. any general bugs they find on the way are a bonus.
Another example of betas not being feature complete is windows 8, that even had a public beta that wasn't fully complete feature wise. People that have the expectation of betas being feature complete need to adjust their expectation.
No, the first thing I do is jump up about 300 feet and then hover while I get a good look around.
... You're trying to be funny, but truthfully this is EXACTLY what people would do if they were physically capable of it. To be able to see a full 360 degree view in the detail that Flyover seems to be providing is going to change mapping. Considering Google tried to jump Apple's announcement by demonstrating a nearly identical feature shows that they understand Apple got this one right.
But leave it to MacRumors to constantly attack Apple and bow down to Lord Google.
There is neither lord Google or lord Apple. Geez. Not everything is a war of duality. Apple can't always be the best and this time, frankly, they screwed up. Leaving behind the superior solution to implement a half-baked in-house one was a bad move and it will hurt customer experience.
And now we'll be the ones paying for it.
Essential features of a maps application:
Accurately drawn maps
Roads, stations, parks etc easily distinguishable
Main features labeled at all zoom levels
Main roads represented differently to minor roads
Route planning on map
Useful features of a maps application:
High res satellite imagery
Accurately labeled businesses in local search
Streetview
Transit (Public transport) navigation
Flashy stuff for showing off:
Augmented reality
3D flyover
Big bonus feature:
Turn by turn navigation
Apple maps doesn't beat iOS5 Maps on many of these...
Lots of UK maps for me produce about had the screen as empty beige. I get that I can zoom in for more detail but why should I need to?
Accurately drawn maps
Roads, stations, parks etc easily distinguishable
Main features labeled at all zoom levels
Main roads represented differently to minor roads
Route planning on map
Useful features of a maps application:
High res satellite imagery
Accurately labeled businesses in local search
Streetview
Transit (Public transport) navigation
Flashy stuff for showing off:
Augmented reality
3D flyover
Big bonus feature:
Turn by turn navigation
Apple maps doesn't beat iOS5 Maps on many of these...
Lots of UK maps for me produce about had the screen as empty beige. I get that I can zoom in for more detail but why should I need to?
No it's not going to change mapping. 2D street maps are so easy to read, and you can easily see your route at a glance. It's easier to see the next ten turns you need to make on a 2D map rather than a 3D map, and you didn't address my earlier response which has my other opinions on the matter.
Google may have undercut Apple's announcement but they've obviously been collecting the map data for quite some time.
Let's learn by example:
http://goo.gl/maps/ifUC
Do you think it would be as easy to see that route using a flyover of the area? I don't think it would, AT ALL.
Last edited:
where I am, google maps has satellite images for where I live that's about 6-8 years ago, where barely 1/4 of the place was built, apples maps has satellite images that are no more than 6 months old. That's a win in my book....
Yes it is changing mapping, that's why google are jumping on the bandwagon.
Google have had time to start on it as soon as they heard apple bought c3 about 3 years back. Google's did not look as ready for use as apples. I'd be surprised if we saw it released this year. Even then, only 7% of android users will be running the latest OS to use it
lolYes it is changing mapping, that's why google are jumping on the bandwagon.
Google have had time to start on it as soon as they heard apple bought c3 about 3 years back. Google's did not look as ready for use as apples. I'd be surprised if we saw it released this year. Even then, only 7% of android users will be running the latest OS to use it
Look at my link; do you think that route would be as easy to see, at a glance, using 3D maps?
I think 3D maps are utterly useless; it doesn't matter who makes them, Google or Apple, I certainly won't be using them.
as was said, majority of high res images aren't included in the beta, who's to say that this doesn't include the maps in use, could just be placeholder versions before final release, explains the dodgy labelling of the ocean. people are judging things on a closed beta. We won't know anything for sure until GM at the earliest.
That makes 0 sense for them to do, and could set them up for an epic failure if something goes wrong when the times comes due to something not tested in Beta.
Not really, they're just images. Google and bing update their images often without any issue, this is no different. The coding is in the OS that is needed for testing in the beta, images can be switched out later. They've even said themselves that hi res satellite images are to come.
Now if the maps app was all pre-downloaded map data, you'd be right.
That's why Betas are done with full datasets, not placeholder data. That way, you're debugging the code running on the actual data it's going to be using, finding conditions that a placeholder dataset might not uncover.
But frankly, do you really expect non-developers to be aware of these things ? Some guys are just here doing "damage control", as if Apple needs it. Apple decided to make its bed, and frankly, any criticism we throw at them for it they've probably gone over already. Their engineers are smart, their designers are too. They know their maps aren't up to par. They still went with them.
Let's hope to god they don't end up like Ping, MobileMe, iDisk or other online ventures Apple tried to pull off and failed at.
You don't normally use a map when you know the area. Your either trying to get through a place in which case yep you want to know where to turn, but that is often better served by instruction like 4th left and you really only care about the name of the street you are turning in to and maybe the one before.
In this regards, as far as we've seen so far Apples new maps could do better.
When you're on the ground on foot or even bike, then a think the advantage of Apples take will kick in. To me they'll be better for exploring an area. If that's just to pick up a coffee on the way to a meeting or as a tourist it just seems like it's be a real advantage.