Wow. Apple Maps is a disaster.

[Sdreed91]

Why is the fact that Apple has decided to get rid of the perfectly good google maps and introduce the new map app that doesn't work for countless people something that customers should be understanding of? These are expensive phones that people bought with an understanding of what functionality was included. Now, for MANY people, that functionality no longer exists.

That's something I don't understand!

Perfectly good Google maps? Google maps never took me to the right location. Also Apple is a business that likes to do things there own way. Which means full integration.

No one knows what happened between Google and Apple regarding maps.

Everyone does have the right to be upset. However, people should be understanding that Apple has just started doing maps while Google has been at for ten years. That does make a difference.

The maps are lacking in some areas. Apple has acknowledged that if more people use the app the better it will get just the same as Siri. It needs time. That is a fact. Maybe not a good or comforting fact but a fact none the less.

 

[Oletros]

Google maps never took me to the right location..

And this is when a claim loses its credibility

 

[Netherscourge]

Perfectly good Google maps? Google maps never took me to the right location. Also Apple is a business that likes to do things there own way. Which means full integration.

No one knows what happened between Google and Apple regarding maps.

Everyone does have the right to be upset. However, people should be understanding that Apple has just started doing maps while Google has been at for ten years. That does make a difference.

The maps are lacking in some areas. Apple has acknowledged that if more people use the app the better it will get just the same as Siri. It needs time. That is a fact. Maybe not a good or comforting fact but a fact none the less.

One thing is obvious between Apple and Google maps - Apple Stores are CLEARLY dotted on Apple's Maps.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10013873-11.html

Even when other more noticeable landmarks and streets are not.

 

[nikomakhos]

So yeah, this is what Apple Maps looks like in Finland compared to the accurate Google Maps. Pretty useless service, if you ask me.

City center of our capital Helsinki. The largest railway station is now a park. Many roads are missing.

Still Helsinki. Wrong road numbers, the main market square is now a park and POI data in wrong place/missing.

Next up is Turku, our old capital. The whole university area is now gone.

This is what's going on at the archipelago area. There is a town called Uusikaupunki (population 15,687) there, as you can see. Too bad Apple has moved it 30km to the east.

These are by no means isolated incidents. It's pretty much the same where ever you look. Many rivers and roads are missing, cities at wrong places, all of the kiosks in the whole country are marked as gas stations, most of the POI data is missing or in the wrong place etc. etc.

I understand that most places in the USA are fine and the Flyover is pretty to look at. But you can't say you have a successful global map service, if you're only able map your own backyard.

It boggles my mind how someone can say, with a straight face, that this is a better service than what we had before.

 

[Sdreed91]

And this is when a claim loses its credibility

And why is that? I was lost in Miami for 3 hours using Google maps. Others may have great experiences with Google but I did not. I do not understand how this takes away credibility.

 

[Oletros]

And why is that? I was lost in Miami for 3 hours using Google maps. Others may have great experiences with Google but I did not. I do not understand how this takes away credibility.

Ah, so you have used Google Maps only once?

 

[Sdreed91]

Ah, so you have used Google Maps only once?

No several occasions. I have never had a pleasant experience with it. If my experience with Google makes my claim lose credibility, how many times have the people complaining in this thread used Apples maps?

I am in now way looking for arguements just discussion. Google has never been useful for me in regards to maps. My father and I were sent the wrong way while driving to Stewart Florida to pick up a dog. Google has not worked for me or my family. If my experience is rare then so be it. But none the less still my experience I do not see why that detracts my credibility?

 

[Netherscourge]

Now is the perfect time for Google to say "NO GOOGLE MAPS FOR YOU!" to iOS fans hoping for a standalone app.

Force them to use the Safari version.

Honestly, at this point, Google needs to pounce on Apple and show off their superior mapping programs.

 

[Brazuca]

How come nobody is posting pictures of how massively useful StreetView is compared to Flyover? All I heard was how fantastic this feature is (I never thought so), but all the reasons have been like "to see what the café looks like before I get there". Unless this is helping you to actually find the café, that is just a gimmick.

This is an honest question. I totally get that bad maps and bad POI data is a massive fail, but streetview? Big whoop.

 

[BSben]

Now is the perfect time for Google to say "NO GOOGLE MAPS FOR YOU!" to iOS fans hoping for a standalone app.

Force them to use the Safari version.

Honestly, at this point, Google needs to pounce on Apple and show off their superior mapping programs.

Do I spot some Schadenfreude here?
If you think this way why don't you get yourself some Google Spying Software Phone and be happy? I am not happy with Apple Maps so far, but Google Maps will not be much better in a few years time. If you search for Cabot Circus in Bristol on Google Maps (Satellite view) you will find a building site, in Apple Maps (satelite view) you will find a shopping centre that opened a few years ago. Street View has similar problems, it is hardly ever updated, and in some countries that protect people's privacy (as in Germany) quite a few houses are blurred, so not much use there.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

How come nobody is posting pictures of how massively useful StreetView is compared to Flyover? . . .

Err . . . I did just a few posts back.

Not going to waste my time posting more, however, because I'm sure it's obvious to the vast majority of people on this forum that Street View is already extremely impressive and is still getting better.

Over 20 Petabytes of new imaging data is now uploaded every two weeks, for new images & for keeping existing ones current.

 

[dv8r]

And why is that? I was lost in Miami for 3 hours using Google maps. Others may have great experiences with Google but I did not. I do not understand how this takes away credibility.

I think it's a lie - but by all means supply the evidence...

 

[petsounds]

Apple's Maps project started under Jobs. Jobs wanted to replace anything to do with Google a long time ago because of the Android betrayal. (That's a pretty good film title, isn't it?)

I'm not sure there is any definitive proof that Steve had anything to do with Maps, or that they've been working on Maps for a long time.

There's been some recent rumors that Google made the Maps license so expensive that Apple had no choice but to make their own solution. Besides, Google was cutting Apple out of any of the newer features. It was a no-brainer for Apple to create their own mapping solution. But I'm not sure Apple has been working on this more than a couple years, especially looking at its sorry state. And given that Jobs was so sick in the last year of his life, if he saw Maps, it was probably only briefly.

 

[cynics]

How come nobody is posting pictures of how massively useful StreetView is compared to Flyover? All I heard was how fantastic this feature is (I never thought so), but all the reasons have been like "to see what the café looks like before I get there". Unless this is helping you to actually find the café, that is just a gimmick.

This is an honest question. I totally get that bad maps and bad POI data is a massive fail, but streetview? Big whoop.

How do you find a place you've been there for? You recognize the location. I don't use it much but its helpful during sporting events or anytime someplace is going to be overly crowded. During the grand prix I used it to scout out parking garages and where there entrances are.

 

[b24pgg]

How come nobody is posting pictures of how massively useful StreetView is compared to Flyover?

Here's one. I live in a big city. I often need to know if a place I'm going to has street parking. Enter StreetView:

I can browse around the block, see exactly how many street parking spots there are in the vicinity, and even read signs that say if there are any parking restrictions.

I couldn't care less if anyone else doesn't find StreetView useful - it's useful for me. To somehow suggest that Flyover has any practical use whatsoever for anyone not traveling by helicopter is just laughable.

 

[pdqgp]

Don't you think that's a bit unfair toward the countless customers who are, of no fault of their own (I know disagree that they are blameless), now unable to use several central feature of their expensive iphones.

I don't think it's unfair to expect people to look at a glass half full regardless of what happened during the upgrade. Change happens. It's called life. Pull up their big boy pants as life didn't end and their expensive phones didn't lose a central feature. A few features changed and to some it's better to some it's not. We'll see the same reaction to the upcoming election. So everyone has to adapt to a new reality and make due with any number of the countless other apps available to them. Is that really such a big deal? What do all these people do when something really drastic in life happens? As I noted earlier, I bet several will find better apps than what they lost.

I'm happy to praise Apple and have in fact have brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in business to them over the the past 20 years - through my own purchases and all the PC people I've converted. However, this time they messed up big time and I'm not going to pretend they didn't.

I'll let the sale numbers over the couple years determine if they messed up big time. I have faith. Until then, of course, as others noted earlier, we'll hear more about the negatives than positives because that's the nature of messages board like this where sadly so many are clearly so dramatically impacted by a phone.

----------

The only reason anyone post a positive thread on MR is to spite someone or something else.

You really do have a pretty sad view on things. I would completely disagree with you. However, I won't go on with that point as you clearly wouldn't understand.

Case in point is the "I like the new maps" threads.

No, the attempt in that thread is to shed some of the gloom and doom off the people who are being bombarded with it and perhaps discuss some of the features that should be appreciated. I'll gladly expand on them and the topic for you if you wish.

Another case in point is how you are only quoting post that are negative toward apple maps and post that are pro apple maps but conveyed in a negative manner.

Really? So my engaging in discussions on topics that are negative and sharing new ideas, new apps, asking questions and invoking discussions that generate more interest is a negative? WOW! perhaps I should just pick up my iOS6 phone, and tweet how much it sucks or text my wife and tell her how pissed I am. Will that make me feel better? Will that help anyone? Will that make anyone's life better in any way?

Fact is no one is impressed if a product "JUST WORKS" that's what its supposed to do, posting about that is pointless. "My iPhone makes phone calls! I'm a positive person!" /thread

Great your phone works. How about you share how the new features have benefited you. What are some of the new additions that you like which perhaps are new discoveries? I could share several tips I've picked up from others here who shared notes in a positive light, but I won't because you're a cynical being.

 

[cynics]

I don't think it's unfair to expect people to look at a glass half full regardless of what happened during the upgrade. Change happens. It's called life. Pull up their big boy pants as life didn't end and their expensive phones didn't lose a central feature. A few features changed and to some it's better to some it's not. We'll see the same reaction to the upcoming election. So everyone has to adapt to a new reality and make due with any number of the countless other apps available to them. Is that really such a big deal? What do all these people do when something really drastic in life happens? As I noted earlier, I bet several will find better apps than what they lost.



I'll let the sale numbers over the couple years determine if they messed up big time. I have faith. Until then, of course, as others noted earlier, we'll hear more about the negatives than positives because that's the nature of messages board like this where sadly so many are clearly so dramatically impacted by a phone.

----------



You really do have a pretty sad view on things. I would completely disagree with you. However, I won't go on with that point as you clearly wouldn't understand.



No, the attempt in that thread is to shed some of the gloom and doom off the people who are being bombarded with it and perhaps discuss some of the features that should be appreciated. I'll gladly expand on them and the topic for you if you wish.



Really? So my engaging in discussions on topics that are negative and sharing new ideas, new apps, asking questions and invoking discussions that generate more interest is a negative? WOW! perhaps I should just pick up my iOS6 phone, and tweet how much it sucks or text my wife and tell her how pissed I am. Will that make me feel better? Will that help anyone? Will that make anyone's life better in any way?



Great your phone works. How about you share how the new features have benefited you. What are some of the new additions that you like which perhaps are new discoveries? I could share several tips I've picked up from others here who shared notes in a positive light, but I won't because you're a cynical being.

You proved my point. Why ignore the good things I say about maps and iOS6? Is me being cynical blinded you to my positive post?

 

[pdqgp]

Street View, an extremely useful feature is gone and the real point is the downgrade in ease of use.

• So you blame Apple whereas I blame Google and the fact that they have such a nice feature that's not made available to us via using their web interface on our expensive phones?
• Don't you think such a decision involved Google too?
• Should I infer Google doesn't give a crap about those that use and love their app? I mean they aren't showing me they care...
• Do we even know why Apple & Google broke ways? Not a guess, but actual reasons? I don't, but I think that's a pretty key piece of information before we shoot them for doing so.
• What's Google's role in telling us their side of the story?
• Should I be mad at them for not getting an app ready or improving the web interface as noted because they had to have known about this change.

It should just work, as it has for years, but now it doesn't without having to jump through a couple hoops.

Really? What makes is certain that it should work just the same as it always has? Should doctors nationwide be pissed at the world because they now have use a medical record app? That they should have to spend tens of thousands on something they were just fine with and is being forced upon them? Really?

My iphone5 is amazing, but an element that made my life easier, and many others, is gone. Its a very un-Apple like mistake..

I'd challenge you that that one element can be replaced and your life once again made easier. If not immediately by Apple, I bet others will come to the party to save you in your moment of need. Apps will now pop up all over just watch. Heck, Apple likely helped their development community and I would venture to say there are tons of searches in the app store by people who are putting on their big boy pants and getting things done don't you?

----------

You proved my point. Why ignore the good things I say about maps and iOS6? Is me being cynical blinded you to my positive post?

Because you lack sincerity from your screen name to your posts on these matters. I trust in what people say only when people show through their actions trust is deserving. You're posts and tone do not do that as they are filled with your cynicism. You've proved your point and mine. Nice job on both accounts.

 

[The Phazer]

He also says that should Apple approve a Google Maps application and give him the choice to integrate it back into iOS 6 as the default, he'd be back in a shot.

Worth a read if you have a spare five minutes, as it covers all of the issues discussed in this thread & more. Personally I agree with 95%+ of what he says, but I doubt I would currently be able to tear myself away from iPhone.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/24/my-next-phone-will-be-a-samsung-not-an-iphone-5/

It's a great article.

Sadly with a comments section full of people of genuinely questionable sanity.

 

[John.B]

Here's one. I live in a big city. I often need to know if a place I'm going to has street parking. Enter StreetView:
Image

I can browse around the block, see exactly how many street parking spots there are in the vicinity, and even read signs that say if there are any parking restrictions.

I couldn't care less if anyone else doesn't find StreetView useful - it's useful for me. To somehow suggest that Flyover has any practical use whatsoever for anyone not traveling by helicopter is just laughable.

So for all the drama of this whole two-thousand-post thread that you started, you were never going to be happy in the first place.

Axe to grind, much?

 

[Qfic]

• So you blame Apple whereas I blame Google and the fact that they have such a nice feature that's not made available to us via using their web interface on our expensive phones?
• Don't you think such a decision involved Google too?
• Should I infer Google doesn't give a crap about those that use and love their app? I mean they aren't showing me they care...
• Do we even know why Apple & Google broke ways? Not a guess, but actual reasons? I don't, but I think that's a pretty key piece of information before we shoot them for doing so.
• What's Google's role in telling us their side of the story?
• Should I be mad at them for not getting an app ready or improving the web interface as noted because they had to have known about this change.

Really? What makes is certain that it should work just the same as it always has? Should doctors nationwide be pissed at the world because they now have use a medical record app? That they should have to spend tens of thousands on something they were just fine with and is being forced upon them? Really?



I'd challenge you that that one element can be replaced and your life once again made easier. If not immediately by Apple, I bet others will come to the party to save you in your moment of need. Apps will now pop up all over just watch. Heck, Apple likely helped their development community and I would venture to say there are tons of searches in the app store by people who are putting on their big boy pants and getting things done don't you?

----------

- I blame apple because they replaced an application with one that is inferior and not as useful as one they originally had on their devices. I could care less why they parted ways, but what I do know is that the old native app is still serviceable on IOS5 and below.

- It should just work because that is exactly how Apple has advertised it as such for years.

- It can be replaced however cannot be fully integrated, again, making my life that much more difficult than previous versions, and again, against Apple's mantra.

You can make excuses all you want, but the ball has definitely been dropped, maps is definitely more cumbersome, the user experience has definitely been compromised, and that is definitely not the Apple way as we have come to know it.

 

[dv8r]

I'd challenge you that that one element can be replaced and your life once again made easier. If not immediately by Apple, I bet others will come to the party to save you in your moment of need. Apps will now pop up all over just watch.

And when I'm able to set one of those as my default maps application of choice, You'll hear no more complaints - until then... it's a workaround, it might do the job, but still not integrated.

 

[Rogifan]

Michael Grothaus is a journalist over at TUAW who has had a long-standing love affair with Apple products and has numerous relationships within the company.

"I write for TUAW. I've used Apple technology almost exclusively for the last 12 years of my life. I also spent half a decade of my life working for Apple. I still have dozens of friends at Apple in design, marketing, and sales".

He has just written a very thorough article on his painful decision to cancel his pre-ordered iPhone 5 & buy Samsung instead.

If you take the time to read in the article, you can tell that this was not a decision taken lightly and that he's really gutted about it.

The reason he gave is that, as a resident of London, a major city, he uses mapping on a daily basis. He's been using Apple Maps on his iPhone 4S and has found it to be completely inadequate for him. He gives some well researched reasons as to why he sees this not changing any time soon.

He also says that should Apple approve a Google Maps application and give him the choice to integrate it back into iOS 6 as the default, he'd be back in a shot.

Worth a read if you have a spare five minutes, as it covers all of the issues discussed in this thread & more. Personally I agree with 95%+ of what he says, but I doubt I would currently be able to tear myself away from iPhone.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/24/my-next-phone-will-be-a-samsung-not-an-iphone-5/

From that article:
I didn't cancel my iPhone 5 order lightly. It hurt to do so. But I did it for the same reason I originally went with Apple products years ago -- they "just work." The iPhone 5's maps no longer "just work." So that phone is not the best choice for me any longer.

It's a shame too, because I was loaned an iPhone 5 for 24 hours on Saturday and it literally is a thing of true beauty. Hands down, it is the best designed phone ever. It's light and thin and fast and beautiful. But it doesn't have a critical feature that I rely on anymore.

 

[Brazuca]

Err . . . I did just a few posts back.

Not going to waste my time posting more, however, because I'm sure it's obvious to the vast majority of people on this forum that Street View is already extremely impressive and is still getting better.

Over 20 Petabytes of new imaging data is now uploaded every two weeks, for new images & for keeping existing ones current.

Sorry, but using streetview to read parking regulations is not a serious use. It is a lucky bonus and 1 in a million use. It can't be its raison d'etre.

Otherwise, its use seems to be to find parking garages. POIs should handle this, no?

 

[firestarter]

Sorry, but using streetview to read parking regulations is not a serious use. It is a lucky bonus and 1 in a million use.

I guess I'm one in a million too.

If I'm driving to a friend's house in London at the weekend I always check that sort of stuff out on streetview.

Where do you live, Brazuca? Have you ever travelled outside of your country?