Apple's new Maps in iOS 6 draw ire from users around the world - Page 2

For those unhappy with the new Maps app, you might want to pop for one of the various versions of Navigon. It works very well and they just updated it to support the new screen size and Map app. It has Street View and Google search built in.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/20/navigon-ios6-update/
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daekwan 

Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?

 

Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.

That's the problem. It replaced something that mostly worked. They might have given you something worse than what you already had. This isn't a product introduction, it is a product replacement. Because of that, it needed to come out the gates firing on all cylinders. It can't get there eventually.

I have an idea - if you live in a country where Maps are not yet fully supported - Don't update to iOS 6. 

Perhaps hard to do if you are getting a new iPhone 5 - but here's an idea - don't update to an iPone 5 just yet. 

I would have to think that Apple is hard at work on getting lots of updates to Maps done as soon as possible. 

This is very untimely. I doubt Google will push out a standalone maps app anytime soon, not if they think this situation can help Android handset makers. But what about simply using maps.google.com homepage as an app?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quadra 610 

In my area it's ok, but in general it feels like a step backward. The turn-by-turn features are very welcome, but somehow I get the feeling that Apple released this too early. 

 

Who knows, I might warm up to it.   *shrugs*

 

My feelings too. Apple should have simply left the choice to the consumer. If Google does not come out with an app soon, this could be very bad PR for Apple.

So what shall we call this? Mapgate? Googlegate? Streetviewgate? Commutermapgate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazda 3s 


Then they should have waited until it was ready before replacing the better mapping application that was already baked in. Or released an app first, then baked it in once it was up to snuff.
So it's going to take years to get BACK to the point we were before iOS 6? In what kind of world does that make sense? People expect a polished product from Apple; this wreaks of half-assedness.
Bottom line, if you replace an existing feature in your product, make it better, not worse.

The timing is bad, but it is not entirely Apple's doing. The agreement with Google expired this year, leaving Apple to either agree to more years on Google's terms or branch out on their own. Given the current climate, door #2 was the only one Apple would take. Furthermore, let's face it, Larry Page is a different CEO from Eric Schmidt. Page is shrewder in a devious way. This can be significant leverage in the Android v. iOS war.

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnmcboston 

I use maps frequently enough that ios6 won't get on my phone until these problems are fixed.
Funny, knowing both youtube and maps were going away, Google got a new youtube app out early, yet not even a word on a google (standalone) maps app...

I would not say not a word. They've said that they'd make sure their Maps solution will be available on all platforms. But they didn't say when.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostface147 

I really don't know what people truly expected.  Did you honestly expect a 1.0 product to match something or even come close to a system that's been going on for several years?  Yes it sucks now, but it's going to take years to catch up to Google.  Fortunately I live in Houston and the maps works great for me.  I also have a great sense of direction, so that helps too. 

Oh please stop this 1.0 nonsense. Sounds like Blackberry speak (there's no need to settle for 1.0 of anything when there's a 6.0 available).

Quote:

Originally Posted by anantksundaram 

My feelings too. Apple should have simply left the choice to the consumer.

They couldn't. Apple's agreement with Google expires this year. This might put a dent in sales, unfortunately, which is what Google and Samsung want. Wait till the next version of Samsung ads - they would be foolish not to mock Maps.

From what I can gather Apple went their own way with Maps because their licence with Google for maps had run out - there could be a multitude of reasons why it didn't get renewed (cost / advertising requirements / etc) but I'm guessing the growing animosity over android is a huge one and probably the prime reason Apple also dropped the Youtube app, although this could also be because in the 6 years since the first iPhone most of youtube now works nicely as HTML 5 in Safari so a seperate app is no longer a necessity to circumvent flash.

I wonder how long Google are going to let Apple face the flack for this before swooping in with their own Google Maps iOS app to somehow save the day?

Personally on the Apple Maps side of things it is a pretty good effort for a version 1.0 app and I like the smoothness of the vector scaling and turn by turn built in. The problem is that it has replaced a version 6.0 app people are noticing the 5 point step backwards in maturity and it is coming as a bit of a shock. One positive of this whole debarkle is that pretty much all of the issues are with back end server data and so should be easily fixed / updated behind the scenes without any need to update devices.

I'm expecting Apple to throw a whole heap of manpower at this and quickly as the "maps = bad" stories are starting to drown the "everything else = good" iOS 6 / iPhone 5 news stories.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Netimoon 

If you like Google Maps better, you can always use it by hitting maps.google.com in Safari. And you can even make it a shortcut icon to the home screen.
So. Why anger? Use your brain, not mouth.

The web version for mobile devices is hardly as good as the actual app. That is not a solution. 

Google Maps -- the agreement between Apple & Google was up for renewal this year, and obviously the terms were not acceptable to either or both of the parties involved. So Apple must have been left in a position of having no Maps app or developing its own version using non-Google sources. Had Apple chosen to abandon Maps altogether, the outcry would have been far worse -- better to have a mostly usable app than no app at all.

I can remember when Google Maps & Google Earth were released -- my city (large city in the UK) had low resolution satellite images that looked like tree tops. We had to wait nearly two years to get the high resolution versions. Also, most of their maps are way out of date: an empty plot where a building has been standing for over three years. Another building in the early stages of construction (only the steel work showing) was there for five years after the official opening.

iOS standard (vector) maps for my city are fine, and so is route planning from where I live to my sister's house some 160 miles away in NW England (gave me three routes to choose from). Postcode search is better in the new Maps app than it was/is in Google Maps and Navigon. The satellite images are just blobs and mostly unusable -- I would guess that the image rendering in Maps isn't up to scratch.

Apple needed to get its own mapping on iOS not just because of the contractual impasse: Apple needs to be independent of Google simply because the fight against Android is just beginning to warm up and things are likely to get pretty hot (thermonuclear -- I wonder how GWB would have pronounced that) soon.

Truly disappointing. The image quality looks more like 2000 than 2012 and there are multiple errors that I can see within 10 miles of my home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jigjag69 

Wow. ISheep have something negative to say about God (Apple)

Do note, that we're just complaining about ONE app, and it's not a deal-breaker. 

There are competitors out there who can barely get an entire platform off the ground never mind, mess up just one app.

It just goes to show how Apple spoils their users in every other way. 

I'm pissed about the Map app, sure, but iOS is *so* good that I can live with it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pendergast 

Wait, wait, are people really elevating Google Maps to some holy level, as if it were end the end all be all of mapping software?
Google Maps was ok. At best. And it was only ok because it was free.
I can't tell you how many times Google gave me poor or even wrong directions. If I wasn't super specific with a search, it would find a POI that's not close to me. It would return POIs that make no sense. Etc.
Unless you're in an area with poor Maps support, take all of this with a grain of salt. For most users, there will be no problems. And you won't hear from them. The only people you'll hear are those who are having a problem. It's not an accurate representation of the collective opinion.

This ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quadra 610 

 

But they've *already* had all that time in development. 

 

Why are we being asked to wait for something we already had?

 

Apple could have at least made their Map app as an App Store offering, with a *Beta* disclaimer somewhere, until it was ready. OR NOT RELEASE IT AT ALL UNTIL IT WAS PERFECT.

The way these datasets work, they actually need to be corrected by the end user.  That's why there is a "Report a Problem" button behind the map.  Unfortunately, Google's map data is only good because we've had 6 years or so of people sending in complaints about the data and Google fixing the data.  

This is the main problem I have about this article and the others I've read.  They focus on funny data problems like the phantom airport in the article above, when those are just errors in the dataset that are easily corrected.  

Personally, I am seriously disappointed with the app and think it's an absolute POS so far, but not because of data errors.  

It's a POS because of the missing functionality (Streetview for example), which will *never* be replaced.  

It's a POS because of it's insane OVER-focus on cars and turn by turn.  

It's a POS because you have to decide which type of directions (car/walk/bus) you want *before* you actually search for a route.  

It's a POS because once you have routed, you cannot then go back and see what it would be like if you took a car or bus instead.  

It's a POS because they didn't even *try* to make it work properly outside of the USA

It's a POS because lots of cities with freely available, open-source, 3D data are not 3D in the app

But the thing everyone is focussing on is the data errors instead.  :-/

The data errors make good copy but people should be focussing on what a steaming pile of poop the app itself is, not the data. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sip 

Google Maps -- the agreement between Apple & Google was up for renewal this year, and obviously the terms were not acceptable to either or both of the parties involved. 

I'd like to see some verification of this.