Inside iOS 6: What's wrong with Apple's new Maps - Page 2

 

My town has no transit directions for anything anyway, but last week I was in a major city.  I had both google maps, and the cities transit app.  Google was better.

 

 

But its not the USA, which is Apples home, rather than outside of USA, which where apples major markets are.

 

I think using someone's death to defend Maps was worse. 

 

I like how he posted in the comments under the pseudonym 'Corrections'. I don't know if he's being ironic because he never corrects his articles, even when factual errors are pointed out.

When I read Rokrad's post I was going to use that same WP7/8 argument. WP7/8 is good but it pales in comparison to iOS and it's ecosystem. Being good when comparing to a 2007 product that changed everything simply doesn't cut it if users are expecting a certainly level or competency in 2012.

Now Maps are different because they are part of the OS not an entirely new ecosystem. I doubt most people will even know that Maps is different on the back end so Apple has that going for it but when you compare the two there is currently a stark difference that does't favour Maps6 except on the front end, which may not be enough for some people. That said, you can still get Google Maps in the browser if you really want it.

On top of that, it's not even as bad as Apple not adding Adobe Flash Lite to iOS with H.264 still in its infancy. They made the right decision back then and the world (not just iPhone users) are better for it so I don't expect that in a year from now this will be a real issue despite plenty of posts a year from now showing clear examples of Google Maps being better than Apple Maps at specific searches.

APPLE maps plain and simple SUCK!

 

You know what really sucks... Trolls who come to a forum and post 100% negative posts... no discussions, no logic, no facts -- just anti-anything knee-jerk opinions!

 

A typo. Grow up.

Good idea.  At least it would quickly collect street view-like information quickly, however less affluent areas would not receive much coverage.  On the whole however, I think contractors with vehicles equipped with proper equipment would in the end be cheaper.

It's not true that "there isn't currently any way to access it from iOS 6". There are already other apps in the App Store that let you use Street View, like Live Street View Free.

Guess I read it different.  I only assumed the remote islands he was referring to was the U.S. Virgin Islands and Isla Mujeres.

I've been using it since it was released last week. Turn by turn is so nice to have (finally.). Sure it is not as polished as google maps but google is years in the making already. I'm betting by next year or 2014 at the latest it will be even if not surpassing google maps in many ways. I've been letting it guide me to all of my destinations with no hiccups whatsoever. 3D view has really helped a few times to get going in the right direction as well.

Every product launch articles that criticize new apple hardware and software get an insane amount of click so we see a lot of them, even when the issues are quite minor.

It directly followed on:

 

"There are also apparently a lot of places in the UK where place names are particularly aggrieved, according to the BBC. In the other direction, blogger Anthony Drendel recently noted that Apple's new maps for China are "a huge improvement over Google Maps" in that country.

It shouldn't be surprising that Apple is prioritizing its iOS 6 Maps rollout to favor huge markets like the U.S. and China over remote islands, at least in its first few weeks on the market."

 

 

I don't see any other way to read it other than as a jerk snub to one of Apple's biggest markets.  Maybe it's not China or the US in terms of population, but "remote" it is not.

 

I loved how not very long ago Google put Mt. Whitney near Lake Tahoe, roughly 300 miles off!

 

I think Apple should configure Maps to display more information.

Often when iOS6 Maps locates me by GPS, the map is so zoomed in and/or sparse with information that I really have no idea of what's around me or where I am.

Should also allow for providers of shared car type services also make their own apps and incorporate billing as well via Passbook perhaps?

 

The only difference between Maps 6 and WP7 is that people aren't going to avoid buying a phone because it has Maps 6 on it. 

 

And in case you haven't figured it out yet, Apple is not competing against any version of Google Maps. Google got evicted from its default position.  

The article states traffic is not available in the google maps browser mode. That's very incorrect. Click on the upper right icon (upside down triangle), click on layers, then traffic. Traffic is then displayed. So far my only complaint about Maps is how they display the traffic. It needs a better interface to display bad traffic. Displaying road construction and accidents is awesome, though. For now, I'll stick with Google's web browser map

I actually thought the article was quite evenhanded... but way too verbose. I do resent you posting under a pseudonym and trolling your own articles. I reported, it... Again!

This was actually the best article I read on the whole map matter. Out of all the news media complaining about the app, nobody has broken it down. 

 

 

It doesn't have to be about being a fan boy. Some people don't like the way Google farms your data and sells it to advertisers. Me being one. Moreover, Eric what is his name gives me the creeps. 

"I don't see any other way to read it other than as a jerk snub to one of Apple's biggest markets.  Maybe it's not China or the US in terms of population, but "remote" it is not."

 

Oh, please.  Get over it.  Daniel was clearly not referring to the UK as remote islands.  He was clearly referring to Isla Mujeres and the US Virgin Islands.

 

If you read it as a snub, perhaps that says more about your own insecurities.

That's because you left out the previous paragraph:

"There are islands I've personally navigated via Google's accurate map renderings (like Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands) where there are only limited roads in iOS 6 Maps (and they don't line up with the land properly, as shown below)."

Now, let's put it all together:

When you list the entire segment, it is clear that the phrase 'remote islands' is referring to Isla Mujeres and US Virgin Islands, not the UK.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, as you can see Kasper you entered 「〒060-0062 北海道 札幌市 北海道札幌市中央区南2条西6丁目...」You typed the prefecture and city twice (potentially confusing iMaps and/or Google Maps). Also you don't need the postal code since many places in Japan will have the same postal code. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it confuses the mapping system. When I typed the address you used in your screen shot iMaps found the hotel (or at least one hotel). I'm not sure if it was the Sunroute Hotel you were looking for because I couldn't see the rest of your address in your screen shot. But one of the hotels that belongs to that partial address you typed is the Sunroute Hotel. iMaps on my iPad found it without any problems as you can see. It worked with the Japanese name 「サンルート」"Sunroute". In your defense I had to try a few different names to find it. It wasn't completely simple and yes searching in English proved to be futile. And yes there are no English street names.

 

As a side note, I just discovered that grabbing with two fingers and dragging up/down changes the axis which is really cool. Automatically puts it in 3D. Nice. 

 

p.s. How do I post large pics like above?

 

 

Edited by success - 9/25/12 at 10:11pm

I just noticed that local business listings in Japan have increased dramatically from just last month.

Errors, serious to my mind, can also arise from a dated map base. View the following: 7155 Ladir, Switzerland. Sure, western half of ground view shows winter, eastern half shows summer. Funny perhaps, but more serious the form of some place names (PN). Where a German PN exists, the German form is chosen. This is, however, a practice not followed for about 40 years. Nowadays the Romansh rather than the German forms are the official ones. Depends on ones age whether the German name is still know and visitors do not know those former forms at all. They will search for 'Sevgein' not 'Seewis im Oberland'.
I can't report this systematic error for Grisons/Graubuenden Canton (trilingual, yes, Italian spoken too). No iPhone 5 available in Switzerland just yet and my oldie 3G still works fine ...
As to the Dilger article - one of few which rises above the noise of so called 'mapocalyps'. GOOGmaps contain ... errr, well oddities, errors. Map making is a huge task. Keeping them current is a gargantuan one.

Interesting article. I found the part about car consumption funny though. Planes consume hundred of times more fuel than cars. Even mapping the whole tip of Manhattan by car is probably less fuel consuming and less expensive than doing a single plane pass for flyover.

Yes, really. I use ClickToFlash and maps.google.com displays a Flash button after I drag the orange man onto the map.



Devs putting Google SV into an app can do whatever they want. Just like Apple/Google doesn't use Flash, obviously, in the Maps app pre-iOS6 but SV works nonetheless. Which makes for a funny experience, since I don't have Flash installed on my Mac; when I hit a page that requires Flash I simply switch to the iPad.

iPad, the best Flash player in the world.

My biggest problem with both the old Google Maps and the new Apple Maps is that neither caches enough map data. Both apps seem to have presumed that everyone will always have an Internet connection with free data. The reality is that people drive in places without cellular data service and in places where data roaming is expensive. The cache size should be increased by a factor of about ten i.e. one order of magnitude.

I'd go even further. I'd like to see an option to download the maps for an area and keep them in your phone. For example, when I am traveling to Frankfurt (for example), I'd like to have that map on my phone before I go so that I don't have to pay the horrendous international data charges. I have to use a third party option to go that route.

Gee, a 5 page Apple apologist article (so shocking coming from Dilger.). I'm sorry Dilger, but just because YOU don't want to see the same level of detail that a map from Google provides doesn't mean that everyone wants that. Since all the data is vector based and presumably downloaded at the same time, how about providing the user an option to select the detail level? User choice, what a weird concept.

And it really doesn't matter whether the actual app code has an error or it's the data powering the app, it's still a problem with the app. The app is both the compiled code you download to the phone AND the data that it provides. Trying to split hairs like that is just silly.

I've also noticed that in straight up satellite view, there seem to be a ton of roads that are obstructed by trees. That's something I never noticed on a Google map.

I tried to look up a local business with the new Maps app. It couldn't find it. I went to the Google Maps site and before I even finished typing the business name it had returned a list with the destination at the top. Maybe Apple's version will get to that point someday, but right now the app is a definite downgrade from what it used to be.

Only DED can call major towns being in the wrong place "relatively insignificant." Presumably the laughable search results are "a minor hiccup"?

When you're a blogger riding on the coat-tails of a successful company little details like that don't matter - hey, I wonder if that's what Apple thinks of major UK towns being in the wrong place on their map - a little detail that doesn't matter?

Well said. No number of pretty screenshots can paper over the fact that the new Maps app is unfinished at best. It should clearly be labelled Beta.

I never thought I'd say this because I hate reading it, but can you imagine Steve Jobs letting this junk get released?

 

No, and neither can you, because you know absolutely nothing about Jobs or what he would have done.

 

It can be assumed, however, that he would have absolutely released Maps like this, as Google did the same and went on to become leader in this field. They'll be supplanted in far less time than it took them to get where they are. Not to mention Apple has released products in states of "partial completion" before.

I travel to Los Angeles weekly for business. While there I use the Maps app frequently. Searching for local businesses and getting directions have clearly been superior for me this week using iOS 6 Maps.

There are some subtle changes that are much improved %u2013 real time savers that allow less typing %u2013 a great plus and life saver (potentially) while using a small keyboard in a vehicle. A couple of them%u2026

- selecting recent directions that include 'Current Location' now actually use your Current location rather than the location that was current at the time of the original navigation. A real convenience that saves time and allows for less typing/tapping.

- Typing "Mcd" immediately returned the suggestion "McDonalds", the restaurant, as the first item on the list followed by "Bruce McDonalds" from my Address Book. In prior iOS versions only the address book entries would appear unless there was a recent prior search %u2013 a pain in the rear as you would have to completely type out "McDonalds" and wait for the Map app to search the area. This saves at least 90% of the time needed to find a location.

Happy user

Expect the fact that with most cars, they only hold 2-8 people and a plane can hold up to 400+.  So you have to do a little math and then compare.  Not to mention the fact that most cars drive around with an average 2 passengers at a time(regardless of their capacity)...and not eveyone flies every day.  While most planes fly at mostly full capacity.

• The geographical boundaries (water edges and lack of detail and accuracy) are hugely simplified (and sometimes non-existent) compared to Google Maps.  And in most cases even if you zoom in really close...somethings appear and some don't.  To me geographical data should be visible at all zoom levels.  And for god's-sake make the boundaries accurate.  They're using vector graphics for crying out loud, there's no excuse for simplifying these things.

• The building outlines can only be viewed largely at a zoom levels that are unusable in most cases.  Meaning you have to zoom in too far to actually see building outlines.  Not to mention the way it denotes types of zoning (i.e. hospital, University, governmental boundaries) are inaccurate as well.

• Transit overlays on top of the maps.  It's great they they at least show transit stops on iOS 6 maps.  But not having the routes overlaid on the maps is a huge annoyance.  I could care less about Siri telling me which train route is the best and time tables.  Just give me the overlaid transit system on the map and I can find my way.  In larger, more complex transit systems...showing the layouts of the stations and exit locations is also a huge advantage Google has over iOS Maps.

Edited by antkm1 - 9/26/12 at 8:57am

That's because you are more interested in Apple bashing than a fair comparison.

Let's say that Apple had every single town and POI on the planet correct except for one or two towns - that can easily be fixed. Wouldn't you agree that this is relatively insignificant? After all, 99.99% accuracy in a first attempt is pretty good, especially if it's easy to fix.

More importantly, no one seems to be interested in a factual comparison. Pick 10,000 addresses at random and compare them in Google and Apple Maps. Then see how many are misplaced in one or the other. I really don't know the answer, but if you did that, you would at least have some facts to compare it to. Or find a way to conduct a truly random sampling of 1000 users of Google and/or Apple Maps and ask them to find their home on each to see if one or both are in error. Again, at least you would have some facts.

As it is, people think that it's a disaster because some unknown number of people are screaming about some unknown percentage of problems. And there is absolutely no evidence as to whether the number is greater or less than Google Maps and how large the difference might be.

I really don't care much one way or the other. I rarely use Maps on my phone and I can easily use maps.google.com (or, more likely, mapquest.com) if the Apple Maps doesn't work for me. But it's annoying to see one Apple-bashing 'gate' after another with no facts or critical thinking.

Based on what? Your opinion? Where are the facts to support your contention? How many sites are in the wrong location on Apple Maps and how many on Google Maps? What percentage of people have problems with each system?

Without data to back up your claim, you're simply whining about unfounded issues.

 

Yeah, there will be a lot more articles... but, where it counts, I doubt that few will choose a non-Apple smartphone because of iOS 6 Map deficiencies.

 

Think of it... There have been articles all over the tech blogs with, likely, 500 valid (non-shill/troll) posters saying iOS 6 maps is a show-stopper.  And, they sold 5,000,000 iP5s in the first weekend... likely 10,000,000 in the first 8 days.   Add to that 25,000,000 iOS 6 (maps) upgrades -- 25% of existing iDevices (even though 3G and earlier are not upgradeable to iOS 6.

 

So, while of interest to us techies and CPM whores -- iOS 6 map deficiencies is a non-issue for the broader population -- compared to the other advantages of iPhones and iOS 6.

Except that we are talking of just one car vs one plane that's made just for that.
And commercial flights consume approx the same as cars per person, when they are full of people.

And plane rejections aren't filtered like those of a car either.

 

Apple isn't commissioning planes to fly around cities to capture Flyover maps. It's using existing aerial photographs to develop 3D models. 

 

Google's task of driving vehicles down every road in the world is clearly a more time and resource intensive project, with limited benefits. That's probably why Google is now working on maintaining its own 3D aerial maps too.

OK, folks, can we move on now?

I'm growing fatigued of seeing the same five images displayed over and over again as examples of how screwed up Apple Maps is... The fact is, it works just fine the vast majority of the time... The smoothness of flyover is actually a superior experience to Google's jerky aerial shots - are their weird artifacts for bridges and overpasses (or anything with a cantilever)? Sure! Who cares...

And I'm really tired of the complaint about 'missing' Street View! Street View has NEVER been available on iOS, so how could it be 'missing'?

I agree that, in general, the market holds Apple to a higher standard... That, plus snarky bloggers and social media blowback from Google-fans, is creating lots of drama where none is deserved...

Long term, this is a great move for Apple...

 

So you decided to ignore the half dozen or so posts that corrected you the last time you said this? 

 

That's the only possible explanation for what I'm seeing here.

To reiterate, Street View has been available since iPhone OS 2.2 in November 2008. 

 

Don't say that it has "never been available" again.