Apple's new iOS 6 Maps support automatic offline use for a wide area - Page 4

Reason starts to prevail at last, 3 weeks into iOS 6 availability.

As an iPad 3/iPhone 5 owner, I couldn't be happier with my gadgets right now, especially having discovered Street Viewer in the app store to feed my Street View craving, the last holdout from the bad old Google-enslavement days.

My GPS locator blue dot on Maps has finally moved outside my window after 4 years of being 250 yards away in a park across a motorway; audio assisted turn-by-turn navigation at long last; jaw-dropping FlyOver mode that redraws at blistering speed, and now offline cacheing.

What other goodies and Easter Eggs will we discover by Easter?

The mind boggles in a pleasant way...

I think the next iPad will be an absolute beast just considering the technology available in the iPhone 5:

The Apple A6 SOC dual-core CPU outperforms the Apple A5X SOC dual-core CPU
The Apple A6 SOC tri-core GPU outperforms the Apple A5X SOC quad-core GPU
The Apple A6 SOC CPU 32 nm process technology (versus 45 nm process technology for the new iPad)
The Qualcomm M9615 (although this model is unlikely) 28 nm process technology (versus 45 nm process technology for the new iPad)

Unfortunately, the new iPad has a comparatively underpowered GPU considering the retina display. Hopefully, the result will be a more powerful but much lighter iPad.

 

If you look at the acknowledgments section in the App, you will find the following listed as 3rd party partners in the USA:

 

TomTom, Acxiom, AND, CoreLogic, DigitalGlobe, DMTI, Intermap, Urban Mapping, Waze, Yelp, Flickr, NASA, OpenStreetMap, US Census, US Geological Survey, and the US National Mapping Agency.

 

Placebase, Poly9, and C3 Technologies are mapping companies acquired by Apple, the first two of which are pretty much restricted to the USA as their area of expertise and dataset. As an Apple subsidiary, they will now have to globalise their operational area.

 

To roll out a similar level of reliability and accuracy elsewhere in the world would require a slew of equivalent agreements and partnerships, which no doubt are occurring behind the scenes as we whinge and whine away. As an example, look how many more things can now be done by Siri in ever more languages, including sports results in foreign leagues and divisions. These are accomplished by partnership arrangements and lots of work behind the scenes.

 

Rome was not built in a day...

Edited by airmanchairman - 10/5/12 at 7:13pm

Please provide a source for the statement "the first two of which are pretty much restricted to the USA as their area of expertise and dataset."

One thing I have noticed is the Spanish Siri is considerably less informed than her English counterpart which I speculate is due to the fact that perhaps Wofgram, Yelp, and the various other data sources that she searches are not as capable of responding to queries in Español.

As I already said, just look at Kyoto.
An entire major city is hardly a detail.

Is an entire mountain range a detail?



And here is a zoom on a pond at the foot of that mountain on the right.


Edited by ClemyNX - 10/6/12 at 4:21am

To use GPS in Airplane mode, you need to turn on Wifi. You don't need to connect to any networks, but the iphone will figure out where you are (roughly) through the access points.

So after you've turned on Airplane Mode you can enable WiFi and it will also enable GPS? I would have thought that GPS would still be disabled and only a WiFI-based location service, like Skyhook, would be able to work at that point.

 

Hello mstone. In as much as I advised my son to buy a Galaxy just a couple of days ago, and bearing in mind that I live in a cheese-making area surrounded by cowbells, I suppose you could say that I am an iCow. ;).

But otherwise, yes, I have used Apple computers since the Apple II, even if I do have a PC. Is that a problem? And no, I don't rush out to get the latest Apple gizmo. I don't have an iPad and my phone, that still works perfectly well, is an iPhone 3GS stuck on iOS4. (Takes another mouthful of grass.)

Edited by awoolman - 10/6/12 at 8:04am

 

Then that's not GPS… That's not even Wi-Fi mapping, that's just cell tower triangulation.

 

GPS does not work in Airplane mode, even with WiFi re-enabled.

I think it would be difficult to find any random examples where Apple imagery was even on par with Google let alone exceeding it. I think the burden of proof is on him and not just reporting on someone else's work where they have found an isolated instance or two that shows Apple maps imagery equivalent to Google's. By in large the opposite is true. If you wanted to make a criteria for an objective test perhaps it should be any suburban town or village between 40-80 kilometers from a city of 1+ million population. This would represent a real world usage scenario in my opinion. There are several such towns in my area and having panned around in the maps for days I can't say I was able to find any case that would support the notion that Apple maps are better.

 

I would have been extremely happy if Apple maps imagery was better than Google's. It just isn't, in my experience. I'm am sure there are plenty of Android trolls who would always characterize Apple as inferior but that is certainly not my agenda. If you have any of your own examples of Apple imagery being better than Google's (not previously published by someone else) please post them.

I found some instances in remote places of Africa where apple maps had better resolution than google maps, but it was in black and white, so it depends. I still haven't found a single 2D map that has better color treatment than google maps. Even the world view on maps looks unsaturated and just bland.


Edited by ClemyNX - 10/6/12 at 10:16am

That earth view is not real imagery in either case so the color rendering is a subjective illustration. I do give credit to Apple in the zoom level changes how they blend the colors through the transition although It does add a certain fake quality to the representation. I think they do that primarily to help mask the abrupt color changes from one image to the next, but at some zoom levels the color is artificial. The grayscale imagery is really disappointing.

Finally got a chance to compare iOS 5 and iOS 6 maps today, between my 1st gen and a 2nd gen iPad. 

 

IT SCREAMS. Might have been the iPad change, but I doubt it. It's flipping fast, it's flipping gorgeous, what the heck is the problem with people. Yeah, I found some errors, even in my city. Reported 'em. Piece of cake (really wish the window for reassigning pins took up more of the screen). They'll be fixed.

 

Apple already has the lynchpin of the equation: gorgeous maps that are leaner and faster than anything available. The data comes second. And boy, will it come.

I don't see how that is faster than anything. Even google earth shows 2d images faster than the new maps.

 

Yes, I know it's a fun game to play, and Google has been playing it for months now, even cooking up fake address examples to make your point, but what part of the request for objective comparisons did you not understand? I thought it was pretty clear. Is English not your native language? Is there some other reason you didn't understand the example I gave? Were you just being deliberately obtuse? Or did you just have nothing but didn't want to admit it? Thought no one would notice that your latest example was just more of the same? Just don't really have a clue what you are talking about?

Here is a case study I did which is a real world example near my house for a planned weekend event. 
I hope this qualifies as objective methodology.

 

Image 1: Map view from Google web app. Notice the label Great Park Balloon Ride. 
This our planned activity.

 

 

Image 2: the same view with Apple maps. Note there is no label.

 

Image 4: A Search for Balloon Rides in Apple Maps
Notice that it finds some in California but not the one that was in our view

 

 

 

Image 5: A new Seach for "Great Park Balloon Ride"
which the full official name of the business.
Apple maps found it but the pin is a couple miles off. I circled the actual location.

 

 

Image 6: This image is the maximum resolution available in Apple Maps

 

 

Image 7: This is the maximum resolution of Google Web app.

The GPS location of this case study is  33.67267, -117.74324

in case you want to verify the results.

Slurpy, who really gives a crap about 3D maps? I've looked at a few cities in 3D and though they were kind of neat, they really added nothing to the overall functionality of the map. And maybe they've fixed it now but New York City never rendered correctly leaving most buildings looking like mangled gray masses. Meanwhile I tried to use Hybrid View in Maps last night to find my way last night only to give up in frustration because the default level of detail means you have to zoom in insanely close to get to a useful level of detail. Worse unlike what I'm used to with Google Maps, Apple's hybrid view only seems to overlay what it considers the major roads.

To me 3D maps is this iOS/iPhone release overhyped wow feature. Much like FaceTime and Siri before it. FaceTime is neat but unless everyone you know exists in the Apple world you have little use for it. And the times you want to use it are pretty minimum to begin with.

 

Yeah, it's not like they'll be the ONLY standard of quality/accuracy for maps in a few years or anything.

 

I think you are right in what you are implying; a little digging on the 'Web (their websites of course have disappeared) shows that Poly9 is a global alternative to Google Earth, so I stand corrected there.

 

Placebase offered customizations and tons of features that integrate private and public data sets in many diverse ways, and offer a way to layer commercial and other data sets (such as demographics and crime data) onto the maps using an easy-to-use application programming interface (PushPin). No doubt the bulk of this specialised information at the time of sale would likely be of USA origin, with the task of aggressively globalising it falling to the new owners Apple.

 

 

OK, here are some things to try -- just to compare the usefulness of Apple maps 3D vs anything Google has to offer:

1) any "standard" (not hybrid or satellite) map view in 3D -- provides a useful perspective 3D view of the area

2) the "Hollywood" sign... Shows realistically in Apple 3D maps -- wrong location and totally unavailable in Google Maps, StreetView and Google Earth

3). 501 Park Road Ambridge PA -- Apple maps gives a useable 3D of 2D image -- Google StreetView closest view is a highway a block away running parallel... You do get a peek through some trees and a chain-link fence. In Google StreetView, you can step along the highway until you come to.a cross street -- but you cannot turn onto the cross street and leave the highway... Really frustrating!

4) Mt Rushmore... Apple Maps 3D gives useful display of mountain, but no faces --- the Google Trio (maps, StreetView, earth)... Not useful at all

5) Freemont and Mary Sunnyvale CA (shopping center on SE corner). Apple maps has quite usable ability to 3D zoom/pan the area -- Google StreetView... You can drive by and view from afar, but cannot enter the parking lot for a close up view... Very frustrating.

6) Apple maps 3D views have a problem with suspension bridges (Golden Gate, Brooklyn...) -- where are the vertical cables? Suspension bridges falling down, falling down, my fair lady...

7) Apple maps 3D views of anything below street level (Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, etc.) provides useful views for exploring -- little or nothing on google.

8) Apple maps shows great 3D views of areas with no public roads, e.g. Statue of Liberty -- the Google Trio, not so much... Nearest StreetView is too far away.

9) it appears that it is easer and much faster for Apple to add and tweak 3D views -- than for Google to update its Trio views.
Edited by Dick Applebaum - 10/7/12 at 11:24am

Looks like a big Orange County orange.

How do you get the GPS coordinates?

I can tour the inside of the Aquarium Store at that location using Street View.

Google Maps

 

Touché...

 

Touché too...

 

A little Apple Maps magic (with help from FCP X) -- not possible with Google anything:

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3HLULB1YCE

 

Tell/show me how?

 

That shopping center was 7 tenths of a mile from Apple Headquarters -- and housed our main computer store from 1978-1989.

 

Our landlord Steve Vidovich, had an arial picture (ca 1930-40) in his office of his Dad's farm (which he inherited).  It showed all of Sunnyvale and Cupertino as fruit orchards -- the shopping center was the farm house -- the only building for miles around. Someday soon, Apple maps FlyOver will include overlays that show, property values, improvement values, # of employees, total wages...

 

Maybe, even for Central America...

I just made a feature request to Apple maps!

Drop Pegman on the orange dot on the roof of the building next to the Wells Fargo location

There is no Wells Fargo location on the Southeast corner shopping center.

How do I reposition Pegman on an iPad?
Edited by Dick Applebaum - 10/7/12 at 12:54pm

I guess I was on the north west corner. My mistake.

 

I have no idea how to use Street View on iPad.

I can reposition the Pegman icon on a Mac with maps.google.com... I can't with the same site om an iPad....


Edit: The topic of this thread is "iOS 6 Maps"... Is it reasonable to compare it with maps apps running on Macs or PCs? I can understand comparing with Maps apps on Android, iOS 5, Nokia, Windows RT, etc.... But shouldn't we limit this discussion to features that can be demonstrated on at least one mobile phone or tablet?

If we need to match Mac or PC maps apps, iOS 6 maps loses by definition.

We would, likely, use a maps app differently at home on our computer -- than in the field on our phone or tablet.
Edited by Dick Applebaum - 10/7/12 at 3:00pm

Good point. Apple has an ecosystem as does Google. Apple's ecosystem does not include a desktop maps version so it can't possibly be compared to a full featured, comprehensive application like Google Maps that is represented on every conceivable platform including the original iPhone.

 

The Apple apologist are starting to shift from Apple maps blow Google out of the water to, in a few years you just wait and see.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=3000+canyon+lake+drive+hollywood&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x80c2bf0b0a366681:0x8b8c487778c582f0,3000+Canyon+Lake+Dr,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90068&gl=us&ei=4g9yUPH3EYHY9A

 

Supposedly the best spot for viewing the Hollywood sign.

The Android and MS camps has been claiming soon for years now but we now have the Apple camp saying the same thing about Apple Maps? That's not a good sign, IMO.

I'll have to take back an earlier statement I made that Google doesn't offer vector mapping for desktops. It seems they have a beta already offered that does just that, with the bonus of 3D mapping and seamless transition to Streetview.

 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/step-inside-map-with-google-mapsgl.html

Yes and also if you search for Mt Lee, Los Angeles, CA you can see it from directly overhead. The problem with just searching for Hollywood sign is that the website hollywoodsign.org is publishing the wrong coordinates.

I don't understand that comment.

Apple maps is able to find the correct location with its "supposedly" inferior source for map data: TomTom.

Google maps cannot find the correct location with its superior sorce for maps data: Google.

Are you saying that Google maps only takes responsibility for the location if it is correct -- and blames someone else if it is incorrect?

I wonder how, and how long it will take for Google to fix this error in its map app.


To the prior poster: How is the user supposed to know to search for: "3000 canyon lake drive hollywood"?

Remember, we are discussing using a mobile device (phone or tablet) while out and about... Supposedly trying to find something?

I tried the address, on my iPad, with the maps.google.com web site -- was not able to get a street view.

I tried the address with the street viewer app (which uses Google data) and was able to see the sign from afar... I was able to navigate a bit closer -- but then had to zoom in which gave very blurry and unsatisfactory results compared to Apple maps 3D.

With Google apps and data, I could not easily and fluidly move between overhead and street view, nor could I get the same distance and resolution of the target area with the two views.

Convenience and user experience, Apple maps wins this test hands down:
1) a single, simple logical search reguest!
2) a single response that was quickly zoomable and in focus at 45-90° and anything in between!

I know it's anecdotal, but plus one for the good guys!

Just to show off (notice the search term):

 

Dick: This is an isolated instance. No one resides at the Hollywood sign. You are not permitted to visit it as it is surrounded by razor wire fence and it has no address per se. The reason it is not found in Google maps is because the people who administer the site have purposefully obfuscated the location. Give us a break and go find another landmark to adopt as your poster child for Apple maps. 

Edited by mstone - 10/7/12 at 9:48pm