Mapping app powered by Google Maps pulled from App Store - Page 2

From what I am seeing Apple maps seems to be pretty OK for the US, with only the transit information and the shops/businesses information a little lacking. But that should get addressed very soon.

Where apple maps really fall short is outside the US and China. I live in India, and here the maps are no comparison to what was offered with google maps. I wanted to send problem reports to apple from my iPad-2 and did not know where to start. My hometown (a top-30 city in india) has about five named streets on apple maps. Most of the smaller streets are missing. Google maps on the other hand even has ATMs and most stores on it. With apple probably focusing on US and Europe (and even Tim Cook saying India is only of medium term importance to Apple), I don't see how I can recommend any iOS device to anybody here for quite sometime.

Google has always been a more Global company than apple. Apple is only now, over the last 3-4 of years focusing outside the US (and to some extent Europe). I think that is their problem.

 

And no more reselling stuff you own, either. 

Yeah I just downgraded a MBP to SL because I'm not allowed to reformat the HD to a clean copy of Lion to give the computer to my bookkeeper. SL is the the last transferable OS for that machine. It sucks because I was not able to patch it to current without registering it to my Apple ID. I can only pass it to her with instructions on how to upgrade it.

Why do you (AI authors) keep showing the University of Minnesota stadium with these stories? It is actually "TCF Bank Stadium". I checked Google and a Gopher Alum that I work with...

 

Oh, please shut the **** up. I'm sorry, but your trolling on this subject is what has gotten old, a long time ago. Also, I'm calling you out on your horse-shit. Nobody who actually owns an iPhone 4S would actually call it an 'iPhone 4GS'. Since you do nothing on these boards than bash the hell out of Apple. on any and every subject imaginable, I very much doubt you own an iPhone or give a shit about the company. Who's going to hold them 'accountable'? You? Please, do, and spare us from your future horse-shit. Do you have nothing else happening in your life, than accumulate thousands of posts rambling about a maps app that I doubt you've even used or own? Apple is ADVERTISING alternate maps app in the store, the reason this was pulled was for API violations, related to GOOGLE, not to 'take away your freedom'. Get the **** over yourself. You're a liar and a troll. 

I wish Apple would fix the train station errors in London...

 

 

   

 

Tourists must be very confused. :/

 

Australia is not in the USA.

Maps by Apple is not as bad as the pundits made it out to be. Try it before commenting.

 

Comparing the issues with other maps is good and Apple knew the issues and they are doing their best to correct the issues.

 

So far I have not driven off the cliff yet or into a melted bridge.

 

Well there's the problem: repeating the same old 'barrage of negative comments' line will bring a boatload of page hits to complain about it. 

Hey Apple! If you release a Maps app for OS X you will get more bug reports. Thousands more.

You have found that Google has bad coverage for this particular region in Australia where places are very recent. Wow.

There are houses only on Moffat St and Bond St there. How lame.

 

edit : and what about the streets that are missing on the left half side of the image? What about bus indications? What about smaller roads?

Edited by ClemyNX - 10/12/12 at 1:44am

I just asked for an update on the Google map.

 

I have to admit, I'm amazed at the speed of their updates!

 

So now the google map for that area is officially better.

So how did it get past Apple's renowned vetting procedure?

 

Strange that Google Maps showed me all those street names when I did the search...Maybe Google hates Australians?

 

 

See my comments, I added those streets one by one and they were added minutes later.

On the webpage capture you provide, an ad can be seen for new homes on those very streets. That's why google didn't have the place labelled yet, nobody lives there yet.

Edited by ClemyNX - 10/12/12 at 4:17am

The trouble with Google Maps is that Google is trying to also build an ecosystem around it.

I am worried about public transportation data, which transit companies deliver directly to Google (and not to Apple, for the time being). Given that their IT staff often are Android heads, they may be doing this wilfully, if not out of ignorance.

 

That is rich! Good try shill60, exposed. It's like an an inverse play on the Moto ad. 

Well even giving Apple all the benefit of the doubt that can be handed out and objectively viewing the Maps in iOS 6.

As someone using it in the UK it is the worst mapping solution I have had the misfortune to use.

Beautiful - Check
Technologically advanced - Check
Usable - Check
Actually useful - FAIL

It cannot locate anything in London. Key tube stations are missing. If you search for well known streets close to you, it finds a street over 100 miles away to the North. Location data which in normal towns are slightly wrong is 2-3 streets wrong in London.

Large and I mean LARGE towns are just not on the maps. This like tube points not being displayed with the correct icons.

I am sure they will fix it, but it is the worst thing from Apple I have seen on the iOS side, it maybe the worst I have seen since the mid 90's.

As they have forced this into users with iOS6 they are getting the worst possible PR from users. I have refused to allow devices to upgrade to iOS6 for the time being as Maps is a key part of many peoples mobile work. Users have been flooding into support to downgrade. No such luck for those like me with an iPhone5.

I hope they won't take too long to fix these issues. One mis calculation like this has caused such anger from people who cannot find places and are late for appointments. The worst possible PR when an iOS5 device gets you there as does an Android/Nokia.

 

Sorry Adam I am sure location plays a lot to do with it. But in the UK specifically London. It is so so so bad if you are looking for anything location data.

 

Missing stations, shops that closed over 5 years ago!

 

For street mapping it seems comparable so far. But location data is the primary thing maps is used for in a metropolitan area.

And actually no one will ever live there because these are display homes.

The last example that Hill60 gave in another thread was for another display park also! He seems to concentrate on those only!

 

Actually these are some of the fastest growing areas in Sydney where thousands of homes are being built, bought, sold and moved into.

 

It's a good thing you had the Apple map I posted to give you the street names, which incidentally are named after car drivers who used to race at the racetrack which was demolished to to make way for the new housing estate.

 

Google seems to have put streets in that don't exist yet whereas Apple and Nokia have only put in finished roads where houses are being lived in.

 

You see unlike Europe and the US the Australian economy is ticking along quite nicely mainly due to all the rocks we sell to China so they can make stuff to sell to you.

 

People build and own houses here we don't have desolate areas where people who were too poor to afford the payments walked off their properties like the US or areas like Europe where the land and houses are owned by the rich and rented out.

 

Thanks for giving a demonstration of how users can fix maps, Google appreciates the free labour as much as Apple does.

 

btw you'd better get an iPhone to check your handiwork, you missed a few streets due to the zoom level my screenshot was at, such as the main one the bus stops are on, the bus stops that are there to service what is, according to you, a ghost town.

 

...You mean the bus stops not on Apple's map? Oops.

 

You're way stretching it and you know it. If undedicated or just paved roads that are uninhabited are the best you can do, I'll have whatever your having. 

 

 

If they are uninhabited, why is it important that there are bus stops?

 

It is because they are inhabited and contain houses which are not shown in Google's outdated satellite photos which also don't show the shops which are there, they are in the large white building you see in Apple's satellite photo, the one which shows streets full of houses.

 

btw some idiot named a street wrong, there is no such place as S Circuit.

 

...or not confined your comment to the US and China.

Is the reason is more like it. Unlike the tone that will appear in articles that Apple did it to avoid competition etc.

I'm waiting for my iPhone 5 to arrive actually :P

I have an iPad but it's at home.

 

I didn't use your map as a reference, but Bing maps... shame on me. And the S stands for South. You've got to admit that their reaction time is impressive. I wonder if it's some center in India that does all that annoying work. If Apple maps worked that way (and I'm not saying they don't, I didn't try but I suppose they don't), they would get better very fast!

you, Sir, have won the internets today!... (if i do say so myself)


BTW, i love the way apple resizes the street name size and spacing along the road.... google has/had this problem of not being able to read the street names because the font size was to small on the iPad 3's screen (and even when the map was zoomed in/out, the street names were an incorrect size)
therefore, Apple maps Readability is far higher than google maps , So if I can't read the street names, it is the Similar to having no street names, thus quite close to having a useless map...
Ironically google maps are useless in light of the vast bad press that Apple's maps have been getting...
IMO...
Edited by haar - 10/12/12 at 9:48am

The screenshot of iOS Maps posted here is out of date. The pin drops in the correct place today.

I'm sure you'll be able to find another screenshot of busted data to use, but for fairness' sake let's not rake them over the coals for issues that are now resolved.

 

You don't abbreviate street names unless the street is actually named like that, the naming conventions are quite formal.

I don't mind reading these articles because I'm one of the few who is thankful that I haven't upgraded my iPhone yet. Using the Apple maps in my local area on my iPad is a horrendous experience, there is no accuracy, streets aren't laid out properly and there is absolutely no detail for off-road tracks and bike paths. Google has all these down perfectly. Not saying I'll never upgrade, but it's going to be a while before I take the plunge on the phone.

Get busy and start reporting, it's easy drop a pin and comment on the problem.

If you were enterprising you could make an App based on an overlay of cycle and walking tracks and sell it in the App store.