Google to unveil 'the next dimension' of its Maps ahead of WWDC

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  • Reply 81 of 112
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by redbarchetta View Post


    Do you realize how many times Apple has done this? Try the last several years at GDC...



     


    How many times has Apple cobbled something together to claim they thought of it first etc? Little to none. Apple has no problem with being last to the game if taking the time means they can be best at the game, even if only in their opinion. 


     


    Which is why they waited months after buying two map companies to do anything with it. Which is why the first iPhone was only on EDGE. Why the 4s didn't include LTE? And so on

  • Reply 82 of 112
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Map companies don't usually trust users to add to their map data. Too much chance for error.


     


     



     


    that's why they get the street data from official sources or build it themselves. 


     


    But things like 'there's road construction here' is user added info that can be good. Even things like rating the usefulness of suggested routes can be good. You can't tell from a map, for example that there's a big ass tree that blocks part of your view and makes it really hard to do a left turn at that spot so that route maybe isn't the best. But if a bunch of users down rank it and comment that that is why then you know to perhaps look at a different way to go

  • Reply 83 of 112
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


     


    I suspect that the reason they give that choice is that they don't have to pay for access to the engines. 


     


    Unlike with the maps where they do have to pay .



    We know that Google pays big bucks to Apple for the default selection in the search box. I don't remember reading who pays whom in the iOS map app, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google pays Apple for that too. It is to Google's advantage obviously to have their branding inside a core iOS app.

  • Reply 84 of 112
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by thisIsFunny View Post


     


    Hmm I wonder why competitors would claim 1st dibs on something..oh wait it's because they did it first.



     


    But they don't always. Take the whole iPad thing. At least 3 companies announced touchscreen tablets of roughly the same 10 inch size before Apple officially announced the idea and even though none of them came out until a good 10 months or more later they claim they were first to 'launch' such a tablet. Yes Mapquest was first to create a mapping program. But this isn't just about a mapping program or even 3D maps. It's about that kind of map on a mobile device. And the rumors were that Apple would be the first to do this, until Google's invite when out. But will they be first to do it or just first to announce it. 

  • Reply 85 of 112
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


     


    Are you sure it's Google and not Apple restricting it? I think you have it backwards. According to an article here at AI a couple years back:


     


    Google said it would also like to support the iPhone with Maps Navigation.



     


    that merely says that google wanted it on iPhone it doesn't mean they weren't asking Apple to pay for it. Or that they were asking for terms Apple would agree to. 

  • Reply 86 of 112
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wakefinance View Post


    Apple will have to work for years to build up a similar depth of data for locations within their mapping service unless Google is for some reason still willing to let Apple access their database.



     


    don't be so sure about that. Some of said info is in publicly available sources, others will be part of the data that Placebase already had in their system. The rest, you could find, folks are happy to submit to Apple for inclusion because it's freaking Apple. "Everyone" has an iPhone, iPad or both. Of course they want to have their info in the system. 

  • Reply 87 of 112

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


     


    How many times has Apple cobbled something together to claim they thought of it first etc? Little to none. Apple has no problem with being last to the game if taking the time means they can be best at the game, even if only in their opinion. 



     


    Pray tell, what do you know of Google's event that the rest of us do not? What specific feature is Google announcing that Apple plans to?

  • Reply 88 of 112
    drobforeverdrobforever Posts: 400member


    I'm surprised by some of the comments. Obviously it's a no-win situation for GOOG here, if they announce it sooner than Apple, they'd be upstaging Apple, but if they announce it later than Apple then they'd be stealing from Apple. The most reasonable guess is, Apple has terminated the current agreement with Google, and so the only thing left for Google to do is to make an iOS mapping/nevigation standalone app. Whether they announce before or after Apple, they'll still have to announce it, there's no way to avoid both negative outcomes from the view of the public.

  • Reply 89 of 112
    fredaroonyfredaroony Posts: 619member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DrDoppio View Post


    Maps? Meh...



    Yes maps, something many people find very useful and use often. Your post, meh...

  • Reply 90 of 112
    fredaroonyfredaroony Posts: 619member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


     


    That's irrelevant. If Apple's default solution is good enough, it's what the vast majority will stick to, especially considering it's deep integration with the OS.



    Possibly but one of the best things about iOS is the apps as it gives you the choice to use something else if you want.

  • Reply 91 of 112
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fredaroony View Post


    Yes maps, something many people find very useful and use often. You post, meh...



    We already have maps. I should have said 3D, meh...

  • Reply 92 of 112
    kellya74ukellya74u Posts: 171member
    deleted
  • Reply 93 of 112
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    slurpy wrote: »
    What a shamefully cynical move, timing the announcement simply to 'me-first!' Apple. 

    This is why rumor sites are damaging to Apple. They give its competitors all the time in the world to react, pull some shit together, and claim 1st dibs on a concept. 

    It's more likely that Google had been working on their enhancements for a while, but the timing of this does suggest that they're reacting to Apple's announcement, particularly if what they unveil isn't ready. But I'd wait to see what they show before deciding it was put together in haste.

    As for Apple rumor sites, yeah, they do have what I think is a negative impact on Apple. At best, If they are accurate, they take the wind out of Apple's sails when leaked features or specs are finally announced, and at worst, they create hype and anticipation for nonexistent features and specs that cause fans to react in "disappointment." Both scenarios are unfair to Apple.
  • Reply 94 of 112
    cycomikocycomiko Posts: 716member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post



    If Apple dumps Google maps, Google will simply (more likely) release a stand alone Google Maps app for iOS..


     


    which most of the world will be required to use, while apple focuses on US market.

  • Reply 95 of 112
    cycomikocycomiko Posts: 716member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    We know that Google pays big bucks to Apple for the default selection in the search box. I don't remember reading who pays whom in the iOS map app, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google pays Apple for that too. It is to Google's advantage obviously to have their branding inside a core iOS app.



    if google is paying big bucks for default selection in search box, why did yahoo come pre-selected on my phone?

  • Reply 96 of 112
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member


    Google to unveil 'the next dimension' of their services ahead of WWDC:


     


     THE ABILITY TO BE TRUSTED.

  • Reply 97 of 112
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post

    Google to unveil 'the next dimension' of their services ahead of WWDC:


     


     THE ABILITY TO BE TRUSTED.



     


    Headline from two weeks before WWDC 2030.

  • Reply 98 of 112
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I was driving most of the day so I listened to the audio version of Steve Jobs at All Things D. There were many interesting and great comments but one in 2007 about how Apple has made the best app for viewing Google maps but they left the mapping backed to someone else because they didn't have that tech or couldn't do it better at the time.
  • Reply 99 of 112
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member


    Here is a recount of what we know...


     


    1.  Load Balanced, Redundant Servers hosting the Geodata in Random Access Memory as "Shards" will provide efficient server interrogation (requests).  According to United States Patent Application 20110276692 entitled "Server Load Balancing Using Geodata," Apple Maps will "Be divided among a plurality of servers based on geographical divisions in a process known as sharding.  Sharding divides a collection of data into multiple segments called shards. Thus, each division of the world is a shard of geodata which includes data describing that segment of the world, data describing objects collectively making up that segment of the world, and/or data associated with a coordinate falling within that segment of the world."


     


    "The shards of geodata can be distributed among a plurality of servers. Accordingly, each server is only responsible for a limited portion of the entire data set, which enables faster retrieval of geodata. Additionally, the same shard of data can be stored on more than one server so that multiple servers can share the load of serving many requests. This is especially useful in systems serving a high volume of requests."


     


    "To accommodate the fact that some cells will contain less data than others, cells can be combined into shards made up of a plurality of cells. In such embodiments, a cell can be considered a basic unit of a shard, which can be combined into larger groups of data. FIG. 2 illustrates that a single cell overlapping several Northern California cities (San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento) contains enough data that the cell itself can be its own shard. Accordingly, shard 214 is shown being stored on a server disk 212. In contrast, the gray cells overlapping Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Western Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Arizona illustrate a shard 204 made up of several cells. Shard 204 is stored on server disk 202."


     


     


     


    2.  Categorized, Location Popularity Index (plus distance and day of the week, time of day among other weighted factors) improves search requests as described in United States Patent Application 20110218992 "Relevancy Ranking for Map-Related Search."  "A variety of services exist which allow users to search for locations to visit. For example, some mapping programs allow users to search for locations near the origin of the search request, and some websites allow users to search for locations near a given address or zip code. In all instances, the user provides a search request and the service provides a list of search results most closely matching the request. Some services order the search results by proximity; some services order the search results by an average user ranking; some services order the search results according to positions in the search results sold as advertisements; and some services use a variety of mechanisms to rank the search results."


     


    "Each approach has certain limitations associated with it. Search results ordered by proximity do not account for quality of the search result relative to the query. Search results ordered by average-user-ranking are based upon opinions of relatively few people whom take the time to review the location. Search results that are ordered based on advertising dollars also do not take into account quality or desirability and sometimes broaden the criteria for relevance beyond a desirable measure."


     


     


     


    3.  Presentation of information in a format relevant to the user as indicated in United States Patent Application 20110196610 "Schematic Maps."  "The following relates to preparing and presenting schematic maps, which are maps that present information in a format that presents only information that is most relevant to a given situation in order to provide a simple and clear representation sufficient to aid a user in guidance or orientation. The schematic maps as described herein can be formatted based on the attributes of a display on which they are presented so that the map layout and presentation can be optimized for the particular display. The schematic maps can be “distorted” to better illustrate important maps areas in greater detail and using a relatively larger display area while deemphasizing less important map areas by illustrating them in less detail and using a relatively smaller display area, and thus the schematic maps can be devoid of adherence to a particular scale."


     


    "The schematic maps can be useful for providing directions or maps of surrounding areas and maps displaying places of interest and locations of people in the surrounding area. The maps can be prepared and presented by executing a method on a device having at least a processor and a display by analyzing map vector data, which includes information describing map features including a start point, one or more potential end points, and one or more possible routes for directions to an end point."


     


     


     


    4.  Points of Interest (" places, buildings, structures, even friends") may be visually augmented according to United States Patent Application 20110199479 "Augmented Reality Maps."  "A method of augmenting a video stream of a device's present surrounding with navigational information is disclosed. The user can instruct the device to initiate a live video feed using an onboard camera and display the captured video images on a display. By polling a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, a digital compass, and optionally, an accelerometer, location, camera direction, and orientation information can be determined. By using the location, camera direction, and orientation information, the device can request data describing the surrounding areas and the objects therein. In some embodiments, this data includes map vector data. The can be requested from an onboard memory or a server. The data describing surrounding areas can further be requested in conjunction with a search request. The search request can also include a request for information about nearby places of interest."

  • Reply 100 of 112
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    I was driving most of the day so I listened to the audio version of Steve Jobs at All Things D. There were many interesting and great comments but one in 2007 about how Apple has made the best app for viewing Google maps but they left the mapping backed to someone else because they didn't have that tech or couldn't do it better at the time.


     


    I recently downloaded the video podcast versions and will be checking them out shortly.


     


    I'm currently working my way through the WWDC's from 97 onwards (currently at 2000) and they really are extremely interesting and educational. It's also been interesting to see the formula for the Apple keynote developing along the way.


     


     


    Q: Hey, how can you tell when a Google user has had his recent data-mining?


     


    A: He's walking funny.


     


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