The turn by turn navigation features in iOS 6 are exaggerated- it's really not that good. The google-powered maps app in iOS 5 has traffic (which actually works in Europe unlike iOS 6), routing, directions, alternate routes - all iOS 6 maps does is have the turn directions in a road sign box at the top and adds voice guidance.
Wow really!? <sarcasm> Well it must be because there just isn't enough power in an iPhone 4 CPU to handle turn by turn GPS as demonstrated by the lack of turn-by-turn GPS apps in the app store!
You can't simply say turn-by-turn and call it a day. Probably other nav apps from the store use turn by turn but not in the same graphics level or not in the same 3D rendering. Moreover Siri is integrated into turn by turn so there's another resource to call upon and to use (despite the fact that Siri is not available on iPhone 4 and probably will not in the future).
Quote:
Originally Posted by saarek
So, the iPad 2 will have full map functionality whilst the iPhone 4 that runs the same CPU is out, with the iPhone 3GS you could understand as it's getting pretty long in the tooth but this obviously has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with milking customers dry.
They don't have the same CPU. Get your facts right before ranting about like crazy
Moreover, i completely understand Apple is a profit drive company (indisputable truth) and i agree that sometimes they are over-reaching, but the same discussions appeared, if everyone remember, when Apple introduced multitasking and people with iPhone 3G complained they didn't get the feature. Apple responded by telling everybody that it was not feasible on the 3G and it would ruin the experience due to the lag. Every complain-tee still dismissed that till jail breakers made it available for them but still the experience sucked. So in the end Apple was right about it and the people that bitched a lot and accused Apple of milking customers were silenced.
It [turn by turn] doesn't require a lot of horsepower.
And you know that how?
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something. Now add in the need to concurrently download and decode maps via cellular data service rather than simply reading them locally, and I submit that turn by turn nav may take a bunch more horsepower than you think.
Also I don't see why an iPhone 4 couldn't handle fly over although I understand not having the Siri features (I think ...).
Siri can work on the iPhone 4 as soon as you bypass Apple UDID checks which are preventing you to do so. So it could looks like another disguised yet voluntary device limitation.
With the MapQuest app my iphone 4 can handle Turn-by-Turn. I'm hoping that these limitations are just in the first beta, and the final will come to us as a fully unified package allowing the same features on all devices.
Again - and I've complained about this a number of times.. I want Siri on my 4 - and I'm not willing to upgrade to a 4S for 700 bucks. I'll wait for the next generation phone before spending the money. The 4 can handle Siri, it can handle turn-by-turn.. it can handle a lot more than Apple cares to admit. If I can play intense 1st person shooters on my phone, I surely can use turn-by-turn and something as simple as siri.
Also, tomtom app continues working while using phone hands free in the car. I wonder if new maps turn by turn will continue working if you take a call. (Verizon phone.)
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something.
GPS uses a lot of energy.
But as the OP said, iPhone 4 is totally capable of doing 3D turn by turn navigation without a problem
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something. Now add in the need to concurrently download and decode maps via cellular data service rather than simply reading them locally, and I submit that turn by turn nav may take a bunch more horsepower than you think.
That's crap. If the original Motorola Droid with a 550Mhz processor and 256MB of RAM running Android 2 in 2009 could handle Google Maps Nav Turn by Turn WITH voice actions, it's far from a stretch to expect Apple to get it right on a device with double the horsepower and specs, 3 years later, on a superior, MORE efficient platform.
I have a couple of years old anemic nokia doing turn by turn navigation, standalone gps systems doing so aren't high powered machines either, so it doesn't really look like it should be resource intensive.
the iPad 2 has a dual core A5 chip. the iPhone 4 has a single core A4.
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory. In the 3GS's favor, is that all that memory isn't tied-up with 4x (5x for iPad 1) images. Even with the differences in CPU, I'm sure they all have enough horsepower to do turn by turn directions. However, the 3GS is the only one that isn't in a severe hurt for memory pretty much all the time. In the end, if there was actually a technical limitation that prompted Apple to limit availability of turn by turn, it'd probably be the memory overhead of having that code in memory at all times. As for flyover, it runs like a dog on my iPad 2... I wouldn't want to think about it on an earlier device.
Remember when Apple introduced a version of iOS to an older iPhone that made it ver slow for a great many number of users? Remember when people said reason Apple added the update was because they were adding features it couldn't feasibly run so users would be forced to upgrade?
But if Apple doesn't offer a feature to any older device with older HW they are doing it for the same reason of "forcing users to upgrade"? Does that really make sense to suggest that the only way Apple doesn't force people to upgrade is if they never update their HW, SW, or services? I certainly don't think so. But if Apple doesn't update all their stuff at break neck speeds then we hear complaints about how Apple doesn't care about this type of product or this type of user anymore.
I don't think there is anything Apple can do to satisfy the infinitely unsatisfiable.
No offence, but there's been turn by turn on old school Nokias for years, Windows Phone (Mobile, not 7), underpowered Android phones etc. All have much lesser specs than the 3GS and the iPhone 4.
The new maps are TERRIBLE. out of date map coverage, worse UI, poor POIs, no building names, no transit information, no building outlines, no public footpaths - everything is worse. Look at this comparison photo - what would you rather use? https://twitter.com/corxo/status/212314131590692864/photo/1/large
Except for the small improvements such as:
improved user interface
dynamic routing (mistakenly referred to as turn-by-turn) navigation
voice guided navigation
fully integrated 3D views
Flyover Mode
improved Yelp integration
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory.
The iPhone 4 has 512MB of memory unlike the 3GS and iPad with 256. The CPU is more than a mild overclock as well. The A4, while a Cortex A8 is an entirely different design from it's predecessor in the 3GS. The only common denominator is the SGX535 GPU.
The new maps are TERRIBLE. out of date map coverage, worse UI, poor POIs, no building names, no transit information, no building outlines, no public footpaths - everything is worse.
It's also not getting released for another 2-3 months. Things will likely have changed by then
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory. In the 3GS's favor, is that all that memory isn't tied-up with 4x (5x for iPad 1) images. Even with the differences in CPU, I'm sure they all have enough horsepower to do turn by turn directions. However, the 3GS is the only one that isn't in a severe hurt for memory pretty much all the time. In the end, if there was actually a technical limitation that prompted Apple to limit availability of turn by turn, it'd probably be the memory overhead of having that code in memory at all times. As for flyover, it runs like a dog on my iPad 2... I wouldn't want to think about it on an earlier device.
I don't think it is a technical limitation in most of the cases begin discussed here. There are factors such as the user experience to consider along with battery life as well as testing. Given an infinite amount of time and money you could design adequate test cases and optimize code to the point where the user experience would be considered acceptable to nearly every user. However, given that neither time nor money is infinite - decisions need to be made where to place limits. Although it would be nice if it was easier to turn on a feature that Apple has decided not to test or officially support and try it out for yourself and then decide whether to leave it on or not. Consider for a moment, though, given the current landscape of litigation, what the result might be if Apple did officially support (fill in the blank here) on a given device and then got slapped with a class-action-lawsuit because some idiot decided that using Siri to drive Turn by Turn navigation on his 3GS in full 3D mode with live traffic without a car charger and the battery died half way to his destination. Claims of false advertising of expected battery life etc. it would be a mess.
But if Apple doesn't offer a feature to any older device with older HW they are doing it for the same reason of "forcing users to upgrade"? Does that really make sense to suggest that the only way Apple doesn't force people to upgrade is if they never update their HW, SW, or services? I certainly don't think so. But if Apple doesn't update all their stuff at break neck speeds then we hear complaints about how Apple doesn't care about this type of product or this type of user anymore.
I don't think there is anything Apple can do to satisfy the infinitely unsatisfiable.
This has nothing to do with that. In this case we are talking about a functionality that we know many other devices (including standalone) with much less specs run well. In this case, it doesn't pass muster and people should hold Apple accountable to that standard.
No offence, but there's been turn by turn on old school Nokias for years, Windows Phone (Mobile, not 7), underpowered Android phones etc. All have much lesser specs than the 3GS and the iPhone 4.
I don't see your point.
I'm not sure who you're replying to as you didn't quote anyone in your post but I do wonder how one assumes the inclusion of a feature should be based on a single performance metric like the CPU. Why shouldn't the hit to overall performance instead of just being technically possible be an issue? Why shouldn't the drain on battery life because it has no dedicated HW for specific tasks be an issue? Why is there no consideration that Apple, knowing it was entering this market a couple years prior, also has secretly updated to their A chips to have specific acceleration specifically for their mapping? Finally, why assume that all mapping software is created equally?
With the MapQuest app my iphone 4 can handle Turn-by-Turn. I'm hoping that these limitations are just in the first beta, and the final will come to us as a fully unified package allowing the same features on all devices.
Again - and I've complained about this a number of times.. I want Siri on my 4 - and I'm not willing to upgrade to a 4S for 700 bucks. I'll wait for the next generation phone before spending the money. The 4 can handle Siri, it can handle turn-by-turn.. it can handle a lot more than Apple cares to admit. If I can play intense 1st person shooters on my phone, I surely can use turn-by-turn and something as simple as siri.
And I've said this before, maybe to you, that THE NETWORK CAN'T HANDLE that much Siri traffic NOW, and if all you 4 owners are let in, YOU won't even be able to use the service AT ALL, and nor will WE who have shelled out for the new hardware! Deal with it! Stop whining!
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by kfury77
The turn by turn navigation features in iOS 6 are exaggerated- it's really not that good. The google-powered maps app in iOS 5 has traffic (which actually works in Europe unlike iOS 6), routing, directions, alternate routes - all iOS 6 maps does is have the turn directions in a road sign box at the top and adds voice guidance.
Keep in mind it's still the just the first beta.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacInsider2
Wow really!? <sarcasm> Well it must be because there just isn't enough power in an iPhone 4 CPU to handle turn by turn GPS as demonstrated by the lack of turn-by-turn GPS apps in the app store!
You can't simply say turn-by-turn and call it a day. Probably other nav apps from the store use turn by turn but not in the same graphics level or not in the same 3D rendering. Moreover Siri is integrated into turn by turn so there's another resource to call upon and to use (despite the fact that Siri is not available on iPhone 4 and probably will not in the future).
Quote:
Originally Posted by saarek
So, the iPad 2 will have full map functionality whilst the iPhone 4 that runs the same CPU is out, with the iPhone 3GS you could understand as it's getting pretty long in the tooth but this obviously has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with milking customers dry.
They don't have the same CPU. Get your facts right before ranting about like crazy
Moreover, i completely understand Apple is a profit drive company (indisputable truth) and i agree that sometimes they are over-reaching, but the same discussions appeared, if everyone remember, when Apple introduced multitasking and people with iPhone 3G complained they didn't get the feature. Apple responded by telling everybody that it was not feasible on the 3G and it would ruin the experience due to the lag. Every complain-tee still dismissed that till jail breakers made it available for them but still the experience sucked. So in the end Apple was right about it and the people that bitched a lot and accused Apple of milking customers were silenced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scaramanga89
It [turn by turn] doesn't require a lot of horsepower.
And you know that how?
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something. Now add in the need to concurrently download and decode maps via cellular data service rather than simply reading them locally, and I submit that turn by turn nav may take a bunch more horsepower than you think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
My question too!
Also I don't see why an iPhone 4 couldn't handle fly over although I understand not having the Siri features (I think ...).
Siri can work on the iPhone 4 as soon as you bypass Apple UDID checks which are preventing you to do so. So it could looks like another disguised yet voluntary device limitation.
With the MapQuest app my iphone 4 can handle Turn-by-Turn. I'm hoping that these limitations are just in the first beta, and the final will come to us as a fully unified package allowing the same features on all devices.
Again - and I've complained about this a number of times.. I want Siri on my 4 - and I'm not willing to upgrade to a 4S for 700 bucks. I'll wait for the next generation phone before spending the money. The 4 can handle Siri, it can handle turn-by-turn.. it can handle a lot more than Apple cares to admit. If I can play intense 1st person shooters on my phone, I surely can use turn-by-turn and something as simple as siri.
Also, tomtom app continues working while using phone hands free in the car. I wonder if new maps turn by turn will continue working if you take a call. (Verizon phone.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilM
And you know that how?
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something.
GPS uses a lot of energy.
But as the OP said, iPhone 4 is totally capable of doing 3D turn by turn navigation without a problem
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilM
And you know that how?
I have a couple of full featured nav apps with self contained map files (Navigon, Co-Pilot Live) on my iPhone 4, and I can tell you that the phone gets pretty damn hot in the course of a navigated journey, to the point that its USB car charger can't always keep up. So that little A4 processor is certainly cranking away at something. Now add in the need to concurrently download and decode maps via cellular data service rather than simply reading them locally, and I submit that turn by turn nav may take a bunch more horsepower than you think.
That's crap. If the original Motorola Droid with a 550Mhz processor and 256MB of RAM running Android 2 in 2009 could handle Google Maps Nav Turn by Turn WITH voice actions, it's far from a stretch to expect Apple to get it right on a device with double the horsepower and specs, 3 years later, on a superior, MORE efficient platform.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilM
And you know that how?
I have a couple of years old anemic nokia doing turn by turn navigation, standalone gps systems doing so aren't high powered machines either, so it doesn't really look like it should be resource intensive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OllieWallieWhiskers
the iPad 2 has a dual core A5 chip. the iPhone 4 has a single core A4.
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory. In the 3GS's favor, is that all that memory isn't tied-up with 4x (5x for iPad 1) images. Even with the differences in CPU, I'm sure they all have enough horsepower to do turn by turn directions. However, the 3GS is the only one that isn't in a severe hurt for memory pretty much all the time. In the end, if there was actually a technical limitation that prompted Apple to limit availability of turn by turn, it'd probably be the memory overhead of having that code in memory at all times. As for flyover, it runs like a dog on my iPad 2... I wouldn't want to think about it on an earlier device.
But if Apple doesn't offer a feature to any older device with older HW they are doing it for the same reason of "forcing users to upgrade"? Does that really make sense to suggest that the only way Apple doesn't force people to upgrade is if they never update their HW, SW, or services? I certainly don't think so. But if Apple doesn't update all their stuff at break neck speeds then we hear complaints about how Apple doesn't care about this type of product or this type of user anymore.
I don't think there is anything Apple can do to satisfy the infinitely unsatisfiable.
@NeilM
No offence, but there's been turn by turn on old school Nokias for years, Windows Phone (Mobile, not 7), underpowered Android phones etc. All have much lesser specs than the 3GS and the iPhone 4.
I don't see your point.
I seem to be timing our upgrades well. iPhone 4 will be swapped for iOS 6 iPhone '5s' this Fall.
Can't wait.
Except for the small improvements such as:
improved user interface
dynamic routing (mistakenly referred to as turn-by-turn) navigation
voice guided navigation
fully integrated 3D views
Flyover Mode
improved Yelp integration
Quote:
Originally Posted by StigsHero
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory.
The iPhone 4 has 512MB of memory unlike the 3GS and iPad with 256. The CPU is more than a mild overclock as well. The A4, while a Cortex A8 is an entirely different design from it's predecessor in the 3GS. The only common denominator is the SGX535 GPU.
It's also not getting released for another 2-3 months. Things will likely have changed by then
Quote:
Originally Posted by StigsHero
Exactly. And while everyone wants to dump on the 3GS, it is in many graphics-intensive cases faster than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is essentially a 3GS with a mild overclock and 4 times as many pixels to push. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (and the iPad 1) have single core CPUs, the same GPU, and 256MB memory. In the 3GS's favor, is that all that memory isn't tied-up with 4x (5x for iPad 1) images. Even with the differences in CPU, I'm sure they all have enough horsepower to do turn by turn directions. However, the 3GS is the only one that isn't in a severe hurt for memory pretty much all the time. In the end, if there was actually a technical limitation that prompted Apple to limit availability of turn by turn, it'd probably be the memory overhead of having that code in memory at all times. As for flyover, it runs like a dog on my iPad 2... I wouldn't want to think about it on an earlier device.
I don't think it is a technical limitation in most of the cases begin discussed here. There are factors such as the user experience to consider along with battery life as well as testing. Given an infinite amount of time and money you could design adequate test cases and optimize code to the point where the user experience would be considered acceptable to nearly every user. However, given that neither time nor money is infinite - decisions need to be made where to place limits. Although it would be nice if it was easier to turn on a feature that Apple has decided not to test or officially support and try it out for yourself and then decide whether to leave it on or not. Consider for a moment, though, given the current landscape of litigation, what the result might be if Apple did officially support (fill in the blank here) on a given device and then got slapped with a class-action-lawsuit because some idiot decided that using Siri to drive Turn by Turn navigation on his 3GS in full 3D mode with live traffic without a car charger and the battery died half way to his destination. Claims of false advertising of expected battery life etc. it would be a mess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
But if Apple doesn't offer a feature to any older device with older HW they are doing it for the same reason of "forcing users to upgrade"? Does that really make sense to suggest that the only way Apple doesn't force people to upgrade is if they never update their HW, SW, or services? I certainly don't think so. But if Apple doesn't update all their stuff at break neck speeds then we hear complaints about how Apple doesn't care about this type of product or this type of user anymore.
I don't think there is anything Apple can do to satisfy the infinitely unsatisfiable.
This has nothing to do with that. In this case we are talking about a functionality that we know many other devices (including standalone) with much less specs run well. In this case, it doesn't pass muster and people should hold Apple accountable to that standard.
I'm not sure who you're replying to as you didn't quote anyone in your post but I do wonder how one assumes the inclusion of a feature should be based on a single performance metric like the CPU. Why shouldn't the hit to overall performance instead of just being technically possible be an issue? Why shouldn't the drain on battery life because it has no dedicated HW for specific tasks be an issue? Why is there no consideration that Apple, knowing it was entering this market a couple years prior, also has secretly updated to their A chips to have specific acceleration specifically for their mapping? Finally, why assume that all mapping software is created equally?
And I've said this before, maybe to you, that THE NETWORK CAN'T HANDLE that much Siri traffic NOW, and if all you 4 owners are let in, YOU won't even be able to use the service AT ALL, and nor will WE who have shelled out for the new hardware! Deal with it! Stop whining!