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

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  • Reply 21 of 180


    Vector maps in iOS 6 are so efficient that Apple can cache a very large surrounding area for offline browsing and GPS navigation under Airplane Mode or when traveling outside of data coverage.

  • Reply 22 of 180
    isheldonisheldon Posts: 570member
    tylerk36 wrote: »
    The problem is there are more Apple Haters than lovers.  There are mega corps who want to see Apple fail.  This was a successful campaign.  Kinda like politics but worst.  At least in politics there are some boundaries.  But in the tech world there is no mercy.  Especially when you have 10s of millions even 100 million on legal teams and strategists to hurt the other guy.  If Steve Jobs was still alive he would have brought this stupid map issue to its knees and any one who caused or made it a problem would have trembled at the mere thought of facing the man.  This too will pass and Maps will be a mega app for the iPhone and iPad.

    slurpy wrote: »
    The flack maps has gotten is despicable and insane, and has really made me lose faith in humanity. What a bunch of whiny, entitled, spoiled brats we've become. There are so many incredibly impressive things about this product, and what Apple has managed to accomplish at LAUNCH is positive insane. I can't believe flyover is now mocked and defined as 'garbage' and 'crap' because of people desperately looking for the worst looking stuff at the worst angles, ignoring the fact that 99% of the time it looks stunning. I've browsed 20 cities in 3D and my mind gets numb trying to imagine the level of work that must have taken, as well as the technical ability, algorithms, etc to make the 3D look near photo realistic. We're talking entire cities rendered, with residential areas, not just the core downtown. The cartography is gorgeous. Vector maps cache brilliantly and are incredibly well designed. Turn by turn has been flawless in my experience. Yes, there's missing/wrong data which there inevitably will be. But the fact that Apple hasn't gotten a shred of credit for the package, which in many ways is superior to Google maps (design of cartography, flyover, turn by turn interface, caching, iconography, etc) from a company that has never been in the mapping business, is just depressing.

    Yeah, lets bitch and mock imperfections when an entire city is being rendered in 3D, while the competition is using flat jpegs, thats not petty or anything. Just imagine the bandwidth costs Apple is incurring for this compared to flat tiles. Its insanely ambitious. 

    Mocking imperfections is one thing but dropping off an entire feature- StreetView is never mentioned by iLovers. Why is that?
  • Reply 23 of 180
    mundtymundty Posts: 10member
    Everyone has been so eager to jump on the new Maps hating bandwagon, no one even bothered to look at the positive aspects it brought to mapping in iOS. I understand people's frustration, but I've been using iOS 6 since it's early Wed release and having used it almost every day the experience has been mostly pleasant. That's not to say the database is perfect, it obviously has some glaring omissions... but weighing the good and the bad, and knowing Apple will not stop improving it until it rivals Google's database, I have no reservations making it my go to navigation app.
  • Reply 24 of 180

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post





    Mocking imperfections is one thing but dropping off an entire feature- StreetView is never mentioned by iLovers. Why is that?


     


    That's simply not true, there are plenty of comments from people who complain about the missing StreetView. For me personally I don't care about StreetView at all as I've never really used it anyway.

  • Reply 25 of 180
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post





    Mocking imperfections is one thing but dropping off an entire feature- StreetView is never mentioned by iLovers. Why is that?


     




    Probably because most never use it? This smacks of the whole anti-glare/glossy debates, where most folks just don't care. Maps aren't rocket science. If nav gets you even close, say on the right block, it's a simple matter for any reasonably intelligent adult to find an address in a matter of minutes or even seconds.


     


    Claims that the world will end without street view are exaggerated at best. It was a convenience for some, and ignored by the rest. Now you can have your cake, and use it on Safari and we can get on with our lives.

  • Reply 26 of 180
    onhkaonhka Posts: 1,025member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ltcommander.data View Post



    Is offline caching in iOS 6 Maps actually saving to flash memory or only showing what's resident in RAM? For example, the iPhone 5 has 1GB of RAM so is the offline cached area smaller in 512MB RAM devices like the iPhone 4S or 256MB RAM iPhone 3GS? If you load an intensive game like Infinity Blade II and switch back to Maps is the same map area maintained?


    My 4S maintained the Maps even after hard reset.


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Right_said_fred View Post



    ....for offline browsing and GPS navigation under Airplane Mode....

    As soon as I am in airplane mode GPS is unavailable, what am I doing wrong?...


    Airplane Mode shuts down the GPS. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1355?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


     


    The GPS works with Data and the connection to the carrier are shut off.

  • Reply 27 of 180
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post





    Mocking imperfections is one thing but dropping off an entire feature- StreetView is never mentioned by iLovers. Why is that?


     


    Street view is an irrelevant novelty, as time passes it will continue fading into a snapshot of how things used to be.


     


     



     


    Behind that fence there are new streets and houses, it is linked to the maps I posted before from the corner of Ben Lamond and Eagleview, it is nothing like what you would see if you were lost in one of the streets behind the fence, which is no longer there.


     


    btw, while I was poking around Google maps I just happened to notice that the single street (in reality) called Longhurst Rd, apparently exists four, count them four times in the world according to Google maps, no wonder people get lost around here.


     


     


  • Reply 28 of 180
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tylerk36 View Post


    The problem is there are more Apple Haters than lovers.  There are mega corps who want to see Apple fail.  This was a successful campaign.  Kinda like politics but worst.  At least in politics there are some boundaries.  ...



     


    I don't really agree with your last statement, but it's obviously the case that the entire Maps brouhaha is a Google orchestrated astroturfing and media manipulation campaign. We know this because we know Google spent months reviewing Maps data, and the best "example" they came up with for Maps being wrong, was a "clever" little fake address ad. We know it because we saw the same wave of astroturfers we always see anytime Google wants to spin a PR story hit the ground running with a list of "inconsistencies" on the day Maps was released. The tech media are largely idiots and fall for this stuff uncritically (just like "antennagate") because they don't have a clue how to even go about verifying these claims. They, just like political reporters, print the story they are fed, and care more about the "drama" of the story than the truth. Google, is just, like some politicians, an entirely unscrupulous corporation that will say or do anything to "win".

  • Reply 29 of 180


    same as you

  • Reply 30 of 180
    "It's also surprising that Apple hasn't made available for sale specialized packages of offline maps, such as national parks or regional trails, hiking and camping maps, and similar detailed, offline maps for iOS 6 users." In the long run it might be surprising not to issue packs for areas poorly served by mobile coverage but, for now, given the attention that would be paid to any errors, I think wise not to issue packs (especially for a fee).
  • Reply 31 of 180
    lerxtlerxt Posts: 186member
    Street view is widely use, as a matter of fact I used it today. Being in denial about Apple Maps is not going to improve the situation.
  • Reply 32 of 180

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Onhka View Post


    My 4S maintained the Maps even after hard reset.


     


    Airplane Mode shuts down the GPS. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1355?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


     


    The GPS works with Data and the connection to the carrier are shut off.



    The function of the GPS unit is absolutely independent of the carrier. i.e. GPS works perfectly well in areas with zero net coverage. But for unknown reasons the GPS module cannot be turned on independently while in Airplane mode. Something I hope they fix sometime.

  • Reply 33 of 180
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    anonymouse wrote: »
    I don't really agree with your last statement, but it's obviously the case that the entire Maps brouhaha is a Google orchestrated astroturfing and media manipulation campaign. We know this because we know Google spent months reviewing Maps data, and the best "example" they came up with for Maps being wrong, was a "clever" little fake address ad. We know it because we saw the same wave of astroturfers we always see anytime Google wants to spin a PR story hit the ground running with a list of "inconsistencies" on the day Maps was released. The tech media are largely idiots and fall for this stuff uncritically (just like "antennagate") because they don't have a clue how to even go about verifying these claims. They, just like political reporters, print the story they are fed, and care more about the "drama" of the story than the truth. Google, is just, like some politicians, an entirely unscrupulous corporation that will say or do anything to "win".

    I disagree with your statement. Google and the standard anti-Apple fare certainly piled on but Apple did something with Maps they usually don't do: they set expectations too high. What made it worse is that it was directly relatable to another service -and- one that was being replaced.

    There was the standard comments about Siri but 1) what Siri could do well Apple clearly noted, 2) Apple labeled it as a Beta service, and 3) it wasn't replacing another service that was better in many ways. Maps is a very different. It's better than iOS 5 Maps in many, many distinct ways but it also has plenty of shortcomings. I've mentioned these since the first Beta and clearly stated that Apple will get bad PR for this.

    What they got right is simply no concern when they demoed and showed other things that simply aren't materializing for many users most of the time. If they had stated 1) how much faster it is, 2) that it's vector, not raster, and explained what the benefits are to that, 3) explained why they made the move when they did, and 4) where very honest and upfront about how it's short-term shortcomings I think people would been on-board. When you are playing catchup there is no shame in being the underdog. I think a little humility before its release with a declaration of making it the best mapping app on any device would have prevented much of the media attention and Tim Cook's email.

    The lack of under promise, over deliver is why I ultimately blame Apple for an otherwise superb initial Maps offerings. For instance, the UI is the best I've ever used and it works with Siri very well, but that's not ever going to be a common story now.
  • Reply 34 of 180
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    The function of the GPS unit is absolutely independent of the carrier. i.e. GPS works perfectly well in areas with zero net coverage. But for unknown reasons the GPS module cannot be turned on independently while in Airplane mode. Something I hope they fix sometime.

    Speaking of the GPS on the iPhone. Once your route is loaded it will still follow your location via the GPS and update the map and TbT at the appropriate times. I tested this with Verizon on LTE, hence no SV&D, and it worked great so those wondering about not being able to not use Maps while on the phone need not worry. Of course, the one caveat is that you can't deviate from your path too much because only the route and some surrounding areas will be cached.
  • Reply 35 of 180
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    I disagree with your statement. Google and the standard anti-Apple fare certainly piled on but Apple did something with Maps they usually don't do: they set expectations too high. What made it worse is that it was directly relatable to another service -and- one that was being replaced. ...


     


    Maybe they didn't do their usual incredible job of managing expectations, but that doesn't change the fact that the onslaught of Maps criticism we've seen, starting immediately after its release, along with all the other circumstantial evidence, point to this being a long-planned, extensively choreographed Google PR campaign. Google's fingerprints are all over it.


     


    It also doesn't change the fact that most tech reporters (actually, most reporters of any beat) are idiots for whom "the story" is more important than the truth and that they're always more than eager to lap this nonsense up and regurgitate it, especially if it comes with the promise of "access" in exchange. Or worse yet, denial of access if they don't play along.


     


    So, you're not really disagreeing, at least not in your actual comments, you're saying Apple deserved it. I disagree entirely with that.


     


    And, I think when this all blows over, people get used to Apple Maps, instead of Google Maps, and Apple makes the inevitable refinements that we all know are coming, any intelligent person will realize that Apple Maps was the embodiment of skating to where the puck's going to be.

  • Reply 36 of 180
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


     


    Maybe they didn't do their usual incredible job of managing expectations, but that doesn't change the fact that the onslaught of Maps criticism we've seen, starting immediately after its release, along with all the other circumstantial evidence, point to this being a long-planned, extensively choreographed Google PR campaign. Google's fingerprints are all over it.



     


    Ah, a good old conspiracy theory. 

  • Reply 37 of 180
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    djrumpy wrote:
    If it's based on open maps, then why charge anything for it?

    The basic maps could be free but there could be ones that are paid for like detailed or specialised maps. If you visit a zoo or mall for example, there can be maps for where you go inside. If you travel around, there can be walking trails etc. Some paid, some free.

    It's not clear that the standards ones would be free for download though as the data is also from TomTom:

    http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/apple-aapl-ios-6-review-dutch-satellite-navigation-company-tomtom-comments-on-map-debacle
    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/20/tech/mobile/apple-maps-complaints/index.html

    "Dutch satellite navigation company TomTom, which provided the data for the new map system, told CNN it is not responsible for the way the maps work."

    The problem with accuracy seems to be how the data is used rather than the data itself. Perhaps it is mixing Open Streetmaps data in at places or something. But if TomTom license the map data, there might be a charge for a download like they do for their own maps.
  • Reply 38 of 180
    isheldon wrote: »
    Mocking imperfections is one thing but dropping off an entire feature- StreetView is never mentioned by iLovers. Why is that?

    I was on Ars Technica which one would assume has some arguably tech savvy reader talking about how Google added Street View and there was a lot of people that didn't even know it existed in iOS in the first place. You don't miss what you didn't even realize you had. Of course if it's something you knew you had and used then yeah you'll miss it and I've seen plenty of iOS users complain about it. I guess it all comes down to how it affects YOU and your usage. I'm finding Maps in iOS6 a much welcomed experience. I can't believe how outdated the data is for Google. My neighborhood has been built up for over five years and Google still shows it as an open field.

    Google Maps in iOS5

    iOS5.jpg


    Maps in iOS6

    iOS6.jpg
  • Reply 39 of 180
    Sorry double post.
  • Reply 40 of 180
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RichL View Post


     


    Ah, a good old conspiracy theory. 



     


    Actually, it's not a conspiracy theory at all. Google orchestrating a PR campaign that involves manipulating the media and financing an army of astroturfers doesn't constitute a conspiracy, at least not the last time I checked the definition. It simply constitutes one company's, Google's, plan to attempt to sour the public on competitors products. This isn't uncommon at all, but Google does do it very well, just as Microsoft did for year before them, before they became irrelevant.

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