Apple reportedly knew of iOS Maps troubles well before launch

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  • Reply 81 of 142
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by whoda View Post


    Yeah but to be real, it is South Carolina.  Perhaps Apple was embarrassed you are part of the union and wanted to try and right the wrong?  


     


    And by the way, Columbia, SC pulls up your city.  Not sure how you have to put it in to get it to go to South America. 





    I think that the same search won't give exactly the same result to different people. That's always been a problem with google maps too, but the consistency of maps seems even worse. Even trying myself the same search at different times or with the view centered on different parts of the world, I get different results. Even for a search like "mount everest, tibet". I noticed that Apple Maps seems to ignore the existence of Tibet, too, they are so close to China now, that's a shame.

  • Reply 82 of 142

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacManFelix View Post


    1) I don't edit video, but I'll give you this one.


    2) That's because the iPhone 4 doesn't have antenna problems.


    3) The lack of “Save As…” pisses me off.


    4) Agreed.


     


    I give you 3 out of 4.


     


    “If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” —Mark Twain


    This was true in his time, and it’s much worse now.



    It has antenna problems. I know, I own it. Now, it might be that you read in the newspaper that the problem doesn't exist, or that you own  Apple Stock and don't want to admit to Apple lying flat-faced about it, or that by a stroke of luck you have (had?) an iPhone 4 that had no issue, or you just have some Android phone but want to pretend you're an Apple user. Whatever, but please don't say the iPhone 4 had no antenna issue. Whenever there is debate about some Apple product having a flaw, it makes people who have had the antenna issue take side with the people who pretend to have an issue, due to people like you's behavior.

  • Reply 83 of 142
    It is quite unusual for most vocal users not to be very forgiving and simply extol the map wow factor
  • Reply 84 of 142
    auclaucl Posts: 19member


    the interesting thing is, i just went to the same place in apple maps, and it shows some additional roads already.


     


    seems they are fixing it quickly.


     


    i would not be surprised if they collect movement data to complete and correct the map more fast.

  • Reply 85 of 142

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post



    We could have a least received a warning that we were about to lose StreetView when we upgraded the iOs for crissakes..


     


    http://maps.google.com - drop a pin and a streetview button magically appears, so how is this lost? Create a shortcut on your homescreen and you don't even have to keep typing it in.


     


    The streetview data is part of the google maps data set. Apple made it quite clear right from the first iOS 6 announcement way back in May that they were no longer going to be using the google maps data so why you would have expected streetview to still exist in the Maps app when none of the rest of the map data was coming from google?

  • Reply 86 of 142
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rufwork View Post


     


    This glut of errors is exactly why they need to prioritize and fix the high visibility errors first.  


     


    if ("Columbia, SC" == strSearch) then


         location.lat = 34°00?2?N 


         location.lon = 81°02?39?W


    end if


     


    If you've worked on software, you know sometimes imperfect fixes NOW are a heck of a lot better than waiting on perfection.



     


    Apple is unlikely to do this because, as any software engineer knows, it is a really really bad idea. Even assuming that this kind of input hijacking is that simple (your little fix does not take into account spaces, capitalisation, misspelling, different uses of punctuation in different locales, special characters...), where does it end? We can start with Columbia, SC and then add a couple of thousand more for the other errors that each user in each country decides is 'high visibility'. 


     


    And as any software engineer will tell you, imperfect fixes then turn into the foundation for other imperfect fixes. Before you know it, your software is a massive cludge of these nasty little edge cases that cause performance and maintenance bottle necks.


     


    Apple knows how the press works: they'll bleat on about the errors to draw Apple fans into a fight with Android fans. This creates page hits, until the Mac fans get bored and move on to something else. Then the press will start running positive stories (as we are already seeing) to draw the Apple fans (who are more likely to spend money on whatever product the site is whoring) back again.  This happens every single time. So from Apple's point of view, high visibility errors cause a temporary run of bad press;  certainly not worth introducing poor engineering practices just to appease folk who hang around IT forums all day. 

  • Reply 87 of 142
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Vaelian View Post





    Only most times they aren't known to the software house. Software released with known bugs is a sign of deception.


     


    Might be true of small applications. Certainly doesn't apply to anything as complex as an operating system or a mapping application.


     


    I used to work for a utility company who had vendors come in and quote for a piece of software work. Two of the vendors really stood out: the first claimed that their software would be 100% bug free on release; the second claimed that they would not release it to us until every single known bug was ironed out. Neither of them got the contract, and when the programmes manager was asked why, he saId:


     


    "Vendor 1 demonstrated a tenuous grip on reality. Vendor 2 had a better grasp of reality but would never make a delivery."


     


    I have no idea why AppleInsider thinks that Apple releasing software with known bugs is worthy of an article. Now if Apple had released Maps and had no idea it needed a lot more work, then that would have been news.

  • Reply 88 of 142
    jnjnjnjnjnjn Posts: 588member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bitWrangler View Post


    Frankly I'd be far more concerned if for some reason Apple WASN'T fully aware of all the issues, wouldn't say much for their QA if that were the case.


     


    And as someone else has already mentioned, it's interesting how Apple mistakes are front page news but yet the same mistakes by others are barely worth a casual mention.  Heck, it wasn't until a couple of years ago that Google Maps finally showed my house in the correct place (vs in the middle of an intersection).  Not to mention the frustrations of having the old maps app show me Starbucks HQ in Seattle when it can't find one in the area that I was viewing in the map (doesn't matter to me if this was an Apple issue or Google issue, bottom line is that the old maps app had it's fair share of wonkiness but yet I didn't see late night tv comedians making fun of it).



     


    Your right.


    Google maps didn't even get the name of the street I live in correct, not even after 5 years.


    Its satellite view is also 5 years old and completely inaccurate.


    Apple's maps on the other hand has the correct name and view.


     


    J.

  • Reply 89 of 142

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Vaelian View Post





    Only most times they aren't known to the software house. Software released with known bugs is a sign of deception.


     


    Lots of software is released with known bugs (usually disclosed with a known bugs list in the release notes) because otherwise it would never get released at all... So long as the bugs are something reasonably rare or not data critical most customers will either never notice them it or be able to live with them until a fix is released via an update. I know the company I work for does this all the time with no real complaints from our customers and it's also pretty normal in a lot of open source project releases from what I've seen on the ones I use. There has to be a cut off point where a program is deemed good enough and actually released because unless it is a ridiculously simply "Hello World" type program it is never likely to be completely bug free.


     


    Also it strikes me that most of the issues with the Maps are down to data rather than coding so do they still technically count as a bug?

  • Reply 90 of 142
    vaelianvaelian Posts: 446member
    hill60 wrote: »
    vaelian wrote: »
    Only most times they aren't known to the software house. Software released with known bugs is a sign of deception.

    So the example I gave of a Google search leading to a point on a map, where apparently there is no road, is deception.

    OK then, I'm used to that from Google.

    No, that's not even a bug. Bugs relate to software, that's a data error.

    Next stupid question?
  • Reply 91 of 142
    ronboronbo Posts: 669member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacManFelix View Post


    On the iPhone, Apple’s new maps are far better than Google’s ever were for the following reasons:


     



    1. Vector maps use less data so Apple maps actually load on the painfully slow AT&T Edge Network (read: antiquated and shitty) many of us are stuck with when navigating rural places. Google’s NEVER did.


    2. Apple’s new Maps.app caches enough data to continue to work if (when) you lose network data. Google’s NEVER did.


    3. Google maps have often led me miles (sometime 15 or more freaking miles) out of my way, especially in rural areas. Apple's have not failed me, yet…


     


    Yes, Apple needs more points of interest to flesh out the map data—but Google maps could never reliably indicate a gas station or a diner off a highway exit or even in downtown freaking-ass Baltimore so what the hell was so great about Google maps? Street view? Oh yeah, that's the best thing ever when you’re low on gas in the ’hood seven-hundred miles from home and Google shows one gas station 45 minutes away even though there are several within walking distance if it would only tell you where &^*^&%&$%#$@%$#!


     


    So come on world, keep on bitching about weird looking shit in 3D flyover etc., that’s worth launching a fresh crusade against Apple, for sure.


    Let’s milk this non-issue FOREVER.



     


    Agreed on points 1-3. I tried using the Maps app a couple of times on road trips when my brother was driving. We were on the outskirts of major cities and the map tiles did a terrible job keeping up. Sometimes you could see the map and sometimes it was the nothing-pattern. And the first time I used it was in the city of AT&T's headquarters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T#Corporate_headquarters_move), where I never had connection issues.

  • Reply 92 of 142
    vaelianvaelian Posts: 446member
    vadania wrote: »
    Really? I thought you were not supposed to be evolved with testing or submitting bugs. If you have forgotten...

    Believe it or not but I don't feel the urge to fight this back, so I'll let you win the argument because it is indeed true that in that post I was not completely honest with the audience. I did not feel like it was needed at the time, my only point was to destroy your argument that people should be forced to officially report problems in order to enroll in the developer program. I have no problem admitting defeat as I'm sitting on my own piss now.

    Nicely spotted though.
  • Reply 93 of 142
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Vaelian View Post





    No, that's not even a bug. Bugs relate to software, that's a data error.

    Next stupid question?


     


    So, technically, then, there may not be bugs in the Maps app if they are related to data errors?

  • Reply 94 of 142
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Vaelian View Post





    Believe it or not but I don't feel the urge to fight this back, so I'll let you win the argument because it is indeed true that in that post I was not completely honest with the audience. I did not feel like it was needed at the time, my only point was to destroy your argument that people should be forced to officially report problems in order to enroll in the developer program. I have no problem admitting defeat as I'm sitting on my own piss now.

    Nicely spotted though.


     


    You haven't been honest in a single post at this site. No one believes a word you write.

  • Reply 95 of 142
    vaelianvaelian Posts: 446member
    anonymouse wrote: »
    So, technically, then, there may not be bugs in the Maps app if they are related to data errors?

    There are software issues with the app, too. For instance, it does not recognize that an accentuated glyph and a non-accentuated glyph correspond to the same letter, the search data is not in sync with the map data, the search is very bad at recognizing abbreviations as well as search context, etc. These are all software issues.

    anonymouse wrote: »
    You haven't been honest in a single post at this site. No one believes a word you write.

    Whether people believe me or not is of little relevance since my posts appeal to logic.

    PS: My mailbox at this site would also prove your generalization wrong, though I'm not about to share private communications, so feel free to not believe me.
  • Reply 96 of 142
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Vaelian View Post





    There are software issues with the app, too. For instance, it does not recognize that an accentuated glyph and a non-accentuated glyph correspond to the same letter, the search data is not in sync with the map data, the search is very bad at recognizing abbreviations as well as search context, etc. These are all software issues.

    Whether people believe me or not is of little relevance since my posts appeal to logic.

    PS: My mailbox at this site would also prove your generalization wrong, though I'm not about to share private communications, so feel free to not believe me.


     


    I don't think there's much in the way of logic in your posts, especially since you contradict yourself constantly, but, while logic is wonderful, when you know how to apply it, appealing to facts, which you haven't done, is generally considered the best way to get at the truth.


     


    And, I'm so happy that you and the other trolls, shills and haters have bonded. Isn't that special.

  • Reply 97 of 142
    vaelianvaelian Posts: 446member
    anonymouse wrote: »
    I don't think there's much in the way of logic in your posts, especially since you contradict yourself constantly, but, while logic is wonderful, when you know how to apply it, appealing to facts, which you haven't done, is generally considered the best way to get at the truth.

    I find your claim that I contradict myself quite odd. If you've witnessed contradiction, I'm sure you could have pointed it out for debate, so why haven't you? Secondly, I am actually one of the very few people on this who actually back up their claims, so what exactly are you referring to? Do you have any evidence of your own to validate any of these accusations?

    anonymouse wrote: »
    And, I'm so happy that you and the other trolls, shills and haters have bonded. Isn't that special.

    Yeah, no way in hell reasonable people could agree with me, right? Because to you, I'm wrong by default, isn't it? You know what that is? Prejudice! Bigotry!
  • Reply 98 of 142

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lightknight View Post


    It has antenna problems. I know, I own it. Now, it might be that you read in the newspaper that the problem doesn't exist, or that you own  Apple Stock and don't want to admit to Apple lying flat-faced about it, or that by a stroke of luck you have (had?) an iPhone 4 that had no issue, or you just have some Android phone but want to pretend you're an Apple user. Whatever, but please don't say the iPhone 4 had no antenna issue. Whenever there is debate about some Apple product having a flaw, it makes people who have had the antenna issue take side with the people who pretend to have an issue, due to people like you's behavior.


  • Reply 99 of 142
    hftshfts Posts: 386member
    Writing programs is not a perfect art.
    Then there is data to consider.
    Unless you are a programmer, you would not understand nor appreciate the complexity of it all. More importantly, how much confidence do you have in nuclear weapons?
    More specifically the delivery systems, decoys, targeting etc.
    There are several million lines of code involved, do you think these are bug-free.
    The permutations involved in the user cases are vast in number.
    Did you know that there are more combinations in a game of chess than there are atoms in the universe.
    Maps is not perfect, nor is Google's. if the argument is which is better then the answer is obvious. Just like if I take up Tennis, am I better than Federer? Of course not.
    Give it time, it will only get better, although its not too shabby at the moment.
    Why did Apple do maps? Simple, to wean themselves of the Google's tit.
    They want their data, why give it to Google?
    I think they should have done this earlier though, especially when it was obvious that there would be no turn-by-turn.
    I do hope Apple bans any future Google maps app, morally they have full right.
  • Reply 100 of 142

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bitWrangler View Post


    Considering this is an issue with iOS 6 and has nothing to do any premium paid for anything I don't get your point.  Plus there have been over time myriad examples of this happening on Google maps, it's just that A) no one had anything to compare to esp given the extra functionality and usability that outweighed most mistakes B) maps have now become a critical app in most folks lives, this wasn't the case when googmaps was going through it's teething pains, and C) this is Apple where now EVERY little thing is criticized ("hey, when I throw my iPhone against a brick wall and then run over it with my Prius it scratches the aluminum on the back, Steve must be rolling in his grave right now").



    LOL, awesome.

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