Google reportedly distributing near-final version of standalone iOS Maps app

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 96
    I think people are complaining about ios6 maps who are 'outside US' are being rather over dramatic.

    In the uk, for driving, it's night and day compared to before!
    - Turn by turn availability. Finally.

    - incredibly fast and lean so little data used compared to before, and a godsend browsing around areas with limited connectivity between cities towns and villages.

    - 3d flyover already available in my 3year old culdesac estate. Incidently, google only recently this year added correct road and address but still old streetview of june 2008 as a construction site.

    - POI from google is better and more accurate still (unsurprising). There are more and more POI being added to ios6 maps but quite a few locations need to be tweeked correctly eg restaurant on wrong street around the corner.

    - transport info was another thing relatively good about old app. Still plagued by same issue of online use. Back then i still ended up using 3rd party apps - clearer and better to use and with offline mode. Now ios6 maps can link directly to 3rd party apps giving better flexibility. One slight niggle is a less intergrated feel with 3rd party GUI.
  • Reply 42 of 96
    Good news. Apple Maps is absolutely worthless in Tokyo, and is the only thing keeping me from updating my iPhone.
  • Reply 43 of 96


    Don't need it.  Don't want it.


    I prefer Apple Maps.

  • Reply 44 of 96

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Psych_guy View Post


     


    This has to be the funniest thing I've read in a long time.  I mean, seeing homeless people makes me sick with sadness, seeing people living in squalor, reading about pedophiles and watching FOX News makes me sick.  But looking at an icon on the iPhone?  Dude, get a life, either that or get an Android phone.



     


    I know right?  I get the same feeling when I watch or read anything from CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the old MSNBC,  anything Oprah related, Huffington Post, and anything related to to those idiots in Hollywood.

  • Reply 45 of 96
    eat@meeat@me Posts: 321member


    I completely agree - Apple Maps, often incorrect data especially outside US, no street view, no public transport, no turn by turn, no mobile offline support, closed ecosystem wall garden, no web api's

  • Reply 46 of 96
    eat@meeat@me Posts: 321member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Alan King View Post



    Good news. Apple Maps is absolutely worthless in Tokyo, and is the only thing keeping me from updating my iPhone.


     


    All maps are pretty much worthless as Japanese government restricts the export and use of its geo-information. All maps suck there except OSM maps which are created by Japanese citizens.  So, to be fair to Apple, and Google, and Nokia/Navteq, they all lack.


     


    Why, do you live in Japan?  Is that why it keeps you from updating your iPhone.  If you do live in Japan, you do realize that Google Maps in Japan is also not too good either for same reason.

  • Reply 47 of 96
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    Good. It is seriously needed for the UK and parts of Europe.
    Apple Maps has been the single most annoying and useless thing the company have ever done for me. 20+ years. This is the worst.
    It's so infuriatingly useless.

    You have plenty of other options, including Google Maps! (Online edition) so I don't know what you are bitching about. Hopefully Apple will in fact NOT approve a standalone app. Google has been getting a free ride on the back of Apple and us users at the same time they have copied much of iOS, including underlying legacy code. Why should Apple give free ride to a company that has become a key competitor and stabbed them in the back? Apple's app will get much much better very quickly.
  • Reply 48 of 96
    dunksdunks Posts: 1,254member

    I think Apple Maps represents a great platform to build upon. The vector based tiles are a much superior solution. It's obviously far from perfect though - not displaying train lines or station names until you are zoomed way in is a huge drawback, though probably a reflection of how sprawling the sydney rail network is compared to that of other cities.


     


    There is a major mapping error near my house where Apple Maps mistakes two no-through roads separated by a steep cliff for a continuous road. Apple Maps quite calmly directed me to drive off the cliff (I've only just moved to the area so still getting familiar with the neighbourhood) but thankfully I applied more common sense than others. I reported the error using the in app tool but who knows how long it will take to be patched? That concerns me. If only Apple crowd sourced the mapping solutions this POI debacle could be brought up to date within a matter of months.


     


    Oddly the real time traffic info is super accurate - if only it was taken into consideration when routing.

  • Reply 49 of 96

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by super8sean View Post


    I dont know what all the fuss is about. Apple maps works flawlessly for me.


    Never had a problem with it.


    I think the people having problems with it are folks outside the US.


    I'm just saying.  





    So, you don't think folks outside US matters, right? They are like subhumans or something. Do you think we got our iPhones for free? WE PAYED F..KING $$$$ and we had a perfectly good map until Apple decided to take it out!!!! For this, I just hope AAPL is gone crush and burn into the ground! HA!

  • Reply 50 of 96
    [quote]I'll do the same...what can G-Map do that Apple Map cannot?  May be offline map.  I am not really expect it will be there.  So it better be a good one, otherwise, I am the one to kick if off my phone.
    [/quote]

    Take up screen space with ads. Sell you down the road to it's advertisers. The only thing Google is good at.
  • Reply 51 of 96


    Thank God. I used Google Maps daily, because it integrated search and public transit directions seamlessly. The current arrangement makes me search in Maps, then use a third-party app for public transit directions. It sucks. 

  • Reply 52 of 96
    ecsecs Posts: 307member


    Very good news. Apple shouldn't have released Maps until it was ready for competing with Google Maps outside the US. Apple has made more mistakes these last months than in the whole history of the company. Said that, I wish that Apple Maps arrives to a great status, but in the mean time allow us to use Google Maps.


     


    Really good news to know Google Maps is almost ready!!

  • Reply 53 of 96

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by echosonic View Post



    who in all of fuckdom actually wants "street view" on their phone? "Uh, NOT ME," said the pimp. I can get much better imagery with less washout and glare by pointing my instamatic directly at the sun, thanks.

    Street View has sucked since its inception, and frankly, Apple's 3d flyover stomps a brand new mudhole in the middle of its ass.

    I would rather go back to the yellow pages at a gas station than deal with fucking streetview again. NO. THANK. YOU.

    Apple 3D maps, for the win, there is no debate.


     


     


    LOL...  Dude, those i-pills are really taking you on one hell of a trip aren't they?! 

  • Reply 54 of 96

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by xsu View Post



    So now Google offer turn by turn navigation, for free. Until Apple came out with their own App, Google had been steadfastly refusing to offer that choice. Now only a couple months since Apple's App came out, they have the feature almost ready to go.

    Real slimy move there, Google.


    Not "slimy"... If you have a choice between pushing out a product that doesn't allow you to make money, or going entirely off the radar, you do the former. As to the speed, it's been what, three months already? I'd expect the company with the best engineers in the world can do turn-by-turn-on-ios in three months...

  • Reply 55 of 96
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    I want Street View for the very obvious reason it was created... to get a street level view of locations. 3D Maps are neither well covered or accurate enough to be useful in the way Street View is.


     


    Would you be willing to sacrifice regular updates on your mapping app for Street View though?


     


    Because you sure as hell weren't going to get them if Google had its way.

  • Reply 56 of 96
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member

    Quote:


    Originally Posted by ecs View Post


     


    but in the mean time allow us to use Google Maps.


     



     


    Would you like instructions on how to open your browser?

  • Reply 57 of 96
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member


    A big congratulations on Nelson and DaHarder for going through every negative post about Apple maps and attempting to lend them some credibility to them by clicking on the 'Click if this is helpful' button.


     


    Your example in how to build street cred. has been followed.


     


    Hope you don't mind.

  • Reply 58 of 96
    ecsecs Posts: 307member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post


     


    Would you like instructions on how to open your browser?



     


    That's not a really satisfactory alternative. Otherwise, iOS wouldn't need to be an operating system, but just a browser, as all apps would run through the browser if it was as satisfactory as you seem to suggest.

  • Reply 59 of 96
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ecs View Post


    Otherwise, iOS wouldn't need to be an operating system, but just a browser, as all apps would run through the browser.



     


    Because iOS is nothing other than a mapping service, right?


     


    I sympathise with your plight. However, your frustration is misdirected. Google bares sole responsibility for no longer having a mapping presence on iOS devices, and it occurred after considerable discussion with them which they ignored in order to one-up Apple:


     


    http://allthingsd.com/20120926/apple-google-maps-talks-crashed-over-voice-guided-directions/?mod=tweet


     


     


    "multiple sources familiar with Apple’s thinking say the company felt it had no choice but to replace Google Maps with its own, because of a disagreement over a key feature: Voice-guided turn-by-turn driving directions.


    Spoken turn-by-turn navigation has been a free service offered through Google’s Android mobile OS for a few years now. But it was never part of the deal that brought Google’s Maps to iOS. And sources say Apple very much wanted it to be. Requiring iPhone users to look directly at handsets for directions and manually move through each step — while Android users enjoyed native voice-guided instructions — put Apple at a clear disadvantage in the mobile space. And having chosen Google as its original mapping partner, the iPhone maker was now in a position where an archrival was calling the shots on functionality important to the iOS maps feature set.


    And this caused Apple — which typically enjoys very tight control over its products — no end of philosophical discomfort, sources say. Apple pushed Google hard to provide the data it needed to bring voice-guided navigation to iOS. But according to people familiar with Google’s thinking, the search giant, which had invested massive sums in creating that data and views it as a key feature of Android, wasn’t willing to simply hand it over to a competing platform."


     


    Feel free to let Google know how irritated you are that they no longer felt obligated to support the devices that you purchased, and had to be replaced.


     


    Now you know how the owner of a two year old Android handset feels.

  • Reply 60 of 96
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post



    I bet it has adverts and is ugly. Anything else from Google would be surprising.

    They have, like *one* person that can do reasonably good design at Google (G ), so if he is busy it's going to be a dog's breakfast for sure.


     


    It doesn't have ads, and it looks neat actually. I prefer its UI to Maps. It uncluttered and light.

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