Apple fires iOS 6 Maps chief

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Comments

  • Reply 81 of 170
    Street View is not relevant... It never existed on the Google version of the iPhone maps app. Google would not allow it, nor would they allow turn-by-turn..... No iPhone user 'lost' street view by moving to Apple maps...

    What Apple maps users gained in iOS 6 was native turn-by-turn and flyover... Definitely an upgrade...

    When Google ships an iOS maps app, then the comparison will make sense... Not sure what's taking them so long...
  • Reply 82 of 170
    lerxtlerxt Posts: 186member


    Interesting how my dissenting view was deleted, looks like the Republic(an) of Apple Love.

  • Reply 83 of 170
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    Quote:


    Originally Posted by Gazoobee go_quote.gif


    ...


    Maps does suck, but the reality is that images like this don't actually show "errors" at all and instead show exactly what they are supposed to show.  


     


    I disagree... Apple Maps does not suck...  It has some good and bad points -- as do all map systems!


     


     


    When in 3D mode the satellite imagery is projected onto a mesh of the geography of the area down to sea level.  This is totally normal.  This picture is showing satellite imagery of the land around Hoover Dam and projecting it onto a 3D mesh of said land.  


     


    IMO, the "projection of satellite imagery onto a mesh" is one of the features of Apple Maps with great potential!  The 3D images are projected in a series of layers going from far to near.  


     


    In a complicated projection, say downtown Manhattan, you can see the layers being drawn -- first a far building -- then a nearer building which [partially] blocks the far building…  This is especially noticeable on a iPad 2 with no cached data.


     


    With some clever programming, the Apple Maps app could allow the user to control which layers are drawn…  If a nearer building blocks a far building -- just don't draw the near building.


     


    Done properly, this could offer capabilities that [2D] StreetView could never match!



     


    Could be great indeed.  I actually love opening up maps and cruising around the local mountains in 3D.  It's just that when it comes to the cities, the data is either totally f*cked up or missing entirely.  I don't miss street view as much as I thought I would either.  If they simply fixed the data (and there is oceans and oceans of bad data), and added transit directions it would all be fine for most people.  


     


    I've been reporting errors a lot however and so far not a single one of them has been fixed.  For instance I was in Vancouver BC last week and pretty much all the data is still bad or missing.  This is a big city too, one of the largest in the country.  

  • Reply 84 of 170
    ulfoafulfoaf Posts: 175member
    This was surely a long term project. I am assuming it started in 2009, but I am guessing. Maybe earlier. Even if in 2007, it is a massive project in which they were 8-9 years behind Google.
    People are probably being fired for saying Maps was ready when it wasn't. This was probably due to massive pressure from the top, more than likely saying it HAD to be ready. They need scapegoats for a perceived failure, in which everyone at the top played a part.
  • Reply 85 of 170
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Joel Mac View Post



    It is interesting to note that about 30 minutes after this article with that image of Hoover Dam was posted, Apple fixed the image in their database. That says something about the company.


     


    It was fixed a long time ago, but articles such as this one are still insistent on using these sensational images (which are cheap shots, as Google's 3D is much worse, even it even exists in the same area which it mostly doesn't) simply to get more clicks and whore out the 'LOL HOW TERRIBLE IS MAPS' meme as much as posisble. Are inacuracies in 3D really going to affect anyone in real world scenarios? No. 

  • Reply 86 of 170
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Street View is not relevant... It never existed on the Google version of the iPhone maps app. Google would not allow it, nor would they allow turn-by-turn..... No iPhone user 'lost' street view by moving to Apple maps...
    What Apple maps users gained in iOS 6 was native turn-by-turn and flyover... Definitely an upgrade...
    When Google ships an iOS maps app, then the comparison will make sense... Not sure what's taking them so long...

    That's incorrect. Why won't this lie die?

    You click that little symbol to the left of the name and you got the classic Street View window. You click the little map in the corner to exit it and you can use manipulate it just like you can with the website version.

    700

    1000
  • Reply 87 of 170


    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

    That's incorrect. Why won't this lie die?


     


    Wait, you don't know?



    Trolls don't actually use Apple products. They couldn't possibly know what features they have. 


     


    I'd rather it not die. It's one of the better ways to out people that have never used Apple products at all.

  • Reply 88 of 170
    joshajosha Posts: 901member
    freshmaker wrote: »
    Good for Apple.  That needed to happen.  While probably more of a case of bad PR vs a bad product, it still hurt Apple's brand image.  Good for them to show that the Maps App was not an acceptable product.

    Yes it was very bad PR for Apple, but it's my feeling the expectations were too high for a first release.
    I'm still using iOS 5 on my iPhone4, so I'm still on Google Maps which has given me several serious mapping errors this year.
    - Like taking me into the oncoming traffic on an in city long bridge with mid divider. Fortunately I saw the problem at home.
    -Like for a few days locating my home half mile away where a advertisers business is.
    -Like taking me in the 180° wrong way when exiting off I5 in Wa to my hotel. A hotel in the wrong direction told me the way as I noticed a sign on their wall saying "don't use Google maps to find us!".

    As for the new Apple Maps I've tried it a few times in the Apple Store.
    -The first time was a few weeks after release, it gave me a better city route than Google Maps and was much more readable as the route marker doesn't cover the street names.
    -Recently I tried it to find a newer local theater in a difficult to find mall location. Google Maps was half a block away- useless. MS Maps pointed to the street corner where there is a mall entrance.
    Apple Maps hit it right on, marking the center of the theater roof.
  • Reply 89 of 170


    that Apple maps was deficient wasn't news, as several stories have reported that top management was told before the iPhone 5 launch, and they decided to drop Google Maps and go with their own maps.  They wanted to drop Google, and so they did.  So some guy gets the political heave ho, when it was Cook who signed the letter.  Sounds like normal corporate musical chairs, where protecting your back takes most of your day.

  • Reply 90 of 170
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    lilgto64 wrote: »
    joel mac wrote: »
    It is interesting to note that about 30 minutes after this article with that image of Hoover Dam was posted, Apple fixed the image in their database. That says something about the company.
    Really? on my iOS 6 iPhone 4S the picture still looks the same as above - when in 3D mode - When not in 3D mode you can get an optical illusion that the span is arched upward - but when you switch to 3D and rotate the view is when you see it. And here I though the problem was the tag Hoover Dam on the Boulder Dam, or is it the Black Canyon Dam? Damn dam, which is it? 

    Tinker's Dam?

    Maybe the Nowungiva Dam.
    tylerk36 wrote:
    What would steve do?

    Well, he let the MobileMe team go for screwing up but then with the antenna thing, he told users to be more lenient and accept that antennas just have these problems. I think Maps is more a case of the latter than the former. There's more good about it than there is bad just like Siri and it will improve over time. No big deal IMO and not worth losing good staff over.
  • Reply 91 of 170
    jragosta wrote: »
    Yes, you've missed at least one major thing. Or, at least, you've repeated the same FUD that has been presented over and over.
    The bolded statements are just wrong.
    1. Few people have actually done comparisons, but the ones who have have found few significant differences between Apple Maps and Google Maps. You're confusing a bunch of whining with evidence.
    2. In some parts of the world, Apple Maps is demonstrably better - China, for example.
    Some of your other complaints are nonsensical. No, there's no desktop version of Apple Maps, but there's no version of Google Maps that works on my microwave, either. Neither of those things was ever intended. When you're at your desktop, you have a wide range of choices for mapping solutions.
    Transit data is intentionally being supplied by third parties. Just a difference in approach rather than a significant flaw.

    It is not at all nonsensical to prefer using the same maps solution on desktop and on mobile devices.

    Show me a proper, exhaustive comparison that reports "few" significant differences between Apple Maps and Google Maps. I don't even know how one would define the comparison to begin with, and I am way smarter (and better looker) than you.

    I did not say iOS maps were significantly flawed. I merely wrote that I didn't know how we could arrive at the conclusion at it was not significantly worse than Google. I could have written that I don't know how we can arrive at the conclusion that it is significantly worse. But you are so instinctively, preternaturally defensive that you resort to manipulation of emphasis, convenient/deliberate negligence of my presentation of two-sided perspective, sophomoric use of single exceptions to invalidate a general observation and hyperbolic belittlement. As usual, these low level tactics only serve to undermine you instead of me.

    Take a deep breath. I am not attacking your wife's ugliness (or your husband). I am asking how we can objectively define whether he/she is significantly ugly, or pretty.

    Try to be better.
  • Reply 92 of 170
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


     


    I still don't understand...  The non-FlyOver 3D Imagery can detect the man-made Hoover dam (and the roadway on top of it) -- why cannot it detect the man-made bridge (and the roadway on top of it)?



     


    Because the dam (or possibly the earth it lies along) is evidently part of the terrain and is found in elevation data. No need to send Flyover aircraft to capture it in rough form (although they would add detail).


     


    Bridges are simply not contained in elevation data. It’s the same with Google and every other mapping system. Elevation data alone gives the valley—not bridges.


     


    Eventually Apple will send the aircraft to capture that dam—it is, after all, a landmark. But I’m happy to have them focus on capturing more poplated areas first. Meanwhile, the bridge is no worse than in Google, and will confuse nobody.


     


     




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ken_sanders_aia View Post



    Street View is not relevant... It never existed on the Google version of the iPhone maps app. Google would not allow it, nor would they allow turn-by-turn..... No iPhone user 'lost' street view by moving to Apple maps...

    What Apple maps users gained in iOS 6 was native turn-by-turn and flyover... Definitely an upgrade...

    When Google ships an iOS maps app, then the comparison will make sense... Not sure what's taking them so long...


     


     


    As has been pointed out, Apple’s Maps app, when it was using Google data, had Google’s Street View for years. It was neat, and occasionally (once or twice a month for me) VERY useful. I want it back! Luckily there’s Google’s web version (which isn’t as nice but does serve the purpose) and, coming in time, an app as well for sure. (Only Google can be blamed for being late: we ALL knew this day was coming from Apple’s mapping purchases going back years. Google had warning.)


     


    At the same time, imagine if Google Street View were an Apple product. Google’s problems that everyone ignores would magically be crimes against humanity:


     


    - There would be “flaregate”—the scandal where sun flares block thousands of road signs and wash out the scene you need to see.


     


    - Signs blocked by trees would make Apple a laughingstock in troll forums: “THIS is why this was a bad idea all along"


     


    - Any street or neighborhood that lacked Street View or showed out-of-date imagery would be slammed.


     


    - A huge amount of Google’s Street View is blurry, distorted, has double-images, or other artifacts. Apple would be “circling the drain under Tim Cook” for all that.


     


    - Privacy concerns with Google (who actually DOES oppose privacy) died away. If it was Apple doing Street View, the tin foil hats would never come off.


  • Reply 93 of 170
    Waiting for Microsoft to fire someone else from the Windows team in response...
  • Reply 94 of 170
    runbuhrunbuh Posts: 315member
    Here are some good examples of the problem, without actually defining it (sort of like defining pornography).

    http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/
  • Reply 95 of 170
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member


    I love how Apple is doing its damndest to keep the negative maps PR going by firing someone new each month. You know, just when its out of the headlines each time, they go ahead and make sure to drag it back to the spotlight. How does it make sense to fire someone who's had a hand in development of maps since the beginning- wouldnt this person be in the best position to have insight into what improvements to make, etc, instead of going out and looking for something new? It's not rocket science, it just needs time and a shitload of work, not some radical new ideas. It's mapping. The fundamentals are there. Apple is just making itself look utterly incompetent and clueless by continuing to fire people and actively publicizing that they're looking for someone 'outside the company for help' making it seem as if they don't have the people or the skills to get the job done, and lowering trust in the product even more. Maps has already improved greatly since it launched, yet Apple is seemingly doing everything in its power to continue to give the perception that the product is shit. Stock has already taken a significant hit, after finally being on an upwards roll. I don't see why the people who built maps (which has great fundamentals) wouldn't be able to continue improving a task, which should be a much simpler task now. 

  • Reply 96 of 170
    runbuhrunbuh Posts: 315member
    The software and the data are inextricably linked - you don't push an app out the door that relies on faulty data.
  • Reply 97 of 170
    Wait, you don't know?


    Trolls don't actually use Apple products. They couldn't possibly know what features they have. 

    I'd rather it not die. It's one of the better ways to out people that have never used Apple products at all.

    LOL. Busted!
  • Reply 98 of 170


    Originally Posted by runbuh View Post

    The software and the data are inextricably linked - you don't push an app out the door that relies on faulty data.


     


    Guess Google should pull their maps.

  • Reply 99 of 170
    slurpy wrote: »
    I love how Apple is doing its damndest to keep the negative maps PR going by firing someone new each month. You know, just when its out of the headlines each time, they go ahead and make sure to drag it back to the spotlight. How does it make sense to fire someone who's had a hand in development of maps since the beginning- wouldnt this person be in the best position to have insight into what improvements to make, etc, instead of going out and looking for something new? It's not rocket science, it just needs time and a shitload of work, not some radical new ideas. It's mapping. The fundamentals are there. Apple is just making itself look utterly incompetent and clueless by continuing to fire people and actively publicizing that they're looking for someone 'outside the company for help' making it seem as if they don't have the people or the skills to get the job done, and lowering trust in the product even more. Maps has already improved greatly since it launched, yet Apple is seemingly doing everything in its power to continue to give the perception that the product is shit. Stock has already taken a significant hit, after finally being on an upwards roll. 

    You done being positive?
  • Reply 100 of 170
    runbuhrunbuh Posts: 315member
    How are we to believe your FUD over all the other FUD?
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