Apple bolsters Maps with more business listings data providers
As part of ongoing upgrades to its in-house mapping service, Apple on Friday added a handful of entries to its rolling list of providers that supply the company with maps data, business listings and satellite imagery.
In an update to Apple's acknowledgments webpage for Maps data partners, the company quietly announced new business listings provider partnerships with E-WEGO, NavAds, Yellow Pages Group Corp. and Yellow Pages Turkey.
Today's update officially recognizes local search integration of user-generated reviews from TripAdvisor and Booking.com, two major sources of travel-related information. AppleInsider first reported on the additions in February.
After a rocky debut in 2012, Apple Maps has greatly improved as new data providers and internal Apple teams work to refine data accuracy, Flyover imagery, point-of-interest databases and more.
With an overhaul thought to be in the works, Apple this month acquired high-precision GPS hardware and software maker Coherent Navigation. It is not yet known how the firm's technology will be assimilated into Apple's products.
Most recently, Dutch-based mapping data service TomTom confirmed earlier this week that it renewed a contract to provide Apple with street-level data covering North America and Europe.
Apple is expected to announce enhancements to Maps for iOS 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, potentially including long-awaited transit routing capabilities.
In an update to Apple's acknowledgments webpage for Maps data partners, the company quietly announced new business listings provider partnerships with E-WEGO, NavAds, Yellow Pages Group Corp. and Yellow Pages Turkey.
Today's update officially recognizes local search integration of user-generated reviews from TripAdvisor and Booking.com, two major sources of travel-related information. AppleInsider first reported on the additions in February.
After a rocky debut in 2012, Apple Maps has greatly improved as new data providers and internal Apple teams work to refine data accuracy, Flyover imagery, point-of-interest databases and more.
With an overhaul thought to be in the works, Apple this month acquired high-precision GPS hardware and software maker Coherent Navigation. It is not yet known how the firm's technology will be assimilated into Apple's products.
Most recently, Dutch-based mapping data service TomTom confirmed earlier this week that it renewed a contract to provide Apple with street-level data covering North America and Europe.
Apple is expected to announce enhancements to Maps for iOS 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, potentially including long-awaited transit routing capabilities.
Comments
To get a 3D Flyover tour of Modesto ... or was it Bakersfield :???:
OTOH, Here's Ronda. Spain -- The oldest bullfight ring in Europe ,,, Getting across the bridge or taking a swim is a little dicey ...
Every week. In my city it gets me wherever I need to go.
My only complaint is the POIs, which at times don't hit with matches as well as Google (naturally, since googles been doing search/POI for a long time). But it appears what they're trying to improve with these partners.
When was the last time you used Apple maps?
Yesterday.
they need to work more on maps itself i use it all day and it gets old fast when maps asks you which port you want port Newark port of authority when you asked for port washington new york . verbal requests for city and state are often ignored completely with auto substitutions of streets 5 or 6 states away and a simple preference for those of us in commercial vehicles that does not route us on restricted parkways would be nice . at this point google maps kicks maps butt because it hardly ever misses an address (my loyalty always try maps first . dumping more information into the wrong map just will make it as bad as mr ives aversion to back buttons.
If you speak the way you write I'm not surprised Siri doesn't understand a word.
On the other hand, pauses, as for commas or dashes, are so often interpreted as "stop listening" that I frequently have the impulse to throw the f*cking phone out the car window…since I can't add to the end of messages, but only completely re-do them...
You are falling into the anthropomorphic trap. Computers can parse input a wee bit faster than the wife.
LOL
We are off to on a multi country European trip later this year (just for my American wife's sake, I'd rather see more of the USA!) and I was researching using my Mac of course. I have to say in all these map discussions I see over and over Google's wee man on the street feature being dissed by Apple fans (and you all know I am one). I have to say selecting a hotel in Venice for example is far nicer when you can walk around the area and see on the ground as Google maps allows. I know there are restaurants that look very nice right next door, a bridge over the Grand Canal right there close to the hotel and so on and I really know what the look like (as opposed to reading a label linked to a web site). I truly find it a phenomenal tool (hear that gatorguy?). I was able to do the same in every place we are going and actually 'being there' on the ground makes for such a better mental experience to me. Sure Flying over and ariel views are great too but I find when I get there, having already seen the street views I feel like I already know my way around a place. My point is, this is another Google thing Apple should rip off IMHO and do even better. The other of course, is search.
I don't care at all about all of the 3D flyover stuff. What I would like to see is them change the color scheme so that you can actually see the roads on the background in low density areas. They use light beige for the background and either a lighter beige or white for the roads and they are virtually invisible. Also, how it chooses to place street names is incredibly annoying - often when you zoom in the street names stay where they were on the portion of the map that now isn't even on the screen. Basic functionality needs to be improved over adding bells and whistles.
In short, you haven't used it since 2012.
Google Maps is not better. It's far away better. Apple has to put some coins into a massive improvement. Just take a billion of the 200. I've all Apple devices and services but I never use Apple Maps because Google Maps is leading.
Do you know that your message is nearly incoherent?
Ok, cheap shot all you want.
Be floccinaucinihilipilificatiors all you want.
It was 6 am and i was not wearing my glasses.It was hard enough to type at all. I was hoping people would parse the content not the style (silly me ) The fact is Siri makes really big mistakes often. Maps has difficulty finding addresses that google gets in seconds.
?Siri often says "i think what you mean is Adams St. Savanna Georgia" when you clearly said "directions to Adams St. Glen Cove Ny. I fix Garage doors for a living and i need GPS to get to my
customers and i hate Tom Tom. I do 5 calls a day 6 days a week and i guesstimate 30% of the time i have to go to google maps. Basically what I'm saying is i depend on maps for bread and butter
and maps does not need more clutter the reason i like it in the first place is the simple GUI . i need reading glasses and more small junk while I'm driving a huge truck is not what i want to see.
I have been given the run around many times having maps try to reroute me onto highways my truck can not drive on . It is not easy to click tap to get overview driving in ny traffic and you can't gesture the map in regular view to see whats on its mind. if any one has anything to say about my observations I'm glad to hear it you grammarians can go to h e double hockey sticks
( the phone is on a suction cup on the windshield )
Really? People diss Street View?
I always thought it was the most awesome thing that Navigon would show me a street view of what exactly I was looking for as I approached my destination.
It's a function I sorely miss in Apple Maps.
The other function that I miss, and that actually hurts, is the lane assistant. Knowing I need to turn right at some point isn't half as useful as knowing it's gonna be the second lane from the right, and not the right-most one.
I don't care at all about all of the 3D flyover stuff. What I would like to see is them change the color scheme so that you can actually see the roads on the background in low density areas. They use light beige for the background and either a lighter beige or white for the roads and they are virtually invisible. Also, how it chooses to place street names is incredibly annoying - often when you zoom in the street names stay where they were on the portion of the map that now isn't even on the screen. Basic functionality needs to be improved over adding bells and whistles.
If they're looking for a name for Apple Maps' color scheme, I nominate "Jaundice". I hate it myself. I keep wondering there's something wrong with my display's color rendering.
When Apple Maps first came out, I had heard all of the naysayers complain about its accuracy so I went back to Google Maps to find a place where there was heavy road construction changing the roadways. Google Maps had me going the wrong way for a few miles. I stopped and changed to Apple Maps and it took me right where I was wanting to go. Ever since then I have used Apple Maps exclusively and have not been steered wrong yet. As everyone has different destinations, my experience is purely anecdotal, but I have found Apple Maps to work fine for my uses. Your mileage may vary, but that doesn't mean it is shit for everyone.
Google Maps is not better. It's far away better. Apple has to put some coins into a massive improvement. Just take a billion of the 200. I've all Apple devices and services but I never use Apple Maps because Google Maps is leading.
You "never use" Apple maps, yet you "know" it's shit. Gotcha.
I guess I have some magical version of Apple maps that gets me the correct info 98% of the time. Yes, Google maps is still better- but Google has invested 15 yrs and millions of hours of manpower into the product. There is no magic involved. Apple maps will get there, and it's already seen massive improvements since launch, but you're utterly childish in suggesting that Apple can just "throw a billion" at it and everything will be perfect. Also, I'm pretty damned sure they've spent way more on that already, all things considered (Initial development, acquisition of mapping companies, agreements with data providers, 3D flyover, wages for the employees working on the project, etc etc).
If you want to ride a way with your bike. Try it with Apple maps and with Google maps. Where is the bicycle at Apple maps just to tap on it?
They don't do bicycle routes at this point, true.