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Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

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Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#11

Post by m_st »

Switzerland here. Apple Maps is still pretty bad compared to Google Maps.

While Apple Maps is indeed usable, Google Maps is just so much better. Recently I searched for a train station like "Bahnhof Flamatt" and Apple Maps gave me something in the US. Another day I searched something in Bern and Apple Maps gave me results for New Bern in the US. On another day I suddenly got black and white (!) maps in Apple Maps, then I got blurry maps. All of areas that were just fine before.

Edit: typos

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#13

Post by dmitriid »

jitl wrote: post #2

Apple is still pretty far behind, in my view. Here’s an excellent in-depth comparison: https://www.justinobeirne.com/cartography-comparison/

It's not complete without the equally amazing followup https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-appl...

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#14

Post by m_st »

zimpenfish wrote: post #8

Apple Maps is fine. The rendering is still slightly worse than Google Maps when it comes to putting relevant information in the viewport (street names, primarily.) But the search ... good grief, the search still sucks donkey balls through a molecular straw. It seems to lack any sense of your local context and location - which is kinda relevant for maps! e.g. frequently when I used to search for "charing cross" whilst…

Full ACK, the search should be contextual, but I get US results in Switzerland! Or when I search for "Train station", then I expect it to suggest me the closest ones until I continue refining my search. But I get results from other countries or that are very far away. Also "Train station " doesn't always give the same result as " train station".

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#15

Post by smcl »

Apple maps is "ok" here (Czech Republic) but there's really no reason to use it, mapy.cz and Google Maps have everything Apple does but also things like transit stops, more businesses (mapy even has building numbers and cycle routes) and it also tends to be slightly more accurate.

Here's a comparison of the three on my current location because I'm bored waiting on something:

https://imgur.com/gallery/cFpcx

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#16

Post by m_st »

m_st wrote: post #11

Switzerland here. Apple Maps is still pretty bad compared to Google Maps. While Apple Maps is indeed usable, Google Maps is just so much better. Recently I searched for a train station like "Bahnhof Flamatt" and Apple Maps gave me something in the US. Another day I searched something in Bern and Apple Maps gave me results for New Bern in the US. On another day I suddenly got black and white (!) maps in Apple Maps, th…

Apple Maps also has this nice button to direct you to the nearest gas station. Unfortunately it doesn't know all gas stations so in Switzerland you'll get results that are too far away, when the next station would be just nearby.

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#17

Post by sksksk »

I find that in richer countries with more iPhones, Apple Maps is on par with Google Maps. But in places with fewer iPhones, it can go a bit haywire.

Here's a couple of Apple/Google maps comparisons I've noticed and taken screenshots off. First one in San Andres (Colombia), second in East Jerusalem. http://imgur.com/a/QgnS3

I also noticed that Apple Maps would translate street names, in lots of Colombian countries, streets are laid out in a grid. With the streets that go east to west called "Calles", and north to south called "Carreras" (i.e. Calle 69 con carrera 4).

Apple maps would translate these to be called Street 69 and Road 4.

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#18

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

zimpenfish wrote: post #8

Apple Maps is fine. The rendering is still slightly worse than Google Maps when it comes to putting relevant information in the viewport (street names, primarily.) But the search ... good grief, the search still sucks donkey balls through a molecular straw. It seems to lack any sense of your local context and location - which is kinda relevant for maps! e.g. frequently when I used to search for "charing cross" whilst…

100% this. Geocoding is the real weak spot in Apple Maps. (Though it's getting slowly better. Siri successfully navigated me to Brize Norton village the other day, where previously it had refused to associate the name with anything other than the RAF Brize Norton airbase.)

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#19

Post by m_st »

m_st wrote: post #11

Switzerland here. Apple Maps is still pretty bad compared to Google Maps. While Apple Maps is indeed usable, Google Maps is just so much better. Recently I searched for a train station like "Bahnhof Flamatt" and Apple Maps gave me something in the US. Another day I searched something in Bern and Apple Maps gave me results for New Bern in the US. On another day I suddenly got black and white (!) maps in Apple Maps, th…

I occasionally use Apple Maps while driving because of the nice integration. But then you can't see the current song anymore! Is anyone at Apple using this??? I can't believe they didn't consider this and use a small portion of the screen to show the current song and allow prev/next/play|pause.

Re: Ask HN: Apple maps vs. Google maps today?

#20

Post by binaryanomaly »

I was travelling recently in Russia and Asia for a few months. My impression was that Google Maps is in general by magnitudes better and more helpful than Apple Maps.

It depends a bit on the country though as for some countries Google does not own the Map data and services are limited, i.e. in China and also Japan afaik.

OpenStreetMap is usually a good alternative especially if you are not able to read local languages. Otherwise you'll be fine with local versions such as baidu maps, etc.

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