Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 476 posts

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#211

Post by larrywright »

skizm wrote: post #177
theboat wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I agree with your general sentiment, Apple Maps, like many of Apple's mobile apps, gets a boost from Apple's anti-competitive practices. It's utterly ridiculous that we can remove default apps from iOS, including Maps and Safari, but we can't set new default apps to replace them. If we ever get serious about increasing competition in the tech sector, an easy place to start is letting users set default brow…

One specific thing that bothers me is that Microsoft got in trouble for bundling IE with Windows, but apple doesn't get in trouble when they block all browser apps that don't use Safari under the hood. How is this different? I want Google and Mozilla (and anyone else) to be able to make iOS browser apps from scratch if they want. It wouldn't be an issue if you could sideload apps easily, but the app store is really t…

The issue with the browser (and sideloading) is security. Browsers by their nature are essentially apps that run arbitrary code from an unknown location. How do you ensure security of the devices if you don’t control the browser?

Safari is great on iOS. I’ve never felt the need to run something different. Same with sideloading apps. I’ve never seen the need for that. Maybe I’m an Apple fanboy but I think they’re doing the right thing in both cases.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#212

Post by pgodzin »

hyperbovine wrote: post #193
theboat wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I agree with your general sentiment, Apple Maps, like many of Apple's mobile apps, gets a boost from Apple's anti-competitive practices. It's utterly ridiculous that we can remove default apps from iOS, including Maps and Safari, but we can't set new default apps to replace them. If we ever get serious about increasing competition in the tech sector, an easy place to start is letting users set default brow…

> letting users set default browsers, maps, and email clients on their devices. This is so disingenuous. It's called Android. People hate it. Although the walled garden may offend you personally, the market at large has spoken.

Of all the options to hate Android, having the option to change default clients is probably pretty low...

It's probably enough to make anyone switch to Android, but it can still be a welcome addition to iOS

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#213

Post by krrrh »

reissbaker wrote: post #142
briandear wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Google gets to see it too. And all their advertisers.

Google doesn't give your map collections to advertisers. It's true that Google gets to see them, but Apple is no better in that regard: they store your collections on their servers too (where else would they store them?).

Apple is better in that regard.

End-to-end encryption

Maps keeps your personal data in sync across all your devices using end-to-end encryption. Your Significant Locations and collections are encrypted end-to-end so Apple cannot read them. And when you share your ETA with other Maps users, Apple can’t see your location.

Other useful sections on that page worth reading: "Location Fuzzing", "Random Identifiers", and "(on-device) Personalization"

From: https://www.apple.com/privacy/features/

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#214

Post by city41 »

skrause wrote: post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

I have the same problem, except for me, when entering my address the resulting address the app chooses is over 30 minutes away (my neighborhood is about 18 months old).

I never use Apple maps, but I have found pretty much everyone else does. My address not being in there has become a huge hassle.

I also submitted a correction in the app to no avail. So I tweeted at AppleSupport and they assigned me a dedicated support person to handle my "case". It's been weeks now. The support person keeps calling me to tell me "no word yet from the engineering team".

Thankfully I'm moving soon, but this headache applies to all the new houses in this neighborhood.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#215

Post by pgodzin »

dsalzman wrote: post #179

Shout out to all of Justin O’Beirne' amazing analysis on all things maps. https://www.justinobeirne.com/ -he's even got an updated post related to this press release.

direct link: https://www.justinobeirne.com/new-apple-maps-continental-uni...

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#216

Post by [deleted] »

gnicholas wrote: post #135
skrause wrote: post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

> What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Wow, I've had the opposite experience. I've only used it a handful of times, but when I've reported incorrect phone numbers and such, it's always been fixed in just a few days, and I receive a notification through the app that they've done it. I found the experience to be impressively fast and painless. Sorry to hear i…

[deleted]

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#217

Post by killjoywashere »

oflannabhra wrote: post #205
pauljonas wrote: post #196

I'd been using Waze for a couple of years, and initially it was far superior to Apple Maps. But a few months back, I got really frustrated with it because it led me down some closed roads & ended up doubling my commute time home from work that day. I'd also been noting how off it was on its estimates on when I'd get to my destination. And I was also perturbed by it not knowing the back street entrance to my work site…

I seem to remember someone posting their results of testing Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze for ETA accuracy, and what you describe was also what they found: Apple Maps was the most accurate, Google Maps was optimistic, but accurate, Waze basically reported the best case scenario. Edit: found the original [0] I've long thought that Waze creates the illusion of saving massive amounts of time, when its benefits are m…

I wonder if those who are more likely to measure something like this are more likely to drive closer to the speed limit? I tend to drive fast and find Google gets me there a couple minutes before ETA, Apple gets me there way before ETA, and Waze just overloads me with more information than I want.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#218

Post by doodlebugging »

azinman2 wrote: post #10

Congrats to the teams who did this! It’s been a long time coming.. and a lot of people said along the way that Apple should just give up it was too far behind. Perseverance (and a lot of resources) can go a long way! It reminds me of some advice given to me by a heavily successful industrialist friend — never dismiss your competition, for the world is not static.

The teams are mostly 1099 contract workers through a third party with no benefits and no hope of advancement or future employment as full-time employee of Apple since their contract specifically expires in one year. They make around $20/hour usually right out of college in a town (Austin) with one of the fastest growing cost of living due to the influx of all the tech companies who got tired of the California scene and decided to move to Texas for the sweet tax cuts and business-friendly environment.

I'm sure the contract company siphons most of the contract value from Apple and the dedicated workers doing all the GIS work, the turn-by-turn descriptions, business identifications, etc. updating all the things that made the original Apple Maps such a delicious joke are left with an income that barely meets expenses in a town where those expenses are steadily rising. This job for them is just a resume filler though they aren't even allowed, due to NDA, to specify exactly what they do (what software or skills they use) or who they do it for when they update their resumes so that before the end of their one year contracts they can find a real career-type job.

It is a great update to a product that did originally suck though. It isn't Apple employees who are doing the actual work. They're the supervisors.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#219

Post by [deleted] »

fjp wrote: post #168
azinman2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Because it started out bad.... 7 years ago?

Anecdotally Apple Maps is still really bad. I have tried using it to drive and walk around major cities in the last two years and it just completely misrepresents where some roads are, it doesn't catch up with construction, etc. etc.

[deleted]

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#220

Post by azinman2 »

fjp wrote: post #168
azinman2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Because it started out bad.... 7 years ago?

Anecdotally Apple Maps is still really bad. I have tried using it to drive and walk around major cities in the last two years and it just completely misrepresents where some roads are, it doesn't catch up with construction, etc. etc.

This announcement today was about the release of entirely new rebuilt maps data for the entire US, from the ground up.
Post reply on HN