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

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

#421

Post by loeg »

reaperducer wrote: post #417
loeg wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a great idea if speed limits were set by any plausibly reasonable process, but in truth they are set arbitrarily and capriciously.

This would be a great idea if speed limits were set by any plausibly reasonable process, but in truth they are set arbitrarily and capriciously. Demonstrably untrue. There is an entire very technical industry for this sort of thing. People who take an interest in their communities and go to planning and city council meetings know this. Those who are not involved their communities just complain and blame it on The Man…

It's extremely variable. You have traffic engineers, sure, but you also have politicians pushing top-down reactive policies to appeal to the limited minority of voters who happen to have the time to go to city council meetings. To say it is "demonstrably untrue" as some universal truth is objectively false.

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

#422

Post by kstrauser »

AWildC182 wrote: post #357
georgebarnett wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple was legally obligated to contribute back, they would do so. They have a good history of community contribution (eg. Darwin, WebKit) so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, instead of some random anonymous internet commenter angst.

....no they don't. They actively avoid the GPL versions of various things they use so they don't have to give back even though it hurts their users.

That's absurd. From Licensing WebKit (https://webkit.org/licensing-webkit/):

> WebKit is open source software with portions licensed under the LGPL and BSD licenses available here.

Even though those licenses don't require it, Apple still actively develops and publishes enormous FOSS projects. Here's a page that lists more of them: https://developer.apple.com/opensource/

Apple gives back way more than they're legally required to. They don't like the GPLv3 specifically, but's worlds apart from saying they avoid the GPL or that they don't want to give back.

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

#423

Post by PascLeRasc »

chapium wrote: post #333
graeme wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it may be california-centrism. Bikes are a vital mode in Europe and many other parts of the road. In california car is king, bikes are either recreational or for hardcore commutes. You can see similar assumptions in how Siri is designed. (“Users only speak one language at a time”) or the effectiveness of multilanguage support in autocorrect. Most people outside north america use their own language + english…

Counterpoint: google has bike directions and exists in California.

Google Maps' icon is also a location pin, while Apple Maps' is a highway. Google also has 21% of its local staff bike to work [1]. Apple's campus is so far that you can't realistically live in SF proper, you mostly have to drive. These kind of different motivations and cultures bleed through to their products.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/this-heat-map-shows-a-fundam...

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

#424

Post by lukifer »

AWildC182 wrote: post #329
georgebarnett wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Apple give away their improvements? I’m genuinely curious why you think they should do this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_License Because they would be legally obligated to when using OSM as a base for anything. Also, because it would benefit society.

There's a myth that the market offers rewards proportional to value provided.

In reality, the market offers rewards proportional to value that can be withheld, as leverage for price negotiation.

It would be a big deal to create an economic system that reliably measures and rewards benefit to society. I haven't the faintest idea how.

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

#425

Post by justusthane »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #47

Shameless plug, but we just shipped our huge Gaia Topo update too. Gaia Topo focuses on the backcountry, and specifically downloading for offline use: https://blog.gaiagps.com/easy-to-read-tiny-to-download-the-a...

I just found Gaia (and became a Premium member) not too long ago as I was preparing for a kayaing trip. I love Gaia! Thanks for the great work.

Edit: Although can you tell me whether there's a way, on iOS, to have the map not switch to dark mode when my device is in dark mode?

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

#426

Post by bagacrap »

rootusrootus wrote: post #364
pauljonas wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After using Waze for over a couple of years, I really started getting the impression that I was just a data pawn in a bunch of A/B tests -- like send this one down that route, send that one down the other way & see what happens.

I got that impression, too. On multiple occasions I ignored a suggested turn because I was pretty certain it would be slower, and as soon as Waze adjusted the route based on my turn, the ETA went down. So it should have sent me the right way to begin with, but wanted to experiment with me to test an alternate route. After enough of those, I reluctantly stopped using Waze.

perhaps it's load balancing for other cars. If one entity controls a significant enough portion of the total traffic in the system they might sometimes make a decision that negatively impacts one packet if it helps a sufficient number of other packets.

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

#427

Post by Quasimoto3000 »

matt-attack wrote: post #419

The only thing I detest about Apple Maps is that during navigation they got rid of the North up view. I feel that anything but north up is complete gibberish. I literally can’t recognize my own neighborhood if the map is originated beyond 10 or so degrees off north. I don’t believe anyone ever holds up an actual paper map and ever rotates it to any orientation other than north up. So why are digital maps so obsessed…

Because when you're navigating, you generally want to orient to whats in front of you.

I definitely agree with you if you are just "studying" a map... But nobody wants to perform a mental re-orientation while driving.

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

#428

Post by prepend »

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…

Waze also shows me distracting landmarks like McDonalds that stand out on my map, annoyingly. It doesn’t offer me a way to customize what I see or add in restaurants I’m interested in.

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

#429

Post by gowld »

prepend wrote: post #428
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…

Waze also shows me distracting landmarks like McDonalds that stand out on my map, annoyingly. It doesn’t offer me a way to customize what I see or add in restaurants I’m interested in.

Customize it here: https://www.waze.com/business2

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

#430

Post by woahitsraj »

ed312 wrote: post #9
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #6

If Apple could bring bicycle directions into the app, I would probably never use Google Maps again.

Any idea why they haven't / are there plans to add cycle routes in the future? It seems like a glaring hole in functionality (more than "street view")

Because unlike Google, Apple is a California and especially Cupertino centric company so most of their employees have probably never used mapping outside the confines of their car. Transit and walking directions are decent on Apple Maps but still leaps and bounds behind Google Maps. Just shows how forcing all your employees to live and work in the same place is incredibly limiting
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