Apple made this decision just to dump Google and try to gain more control.
Apple dind't want to use OpenStreetMap because its open source solution and Apple never uses open source solution. Yeah, its iOS and OS X is based on Linux (sort of) but they will never tell this to anyone.
iOS 6 Maps sucks just like the App Store on the New iPad. Maybe it is just me but I found it very, very slow. It's better on iPhone
The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
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Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#22To be honest, despite its flaws, it's going to be ok for most of the people, most of the time. Navigation is going to be a big boon. Using it I haven't noticed major differences personally. Some restaurants are in the wrong location, but on the flip side I like the yelp reviews. I'm sure they will improve on the areas that are flawed.
Directions being ok most for most people, most of the time, is hardly acceptable.
Google Maps had a tendency to drop pins for locations on the wrong spot. That meant I always had to confirm the location with street view, 100% of the time.
Going to the wrong spot can be catastrophic in some instances (wrong or non existent hospital.) In others it can be really bad (missing a critical meeting, walking in during a wedding.) I don't need to give more examples.
Google giving not so great search results is one thing. I can look at the page and quickly tell that its wrong. When maps are wrong, it can add another 30 minutes between figuring out you went to the wrong spot and getting to the right one.
If Apple's management thinks its acceptable to roll out beta products on all of their users, I'll be moving to Android.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#23I'm clueless about mapping/geocoding/etc (it's amazing I make it to the grocery store and back) but I keep hearing that Apple needed to get this out there so that they could start getting data feeding back from the millions of iOS users, and thus (presumably rapidly) improving the quality of the maps. Is there any truth at all to that? I don't quite understand where they'd be getting that data back from - e.g. if I search for the hospital and I eventually find it 3 miles down the road from where the map took me, how would Apple/their mapping partners ever know that the POI should be moved?
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#24Google spend much time organizing the name of the cities and road in a particular way. Now Apple has another way of doing it, the maps at higher level show less information.
Some city name are picked and some are not, but at a closer level, the cities are there. Their algo to find what to show on the map is just different from Google.
I'm not saying it is better, but different. I am pretty sure the same comparison can be made between google maps and let's say bing maps.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#25What confuses me about Apple's choice of maps here is why they didn't go with OpenStreetMap? It was the perfect opportunity to leapfrog Google and help the open source community at the same time, and they would have had more control over the data - as it is they are beholden to TomTom and other providers to try to get things fixed, or will have to try to merge future map updates with their own patches. As it is they…
"It was the perfect opportunity to leapfrog Google and help the open source community"
The only time Apple helps open source is when they hire the most important people in really important projects, and then they graciously allow them to continue contributing. CUPS, LLVM, it's happened a couple times. They take good care of these guys, but I always feel like their contributions to the projects after Apple are being written with one eye watching over their shoulder to make sure they dont get sued for talking to the public about some super secret project.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#26It isn't as much fun, but the imagery of the places I care about is better than google, in some case dramatically better. Their place data needs a lot of help. e.g. If you look for the nearest hospital from me it will take you to a new retirement community built on the site of an old hospital. It is easy to report the problem, now to see how long until it is fixed.
Yeah, it seems to really vary. In my short time of playing around, I haven't noticed much reduction in quality at all around my city (Brisbane, Australia) over Google Maps.
The only thing I noticed so far was that St. Lucia Golf Course was incorrectly labelled as Indooroopilly Golf Course (which is a few kilometres away). I reported it.
I'm actually fairly impressed with the number of businesses from Yelp - I wasn't aware that it was available in Australia, but it has all of even the most obscure little cafes and shops I've searched for around town.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#27Why did they stop using Google Maps?
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#28So I've been seeing all this hatin' on HN this morning so I figured I should check it out on my device. I mapped my commute (1 hour) and the only oddity I saw was the waviness coming off of a bridge. Beyond that Philly's buildings were all rendered correctly and my route was exactly the same as Google maps. YMMV
P.S. I must say It was really cool to see Cira Centre (The Amtrak Building) rendered in 3d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cira_Centre
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#29What confuses me about Apple's choice of maps here is why they didn't go with OpenStreetMap? It was the perfect opportunity to leapfrog Google and help the open source community at the same time, and they would have had more control over the data - as it is they are beholden to TomTom and other providers to try to get things fixed, or will have to try to merge future map updates with their own patches. As it is they…
"It was the perfect opportunity to leapfrog Google and help the open source community" The only time Apple helps open source is when they hire the most important people in really important projects, and then they graciously allow them to continue contributing. CUPS, LLVM, it's happened a couple times. They take good care of these guys, but I always feel like their contributions to the projects after Apple are being w…
First time I heard about CUPS! Apparently it's a kind of printing system. Thanks.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#30To be honest, despite its flaws, it's going to be ok for most of the people, most of the time. Navigation is going to be a big boon. Using it I haven't noticed major differences personally. Some restaurants are in the wrong location, but on the flip side I like the yelp reviews. I'm sure they will improve on the areas that are flawed.
Directions being ok most for most people, most of the time, is hardly acceptable. Google Maps had a tendency to drop pins for locations on the wrong spot. That meant I always had to confirm the location with street view, 100% of the time. Going to the wrong spot can be catastrophic in some instances (wrong or non existent hospital.) In others it can be really bad (missing a critical meeting, walking in during a weddi…
> If Apple's management thinks its acceptable to roll out
> beta products on all of their users, I'll be moving to
> Android.