Why did they stop using Google Maps?
Google maps was receiving a wealth of location data from iPhone users. Apple is probably trying to get a piece of that pie.
The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
41–50 of 384 posts
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#42I'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 s…
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?
One possibility is that the phone keeps track of the fact that "you drove 3 miles past where you were 'supposed' to stop, and then stopped at some other (specific) location."
As more and more people do that --- search the hospital, drive past it, and stop at the same specific location != the phone's predicted location --- then, statistically, we can infer that the "specific location" that everyone eventually stops at is, in fact, the location of the actual hospital.
Interestingly, this implies that the current mapping problems will eventually sort themselves out... after annoying a sufficient number of customers!
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Openstreetmap's doesnt address any of the OP's issues. Having built maps for the past 12 years, I know exactly what of each of those issues are about. The blurry images are underlying base layers that drew first and then probably the upper layer timed out when rendering the tile. The curves are caused by elevation measurements that are incorrect (measuring elevation from a satellite involves bouncing from the ground…
Apple will have something much better in one year It certainly will be better but I'm not holding my breath about Apple maps surpassing Google Maps any time soon. Google bought a Rasmussen brothers' company (what eventually became Google Maps) in 2004. That's eight years of product development, data collection, storage and refining -- all at Google's pace. Will Apple find some shortcut to compress this time in one-tw…
I'm sure google is sitting on a treasure chest of map related patents, too.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#44What 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…
Openstreetmap's doesnt address any of the OP's issues. Having built maps for the past 12 years, I know exactly what of each of those issues are about. The blurry images are underlying base layers that drew first and then probably the upper layer timed out when rendering the tile. The curves are caused by elevation measurements that are incorrect (measuring elevation from a satellite involves bouncing from the ground…
OpenStreetMap would have more accurate information about the locations of towns etc.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#45I really hope that people are using the 'Report Problem' feature in the app every time they post a screenshot here. Because that is one of the biggest things everyone can do that will help the map data to improve.
As Gruber likes to remind us at every chance, Apple has more than $100 billion cash lying around. How about they use a little of that to license some half decent maps from Google or, failing that, Nokia/Navteq?
Even Amazon(that Gruber sneered for making far less money than Apple [1]) managed to license Nokia maps and wrapped a nice API around it, and you think the iPhone buyers have a responsibility to work on making Apple maps better after paying for Apple's high margins so that Apple can make even more money on selling "premium" phones? Give me a break.
[1] http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/07/27/amzn-profit-corr...
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#46With maps.google.com (html5 version) I get some of the old functionality back, but the thing I miss most is street view. Having flyover is very pretty for demos but completely useless unless in real use. Street view, however, is actually very useful and I use it on a regular basis. As far as I know there isn't any work around to that. I will try ios6 again, but for now, I'm going to restore my backup until (if) google come out with an iPad version of maps and YouTube (instead of the iPhone only)
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#47I'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 s…
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? One possibility is that the phone keeps track of the fact that "you drove 3 miles past where you were 'supposed' to stop, and then stopped at some other (specific) location." As more and more people do that --- search the hospital,…
There are lot of privacy problems with essentially having every iphone phone home with where it is all the time.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#48Why did they stop using Google Maps?
I don't think Google & Apple came to an agreement. Apple went their own way.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#49I'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 s…
You can report incorrect POI. Of course, that requires you to remember to do that, when most likely you're sitting worried in hospital after hunting around for a while.
Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
#50To 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.
It doesn't matter to customers whether or not the data will eventually improve - there are significant feature and quality regressions today that will cause delays in iOS6 adoption and directly work against the popular perception of their most important product. Everyone get their digs in now, because the titan doesn't stumble often.
Apple has been virtually printing money with the iOS products because they consistently, if incrementally, offered better and better products. Products that, for most users, offered a genuinely good to great experience and products that challenged the market to be better – far better – than they had before. This, as far as I can tell, is the first really big snafu in the user experience and that may be worrisome.
The thing is – and what the apple fans are all afraid of (but few may admit) is that this isn't just a stumble, but rather, the first major indicator of what a post-Steve Jobs Apple product experience is like.
Every good ride comes to an end – it's just a question of when and how.