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The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

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Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#321

Post by fpgeek »

bluthru wrote: post #320
fpgeek wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The iPhone is $200. The cheapest new iPhone on sale (the iPhone 4) is $450. If you think it costs less, that's because you have let Apple and the carriers fool you. The cheapest Android, meanwhile, is less than $100. Even better, you can even get a new Galaxy Nexus for $100 less than the cheapest new iPhone.

Fool me? What are you talking about? If I get a S3 or an iPhone 5 via AT&T, the cost will be the same over 2 years. So what you're really saying is, if I get an iPhone on contract, I'm getting more hardware for my dollar?

First, I'm saying that the number you cite is not the true cost of the phone because it does not include the subsidy that AT&T pays the manufacturer on your behalf.

Second, I'm saying that the true cost of an iPhone is usually greater than they true cost of the typical Android phone they're matched up against. In AT&T's case the apparent cost of ownership looks the same because they pay larger subsidies to Apple than they pay to Android OEMs. This works differently on other carriers (especially prepaid and overseas carriers) where the headline cost-of-ownership changes depending on the phone you buy.

Third, I'm saying you end up paying the true cost of your phone one way or another regardless of what the headline prices look like. In AT&T's case, I'd say they recoup the larger subsidy with things like stricter unlocking policies and changing app restrictions (e.g. FaceTime, tethering, ...).

Fourth, I'm very much not saying you get more hardware for your dollar by buying an iPhone. From what I recall of the estimated component costs, I think the hardware costs are roughly equivalent between competing phones (and if you insisted on picking a "bang for the buck" winner, you'd end up on the Android side most of the time). Apple's high margins and profits come from somewhere, after all.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#322

Post by stevep98 »

ryannielsen wrote: post #278
enraged_camel wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, Jobs would never have allowed Maps to be released in this state to begin with.

So… you two both personally knew SJ? And SJ, while he was leading Apple, was always without fault? If that's the case, how do you explain Ping? MobileMe? The G4 Cube?

merely blips on an otherwise uninterrupted upward trajectory.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#323

Post by LnxPrgr3 »

Maascamp wrote: post #114
rauljara wrote: post #19

The "roller coaster" effects in the 3-d view are my favorite. They've got some smoothing algorithm going, or it wouldn't curve the way it does, but the elevation data must not have a high enough resolution. Google has made this sort of thing look so easy for so long, but it's clearly very hard to get this stuff right. So, I guess it's not that surprising that apple messed up something incredibly hard in their first a…

I don't think Apple gets a pass here. If they are forcing users onto their product it had better be competitive, no matter how hard it is. Microsoft got so such pass with WP7 and that was an entirely new OS/platform!

Anyone here actually used this version of Maps to find someplace yet? Not just to break it and point and laugh, but to actually use it?

I can only see 3D maps as a gimmick, so I can't bring myself to care too much that it's broken. I'm slightly surprised that feature shipped in that state, but meh.

What I care about: can it get me where I'm going? It's 2012 and I've still found nothing that can do that without occasional issues. This version of Maps hasn't been in my hands long enough to judge it properly. Considering the update was just released to the general public less than 48 hours ago, has anyone had time to judge it properly?

Worth noting: I've had the old Maps try to send me through concrete walls, or direct me 400 miles away looking for the nearest branch of a bank. My dedicated GPS unit has told me I've arrived at my destination… in the middle of a busy highway, and it too has asked me to turn through concrete barriers more than once. I've had both direct me to locations well off of where I was trying to go.

This is all from actual usage.

So if anyone knows of something that doesn't have these problems, I'd love to hear from you!

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#324

Post by alexqgb »

beedogs wrote: post #318
philwelch wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The G4 Cube doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. It was a work of art.

Except for the hairline cracking at the corners that happened to most of them.

I'm sorry, but the Cube is the single most important and consequential machine Apple ever made. Its design cues pervade everything from their flagship store to the individual keys on the keyboard on which I'm typing this. Nearly everything they've sold in decade-plus since bears the stamp of that glorious and utterly unprecedented machine. It's the entire Jobs/Ive aesthetic and philosophy in one box, a prototype for an entire company - one which has since grown into the most valuable one on the planet - and they SHIPPED it.

@philwelch is right. It's a work of bloody art. It's in MoMA's permanent design collection for a reason. It's the Neil Armstrong of personal computing. If it's a mistake then so was Newton's Principia, the Declaration of Independence, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Seriously, it's that good.

If you're going to slag on something, slag on the hockey puck mouse. THAT really was a POS.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#325

Post by andersbreivik »

alexqgb wrote: post #324
beedogs wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the hairline cracking at the corners that happened to most of them.

I'm sorry, but the Cube is the single most important and consequential machine Apple ever made. Its design cues pervade everything from their flagship store to the individual keys on the keyboard on which I'm typing this. Nearly everything they've sold in decade-plus since bears the stamp of that glorious and utterly unprecedented machine. It's the entire Jobs/Ive aesthetic and philosophy in one box, a prototype for…

This is strange. I've never been a Mac person. I've built and modded PCs since I was a teenager. I didn't really remember the Cube and have googled it just now.

(back in the day Macs were for oldies who didn't know what the hell they were doing on a computer so Apple products didn't really register with me at the time)

My first impressions are that it looks like a plastic rubbish bin.

I always loved the G5 tower though.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#326

Post by parasubvert »

grey-area wrote: post #192
rburhum wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSM doesn't do elevation. OSM doesn't do geocoding. OSM doesn't do routing. OSM doesn't do 3D. OSM doesn't have a cleaned up dataset of Points of Interest. I love OSM and I use it every day - but I know what it does, what it is good for and what it is not meant to do. Getting a list of towns for the entire world is easy. Solving the issues in the listed by the OP's tumbler requires data that OSM does not have.

OSM doesn't do 3D For most people the 3D is an amusing toy, not really useful. I'd be happy without it frankly. OSM doesn't do elevation See 3D above OSM doesn't do geocoding They have data for searching on street addresses and towns, and the data is available separately for postcodes etc (TomTom for example will have sold a solution for this to Apple, so they could have gone down that route). Google has this down, a…

The 3D flyover actually is hugely useful, more so than street view in my opinion, when trying to figure out one's way through the layout of streets in a metropolis.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#327

Post by nazgulnarsil »

bluthru wrote: post #320
fpgeek wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The iPhone is $200. The cheapest new iPhone on sale (the iPhone 4) is $450. If you think it costs less, that's because you have let Apple and the carriers fool you. The cheapest Android, meanwhile, is less than $100. Even better, you can even get a new Galaxy Nexus for $100 less than the cheapest new iPhone.

Fool me? What are you talking about? If I get a S3 or an iPhone 5 via AT&T, the cost will be the same over 2 years. So what you're really saying is, if I get an iPhone on contract, I'm getting more hardware for my dollar?

>If I get a S3 or an iPhone 5 via AT&T, the cost will be the same over 2 years.

Americans deserve what they get, good and hard.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#328

Post by alexqgb »

andersbreivik wrote: post #325
alexqgb wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but the Cube is the single most important and consequential machine Apple ever made. Its design cues pervade everything from their flagship store to the individual keys on the keyboard on which I'm typing this. Nearly everything they've sold in decade-plus since bears the stamp of that glorious and utterly unprecedented machine. It's the entire Jobs/Ive aesthetic and philosophy in one box, a prototype for…

This is strange. I've never been a Mac person. I've built and modded PCs since I was a teenager. I didn't really remember the Cube and have googled it just now. (back in the day Macs were for oldies who didn't know what the hell they were doing on a computer so Apple products didn't really register with me at the time) My first impressions are that it looks like a plastic rubbish bin. I always loved the G5 tower thou…

Take a slice of that rubbish bin's midsection, and you have the Mac Mini. Tilt that Mac Mini on its side, perforate either end, then add some handles, and you've got the G5.

You can play this game with just about everything Apple has sold since this machine was introduced. Virtually all of it has some design cue that can be traced back to the Cube, and no further. It really was the Genesis Box.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#329

Post by philwelch »

andersbreivik wrote: post #325
alexqgb wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but the Cube is the single most important and consequential machine Apple ever made. Its design cues pervade everything from their flagship store to the individual keys on the keyboard on which I'm typing this. Nearly everything they've sold in decade-plus since bears the stamp of that glorious and utterly unprecedented machine. It's the entire Jobs/Ive aesthetic and philosophy in one box, a prototype for…

This is strange. I've never been a Mac person. I've built and modded PCs since I was a teenager. I didn't really remember the Cube and have googled it just now. (back in the day Macs were for oldies who didn't know what the hell they were doing on a computer so Apple products didn't really register with me at the time) My first impressions are that it looks like a plastic rubbish bin. I always loved the G5 tower thou…

Ive's work in plastics hasn't held up as well since the switch to metal and glass, but at the time it was a remarkable, groundbreaking example of industrial design. The next year, of course, they launched the titanium PowerBook that spearheaded that transition, though it would take about a decade for plastics to be phased out entirely.

Re: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

#330

Post by discodave »

redler wrote: post #196
CoachRufus87 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think Google will eventually release a 3rd party maps app?

Google using Maps exclusivity as a lever to drive the sales of Android hardware doesn't really make sense. Google's goal is to place Google properties in front of as many engaged eyes as possible. Sure, there's a cohort of iPhone users at the margin who may now choose Android over this issue (and we're hearing from some of them in this thread). But there's no leverage Google can apply with Maps that will significantl…

The key is to remember that android is the trojan horse to get maps in front of eyeballs not the other way around.

You could even go as far as saying that mobile maps was the most important reason to create android.

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