Live data from Hacker News

Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

9to5mac.com

141–150 of 165 posts

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#141
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft held a monopoly.

Yes, but Microsoft did not completely ban Netscape from running on Windows like Apple did with podcast apps, Google Voice etc. so the situation is not exactly analogous. Everyone could and many did install Netscape, IE 3+ was just better after Netscape stagnated at version 4 for years because of a rewrite. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html Microsoft shipped their browser default since an OS wi…

> Yes, but Microsoft did not completely ban Netscape from running on Windows like Apple did with podcast apps, Google Voice etc. so the situation is not exactly analogous.

Which is not relevant, I fear. Action was taken against microsoft because they were a monopoly and used their monopoly position both to hinder potential competition and muscle their way into new markets.

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#142

I really do hope they do. I've been using the beta and all through it, there were no routing apps available for my area (San Antonio, so not exactly a tiny city, according to Wikipedia we are the 7th largest population wise) Now that iOS 6 is out, I decided to give the Maps app a shot again. So I pulled it up, thought for a second since I am used to the old interface, clicked the wrong thing a couple times, finally g…

> I have no idea what anyone else's experiences are, but I have never been so disappointed.

Not being in the US, google maps has never provided any kind of mass transit information. Apple's implementation not providing it doesn't really change anything.

The imprecision of the map, though, that's a problem (because it is a step back)

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#143
post #14

Even if it is approved and released shortly it still doesn't solve the problem of it not being the default Map app. Contact links & location links will still open in Apple's Maps. Still waiting on something comparable to Android's Intents in iOS

There's already a similar mechanism in the URL handlers, but Apple don't let you choose which application to use if multiple ones are registered. This still bugs me. I'd also like widgets one day.

> There's already a similar mechanism in the URL handlers, but Apple don't let you choose which application to use if multiple ones are registered.

It also doesn't let you override core applications (in that it picks the first one either way), and last time I checked it if two applications registered the same handler and you removed the first one, the association didn't switch to the second one it just broke.

May have been fixed since.

> I'd also like widgets one day.

I just want toggles in the notification bar (DND, airplane, 3G, roaming and location would be sufficient as far as I'm concerned). Instead of the waste of space that Stocks is (yes I know I can remove it from the notification center, and did)

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#144

This map uproar seems a tad hyperbolic. I used it this morning and I was actually pleasantly surprised. My map experience wasn't worse as I expected, but actually much better with turn by turn. The people most upset seem to generally be edge cases. I'm sure Apple will work those out as complaints roll in. Google has had 7 years to perfect maps. Apple feels maybe a year behind in some respects and a year ahead in othe…

51% of the world currently lives in cities.[1] 79% of Americans do. The preferred mode of transportation in cities is public transit – a highly useful competency of the old Maps app in which Apple has replaced the UX of "here's how to get there from here" to "hey, go look in the App Store." 51% of the world. 79% of Americans "Edge cases," you say? [1] http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/data/topic/map.aspx?ind=83

FWIW the vast majority of the non-american citizens did not have mass transit on Google Maps either.

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#145

I really do hope they do. I've been using the beta and all through it, there were no routing apps available for my area (San Antonio, so not exactly a tiny city, according to Wikipedia we are the 7th largest population wise) Now that iOS 6 is out, I decided to give the Maps app a shot again. So I pulled it up, thought for a second since I am used to the old interface, clicked the wrong thing a couple times, finally g…

> I have no idea what anyone else's experiences are, but I have never been so disappointed. Not being in the US, google maps has never provided any kind of mass transit information. Apple's implementation not providing it doesn't really change anything. The imprecision of the map, though, that's a problem (because it is a step back)

I'm not sure whether you're specifically talking about Google's maps on iOS or not, but Google's web and Android maps clients both provide bus and train times for much of the UK.

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#146

I really do hope they do. I've been using the beta and all through it, there were no routing apps available for my area (San Antonio, so not exactly a tiny city, according to Wikipedia we are the 7th largest population wise) Now that iOS 6 is out, I decided to give the Maps app a shot again. So I pulled it up, thought for a second since I am used to the old interface, clicked the wrong thing a couple times, finally g…

> I've been using the beta and all through it, there were no routing apps available

Of course, as no iOS 6 apps would have been on the store during the beta phase.

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#147
post #99
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe they've used that in a while. They let Chrome & Sparrow on without any complaints.

but they are both severly crippled on iOS, chrome is just a safari skin, and sparrow cannot be used as a default app for mail on iOS cannot use notification for new mail unless using 3rd party services (if you are trusting them with you email credentials).

Doesn't that come down to API limitations rather than actual functionality?

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no idea what anyone else's experiences are, but I have never been so disappointed. Not being in the US, google maps has never provided any kind of mass transit information. Apple's implementation not providing it doesn't really change anything. The imprecision of the map, though, that's a problem (because it is a step back)

I'm not sure whether you're specifically talking about Google's maps on iOS or not, but Google's web and Android maps clients both provide bus and train times for much of the UK.

> I'm not sure whether you're specifically talking about Google's maps on iOS or not

I'm talking about Google Maps in general.

> Google's web and Android maps clients both provide bus and train times for much of the UK.

Good on you for living in the 51st state I guess? Many still get neither.

Re: Google has an iOS 6 Maps app awaiting approval

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree YouTube may not be, but search is pretty big. However, Google would have a hard time blocking google.com from iPhone users without being anticompetitive. They can not expend the effort to create a google maps app for iphone, but that's not the same as being actively anticompetitive as they would have to be if they wanted to block search from iPhone users.

Sorry. You missed the point. Google wants as many people to use youtube & search. It makes money via ads on both. Having it as default is good (google pays money to FF to be default for example) and even if it is not the default, people can use google by typing google.com in safari. From there, the experience is identical. Similarly for youtube, google wants the widest audience. Wider the audience, more the ads and m…

Incorrect: the maps app in iOS iOS maps is basically another ad platform... And with iOS 6 being adopted at a high rate, Google would lose all those "eyeballs" and crowd sourced data if they didn't release their own iOS maps app.
Post reply on HN