I'm surprised this is iPhone only and not a universal app with iPad support. I frequently bring my iPad with me when I drive to act as a turn by turn navigation device. Anyone know why? Hope it's coming.
Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
291–300 of 308 posts
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which version of the Maps app are you using? I don't see these blurred pixels on my phone, but note that this kind of rendering can also happen with a vector based map: The application has to convert the vector information to a bitmap anyway, for a given zoom level. When zooming in, it is possible that the app shows a zoomed-in version of this bitmap while it is generating a new one in the background. By the way, it…
I'm using 6.14.1. I answered all the relevant replies individually because I thought that would make those people more likely to see it. Sorry for annoying you.
Well now you have five answers like mine :)
Same version here though the UI looks very different. I can actually reproduce what you describe but only at low zoom levels, which makes sense: the temporary display of a bitmap at the wrong zoom level is more apparent when the phone needs more time to render a lot of vector data (there is less data to render when zoomed-in).
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
On iOS it appears they're a mixture of bitmap tiles and vector text. I definitely see pixelation of roads at certain zoom levels.
They're not infinitely vectors. They're still tiles. If they were to use the zoomed in tile, when zoomed out, even with vectors, you'd get something unrecognizable. It's the same reason that fonts and icons are brought up when people espouse the "vectors will save everything"! They do a lot of nice things but for something like Google Maps, I can't imagine how they'd implement "true vectors" in a practical phone-appl…
No, they're vectors, intelligent vectors that add and remove features at different zoom levels.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/google-maps-is-now-av...
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't have an iOS device, but here are my steps to reproduce on Android. Open a map. Turn on airplane mode. Zoom in. See pixels Here's a screenshot I took after I enabled airplane mode: http://i.imgur.com/wc5Ie.png
The pixellation here is your phone waiting to download the higher-res vector tile. While it waits for the higher-res tile it draws a bitmap representation of the lower-res tile "above" it.
Surely if it's vector done right they can draw the lower detail vector tile at the higher bitmap res?
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#295Sort of off-topic and I've harped on this before, but when I search "google maps" in the app store, it's the fifth search result! As a developer in the App Store, I really hope they do something to fix the abysmal searches in it.
If only they partnered with a company that was really good at search and maps and could fill in the parts that Apple isn't good at ..
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Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, I mean Apple won't get the many data faults I report, the missing POI reports or the incorrect POI reports. Apple has an entire globe to cover, it'll improve incrementally globally but improve locally for me if I'm reporting my concerns.
Okay, so then you are probably under the misapprehension that this is the main driver for improvements. For giggles, if only 10% of people with iphones report one error a week, calculate how many full time people it would require to process them. In reality, their biggest problem is probably operator (IE people reading reports) time, not lack of error reports. I would take a massive data entry operation to handle the…
So, we can either run with the assumption that people at Apple are idiots which seems massively unlikely, or the assumption that people at Apple are reasonably smart, which seems more likely.
When Google Maps was getting spun up, they relied on people adding POI, reporting issues and so on. This was a long, long while ago but it's still possible to report concerns to Google. Crowdsourcing will not solve it, but it will become a big factor in determining what they need to do.
Lets say 10% of people report an issue, and of those 10% there's 2% reporting really specific issues in one specific area of the globe, that allows Apple to then understand a key facet of the dataset and where it can be improved, that gives them knowledge of what issues exist in the current dataset and gives them the opportunity to see whether they can apply that on a larger scale.
More data, more input, faster the problem is solved. Everything I've reported has been sorted, things I've not reported but are in the same generalish area have been fixed. I'd assume Apple is running essentially a massive data mining operation to work out where needs work. If everyone jumps ship I'm sure Apple will continue to improve it but it'll be much, much slower.
In short: if you think crowdsourcing is useless, you are probably wrong.
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
And as has been rehashed over and over, it was Apple's choice. They simply prioritized other things over Maps. Do not confuse not having a choice with choosing to wait until you were under constraints to make difficult choices.
Unless you are involved with Apple, we really don't know what choices they had. By all accounts their contracts with Google were set to expire, and they were in negotiations to renew. If those talks broke down and they did not have legal access to use Google data any longer, their hands were kind of tied.
You don't need to be involved with Apple to know they had choices. They knowingly relied on Google, and instead of planning earlier, they waited until the last possible moment to start putting resources into their own version.
They choose to rely on Google. They choose to enter those agreements. They choose to ignore maps for the first 5 years. They choose not to start planning to move away sooner. You act like they couldn't put any effort replacing Google until the last minute. It wasn't.
They screwed up and released a crappy product from choices they made. End of story.
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's more interesting in what it means for Google. I very deeply live in a Google ecosystem - GMail for personal and work, GCal, etc, but I have an iPhone. The new GMail app isn't magical or anything, but it is good enough for my usecases, now killing any incentive I had to go back to Android. I'm glad they're not using their power for evil, but they seemingly aren't doing anything to make Android even just a…
Seems like you haven't tried Google Now.
I have, on my Nexus 7 and deactivated (but still functional) Nexus S 4G. It's not that compelling for me - which may be that they're both used mostly on wifi or offline, but not enough to make me miss the platform.
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's more interesting in what it means for Google. I very deeply live in a Google ecosystem - GMail for personal and work, GCal, etc, but I have an iPhone. The new GMail app isn't magical or anything, but it is good enough for my usecases, now killing any incentive I had to go back to Android. I'm glad they're not using their power for evil, but they seemingly aren't doing anything to make Android even just a…
Android is quite more attractive now than iOS, if you are willing to forgive consistency and quality of third party application. Most of Google's own app are absolutely fantastic in quality, and often are better or equal to iOS offering. Where Android actually shines is in how things get integrated to each other. There is no concept of preferred apps as such, and you can make any app default for any function. Share f…
I came to iOS from Android since Android was on Sprint first (and let's leave the Sprint hate behind - my plan is awesome, and service is improving). First a Hero, then the Evo 4G, then a Nexus S 4G, ranging from Cupcake to Jelly Bean. I liked the idea of swapping out functional apps at an OS level, and actually ended up having to use ChompSMS because HTC's SMS app had a nasty memory leak that bricked the Hero if left active too long.
My issue was that I was never happy. I rooted and ran custom ROMs (Fresh, Cyanogen, MIUI very briefly) and even tried rolling my own, but I found that I was spent too much time trying to make it something else. Analysis paralysis, in a way. In a way, I think I prefer having iOS locked down, because it doesn't leave me with a persistent feeling of wanderlust. That, and having been on Macs for over a decade, I'm kind of entrenched.
I agree that Android is getting better, though. I revisit the SDK every once in a while (and am spending a lot of time in it right now for a work project), but even with the advancements in Jelly Bean, writing code requires supporting so many versions with significant gaps in functionality. The compatibility library helps, but it doesn't solve the issue. Having to pass Android from Google to the OEMs to the carriers makes a lot of hoops to jump through. I hate the term fragmentation, but it's really a problem. That, and the layout structure - one per orientation per screen DPI. That's a lot to manage for a solo developer.
Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
First impressions are killer. Even if they're improving, there is a harsh stigma against Apple Maps now, much like Bing, because it didn't meet user's expectations. So users are being comforted by a familiar and useful tool, Google Maps, which many people can use on their computers (Why is Apple Maps not bundled into OSX? Error reporting could be done much more efficiently and abundantly). At this point, many people…
I think you are vastly over estimating the number of iOS users who will seek to replace a default app. I'd wager that the friction of not being one of the default apps will ensure that Apple Maps continues to be the dominant iOS mapping app for the foreseeable future. There are a huge number of un-tech savvy users with iPhones that barely download any 3rd party apps at all. Those of us who have been voicing our opini…
That's a good point, but "Apple maps being bad" is not only experienced by users, but it's also a meme that's swept through the media as well.
Don't forget how valuable it is to be at the top of the "free apps" section in the app store, too. If/when people discover the app, they might like it more than the default app.