I'm already considering ditching the Gmail app as it displays ads at the top that look just like new e-mails (I was an Inbox user before); although I am not quite sure what app to switch to. Sadly there isn't really an alternative that even approaches Maps. There are a lot of 'ok' alternatives but Maps is just in an other league in terms of POI, Navigation and UI.
For mails i would highly recommend K-9 Mail. Using it for years now works really well. Has a bunch of Features like dark mode and what not.
OSM has better data in certain aspects. The big problem with OSM is not about the data, but that it isn't designed to be used as a map. When someone visits osm.org, it is very barebones and the search feature doesn't work very well to find places unless you know the syntax. The team working on OSM themselves say that OSM is not a map, but instead a database. Anyway, Google would never have gotten the data that it has…
I agree with the search, but being a map is where OSM shines. When I visit google maps a see a bunch of colorful boxes and notable locations, I have no idea why it chooses the notable locations it does but it appears to be either paid or some sort of SEO shenanigans, a local curry place is list but one of the biggest train stations in the country isn't (Southern Cross in Melbourne), recently they've also tried to cov…
And when you zoom into Google Maps, the colours for "built-up area" and "open space that isn't a park" get more and more similar until they're almost indistinguishable, so from certain point on all you're seeing is a bunch of streets against a featureless grey background, which I find rather irritating.
What about having "real" Firefox is the important part? Is it supporting Mozilla, or supporting browser engine diversity, or is because real Firefox has more checkmarks on caniuse.com?
Extensions like ublock origin.
This is a huge thing for me.
The ability to have the same setup on desktop, tablet and phone is just unbeatable.
(Yes, I know you can do this with Safari on Apple-things and chrome on the rest too)
> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.
Well, good thing Apple maps is getting better. And there's also HERE Maps which is getting better.
Here has gone downhill since Nokia/Microsoft sold it.
Before that, it was the best map solution with a huge margin.
> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.
if Google Maps becomes too difficult or terrible to use, and there's a better competitor, users will naturally switch to the alternative. Unless you guys can start something better, you'll just have to use Google Maps? I don't think Apple Maps or any other service has a good enough data or feature set right now or forseeable future, outside of the California or US geographic area. Either Google Maps raise it's develo…
Sygic, Tomtom, iGo, Garmin (HW) are very solid maps with good coverage in Europe and nearby countries. They have big POI databases, more or less good search, usually good UI (and optimized for driving). They primarily lack traffic (e.g. Sygic has maybe 1% of what Google has for traffic info), social info (reviews, pictures etc.) and maybe some general polishing. But if people will decide to switch then these particular features can be added and covered. But no way people will turn from ad infested spyware to pay for apps. 20$ vs 0$ - the answer is clear.
Google had a massive multi-quarter campaign to get people to install their Google App recently across all possible mediums...now it's clear it was tied to this ad-push.
> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.
I'm betting this is going to appear the same way as it does on Waze, which shows fast food logos along your route, as well as popup ads whenever you're stopped. Annoying, but not intrusive enough to be considered a driving distraction, IMO.
> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.
I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps. That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, an…
> I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps.
Can we have a crowsourcing sort of app where every user of GoogleMaps would contribute data to be scraped off to circumvent rate limiting ?
iOS has native support for ad blocking services; no need for a VPN. I've been using the Privacy-centric blocker service provided by Firefox Focus.
Looking at the settings in Firefox Focus, it seems that's only picked up by Safari, correct? I guess if I have Firefox Focus installed I might as well just use that as my browser
Yeah, only Safari uses them. The non-Focus Firefox app also has tracking protection built in, if you'd like to have tabs and such.
The main reason that you'd use Safari instead of a different browser is that it has better support for newer standards. Every other iOS browser is powered by an iOS webview, which Apple lets lag behind a bit.