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Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

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Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#121
post #13
post #3

Apple Maps has come a long way since its disastrous initial release. For about a year now, I have rarely used Google Maps. I typically find Apple Map's routing to be just as effective, even for avoiding traffic, accidents, etc.

Yup I switched about a year ago because I liked the CarPlay interface the best out of [Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, Subaru Built In Maps]. And the privacy over Google Maps is a huge bonus.

I tried it. But then for some reason Apple Maps asked me to U-Turn on the Garden State Parkway. That's not an option.

Back to waze i went.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps near me is riddled with advertisements now. Promoted pins or whatever they call it. Of course, it’s for stores that I won’t ever have a need to visit.

The final straw that got me to ditch android was Google sending me push notifications asking me to review places I've been to, via maps. If you want reviews, pay secret shoppers. And if you want me to use your app, don't make it painfully obvious you're spying on exactly where I go and when to do what.

I think it was more a way to crowdsource reviews and recommendation engine. It's certainly worth questioning the use of "unpaid labor" to improve a service, but I don't know if I'd call it "spying".

Use of the service essentially boils down to "I tell it where I am/where I want to go. It tells me how best to get there/how to find the thing I want to find."

I'm not sure how you would do that if you didn't share your location and destination/search terms with it.

But yeah, I disabled that thing too. Not because I considered a request for reviews a terrible overreach, but because it wasn't just in the Maps app, but rather a notification. I disable notifications on most non-messaging apps because they're annoying and naggy.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#123
post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere.

I wonder if this is geographic-specific.

I regularly report errors in Nevada, California, Arizona, and most recently Colorado, and they've always been corrected within a few weeks. I get an alert on my devices when it happens.

Sometimes they revert and I report them again, but I don't recall ever having a map error report ignored.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#124
post #48

I just switched to an iPhone after being a long time Android user, and I've found Apple Maps directions not to be as good as Google Maps'. I live in central LA, and it regularly routes me through long and congested intersections. Does anyone else feel this as well? Is it just my small sample size? I would like to continue using Apple Maps over Google Maps because of the integration with Apple Watch, but it's getting…

As some one who exclusively uses Apple Maps on the west side of LA, I have found the routing to be similar or the same. The killer function for me is the HUD when I have it mounted on my dash. Light-years better. Also...the lane accuracy is unparalleled.

> The killer function for me is the HUD when I have it mounted on my dash.

What do you mean? That the phone's screen provides turn by turn instructions, while the car's screen provides more a trip/map perspective?

edit: i just realized that I can use the phone's screen for turn by turn, and have the car's screen display music, or whatever else!!!

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waze is by far the best routing. It's better than Tesla routing, which I thought used Google Maps, and it's better than Apple Maps. There's no point in experimenting with anything else because Waze is just so much better, it's effectively a waste of time to try anything else.

That's funny because I feel like I've read a few articles out there that did comparative testing of Google Maps vs. Apple Maps and, while Google's routing estimated a shorter ETA, the Apple Maps routing ended up being faster and more accurate to the estimate nearly every time. I don't really want to think I'm going to get somewhere fast. I actually want to get there faster and, more importantly, when the app tells me…

From experience Waze will take you all over creation just to shave a minute. Sometimes it's just not worth it. But at least they present options.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#126
post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

Google maps doesn't even need you to report anything. I used to make a forbidden left turn every day on my way to work with Google maps running. After a while, it just updated the directions to include my bad driving: no report necessary.

How can you be sure that it was automatic? Maybe someone just reported that turn?

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#127
post #44

In the midst of the world (rightly) turning on big tech's abuses, efforts like these make me optimistic about our industry on a whole and help me recover some of the enthusiasm that led me into tech in the first place. I love how this effort relies on & amplifies what were before relatively obscure specialties The mapping wars elevate cartographers, mapping specialists, GIS data nerds, mobile computing / compression…

....what are you talking about? This is just an update on yet another closed platform.

If apple cared about elevating the discipline and righting the abuses of big tech with their mapping app they'd partner with OpenStreetMap and make the data public rather than continuing to silo all the data about you and everyone around you.

Instead we're continuing the closed source data gathering land rush and trying to beat google at its own game.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#128
post #37

What I hate most about Apple Maps is that reports about incorrect data never seem to go anywhere. Apple Maps thinks that the road that leads to my house is a one-way street. It's not. But because of this error Apple Maps always wants to send me on a 5 minutes detour if I try to use it to navigate home. I've reported the problem twice but never got an answer or a correction. In fact all problems I've ever reported in…

This is absolutely true, but it's not unique to Apple Maps. I've had an issue with the major road near my house in Google Maps for over three years, where it thinks a certain stretch is either absent or impassible. It shows it on the visual map, but it will go to astounding lengths to route you around that one-block stretch of (perfectly fine) road. I have reported it MANY times, and nothing has ever changed.

Google and Apple should be able to infer the presence/status of roads based on telemetry from all the phones out there in the world. If a bunch of people regularly pass through a path at a car like speed, it’s likely a road.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do so with Apple Maps. I do it regularly, but unfortunately you can only add it as an intermediate destination when en route to a destination. You can't pre-plan a multi-point trip which I feel like is a big oversight. I've wanted to estimate multi-day road trips and it doesn't seem possible with Apple Maps.

Wow, I didn't know this was possible. To anyone else who doesn't know this, while you're navigating, tapping or dragging up on the toolbar on the bottom of the screen causes it to expand and show a few options you can tap to add to your route. Unfortunately it's just a few preselected destination types, instead of a new search.

Hm, it seems different and more limited than the CarPlay UI. Yeah they really need to expand this feature. I thought you could have arbitrary search, but maybe that's on via CarPlay when stationary. Certainly there were more categories of things on CarPlay.

Re: Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the United States

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a super tough problem. Even Google Maps messages you that it's a feature in progress (paraphrasing of course), and they've had years of a head start on this.

You know that got me thinking, biking rules vary far more than for cars. Depending on your location, pedestrian traffic, streets, street traffic, etc. It might be best for you to be on the sidewalk. Or maybe you should instead be on the road since the road is only 25mph and there's pedestrians on the sidewalk. Maybe there's a bike lane, maybe there isn't. Maybe a town has a law saying you HAVE to bike on the road. Ar…

> Maybe a town has a law saying you HAVE to bike on the road.

I think that's usually the case.

This page [1] says:

> The law in most areas of the country require bicycles to follow the same rules of the road as other motor vehicles. In essence, riding your bike down the sidewalk is the same as if you hopped the curb and started rolling it in your car.

[1] https://www.campfirecycling.com/blog/2008/07/09/top-5-rules-...

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