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Apple's New Map

justinobeirne.com

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Re: Apple's New Map

#271

Post by salvar »

logicallee wrote: post #201
tomc1985 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many other ways to present what you are presenting that writing the idea off seems silly. With some tweaking I think that idea could work -- if the text were in a faint gray, for example, so that it wasn't so contrasting. Probably want to do away with the bright red dots, too. Subtlety...

Readers here seriously misinterpreted what I was doing. I absolutely 100% didn't write off the idea of putting more labels. I wasn't making a point about how bad it would be. I was doing something different. I read a comment, this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18359646 - which I replied to. First I'll quote it in full then we'll break it down. >It's obviously an intentional choice to avoid too much screen…

What UX study did you do? All I saw was a mockup. Maybe I misunderstood.

Re: Apple's New Map

#272

Post by femi-lab »

toasterlovin wrote: post #182
ehsankia wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Having hyper accurate greenery mapping may make for a cool tech demo, but has very little utility. Maps are about information density and color utility. Having 10 different shades of green doesn't really convey anything that's useful for my normal usecase.

Disagree, FWIW. Knowing how the land is shaped and what’s on it helps me navigate much better. Green things on the map that don’t correspond to green things in the environment are not super useful to me.

If you want that, switch to Satellite view; then you have even more detail.

Re: Apple's New Map

#273

Post by em500 »

chewz wrote: post #220
gambiting wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say map quality for someone living outside of the "bubble", map quality goes as follows: TomTom then Google Maps then literally anything else, then Apple Maps at the very end. It's hilarious how empty Apple Maps are, and considering that until very recently they were the only option for Apple CarPlay for navigation, that was extremely bad. Seriously, it was so bad that I would consider my car's built-in, shit…

From my experience Apple Maps quality depends on local providers. Maps are really good in Japan or China and terrible in Thailand or many other places.

I don't know about Japan, but in China Apple maps is far behind Google maps (which isn't even accessible for to most people there), let alone Baidu maps which is much more detailed than either.

Re: Apple's New Map

#274

Post by dexterdog »

egypturnash wrote: post #129
ryandrake wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve worked on mapping software, and in fact on street name placement (Not Google or Apple). The code we had for deciding where and when to draw street names has to be among the most complicated, full-of-edge-cases code I have ever encountered. Engineering is pulling one direction, data providers are pulling another direction. UX is pulling this direction, cartography is pulling that direction. Everybody in the compa…

This really really sounds like an argument for adding a “name density” slider somewhere in the corners of the main UI. Just admit that no one setting works for all people in all places and stop even trying to find it.

That violates the "it just works" directive that designers and developers are working under. If it has to be configurable they view it as a design problem so instead they force you to use it the way they want it to look.

Re: Apple's New Map

#275

Post by shadowfiend »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #211

Hilarious that they consider the job done after covering the Bay area. They are years away from doing this world wide. Most of their iphone revenue is from outside of California. I used to work in Nokia in the maps division that later became Here. I still remember when Nokia disrupted a market then dominated by the likes Tom Tom and a few others by giving away the maps for free along with every phone. Initially this…

To take issue with your premise… What indicates to you that they consider the job “done”? Every note/article around this has indicated that they consider the job started, but nowhere near done; they're just rolling the data out as it is ready enough (clearly “ready” is… Subjective here heh).

Re: Apple's New Map

#276

Post by ouchjars »

mulmen wrote: post #60

This is really neat but I don't really care about greenery when I'm using Apple Maps. Can they take a break from figuring out how to convert satellite images into green blobs and devise an algorithm to put street names on the screen ? Apple and Google maps are both worthless as maps without typing in an actual address and using navigation because they can't just show the main cross street names on the screen. It abso…

And the competitor isn't much better for map browsing without navigation. I've noticed now on Google Maps that some businesses just won't show up on the map, even at maximum zoom.

Google knows they're there because they do show up in a search, but that doesn't work if you don't remember the name. I saw a restaurant while walking, went to look it up later, knew it was somewhere on a particular street, and had to resort to Street View to find it. Luckily the last Street View picture was from just after the restaurant first opened.

Presumably these businesses haven't ever paid for advertising.

Apple Maps is no better in my area. It has a few popular places and one shop that was demolished in 2002.

Re: Apple's New Map

#277

Post by macintux »

dwighttk wrote: post #269
pat2man wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps when using CarPlay does this pretty well. You can use overview mode on the car display which gives you a map of your whole route. A list of instructions comes up on your phone.

If only I could figure out how to get that without buying a new car.

Aftermarket radios are available. There’s even a single-DIN radio with a pop-out larger display: https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/NEX/AVH-3300NEX

Wire Cutter has recommendations: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-car-stereos-with-appl...

Re: Apple's New Map

#278

Post by coldtea »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #211

Hilarious that they consider the job done after covering the Bay area. They are years away from doing this world wide. Most of their iphone revenue is from outside of California. I used to work in Nokia in the maps division that later became Here. I still remember when Nokia disrupted a market then dominated by the likes Tom Tom and a few others by giving away the maps for free along with every phone. Initially this…

>Hilarious that they consider the job done after covering the Bay area.

Hilarious that you consider that they consider the job done. This is a random blog post.

For one "they" made no official statement about considering the job done.

Second, obviously this is just an incremental rollout.

Third, TFA mentions they already have data for (but not exposed) something like 90% of the US.

Re: Apple's New Map

#279

Post by leetcrew »

ouchjars wrote: post #276
mulmen wrote: post #60

This is really neat but I don't really care about greenery when I'm using Apple Maps. Can they take a break from figuring out how to convert satellite images into green blobs and devise an algorithm to put street names on the screen ? Apple and Google maps are both worthless as maps without typing in an actual address and using navigation because they can't just show the main cross street names on the screen. It abso…

And the competitor isn't much better for map browsing without navigation. I've noticed now on Google Maps that some businesses just won't show up on the map, even at maximum zoom. Google knows they're there because they do show up in a search, but that doesn't work if you don't remember the name. I saw a restaurant while walking, went to look it up later, knew it was somewhere on a particular street, and had to resor…

i think google filters the businesses to only show you ones it thinks you would be interested in. pretty much any store i've ever navigated to or been inside shows up on google maps, even at wide zooms.

Re: Apple's New Map

#280

Post by coldtea »

Mindwipe wrote: post #251
gambiting wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say map quality for someone living outside of the "bubble", map quality goes as follows: TomTom then Google Maps then literally anything else, then Apple Maps at the very end. It's hilarious how empty Apple Maps are, and considering that until very recently they were the only option for Apple CarPlay for navigation, that was extremely bad. Seriously, it was so bad that I would consider my car's built-in, shit…

It literally boggles my mind why Apple still think using Yelp for POI data is a good idea. Yelp to all intents and purposes does not exist outside of the continental Americas. London's Yelp data is essentially the work of the odd bored American tourist. As such, it's totally wrong. I do not see how Apple improves this situation from this article. Google have an amazing advantage here.

>It literally boggles my mind why Apple still think using Yelp for POI data is a good idea.

As opposed to what source of readily available data?

They already use several sources anyway (including their own scanning), Yelp is just one of many.

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