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Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

justinobeirne.com

51–60 of 123 posts

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#51
post #4

I still don't get it. Apple is a company people cheer for, yet it continues to accrue substantial and dangerous power. They don't let you repair devices, install your own software, or run your business unfettered. They spy on your files. They coddle and report to authoritarian governments. This monopoly is lauded and praised as it continues to get bigger and encompass everything one does. I don't understand it. It hu…

Brand and personal investment of time and money in that brand means people will defend their investment. It's why you can detect so much anger and pain in anti apple threads, because people's personalities are wrapped up with the brand. A consumer doesn't just get one apple device, or just use one apple app, they buy the watch, phone, desktop, laptop, subscriptions, walled garden store, etc, and it works. It's a fami…

I really can’t criticize Apple for making an ecosystem (walled garden) of devices and services that people genuinely enjoy being in. I just lament that there really is no other comparable parallel ecosystem to compete with them, particularly from open source vendors.

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#52
post #16

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right. Here's an example on the border of Montenegro and Albania: https://imgur.com/a/B3aVJYH

>it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right

Neither can Google.

>From Pakistan, Kashmir appears disputed while from India, it appears as a part of India, the Post report said, adding that "Google Maps changes disputed borders based on what country you search from".

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/google-maps-redraws-d...

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#53

I’m using Apple Maps for the app that I’m developing now. The alternative would not have been Google Maps. It would have been MapBox. Google Maps will give app developers like me severe sticker shock. I watched a friend of mine get it in the shorts (forcing him to switch to MapBox). After watching that, I decided that I will never depend on Google services as a linchpin technology. In fact, it simply hardened my reso…

Did you consider here.com, and if not, why?

Yeah, but I have seen MapBox in action in a number of apps, and have yet to see one native app, delivered with here.com. As it is, I even decided against using MapBox.

I'd need to see it in use a bit more, before relying on it for my users. Most of what I do is free, or low-cost work, aimed at folks in need. In some cases, lives depend on my work, and there's little money or glory.

That Google "squeal piggy!" thing I witnessed was quite sobering.

People seem to be quite sanguine about putting all their eggs into one basket. I guess that's kind of necessary, these days, but we need to be careful about choosing baskets.

I'm kind of a crusty, scarred ol' bastard. Takes more than a pretty Web site to get me on board, and I don't bring buckets of money with me, so I'm just not that attractive.

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you consider here.com, and if not, why?

Yeah, but I have seen MapBox in action in a number of apps, and have yet to see one native app, delivered with here.com. As it is, I even decided against using MapBox. I'd need to see it in use a bit more, before relying on it for my users. Most of what I do is free, or low-cost work, aimed at folks in need. In some cases, lives depend on my work, and there's little money or glory. That Google "squeal piggy!" thing I…

> Yeah, but I have seen MapBox in action in a number of apps, and have yet to see one native app, delivered with here.com.

Makes sense. I encountered here.com once in a corporate setting, and was surprised that it was actually decent (at the time), but no further experience with it either. It doesn't seem to have a strong brand outside big corp.

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#55
post #16

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right. Here's an example on the border of Montenegro and Albania: https://imgur.com/a/B3aVJYH

>it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right Neither can Google. >From Pakistan, Kashmir appears disputed while from India, it appears as a part of India, the Post report said, adding that "Google Maps changes disputed borders based on what country you search from". https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/google-maps-redraws-d...

It's because the laws of many countries dictate that any map available to their citizens cannot deviate from the official map that highlights the boundaries with other foreign countries. Google Maps (as well as any other private or public company) can be banned if it doesn't comply.

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#56
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the UK, but in Hong Kong on iOS 15, Apple Maps now automatically taps you on the wrist (apple watch) right before it's time to get off the public bus at your stop. It is freakishly accurate.

It's a very nice feature. I'm not quite sure of what metric they're using. Some busses can show real-time locations, others they obviously dont have that info. Sometimes it will ping me a stop early (if the stops are close together?). I do wish there was a way to either stop directions on the phone, or put it in low power mode. It seems to eat my battery on long bus trips if its just sitting in my pocket. On car trip…

> I'm not quite sure of what metric they're using. Some busses can show real-time locations, others they obviously dont have that info

Why would they need to know where the bus is, when they already know where you are?

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#57

I still don't understand why Apple map is so bad compared to OpenStreetMap given that they contribute a lot to it (they are even the biggest company contributor to OSM). There must be a reason, legal or something, but why don't they just use OSM as a default for places they didn't map by themselves? [1]: https://www.gislounge.com/openstreetmap-one-of-the-worlds-la...

I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it. Just incase someone has hidden something extremely offensive within the dataset, and deliberately mutilated the maps to create funny images etc Google had a few very public cases of people using their open contribution process to embed images of Android, penises and hate symbols into their maps. All this created a huge about o…

> I suspect they want to review and check every inch of OSM in an area before they import it.

Facebook does the same with OpenStreetMap data. With a combination of automated tools and team of manual reviewers they were months behind with updates to allow error detection.

"Some of these contributions may have intentional and unintentional edits that are incompatible with our use cases. Our mapping teams work to scrub these contributions for consistency and quality. In the course of this work, we also build additional tools and technologies on top of OSM to increase mapping speed, and more importantly, drive a higher level of detail, quality and accuracy on the map." https://daylightmap.org/

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#58
post #16

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world it cannot even get the shape of land and country borders right. Here's an example on the border of Montenegro and Albania: https://imgur.com/a/B3aVJYH

You can report data issues at https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues/149 (Montenegro) https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues/148 (Albania)

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#59

This article is from last year but the latest iOS 15 updates show how mature Apple maps has become (see https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-maps/ ). It’s not just at parity but actually better than Google maps. It has beautiful rendering and easy readability, and I haven’t encountered odd routing issues for a couple years now. The added privacy is a welcome bonus. The only thing missing is a way to report police p…

“Easy readability” on this point I find myself wishing there was a way to make street names and fonts in general bigger in Apple Maps. Also green font on green backgrounds, why ? In terms of planning there is still no way to add multiple routes along the way which would be a nice addition.

Re: Apple Maps' Acceleration (2020)

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brand and personal investment of time and money in that brand means people will defend their investment. It's why you can detect so much anger and pain in anti apple threads, because people's personalities are wrapped up with the brand. A consumer doesn't just get one apple device, or just use one apple app, they buy the watch, phone, desktop, laptop, subscriptions, walled garden store, etc, and it works. It's a fami…

I really can’t criticize Apple for making an ecosystem (walled garden) of devices and services that people genuinely enjoy being in. I just lament that there really is no other comparable parallel ecosystem to compete with them, particularly from open source vendors.

Samsung is probably the closest: laptop, tablet, phone, watch, headphones all work together. They have their own software suite as well.
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