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Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

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Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#71

Post by nachteilig »

pmjordan wrote: post #68
pilsetnieks wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody knows by now that the maps are no good. I think that at this point the rage and anger is about overpromising and knowingly shipping an unfinished product of insufficient quality, something Apple has never (arguably) done before. As it says in the article, the same could be applied to Siri but Siri came with the "beta" warning label, a lot of people understand that voice recognition and that kind of pseudo-A…

...something Apple has never (arguably) done before. Well, pretty much every 10.x.0 OSX release has had some nasty regressions in it, but they're generally not quite as easy to spot as the maps fiasco. What's worse is that this isn't a new product that starts off a bit crap with the view of improving it over time - there have been a few examples of these as well. Instead, from the users' point of view, the maps updat…

I really disagree with your views of the "ain't broke" area. For me and a lot of users it _was_ broken, because it had tiles that didn't zoom properly with a slow connection and didn't have turn by turn. Maps was falling behind, especially with the lack of turn by turn. Even my non-technical friends have been wondering when iOS would finally catch up with Android on that front.

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#72

Post by sambeau »

TheGateKeeper wrote: post #24
timdorr wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's had a similar number of issues, as compared to Maps. The difference is, it didn't replace or introduce a must-have feature in iOS. As a result, it's failures were something users are able to overlook because Siri is still, essentially, a toy feature. It's not key to the phone's operation; heck it's non-obvious that it's even a feature because no where on the interface indicates that it exists (it's a hidden long…

> Maps, however, is crucial to most people that use an iPhone Citation please. Nobody I know uses google maps, even when we travel (which is a lot).

Citation!

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#73

Post by rscale »

mikeryan wrote: post #65
tlogan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it work for you? I stil have to meet a single person which actually can ask Siri something and Siri understands it and gives reasonable answer... I was under impression that it did not work because I'm ESL speaker: but it also does not work for people who speak english very well. Aha and there is class action lawsuit: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/class-action-lawsuit-file... Here is the quote: Ryan asked S…

Siri works fabulously for me. Here's how I use it, these use cases work consistently. 1. Call my wife at her office. 2. Text My Wife - I'll be home in 15 minutes. 3. Set a timer for 15 minutes. 4. Where's the closest Mc Donalds. Obviously I'm not looking for a magic speaking encyclopedia of knowledge, that being said my primary use case for Siri is in the car, and for 90% of what I need to do it works fine. BTW I jus…

Siri gets even more interesting if you use Siriproxy, which allows you to write your own code to extend Siri's vocabulary and define custom actions. It's not friendly for non-technical folks, but it's great for hackers.

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#74

Post by scottchin »

tlogan wrote: post #44
stevenleeg wrote: post #5

Since when has Siri been "an embarrassment for Apple?"

Does it work for you? I stil have to meet a single person which actually can ask Siri something and Siri understands it and gives reasonable answer... I was under impression that it did not work because I'm ESL speaker: but it also does not work for people who speak english very well. Aha and there is class action lawsuit: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/class-action-lawsuit-file... Here is the quote: Ryan asked S…

I was very impressed by Siri the other day. I asked "Find me pictures of Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat"

And Siri responded by asking whether I wanted to search for "Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat", getting the spelling exactly correct.

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#75

Post by esolyt »

nachteilig wrote: post #71
pmjordan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...something Apple has never (arguably) done before. Well, pretty much every 10.x.0 OSX release has had some nasty regressions in it, but they're generally not quite as easy to spot as the maps fiasco. What's worse is that this isn't a new product that starts off a bit crap with the view of improving it over time - there have been a few examples of these as well. Instead, from the users' point of view, the maps updat…

I really disagree with your views of the "ain't broke" area. For me and a lot of users it _was_ broken, because it had tiles that didn't zoom properly with a slow connection and didn't have turn by turn. Maps was falling behind, especially with the lack of turn by turn. Even my non-technical friends have been wondering when iOS would finally catch up with Android on that front.

>Even my non-technical friends have been wondering when iOS would finally catch up with Android on that front.

And it did now?

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#76

Post by myko »

shinratdr wrote: post #41
dastbe wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not skeumorphism; it's a style choice. If I had to simulate ripping the top piece of paper off the notepad in notes to clear it, then that would be skeumorphic design.

Can we just make this the auto-reply comment whenever someone mentions skeuomorphism on the internet? I couldn't be more sick of the concept, except when I hear it constantly being used incorrectly. Textures and styles aren't skeuomorphism, skeuomorphism is imitating real-world objects to provide a sense of familiarity in execution. Not a notes app that looks like a notepad, a notes app that FUNCTIONS like a notepad.

Skeuomorphic just rolls off the tongue so much more easily than aesthetically displeasing.

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#77

Post by voxmatt »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #70
robomartin wrote: post #50

Nah. I don't agree with the premise of this article. This was not one person's decision. Many actors had to be involved in the decision making process. For some reason Apple decided that kicking Google off the platform was worth the abuse they'd have to endure with Maps. Those who keep saying "Maps is great" need to leave an egocentric view and realize that there are millions of users all around the world with differ…

Those who keep saying "Maps is great" need to leave an egocentric view and realize that there are millions of users all around the world with different experiences. I have a theory about these people -- they are the ones who never realized that you could search Maps for place names. If you search for street addresses, both Maps implementations perform OK. But the strength of Google's database is that you can type alm…

I'm not trying to apologize for Apple's mess -- and it is a mess -- but your theory doesn't hold for me.

Some places are genuinely fine: I'm in San Francisco and the maps really are pretty damn good (in SF, I'll actually use the word good). Of course, this is right in Apple's back yard, but the reports seem to indicate that most major U.S. cities are in good shape (mind you, I'm talking about maps & places, not flyover's 3D views, which are a whole different story). And, I legitimately find the link to Yelp's reviews more useful than Google's place markings, but Google's are more consistently available.

Not to say that this isn't a huge mess, but simply that there are places where "Maps is good" ("Maps is great" is a bit much no matter where you are!).

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#78

Post by myko »

tlogan wrote: post #43
st0p wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newsflash: A lot of people live in rural England, rural Ontario and Rural Holland. Besides, it can't find places like central station in Amsterdam (hardly rural). I don't care whether it's the app or the data, I don't care that it's working great in the bay area. What I do care about is that I had a perfectly working mapping solution, and now I have a second class thing that's just not working. I don't know about you…

Working great in Bay Area? Who told you that? I was under impression that this all similar to "antena gate" (kinda not big deal), but iOS maps are really really bad even in Bay Area. EDIT: Here is an example: Search for "428 University Ave, Palo Alto": you will end up in Los Gatos.

"Antennagate" wasn't a big deal? When my wife used her iPhone 4 it would drop calls constantly (pretty decent AT&T coverage, Columbus, Ohio). She even had it replaced due to the issue (which wasn't fixed until she put a case on it).

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#79

Post by dman »

paulschreiber wrote: post #62
batista wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also gives me that impression when I see him on Keynotes, one of a power grabbing, back-stabbing kind of guy. Which could or could not be true, I'm talking purely from a "face-reading" standpoint. The exact opposite of that would be Bob Mansfield.

Fosrtall is the kind of guy who would sell you a used car and hit on your wife.

And you know this how?

Re: Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

#80

Post by ams6110 »

robomartin wrote: post #50

Nah. I don't agree with the premise of this article. This was not one person's decision. Many actors had to be involved in the decision making process. For some reason Apple decided that kicking Google off the platform was worth the abuse they'd have to endure with Maps. Those who keep saying "Maps is great" need to leave an egocentric view and realize that there are millions of users all around the world with differ…

You are assuming that both the bad map data and the searches are evenly distributed across all locations. If their data are good in the most-searched areas, the number of users affected is much smaller.
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