Apple Recruiting Its Retail Employees To Fix Maps

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Anyone else think this is a major waste of time and money? I think Apple's money would be better spent hiring former Google Maps employees.

Apple is piloting a program to tap into its vast number of retail store employees to help improve the company's new Maps app for iOS 6. Details on the initiative remain unclear, but multiple sources have indicated that participating stores will dedicate 40 hours of staff time per week, distributed among a number of employees, to manually examine Apple's mapping data in their areas and submit corrections and improvements.
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I don't think this is a big waste of time (especially since we haven't heard how many stores will be participating), a person who knows what the map should look like looking at the map can help a lot. Direct comparison to other maps is a big copyright no-no, and someone with experience in the area can do a better job of tracing satellite maps (plus field work if that's part of the program).

Also, because they're planning to distribute the staff time, they can hire 1 full time or 2 part time workers now and have them well trained for store duties when traffic increases for the holidays.
 
Apple has already poached a number of ex-Google Maps employees. Apparently that wasn't enough to prevent a huge f-up with the software.
 
I think this is a rather good use of ones resources actually. Quickly get updated info for cities and shopping complexes, areas most likely to be used by a maps app.
 
I thought they should just offer a couple cents worth of Apple account money for anyone who reports map corrections that get validated. Let people take GPS tagged pictures of a point of interest, and submit them.

There are probably plenty of Apple users who would trade a few minutes here and there for Doodle Jump or whatever.
 
oRdchaos said:
I thought they should just offer a couple cents worth of Apple account money for anyone who reports map corrections that get validated. Let people take GPS tagged pictures of a point of interest, and submit them.

There are probably plenty of Apple users who would trade a few minutes here and there for Doodle Jump or whatever.
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This is what I was going to say. You've got millions of iPhone users, put them to work.
 
Fix Apple Maps? Doesn't it show directions to the nearest Apple retail store perfectly?. Nothing more needs fixing. :D
 
The day they went downhill was the day they outsourced their maps app updates to Apple store employees.

What a joke

The most open source thing Apple ever did was let their low level employees update app info directly.

Sounds more like a govt. program, a tax on every Apple employee, instead of paying down the dept your required to fix the map app.
 
It's not the level of the corrections, it's the origin of the data. Google has data. Apple has turtleneck sweaters.
 
Apple: "reinventing the wheel (Google maps) and charging the customer for it".

Geez. You just can't fix stupid. And people buy this phone why exactly?
 
mrpc9886 said:
Apple: "reinventing the wheel (Google maps) and charging the customer for it".

Geez. You just can't fix stupid. And people buy this phone why exactly?
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Its the best smartphone on the market in my opinion, thats why silly. My Galaxy Nexus is already sold.
 
Sounds Like Apple is allocating 40 hours a wek per store so their employess can compare their broken maps to Google maps.

Apple Employee: (Opening Browser to Google Maps) time to start working.... lol
 
No different from Google asking Google employees to drive around in Google cars for Streetview, really.
 
I think this is a pretty good idea from apple. they really need to do this idea in some countries that do not have an accurate map data.

today we really need a very accurate map should look like the original dude. :D
 
Jesus christ, what a debacle. How the mighty have fallen, and I'm not even an Apple fan. Jobs is rolling in his grave.
 
The problem is not so much the accuracy of roads and such IMO. Its that the app has no idea WTF to do with POIs or Destinations not given in an exact address form.

Plus it has no reality check, it will route you to a place over the ocean vs. the one that is local to you (I asked to go to London, a local city, and instead it routes me to london england?)
 
"Its the best smartphone on the market in my opinion, thats why silly. My Galaxy Nexus is already sold. "

Please explain why I would want to downgrade......
 
I'm not an Apple fan, but this is a funny thread. Everyone acknowledges that Apple Maps sucks ass, but now that they are taking steps to improve it, you guys are still bitching. At least they are addressing the problem. They shouldn't have released it in the state it is in, imo, but you can't fault them for working on the problem.
 
What I don't get.... is why isn't apple pointing the finger at TomTom? They're the one that supplies the majority of the map data for the current apple maps.
 
Grentz said:
The problem is not so much the accuracy of roads and such IMO. Its that the app has no idea WTF to do with POIs or Destinations not given in an exact address form.
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That is exactly why I started using Google Maps, way back before it was available on phones. You could give it a broken address, business name, or whatever and it was very good at giving you what you were looking for, better than MapQuest and I forget what else was the other often-used map site. Now I stick with it out of habit, and it isn't even the best free option any more.

What I don't get is why Apple has to prove that they can build GPS software. Yeah so Android was at a minimum heavily inspired by iOS, BFD. There are plenty of companies that they could license technology from to make an app that works. Funny too because navigation has never been the selling point for iPhones, and last I checked, they are still flying off the shelves. $20 says Jobs is going "nuclear" in his grave right now.
 
Rizen said:
I'm not an Apple fan, but this is a funny thread. Everyone acknowledges that Apple Maps sucks ass, but now that they are taking steps to improve it, you guys are still bitching. At least they are addressing the problem. They shouldn't have released it in the state it is in, imo, but you can't fault them for working on the problem.
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"Sure, the bridge is made out of chewing gum, but we have day laborers jamming popsicle sticks in it as we speak."
 
oRdchaos said:
I thought they should just offer a couple cents worth of Apple account money for anyone who reports map corrections that get validated. Let people take GPS tagged pictures of a point of interest, and submit them.

There are probably plenty of Apple users who would trade a few minutes here and there for Doodle Jump or whatever.
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I don't know. I think any apple fan boi would jump at the chance to help for free.
 
Rizen said:
I'm not an Apple fan, but this is a funny thread. Everyone acknowledges that Apple Maps sucks ass, but now that they are taking steps to improve it, you guys are still bitching. At least they are addressing the problem. They shouldn't have released it in the state it is in, imo, but you can't fault them for working on the problem.
Click to expand...

Addressing the problem would be Apple pulling the stick outta their ass and letting Google roll out the Maps application they've always wanted to load. Sure you may have to allow Google to supply Latitude, and other services, but at least give people a choice.
 
c4v3man said:
Addressing the problem would be Apple pulling the stick outta their ass and letting Google roll out the Maps application they've always wanted to load. Sure you may have to allow Google to supply Latitude, and other services, but at least give people a choice.
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Keep in mind Google Navigation was never on iOS anyway, which may have been a Google issue. Apple had to do something, they can't keep feeding money into their competitor when they didn't even have the Google Nav app...
 
ocellaris said:
Keep in mind Google Navigation was never on iOS anyway, which may have been a Google issue. Apple had to do something, they can't keep feeding money into their competitor when they didn't even have the Google Nav app...
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It's been stated that Google was willing to provide voice navigation, and the full maps experience that they provide on Android. The problem is that Apple didn't want the full maps experience, they only wanted voice turn by turn. So Apple said no to Google's offer to provide turn-by-turn, latitude, places, etc and here we are.

Google's not exactly a competitor to Apple. They may compete in certain areas, however their main business pursuits are radically different.
 
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