Apparently Apple's New Map App Sucks

TechLarry said:
Apple, you got some 'splainin to do !

To be honest, I do not think Steve Jobs would have accepted this at all.
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Yea, I think this is the first misstep in the post Steve Jobs era for Apple.

Wonder what's in store for the iPhone 5S :p
 
ComputerBox34 said:
Be careful not to drive off the hoover dam!

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/09/2...w-they-may-be-lost-and-in-need-of-a-maps-app/
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we can go derper
34q2p2h.png
 
wonderfield said:
There are definitely some serious issues with the data, but I think that, on the whole, what they have now is better than what they had before. The elimination of the archaic raster tile system is a big improvement (using a vector data set for data well-suited for vectors makes sense) and there are no longer any fucking incredibly annoying ads you have to deal with when you're just trying to find a place. The directions system is a bit easier to use, too, which is a nice-enough bonus.
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Yeah, who cares if most of the data is gone missing or obsolete for the majority of the world :).
 
I don't, for starters. Where I live, the data seems reasonably complete. I won't know otherwise until I've spent a lot of time using it and come across any gaps.

Maybe the maps are shit in Uruguay, but what do I care? I don't live in Uruguay.
 
You guys, this is clearly the next magical and revolutionary thing from Apple. Now, instead of knowing exactly where you are or where you are going, Apple is allowing you to become like the first explorers and find your way using nature, star maps, etc.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE PAST.
 
Apple has enough money that they should have just done the maps themselves instead of using TomTom.
 
TechLarry said:
Apple, you got some 'splainin to do !

To be honest, I do not think Steve Jobs would have accepted this at all.
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Not so sure, he hated Google with a passion.

" I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
 
Trimlock said:
off topic:

anyone notice the comments in the section? I didn't read any of them but some of their profile pictures are hilarious.
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HAHA! Thats how I picture most of the basement dwellers on [H]ard looks like :p
 
wonderfield said:
I don't, for starters. Where I live, the data seems reasonably complete. I won't know otherwise until I've spent a lot of time using it and come across any gaps.

Maybe the maps are shit in Uruguay, but what do I care? I don't live in Uruguay.
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Do you live in the US? Because if you noticed on the main picture to this article, they screwed up the Brooklyn Bridge. Also, they think Toronto is a bunch of landing strips. That's pretty bad, and I think people will notice.

But hey, where you live is fine, I guess that's all that should matter to anyone.
 
AMD T-type said:
Not so sure, he hated Google with a passion.

" I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
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He very rarely liked making his own products worse though. I doubt he woulda done it.
 
AMD T-type said:
Not so sure, he hated Google with a passion.

" I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
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iOS is just a bunch of icons. HP (the people who bought Palm) should sue them because that "look and feel" is stolen too.
 
wonderfield said:
If you needed to spin what I said to make your argument, then you don't really have an argument.
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No, I didn't have to, but I felt it was worth saying.

Also, if you need to disect and throw away MOST of what I said to validate how your feeling of superiority, then... Oh wait. You already did.
 
The Anandtech review of iOS 6 maps was hilarious... at one point the reviewer pretty much says he normally likes more data in his maps, but Apple's clean look has won him over.

Clean.. yah because its empty.
 
ballistic90 said:
Also, if you need to disect and throw away MOST of what I said to validate how your feeling of superiority, then... Oh wait. You already did.
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It's no mere 'feeling'.

LeninGHOLA said:
You're missing your signature logic. This is garbage execution, and you know it.
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Yeah, it seems like there's a fair amount of garbage in the map data. I'm not denying that, and I already said as much earlier. It was probably premature to launch it like this, too, sure. I'm not denying that either.

Is my opinion that the good outweighs the bad? Yeah, it is. You're going to have to point out to me how that kind of thinking is illogical, because I can't figure the math on that.
 
There is a good base to start from with the change to vector and performance improvements; but if it doesn't have the needed information, does it matter?
 
Looks like shit. But what do we expect from an OS that lacks a usable navigation setup out of the box.
 
When I moved from my Samsung Android, my only concern was the maps. Google maps on an Android has to be my all time favorite App. No Lie!

With the iPhone, I was appalled at how bad the map was. I did not understand how anybody could use it, let alone, drive with it.

I ended up buying a premium app for maps. It cost $60 but it was less than buying a stand alone Garmin device. And it works pretty damn well.
 
Kelby said:
When I moved from my Samsung Android, my only concern was the maps. Google maps on an Android has to be my all time favorite App. No Lie!

With the iPhone, I was appalled at how bad the map was. I did not understand how anybody could use it, let alone, drive with it.

I ended up buying a premium app for maps. It cost $60 but it was less than buying a stand alone Garmin device. And it works pretty damn well.
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Um. The old map was Google maps. Unless this all happened literally today, not sure how its relevant.
 
but.. but.. its apple. they can do no wrong. so obviously that is what the bridge must look like in real life b/c apple knows best.
 
AMD T-type said:
maps_ios5vsios6.jpg
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this is a VERY misleading image. Apple maps is not that bare. In reality, it looks almost exactly like google maps' rendering, mainly beacuse Aple partnered with TomTom to create their maps. So if you hate apple maps, then you must hate TomTom as well. Not like i care though.
I have a Galaxy S3, so HA!:D
 
It's just Apple using their superior technology and intelligence to predict the future. C'mon people we should all know this by now and just bow down.
 
zEcToR45 said:
this is a VERY misleading image. Apple maps is not that bare. In reality, it looks almost exactly like google maps' rendering, mainly beacuse Aple partnered with TomTom to create their maps. So if you hate apple maps, then you must hate TomTom as well. Not like i care though.
I have a Galaxy S3, so HA!:D
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I hate TomTom. Try getting completely misdirected in Chattanooga TN and ending up in the bad part of town. "Roll em up kids". My X5 wasn't the best vehicle for a white dude and his oblivious gal from Minneapolis to be rolling around down in the dirty south when misdirected.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
There is a good base to start from with the change to vector and performance improvements; but if it doesn't have the needed information, does it matter?
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I'm not sure what you mean by needed information. If you're referring to the errors there right now, then no, it doesn't really matter when you encounter an error in the data. If you're saying that because there are errors in some locations that there isn't any benefit to vector tiles, that doesn't really make sense to me.

The real benefit to having the data in a vector format is that you can zoom in (and out) without needing to load additional data at higher zoom levels. In the old maps app, it would frequently need to pull in new tiles from the servers to give you information at higher zoom levels (just like Google Maps). Having stores of rasterized tiles at different zoom levels simply doesn't make sense if the hardware is good enough to be able to plow through rasterizing the vectors in real time and if the vector format can store the data efficiently.
 
Looks like Apple dropped the ball on this one. I rarely use the Maps app myself, but it seems to have directions down pat. I'm good as long as it gets me from A to B. But for those who travel a lot and rely on details, then yeah, Apple dropped the ball.
 
zEcToR45 said:
this is a VERY misleading image. Apple maps is not that bare. In reality, it looks almost exactly like google maps' rendering, mainly beacuse Aple partnered with TomTom to create their maps.
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True. You just need to scroll down to pretty much small side road level to see some buildings.

Sorry for picture sizes, these are 1:1 screenshots from the phones

Google maps on Galaxy Nexus :
Screenshot_2012-09-20-22-45-05.png


Same location on iPod Touch 4th gen on iOS6 at a little bigger zoom level :
:
2012-09-20%2022.45.19.png


The zoom level when you actually start seeing the shapes of the buildings :
2012-09-20%2022.56.50.png


So yeah, the data is there, except you need to go to the unusable superdetail zoom level.
 
And they shouldn't put satellite data there really...

2012-09-20%2023.09.01.png


Yes, that is the maximum picture quality for that location for the left half... Or you can choose a higher quality black & white picture :D
 
City level quality :
2012-09-20%2023.16.55.png

Let's zoom in a bit :
2012-09-20%2023.19.22.png

And this is a minimal extra zoom of the picture above :
2012-09-20%2023.17.16.png


Maybe a bit better satellite image source data, with more zoom levels ? These images remind me of Google maps quality when it started... Except that was 7 years ago and what was acceptable then is not acceptable now.

It's clearly visible that while the application itself is in pretty good, finished state, the data source is not even alpha quality. They should have launched this in 1-2 years when it will be actually usable, but then they would have to sign another agreement with their archenemy.
 
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