Apple Maps - page 8

Remember that time Cult of Mac reported that Apple’s oft-maligned iOS Maps function steered people the wrong way across Fairbanks Airport Taxiway? If you’re anything like this writer, you probably either chuckled at the egregiousness of the error or else were momentarily aghast, and then went on with the rest of your day.

Well, in the eyes of some what you should have been thinking is: “hey, I could probably sue over that.”

Perhaps it’s better that you didn’t, however, because the class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple for iOS Maps is a bit of a headscratcher.

Apple has been launched a full court press on Maps ever since its disappointing launch last fall. The company has already gobbled up a few mapping companies but it’s not ready to stop quite yet, as it just purchased the map app Embark.

Embark, Inc. focuses on building free transit apps to help navigate public transportation. According to a report from Jessica Lessin, Apple acquired the small team very recently and plans to directly integrate Embark’s tech into Apple Maps.

Google published a big update for it’s Google Earth app for iOS today. The new version includes an improved UI with a left hand panel that makes it easier to enable different layers of information.

Along with the refreshed UI, the Google Earth update adds Google Maps Street View to the service so you can explore the world in 3D flyover or at street level. Improved directions and search were also added to the list of new features.

Here’s what’s new:

Last year it seemed like there was no end in sight for the rise of Apple’s stock price. Then things started to slip in October thanks to Apple Maps and the management shakeup, and it’s been all downhill from there.

Earlier this morning Apple shares were trading below $400 for the first time in over 16 months, as the stock has continued to slide from its high point of over $700 per share that it enjoyed just last year.

After being fired from his post at Apple for the Apple Maps fiasco last year, Richard Williamson has found a new home at one of tech’s other superstars – Facebook.

Richard Williamson played a key role in the development of the iPhone’s software under Steve Jobs. After working at Apple for more than a decade, Williamson was put in charge of the Apple Maps team that replaced Google Maps in iOS 6.

Kicking Google Maps to the curb last year in favor of its own homegrown solution caused quite a stir last year for Apple. Most of the rage over Apple Maps has died down, but Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, sees no reason why things can’t be repaired.

In fact, Schmidt admitted today that Google would love to work with Apple to set Google Maps as the primary navigation tool on iOS. With tensions between the two companies still being tight, we’d say there’s not a slim chance in hell of that happening, but Schmidt thinks it could.

One of the apps commonly toted as a replacement for iOS 6’s Maps app after the latter was released (and proved to be something of a debacle for Cupertino) was Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic app.

Now, according to a new interview conducted on-stage at AllThingsD’s Dive Into Mobile Conference, even Waze CEO Noam Bardim was surprised by how many people hated Apple Maps, and said that two years previously, consumers would have thought is was amazing.

While Apple’s Maps has certainly come a long way since its release last year, there’s still a lot of improving that needs to be done. The good news is that Apple is working to improve the accuracy of its mapping, and the company is hiring “Ground Truth” managers to help improve the “quality” of Maps in different regions around the world.

After a few days of speculation, Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt, finally commented on whether Google Now would be making its way to iOS. This morning, Schmidt said that Google Now has been submitted to the App Store and the only thing standing in its way is Apple. The only problem is Schmidt’s completely wrong.

Apple commented on the Google Now approval process this afternoon and said that they haven’t even received Google Now yet.

When Apple launched its new Maps app with iOS 6 last September, one of its headline features, Flyover, only supported a handful of big cities. But the Cupertino company has been hard at work in the background to extend its reach, adding support for additional locations all over the world.

In the past few months, Apple has brought Flyover to an additional 16 cities, plus extended its coverage in 14 of the cities already supported.

John C Dvorak, Leo Laporte, and a couple of other folks involved in This Week in Tech (TwiT) had a meeting together at the Apple campus at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino this past Monday, and they ended up having an informal battle of the navigation apps in the three cars they were each driving. TWiT CEO Lisa Kentzell and marketing guy Glenn Rubenstein were in one car, using Apple Maps, while Laporte was using Waze, Dvorak using Google Maps.

Dvorak wrote the story up over at PC Magazine, and claims that Apple Maps got the TWiT folks to the Apple campus faster than either Waze, which came in dead last, or Google Maps. We can count on this being the truth of their experience, as anyone of Dvorak’s stature might have a hard time admitting that he lost a race.

Personally, I’ve never had a problem with Apple Maps in its current iOS 6 incarnation, but many people have. Now that Google Maps is out for iOS, though, there’s an easy way to get around using Apple Maps, using the transit option.

Here’s how.

Street View is a new $0.99 iOS app from FutureTap that promises to bring Google Street View back to Apple’s Maps app on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Once installed, you’ll be able to access Street View from within Apple Maps with a series of simple taps. It’s not seamless, but it works.

Google has updated its Google Maps SDK for iOS to version 1.1, opening up its API to all third-party developers who now have the ability to build iOS apps with Google Maps embedded. The update also adds support for ground overlays, gesture controls, and more.

Michael T. Jones has a helluva fun job. He’s the Chief Technology Ambassador for Google, and as such, he not only gets to work for one of the coolest companies in the world, he also gets to cruise around the world and tell people why Google is so darn awesome.

When it comes to Apple, you would think that Michael Jones would have some really mean things to say. In a recent interview with ABC News in Australia, Michael Jones actually praised Apple and said that customers can trust Apple with their private data. But then he added that using Apple Maps might kill you.

Apple Maps has been the butt of an exhausting number of bad jokes. People in Australia have been stranded in the outback thanks to Scott Forstall’s mishap.

For most of us, glitches in Apple Maps are just a minor inconvenience and you can just switch over to Google Maps when you have a problem. But for one restaurant in Portland, Oregon, Apple Maps has cost them about $50,000 worth of business since it was released in September.

It’s hard to believe we’ve just finished our 50th CultCast! But we’re not stopping to celebrate just yet.

On our newest episode, we say why Apple Maps integrating with Waze maps makes too much sense not to happen; why Bill Gates just made Microsoft Surface the new Christmas coal; and as we prepare to journey to Las Vegas for CES, we review which new gadgets and tech we’re most excited about, and give you the inside scoop on what it’s really like to report live from one of the biggest tech conventions in the world.

All that and more on our all-new CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

File under: Rampant Speculation. Apple Maps is pretty bad compared to Google Maps, and they need to get it fixed in a hurry, by either chaining their engineers to their desks, or buying another company with enough talent to fix Scott Forstall’s biggest snafu.

There was a ridiculous rumor last month that Apple might acquire TomTom to fix Maps, and now the web has sprouted another crazy rumor that Apple might acquire a different mapping company to fix Maps: Waze.

As Apple slowly but surely turns its back on Google, Siri, its intelligent digital assistant, is doing the same. If you’d have asked Siri a question back in June, there’s a 60% chance the data it came back with would have been from Google. Ask it a question today, however, and that chance is reduced to just 30%. Not only has Apple given YouTube and Google Maps the boot, then, it’s shunning Google’s search data, too.

Apple is looking to evolve its own Maps app in iOS 6 by potentially partnering with Foursquare to provide local listings, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Talks between Apple and Foursquare are still in the early “preliminary” stages, according to the report, but Apple is definitely interested in what Foursquare has to offer.

Yelp is already integrated into iOS 6 Maps, and Apple partners with other services to offer more than 100 million business listings. A partnership with Foursquare could help enrich Apple’s location data and even help fix inaccuracies in iOS 6 Maps.

Google Maps for iPhone rocketed to the top of the App Store in just 7 hours, and today Google confirmed that the app was downloaded over 10 million times in less than 48 hours. Those are crazy numbers. People clearly wanted the triumphant return of Google Maps to iOS, but how many downloads are a result of Google’s own promoting?

We all know that the new Google Maps app has been a big hit on the iPhone since it launched last week. The highly anticipated app shot to the top of the App Store’s charts in a matter of hours. According to Google Senior VP of Geo and Commerce Jeff Huber, Google Maps for iPhone was downloaded a jaw-dropping 10 million times in the first 48 hours of its release.

Google Maps for iPhone is out, and it’s a solid replacement for Apple’s Maps app in iOS 6. Jailbreakers can make Google Maps the default maps app on their iPhones, but everyone else has to deal with the fact that Apple will never let you fully replace its own Maps with Google’s. It’s a shame, but it’s the walled iOS garden we all live in.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use Siri to get directions with Google Maps, however. You don’t even need to jailbreak. There’s a simple trick that makes it possible.

Google Maps for iPhone was basically a hit before it even launched in the App Store. Anticipation was so high leading up to the release last week that the app shot to the top of the App Store’s charts in only a few hours. Given the widespread criticism of Apple Maps in iOS 6, Google Maps is a breath of fresh air for those that miss the iOS Maps of old.

While Google Maps may be great in its own right, Apple’s restrictions mean that it cannot replace the new, default Maps app in iOS 6. You can choose to use Google Maps for iOS whenever you want, but map links and directions in other apps will always open Apple Maps no matter what.

Luckily, jailbreakers now have a way to make the new Google Maps replace Apple Maps and become the default app of choice. If you’re wondering how to make Google Maps default on iPhone, there are methods to set it as your preferred navigation tool.

Have you been waiting for Google Maps to come back to the App Store before you update to iOS 6? Given the incredibly harsh media attention that Apple Maps has received since iOS 6 went live back in September, you’d think that there would be a significant number of users holding out for Google Maps to make its triumphant return.

Since the release of Google Maps a few days ago, there hasn’t been a noticeable spike in iOS 6’s adoption rate. In fact, it’s had no real impact on users updating to iOS 6 at all. Was the ‘Mapplegate‘ fiasco really that exaggerated?