maps - page 8

While iOS 6 may be “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” its new Maps app is, quite frankly, a heap of trash. It boasts some terrific features, such as 3D Flyover and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, but they’re only terrific when the Maps that power them actually work. And Apple’s don’t in a lot of places.

The Cupertino company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has apologized to customers for the frustration the new app has caused, and it’s led us to wonder why Apple even released it. It still had a year left on its contract with Google, so why did it rush into releasing its own, half-baked service so quickly?

Well, one reason behind the move is that Steve Jobs had grown to hate Google. So much so that he set up a new Maps team just to kick Google Maps off the iOS devices.

If you thought you had seen your last Apple Maps parody, think again. Mad Magazine, a purveyor of satire, has joined in on the fun with its latest parody of The New Yorker featuring Apple Maps. It’s starting to look like Mapgate will remain a staple of satire much longer than the once hilarious Antennagate saga.

If someone told you that iOS 6 Maps had one advantage over Google Maps, and that it was 80% more efficient in using data, you’d probably quip, “That’s because it’s 80% less accurate” then do an air drum roll and punctuate the whole thing with the sound of a cymbal crashing that you made with your mouth.

Joking aside, though, it’s true. iOS 6 Maps uses way less data than Google Maps, and it has nothing to do with accuracy, but with its beautiful new vector graphics.

It won’t add transit directions, nor will it stiffen those melted roads which are draped, Dalí-esque, over the underlying terrain. But this simple, one-setting tweak will make iOS 6’s beleaguered maps app a whole lot more useful.

Now that Apple has apologized for its decision to release a half-baked Maps app in iOS 6, the vast majority of us will carry on with our lives and use a third-party solution until Apple’s is fixed. Right now, it seems Apple is a company that can achieve anything. So it won’t be too long before Maps is as good as — if not better then — Google Maps. Right?

Maybe not. You see, Apple’s Maps problem could be much bigger than we think, and it could be a long time before we can say goodbye to third-party alternatives.

FastTrack Navigator is just about the simplest navigation app you could ever want: It’s a big arrow on the screen telling you the direction of your destination, along with a number telling you how far away it is. But that’s not to say that it isn’t beautifully designed.

Apple has issued its first software update to the iPhone 5 just over a week after the handset was released — but you’ll only see it if you’re on Verizon. No, the update doesn’t make Maps work. Instead, it “resolves an issue in which, under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.”

Apple doesn’t have a rich history of apologizing for their errors, big or small. When AntennaGate shook the web, Apple held a conference but they never said they were sorry. They just told us that antennas suck sometimes but they’ll give us a free bumper to be quiet. In fact, I can’t remember many times at all where Apple came out and publicly admitted a mistake.

Tim Cook’s apology this morning was a great gesture. It was almost a first for the company. Admitting that Apple’s not perfect and made a mistake isn’t easy, but did Tim Cook need to apologize to satisfy Apple customers? Could they have done something else to resolve the situation? We’d love to hear your ideas, so come over to the forums and talk to us about it.

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums and talk about Tim Cook’s apology

Apple did something unprecedented today.

I’m not talking about Tim Cook’s apology for iOS 6 Maps. While it’s rare, Apple has apologized before, especially recently: see John Browett’s admission that the company had “messed up” when cutting shifts among Retail Employees, and Apple’s public about-face when pulling out of the EPEAT rating system. One of the things that makes Apple great is they’re not afraid to be as harsh on themselves as they are on the competition when they’ve fucked up.

No, what Apple did today is far more uncharacteristic than an apology. They suggested that you use a third-party app instead of their own.

Earlier this morning Tim Cook published an apology letter to all Apple fans for how horrible Apple Maps have been. Not only did he apologize, but he actually told users that they should try some alternatives while Apple fixes their mapping fiasco.

It’s great that Apple is taking responsibility for their shoddy work, but now that they’ve kicked Google Maps out of iOS 6, what are the best alternative? We took a quick look at the alternative map apps that Tim suggested, to find out which one you should use if you plan to ditch Apple Maps for a while. Here’s what we found out.

Not only has Apple apologized for the embarassing state of iOS 6 Maps today, and not only has Tim Cook personally advised users to try competing app products like Bing, Mapquest and Google Maps as they get iOS 6 Maps’ shit together, but Apple is now promoting Maps alternatives at the very top of the iOS App Store listings. This is an unprecedented admission of fault by Apple. It’s mea culpas all the way down.

Via: Twitter

If there were ever a time for Google to play “good guy” it would be now. Apple has simply been piling up the negative criticism with everything from its ridiculous legal attacks to its latest Mapsgate debacle. While Google has been going down the wrong path by setting itself up to bite back (see Motorola Mobility), I believe now to be the perfect time to turn the other cheek. Specifically with their Maps service.

In addition to posting an extraordinarily classy apology for the iOS 6 Maps fiasco written by CEO Tim Cook, Apple has also gone to the length of pushing online a page explaining how to add a website icon to your home screen in four easy steps, and while the website they use for the example is Apple.com, they clearly mean for you to do this on maps.google.com.

Source: Apple

Missing Google Street View? Can't wait for it to be incorporated into a Flash-free, Mobile Safari-friendly version of the Google Maps web app? Then go download Live Street View, a Street View app which has just been updated to make it — frankly — awesome on the iPad.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has today issued a letter to customers regarding the issues they have been experiencing with Maps in iOS 6. Cook says Apple is “extremely sorry for the frustration” the new service has caused to its customers, and he insists the company will continue to work incredibly hard until Maps is fixed. Cook even suggests a number of alternative services users can try in the meantime.

The full letter is below.

It seems Apple’s new Maps app isn’t the only thing frustrating iOS 6 users right now. A 91-page thread on Apple’s Support Communities forum is full of users who are also complaining about Wi-Fi connectivity issues, which are said to be plaguing the iPhone 4S and the new iPad after upgrading. It’s not just that Wi-Fi performance is poor; some users can’t enable it at all.

Some of the most amazing moments of my life happened underwater at Hanaunama Bay in Hawaii. I can remember the serenity I felt swimming with sea turtles and simply losing myself in this underwater paradise. I’ve often told my wife about these adventures and now, thanks to the amazing Google Maps, I can relive them via the remarkable new underwater Street View imagery.

We’ve heard a lot of rumors surrounding a Google Maps app for iOS over the past week, and now The New York Times is weighing in with information from its own sources. Fortunately, it’s good news: it claims Google is indeed working on a Maps app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and that the company is hoping to have it ready and released by the end of this year.

Why’s it taking so long? Well, Google had no idea Apple was kicking Google Maps out of iOS until Apple first previewed iOS 6 back in June.

Apparently, Apple made the decision to dump Google maps for iOS 6 was made more than a year before the contract with Google for their map system expired, says a new post at The Verge that cites “independent sources familiar with the matter.” Further, the choice may have caused Google to start development on it’s own iOS Google Maps app before it was ready to. These same sources say the potential app won’t be ready for several months.

If you ever lose your iPhone 5 and have to track it down using iCloud.com’s Find My iPhone web app you can at least rest assured that you’ll have the best mapping data available to track it down, because iCloud.com is still using Google Maps.

Even though Apple has switched the Find My iPhone iOS app to use Apple Maps, their website is still using Google Maps to provide location information on lost devices. Users can log in to iCloud.com and go to Find My iPhone to see where there devices are located on a Google Map rather than Apple’s new map app that users have complained about.

Speaking at a company event in Sydney, Australia, this week, Apple co-founder and everyone’s favorite geek Steve Wozniak spoke out about Apple’s new Maps service, which got its public debut alongside iOS 6 last Wednesday. Like most of us, Woz says he’s disappointed with the new app, and that Google’s Maps service is better. However, he doesn’t feel that the issues users have been experiencing are “that severe.”

With Google Maps gone from iOS 6 in favor of Apple’s own solution, many are hoping Google will bring its own Maps app to the App Store — as it did with YouTube a couple weeks ago. A recent report claimed that it was already on its way, but according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, that’s not the case at all. In fact, Google hasn’t even submitted a Maps app to Apple for approval yet.

Companies like Google and Samsung aren’t exactly known for making the best anti-Apple propaganda, but the latest attack ad from Motorola has a particularly painful amount of truth to it. Everyone knows that Apple’s Maps app in iOS 6 sucks right now, and competitors are obviously going to latch onto any negative Apple press they can. That’s why Motorola’s ad says that the “DROID RAZRM M” (serious name) promises to not get you “iLost.”

While most of these Android ads have been pathetic attempts at calling out the iPhone’s flaws, I can’t really fault Motorola (who is owned by Google) for going with the Maps angle. It’s no surprise that none of the recent iPhone 5 ads mention Maps at all. If Apple doesn’t fix the negative inertia its generated with Maps in iOS 6, it could have a serious PR problem on its hands.

To Apple’s credit, iOS 6 Maps is being compared to Google Maps, a decade-old, matured platform that Google has invested thousands upon thousands of man hours into. Apple’s Maps will get there, it’s just going to take a little time.

Source: Android Central

Apple is said to be “aggressively” recruiting Google Maps employees in an effort to fix its highly criticized Maps service, according to an unnamed source “with connections on both teams.” The Cupertino company is reportedly using recruiters to attract individuals who have previously helped develop Google Maps, and many of them seem to be snapping up the opportunity to work at Apple.

iOS jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has successfully gotten the old iOS Maps app, which was powered by Google and boasted features like Street View and walking directions, running under iOS 6. The port is said to be unstable at the moment, but it’s working, and with a little more work, it could be available in all its glory to users with jailbroken iOS devices.