Fans rap Apple's 'crap' Map app
Apple today faced the ire of thousands of irritated iOS 6 users who upgraded to the new version of the iDevice operating system only to discover the Cupertino's new Maps app is, well, pants. As we noted in our review of iOS 6 yesterday, Apple dropped Google's mapping system in favour of one of its own. The result is an …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Google Earth still exsists
The guy complaining about using Maps for archaeological reasons should just download the Google Earth app, that way he gets the high detailed overhead ariel photographs he's missing.
Re: Google Earth still exsists
I found that Ariel's website has a load of reasonably high-res photographs, although none I could see that are taken from overhead.
Re: Google Earth still exsists
Google Earth doesn't exist in the App Store where I live ...
So I am stuck with a crap map app, and no alternative apart from maps.google.com in safari.
Re: Google Earth still exsists
There are other mapping apps, I use GAIA GPS and ESRI have an ArcGIS viewer. No turn by turn directions, but a variety of imagery and rendered vector mapping.
You don't understand!
I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been a great map app instead of a bum... which is what I am
Re: You don't understand!
http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/
Re: Go Android
Go one better just buy an Apple (I recommend Granny Smiths) and a map
Re: Go Android
Granny Smith !
None of that Johnny foreigner stuff here, I like a good old cox pippin (oh er missus)
Re: Go Android
Better yet, my all-time favourite is the McIntosh. Sweet and juicy.
(NOT the Macintosh, which is entirely too expensive, aluminium, and tasteless)
Silly Apple?
Increase display resolution then add fuzzy content?
I wonder if heads will roll?
Map Relativity
It's just the actual view on the other side of the Reality Distortion Field.
Gotta find those heads first.
Better use an Android phone to get there!
Plain awful.
Yep, upgraded to IOS6. The new maps are utter shit - even the Bing maps are better.. Losing street view is a pain in the arse. I'd avoid upgrading if you can.
Shockingly bad.
I've been using the betas (for development) for a few months and the map app has been utterly terrible since it was first available. I assumed it wasn't finished and would be updated properly before general release. Oh how wrong i was, it doesn't even qualify as a second rate replacement for google's map app, satellite resolution is crap everywhere around me and the locations are simply inaccurate. Its actually unbelievable that it has been deemed worthy of release. As others have said, download google earth until the problem is solved, hopefully soon.
Re: Shockingly bad.
I'm just like you - throughout the betas I assumed they hadn't switched on the UK satellite imagery to save on some licensing fees until the launch.
Interestingly, using "Find my iPhone" on iCloud.com, the satellite imagery for where I live (Brighton, UK) has the expected detail. So Apple do have access to the images, they just haven't made them available on their mobile devices.
It's the first time I'm recommending EVERYONE I KNOW to hold off on an iOS update as it's more of a downgrade where maps are concerned.
Thank the heavens I also have an Android phone (S3) - I ended up getting one to explicitly to use the Google services which I particularly like - also, any respectable geek should own at least a couple of devices from the top players.
Now, Google, where's that Google Maps iOS app already?
Re: Shockingly bad.
If I was Google I'd actually withhold a Maps app. Just to show 'em.
Re: Shockingly bad.
" I assumed it wasn't finished..." And how right you were.
Just ONE MORE case of Apple using its customers as BETA TESTERS.
If Apple had been...
trying to create something that didn't already exist, then it would have been hats off to them for the effort. But they aren't. I haven't seen the new map.app yet, so I'll refrain from spouting from a bath of ignorance, but one thing I *can* complain about is that change they made way back to the ALS cache. Having only an iPod (preferring my telecomms via a regular 19-days on standby talky device), I liked the way it would remember forever what WiFi it had seen and fill in the location later when it could get online. I knew that if I'd driven or walked or train-ridden or bussed around a place, I'd be able to get a blue dot. Now, if I've spent more than 7 days not being somewhere, the cache is cleared and it becomes lost again. I fully appreciate the privacy concerns, but I'd have liked a switch in the prefs to retain the old behaviour. The problem wasn't the size of the cache, it was the lack of encryption for it. Same as I'd have liked a control to cache more map data. It was kind of handy to have all those geopoints in there for the bus tracking parts of Malcolm Barclay's excellent travel app(s).
Nowadays I barely use the map app. I used to enjoy watching the little blue dot jump around the screen.
Do I spy an opportunity...
...for Microsoft to hawk Bing Maps? I'm sure Apple can negotiate a rebrand and vow of silence, and I'm sure the end result can't be any worse than what's there now.
Why the surprise?
So Apple remove a third-party app which works fine and replace it with their own version which is not fit for purpose and then everyone complains. Why are people complaining? This is not a new thing for Apple to do.
If you buy Apple, you buy into their walled garden and accept what they give you. Stop complaining and suck it up.
very poot
Even my local Sainsbury's is shown at least a mile from where it actually is!
Re: very poot
I think you will find that Apple is correct and it's the Sainsburys store is in the wrong place. Please contact Sainsburys and ask them to move the building to where Apple say it should be.
Maybe it's shown there...
... because Google have a patent on Maps With Things In The Right Place.
The legendary Apple user usability coming up trump again.
yea
Apple tried to do in months what took google years and 10's if not hundreds of millions of dollars to do. to list all those street's landmarks and on most roads in town's and citys have pictures from the google car. Heck even now google is doing in inside view of places. Google has such a major lead on this would take 5+ years for apple to catch up to even come remotely close.
Re: yea
What I'm surprised at is Apple are sitting on a gigantic cash pile, why haven't they ploughed some of that into their new mediocre maps app?
Re: yea
like i said above, how many years it took google to get their maps to the level they are and well money is not much issue for apple, but took google years to get high rez images of some area's. Its not a cheap and done in a month thing
Re: yea
Apple knew the functionality that they were trying to duplicate. So it doesn't matter if it's a good first attempt or not. If you're going to replace anything there will be people who dislike change - any kind of change. But this is a different league: they're pissing off everyone with a product that's several generations behind. That's just stupid.
They should have stuck with Google until they had a product that was, as a minimum, comparable. Anything less is showing just how little regard they have for their customers.
"Apple are sitting on a gigantic cash pile, why haven't they spent some?"
Because if they did, they wouldn't be sitting on as gigantic a cash pile. Corporations don't look at their money and wonder how they can use it; they look at it and wonder how they can get more. Their aim is to maximise profit, and the less money that flows out the easier this becomes.
Re: yea
What I'm surprised at is Apple are sitting on a gigantic cash pile, why haven't they ploughed some of that into their new mediocre maps app?
If they bothered doing that then they wouldn't be sitting on a giant mountain of cash. The reason they do is because people are willing to pay for more than what the product costs. Marketing and caché cost a lot less than year-on-year investments.
Standard apple stuff...
Surely the maps app is pretty normal for Apple stuff though - looks great in a presentation, but when it comes to actual basic features they're more often than not very lacking.
Remember how long it took apple to "re-invent" copy and paste?!
The trouble is, like someone said above, this time apple are replacing existing functionality that their own users previously had.
only reason google's map app will stay as an option on app store is all the disgusted over how bad apple's is atm, give apple time, the day they believe their maps can compete decently google's is day they kill off google map app.
This is why
my next phone will be a Galaxy S3.
Buh Bye Apple.
Re: This is why
...and this is why my next phone will be a Nokia 920. Built in offline Nokia maps that are the result of years of investment.
Re: This is why
When I am going abroad I plan ahead where I might need detailed directions and download the surrounding area into Google Maps cache.
It looks like Google maps already has the major roads of several countries already built-in. Thanks to that and the WiFi access where we stayed I never needed to switch on 3G roaming when we went on holiday in Italy and Greece this summer.
Out of contract HTC Desire.
Re: This is why
true - nokia maps is excellent - worth having a nokia for
The UK has had an alternative to google maps for decades
Sure, it's in black and white but I find the traffic news is better.
If you think it's bad in the UK ...
Try it in Thailand, where it's truly awful.
They don't even claim to offer turn-by-turn here either. Although if it's as bad as it sounds, perhaps that's not an altogether bad thing?
Re: If you think it's bad in the UK ...
The last time I used a GPS map system in Bangkok was a "never to be repeated" experience. We never reached our destination. Luckily, taxis are cheap, cheerful and plentiful in Bangkok and that is why I don't own a car.
Re: If you think it's bad in the UK ...
That's *YOUR* excuse for being found in a bar surrounded by ladyboys. What's mine?
Re: If you think it's bad in the UK ...
Perhaps thats the point of iOS6? Not being found in those bars! lol
Public transport?
Who needs public transport on an iDevice .... surely all Jesus phone owners already have a BMW or Mercedes?
Re: Public transport?
yep and anyone you see wearing a Ferrari t-shirt has an f40 at home
This topic is closed for new posts.
