back to article Google maps app is BACK on iPhones, fanbois spared death

Google's maps app for iPhones, iPads and iPods is back less than three months after Apple booted it out of the iOS platform. In that period, the Cupertino giant publicly apologised for replacing its rival's mapping application with its own shoddy satnav-like software; the top exec behind Apple's crap map app, Scott Forstall, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
      1. Steve I
        Go

        Re: Works fine on my ipad

        "Only one way to find out ... FIGHT!"

        Excellent idea - where's the fight?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Works fine on my ipad

          ""Only one way to find out ... FIGHT!"

          Excellent idea - where's the fight?"

          Really? Which fking school do you goto?

          1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
            Boffin

            Re: Works fine on my ipad

            10 PRINT "I go to the school of not overreacting to an internet comment'"

            20 GOTO 10

      2. BigAndos

        Re: Works fine on my ipad

        I was confused, but I worked out you hold your finger down on the map where you want to see street view. When it drops a marker on the map, swipe up the address window that appears at the bottom and you can open street view. Hope that helps!

      3. You have not yet created a handle
        Thumb Up

        Re: Works fine on my ipad

        Yep, street view is available, but not as straight forward to get to as the original built-in maps

  1. Steve Todd
    FAIL

    You think Google Maps makes you safe in the Outback

    Think again

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/15610781/police-warn-of-safety-concerns-from-google-maps/

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not available...

      What? What's that got to do with mapping?

  3. JDX Gold badge

    Good news for Apple

    Now everyone put off by their crap-maps can by iPhones again safe in the knowledge the platform has great mapping software.

    Apple get Google maps back, but this time they don't have to pay for it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Good news for Apple

      Not so fast... "Now police in Colac, west of Melbourne, say faults with Google maps are putting people's lives at risk along the Great Ocean Road and in the southern Otways"

      1. Pet Peeve
        Facepalm

        Re: Good news for Apple

        Yep, it's a totally stupid story. Before apple maps came out, the reg had a story practically every other week about satnavs doing the same exact thing. It's just flamebait.

        The fact is, the underlying data is pretty terrible, since it only gets corrected by actually USING it. Roads that show in ordnance survey maps (or your local equivalent) but are misclassified as more drivable than they really are, or flat out don't exist anymore, are endemic to mapping data in remote areas. Until some yahoo tries to drive it, that information is never going to be corrected.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Good news for Apple

          They should use the old Soviet maps of UK, they''re better than the UK ones ;) In fact some companies do use the data already.

          Data pretty accurate up to 1991 one should imagine.....

          Apart from the dodgy phonetic spellings of placenames of course :P

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This could be fun

    I look forward to impressive efforts being mounted to troll the inevitable Apple street view cars. Having perfected their art on Google cars, can we anticipate a new level of creativity? This new art form is deserving of awards, and I for one will be eagerly waiting for someone else to scan millions of Apple street view images to find new, outrageous images to provide me with a brief moment of entertainment.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: This could be fun

      Google used Opels, but I suspect that Apple will use Jagwires.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This could be fun

        Well, why buy an overpriced lumbering pretence at being a modern car when you can have the real thing? Astra OPC anyone? They had a pale grey one on steel wheels for winter with not too much stick-on wings at my local dealer, took a while to figure out what it was exactly, I knew it looked kinda nice, but... ;)

        I actually really wanted an original XJS until I discovered that sadly, they were all crap. Apart from Tom Walkinshaw's racing ones. Which probably weren''t using the newer HE heads as those would have been a B***rd to tune.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This could be fun

          Ahh, make that a GTC at the dealers, not quite as crazy as an OPC, and nice shape.

          http://www.opel.fr/vehicules/showroom/vehicules-particuliers/new-astra-gtc/index.html

          Check the crazy gallic background grumble-flick-music!

          1. Steve Todd
            Stop

            Re: This could be fun

            Not looked at a Jag recently have you? Take a look at the XF or the XK and tell us again how that GM tin is prettier.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: This could be fun

              I have, and I stand by what I said ;)

              1. Steve Todd

                Re: This could be fun

                No accounting for taste I suppose, people actually like the PT Cruiser too.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is that a helicopter I hear?

    Nope. It's Steve Jobs spinning in his grave again.

  6. Longrod_von_Hugendong

    I just installed it...

    and removed the tick from 'track the crap out of me, whilst feeding in me adverts' and i didnt log in to my google account.

    As for the outback navigation problems, it should read...

    'I nearly died because my family has bred a little too closely, so i am dumb ass country bumpkin, who cannot follow signs or common sense '

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: I just installed it...

      It's not the dumb ass country bumpkins who need better maps, it's the dumb ass city morons. People who live in the sticks actually can get around without the aid of electronics.

  7. groovyf

    tomtom?

    Rumours of Apple looking to buy TomTom. That would pretty much give Apple the "fix" that Apple Maps needs - simply replace it with a TomTom-based app.

    1. B_K
      Stop

      Re: tomtom?

      You do realise the current Apple Maps already uses TomTom data? (hence the 'Data from TomTom , others>' link on the preference rollup)

      On a different issue this new app seems to hammer the battery, even in the background..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: tomtom?

        "seems to hammer the battery"

        Oh better carry some spare batteries and portable charger then, or your phone wont last till lunch time. Still you think it looks good!

        1. B_K

          Re: tomtom?

          No it's an observation that this new Google Maps app killed 20% of my battery in about an hour running in the background - A colleague also had exactly the same.

          'Still you think it looks good!' ? grow up.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: tomtom?

        >You do realise the current Apple Maps already uses TomTom data

        It's worse - Tom Tom has been updating it's PoI to aging TeleAtlas data - which prior to acquistion used it's datasharing agreement with Google Maps to acquire PoI data. Kind of hard to find a charging point or free wifi, but Little Chefs still roam freely across the nation.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: tomtom?

          Apple should just buy Google and have done with it.

    2. Another User
      Stop

      I hope not

      The TomTom app is a drain on the battery. It is the only app I have which heats up my iPhone. On hot summer days this can lead to a heat warning message and the phone shuts down.

      The Apple app lacks some basic functionality like display of speed and also lacks more advanced functionality like re-routing based on traffic, road-blocks,etc. The dismal maps are not part of the Apple maps app.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: tomtom?

      Wouldn't they have to pay money to MS in an ongoing basis in that case?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BEST OPTION AVAILABLE

    BIN THE SHITTY iPHONE.

    Get something decent!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: BEST OPTION AVAILABLE

      Now look here, these are IT people. You have to say:-

      "Spend the same money and get far more up-to-date faster hardware and hackable firmware and software"

      But maybe they aren't really IT people ;)

  9. dssf

    Will this be a lesson in humility?

    Capriciousness and crappiness a winner makes not....

    OK, on with the relentless down thumbing....

    1. Steve Williams

      Anyone who shows excess sensitivity to down voting...

      ...generates an automatic downvote from me.

  10. Alan Denman

    Look what got uncanned

    Now that was quite a desert flick.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "And, of course, in the process continue to fork over your location data to Google."

    So, tracked by Apple and Google, not just Apple.

  12. Chad H.
    Mushroom

    So much for....

    So much for Google's Chicken-Little like claims that their app would be rejected - despite other mapping apps using their data already being available.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: So much for....

      It was just to drum up publicity and therefore demand and therefore make it difficult for Apple to say no, exactly the same as Opera did.

    2. Comments are attributed to your handle
      Megaphone

      Re: Chad H.

      And your point is?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DAMNIT!

    Now I've got no excuse for being late for work.

    Thanks very much, Apple!

    1. Wyrdness

      Re: DAMNIT!

      You need satnav to find your way to work? I hope that you never breed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: DAMNIT!

        Not everyone works in a fixed location

  14. andy gibson

    Google maps not so perfect

    For years Google put every suburb of Sheffield as "Norton".

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google Maps....

    It simply.....works.

    1. Steve Williams

      From ABC: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

      ..."Now police in Colac, west of Melbourne, say faults with Google maps are putting people's lives at risk along the Great Ocean Road and in the southern Otways."

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Huzzah!

    It doesn't have the public transport option for the UK yet, but it *does* have traffic! Yay! Love it!

    :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Huzzah!

      Public transport option is working really well in London.

  17. D@v3

    a couple of things

    So many people are and have been complaining about the iOS maps app. There is little wrong (apart from maybe the missing street view) with the app itself, it's the map data that is screwy, and i have already noticed an improvement with that since it was released, probably due to the large amount of people using it, and reporting errors.

    It's nice to have Google maps back, however, having had a bit of a look around, i can see that (much like any other mapping service) it is far from perfect. The most notable is that the area in which one of my friends lives is a new build. On the iOS map, the map still shows the old information, but the satellite photos are up to date. in google maps, the map, and the photos are out of date, but the street view data is much more current.

    There are also features missing from the Google app, that may never appear, such as being able to search for a location based on stored contact information. From my point of view, it's going to be a lot easier for Apple to improve their offering, by improving the quality of their maps, than it is for Google to improve theirs by improving the core function of their app.

    1. Hyper72

      Re: a couple of things

      It also seems that everybody's forgotten that when Google Maps first came out the media was filled with horror stories about wrong directions.

      No matter what mapping app we use, we have to use it intelligently.

      I'm happy to have street view again though.

  18. jai
    FAIL

    shame it's not any better

    I tried it this morning - was not 5 minutes away from home when I get to a roundabout - the main map display tells me to turn right and take the 3rd exit - but the quick view display at the top tells me to go straight across. Thankfully it was local to me so I knew which one was correct. But I think I'll stick to Apple Maps when I'm somewhere unfamiliar as so far I've had no issues with that.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like