It's thought that the current owners of HERE – BMW, Audi, and Daimler – want to concentrate on a mobile operating system that people are actually using. ®
Err... not people. Car entertainment units.
HERE, the mapping arm of Nokia that Microsoft didn't buy up when it acquired the Finnish manufacturer, has announced it's no longer going to be doing apps for Windows 10 and Phone devices. "In the last few months, we made the HERE apps compatible with Windows 10 by using a workaround that will no longer be effective after June …
Are you saying that the car entertainment unit is for entertaining the car - or for entertaining the people in the car?
It is people in the car, but they do not get a choice of what the OS is. They buy a car + infotainment system or an infotainment for retrofit.
Same as my Sony car stereos run Android. I do not get a choice on the subject - I bought a Sony (ditto for any vehicle bundling it). I actually know it is Android only because I have actually gone and read the license list on the about page of menu at the bottom of the unit settings. 99.9% of users will not get anywhere near that.
"Err... not people. Car entertainment units."
Hence the focus on handsets / OSs that are actually used. It's more than probable that linking a car's infotainment system to the handset is the way forward. Many third party headunits, and some OEM ones, already do this with Mirrorview or whatever it's called and don't bother having their own standalone GPS system for example.
Now if only LibreOffice 5 could gain some traction too... cogs slowly turn
We switched a while back, but now we need to work in 4 different languages we have issues with entering accented characters. On OSX, LibreOffice does not integrate with the OSX method of entering accented characters (where you can hold down a character longer and a selection pops up). I'm not quite sure why not, I guess there are software reasons that make this difficult but it has forced us to start looking at NeoOffice instead as LibreOffice's mechanism is quite frankly clumsy.
An alternative is that we equip all systems with keyboards that have all the accented characters present, like the Swiss keyboards but that leads to other issues such as people having to get used to a QWERTZ layout and coders not having direct access to the # sign :).
Haven't quite worked this one out yet. Not that NeoOffice is expensive, mind you - $10 is actually less than I think it's worth if it works (not keen on the App Store version as it limits Base in what it can access).
*"...On OSX, LibreOffice does not integrate with the OSX method of entering accented characters (where you can hold down a character longer and a selection pops up)..."
Try hitting:
* ALT+e followed by the vowel you want, to add an: áéíóú
* ALT+i followed by the letter you want, to add an: âêîôû
* ALT+u followed by the letter you want, to ad äëïöü
* ALT+n followed by n for an: ñ
* ALT+c to produce ç
* ALT+o to produce ø
[or, alternatively, switch your keyboard to use Irish layout and ALT+any vowel will type that vowel with an áéíóú, which saves an extra keystroke in languages which only use that type of accented character].
As an office system, LibreOffice has pretty much everything there to walk all over anything that Microsoft Office can do. No ribbons either.
Except that it has no email client. If they could develop an email client that could do a better job than Outlook, I suspect that they'd clean up!
"As an office system, LibreOffice has pretty much everything there to walk all over anything that Microsoft Office can do"
If you mean MS Office from 20 years ago maybe. To suggest it's an equivalent is simply not the case.
Also LibreOffice requires Java installed which is an absolute no along with Flash on any of my PCs.
Also LibreOffice requires Java installed which is an absolute no along with Flash on any of my PCs.
LOL, so you "don't use Flash or Java" but you use MS Office with its macro problems? You're not really one for consistency, are you?
You don't actually NEED Java. It's used in some functionality (I think macros, actually) but it works quite well without. As for being equivalent or not, who cares? For about 90% of users it delivers all the functionality they ever need, and the UI stays consistent between versions which means that upgrades don't immediately invoke a feature treasure hunt or training as has long been the case with MS Office - yet another saving in training costs as well as continued productivity.
The real problem for MS is that users switching to LO/OO become far less platform dependent as such documents render equally well on OSX and Linux. If it wasn't for Outlook they would have lost a lot more people already as budgets are getting tighter.
There's also the fact that ODF is a mature, organically developed document standard as opposed to MSOOXML which was thrown together in a hurry as a me-too (and it shows), but that has far less influence on user choice than it ought to have - I count myself lucky that I've been able to make it our corporate document standard. It means documents can be edited on any platform so if we change our minds at some point about our core OS it will not hamper migration. Open Standards make perfect business sense IMHO.
"LOL, so you "don't use Flash or Java" but you use MS Office with its macro problems? "
Macros are disabled by default in Office. Also our Group policy only allows signed and trusted macros to run.
"become far less platform dependent as such documents render equally well on OSX and Linux"
MS Office works just fine on OS-X. Pretty much no one uses Linux on the desktop so it's an irrelevance. However Office 365 web access works just fine on Linux.
"There's also the fact that ODF is a mature, organically developed document standard as opposed to MSOOXML "
Lucky then that MS Office provides more advanced and less buggy support for it than LibreOffice does...
"Lucky then that MS Office provides more advanced and less buggy support for it than LibreOffice does..."
Anyone who says that hasn't tried it. I work in a heterogeneous environment and Office constantly chokes on documents created by LibreOffice (4 and 5), often displaying conversion errors that put off users. Once they open the basic formatting is a shambles, with basic things like headers and other styles completely messed up. LibreOffice does a better job of native Office formats, so we often have to fall back on the MS formats to suit the lowest common denominator and keep everyone happy. If MS put some effort into ODF then it would work well for everyone.
I find it pretty amusing that (once again) a small project can do a better job supporting alternative formats to their own native ones than a large multinational software company. This is one of the painful downsides of relying on a large corporate vendor.
People pay for Office for a reason, that reason being it's the best option.
There are only two reasons left why people still fork out stupid shovels full of cash instead of using LibreOffice:
- Complex Excel spreadsheets (the stuff business decisions are made with if they are to defy any attempt at auditing)
- Outlook
Anyone who does any real presenting will have switched to Keynote by now on an iThing or a Mac, or Haiku Deck. Powerpoint has tumbled down the same death slope of usability as Visio has and died of featuritus. Call it the Microsoft effect.
"- Complex Excel spreadsheets (the stuff business decisions are made with if they are to defy any attempt at auditing)"
Whilst I share your skepticism about badly-written spreadsheets I have to say that LO calc be used for extreme spreadsheets - the major difference is the macro languages are different. Recalc. speed used to be slow - it's now very fast
@ Alan Bourke
OpenOffice/LibreOffice started life as a commercial product - "Star Office", made in Germany, ja?
Star Office is long-established; a German friend has documents that go back to its DOS version & was very happy that OpenOffice could read them.
Just as Microsoft chooses to give away some software applications to gain commercial advantage in other areas, Sun chose to do the same in open-sourcing OpenOffice.
I use both MS Office and LibreOffice; there really isn't much difference on a day-to-day basis. Each has its own annoyances...
This post has been deleted by its author
Better UI? When in a car at arm's length, and used for voice-guide navigation, the interface is almost invisible and the buttons are too small.
That UI may work on a desktop or near your face, but never in a car. So yes, it kind of replaces HERE Maps, but it's a bad replacement for HERE Drive.
The least they could do was open a migration path for all favourites from HERE.com to Windows Maps...
Well that's about it for winpho then.
MixRadio closed it's doors last month and now now mapping. They were the two things that really appealed to me about WinPho.
Without that really what's the incentive to stick with WinPho? Few apps, even the MS developed apps for their own producs are inferior to Android and Apple versions (Skype).
My 920 doesn't integrate with W10 any better than an Android phone.
I'm overdue a new phone now, I don't really like Andoid or Apple, BB looks like it's in it's deaththrows which did leave WinPho. But why would I buy from a company that appears to hate it's own products?
And I'm someone that really liked WinPho8.
At least for the area where I live, HERE maps are quite far from being excellent: their street maps have not been updated for at least four years; their aerial maps are from at least five years ago. Google maps are a little better, but not by much: their aerials have been updated three years ago, but the street map is also from four years ago.
Because most delivery drivers seem to use either HERE or Google maps, this is a bit of a problem: HERE users think that our place does not exist at all, while Google-fanciers wind up about 1/2 mile away.
On the other hand, Open Street Maps have excellent coverage around here, as well as most places I tend to travel to. If only they could slap together a decent route planner ...
Don't think that's anything specifically to do with the app somehow, unless it's not using the full capabilities of the GPS?
I often use Google Maps on commuter flights at speeds ranging from 0-500mph, altitudes from 0ft to 40,000ft, and never have any problems with it once the GPS locks on - and sluggish GPS lock-on isn't really an app issue.
Google Maps have a fixation with snapping to landmarks/roads known to it. I've ended up 10km off the mark due to it snapping to the wrong "closest known" country road. I suspect that's why it struggles tracking train journeys.
HERE often insists on saving points of interest as addresses, not the GPS coordinates. A real PITA if a street name appears in different suburbs/towns (Main Road, anyone?). In HERE's favour again, it's very accurate if you have a house number in a street, Google Maps just aims for the midpoint of the road.
@CliveS I think you already know the answer. The dual sim Moto G 2014 got Marshmallow 6.0 yesterday, it runs Here Maps perfectly, and you can store the 30GB of offline Worldwide Maps on a (up to 128GB) microsd. Its a good cheap 'really does the job' Android phone.
You may want to give the Windows 10 Maps app a try. It has most of the features HERE Maps and Drive have, it adds some new features for in-car navigation such as route selection and lane hints, and it certainly uses the same HERE map data. Of course you wouldn't know any of that if you are a journalist with an iPhone and an itch to write a clickbait piece of "news" after reading first 20% of a press release.
Well that puts the kibosh on my theory that Microsoft had grown up and had stopped trying to strangle its partners.
Looks like Embrace, Extend, Extinguish is still alive and well (and for HERE, it's at the phase where the original partner is marginalised and Microsoft's version of the very same thing is pressed on the gullible populace).
Sorry pal, but repeating old catchphrases associated with Microsoft does not make you automatically correct.
The main asset for Here is their geospatial data. If Microsoft can do a better job writing an app for them and it makes the app built-in experience in Windows (desktop and mobile alike), how is it marginalising? Data collection from the users is one important aspect, and there may be surprising turns there. On that there has been no information, except that the Here apps have their own user account and the stock Maps hasn't; but it's not unreasonable to expect Microsoft and Here have some agreement on feeding in data received from the users, much like the automakers do.
> how is it marginalising
As in pushing to the margins, in particular making it uneconomic for HERE to continue to offer their product under their own branding. So, HERE's revenue stream is reduced to selling their data to Microsoft; whereas previously they provided a complete solution on the WP platform.
Regardless of whether or not E,E,E is a cliche, it pretty much encapsulates what happens to companies that go into partnerships with Microsoft.
Since the rise of Satya there has been a lot of positive change in Microsoft, so it's sad to see that the old ways (clone your partners' stuff and then bundle it for free) are not yet extinct.
> As in pushing to the margins, in particular making it uneconomic for HERE to continue to offer their product under their own branding. So, HERE's revenue stream is reduced to selling their data to Microsoft; whereas previously they provided a complete solution on the WP platform.
That's assuming they got anything out of the "complete solution", as opposed to, say, becoming _the_ maps provider for all Windows 10 devices. Are they known for shoving "HERE" in your face across in-car systems?
Data collection from the users is one important aspect, and there may be surprising turns there
Why? If Winpho10 has no significant user base, there's mo reason for the car makers to worry about the handful of users. As much as anything their interest is user>car interaction, so integrating with phones is important for volume ecosystems of evil necessity, but ideally they'd want to capture the feedback via the car nav interface
All of which leaves Microsoft out in the cold. Premium German brands are (guardedly) happy to work with Apple, but who's going to be in a queue to work with Microsoft, when their brand is a bit "dull grey suit", they don't have the loyal user engagement of Apple, and they don't have a data-value proposition like Google? Office for Autos doesn't sound like a compelling proposition to me any more than Auto-Outlook or Auto-Server 2016.
"Should have" translates as "Too late now", but Microsoft should have attempted to own the car information space some ten or more years ago. That would have meant buying a grade A map database assets, and a grade A satnav brand. They could have developed Xbox technologies for entertainment for back seat passengers, and used the car as a springboard to relevance in end users lives. They should have bought a car radio OEM (like Clarion) to make this happen, and invested in self driving developments to keep up to date with the potential, along with other telematics development. Instead of defining themselves as The Car Software Company, and using this to get into home integration, they started off trying to be Google with the utterly failed aQuantive acquisition. Then they tried to be Google again by buying Nokia and controlling their own phone development and an ecosystem, and that failed.
So that's why Microsoft are where they are - relevant to office productivity, relevant to sysadmins, but with no relevance to consumers or business partners.
On my Winphone (8.1 and staying that way) Here works really well, where Waze for example, doesn't.
In my car it seems to be the software that underlies the Pioneer Satnav and it's absolutely crap. To the point that I'm considering bringing out my old Tomtom again. At least the Tomtom never took me to the right all round Regent's Park and the Euston Rd. to an address that was within 150 metres to the left of where it had told me to turn right. There are plenty more terrible examples. Whether the problem is within Here in cars or some aspect of the Pioneer device I have no way of knowing. (The Pioneer car system is generally such a pile of sh*t I kick myself for being conned into ever letting them talk me into getting it installed.)
It is not only about crap marketing.
They were years late in releasing a viable competitore to Android and IOS. Then they kept faffing about with it rather than going for stability.
The limited choice of device hardware didn't help either.
My other half was a WP fan but eventually went over to the dark side (Apple) out of frusttration with the platform.
It really is time to pull the plug MS. But you won't. After all having a touch platform is a cornerstone in your thrust to get every windows users onto that 'thing' called Windows 10. no mobile and the reason for Metro/Tifkam/modern/CrapUI goes away.
The popular dual sim Moto G 2014 got the ota Android 6.0 Marshmallow yesterday in the UK, it runs Here Maps for Android really well and you can fit a 128GB microsd to store the 30GB of Offline World Maps.
Probably the best cheap alternative, if you don't need 4G, but need dual sim, in terms of having the latest version of Android.
MS Build 2016 this year, you get the feeling they will have tumbleweed rolling across the stage, before the lacklustre update by Satya Nadella. Heads need to roll at MS Marketing.
If they wanted to kill it, they would just do it instead of pouring millions after millions into it. The problem they have got is they stopped pouring millions into it for too long, left things to rot, and are now trying to to a massive re-architecture and integration of >50% of their product portfolio.
It will probably work out in 2-3 years. In their typical half-arsed, full of the compromises no-one wants, way. That should see them to about 3% market share. Winners.
I'm really sorry to have to say this, because I do like Windows Phone.... Time for Microsoft to throw in the mobile towel? Mapping is just too important a component, of the mobile experience, for too many users. MSFT were utter idiots for not buying Here.
"What's the state of Bing! Maps on WinPho?"
Well a search turned up this:
Windows 10 | Maps Blog - Bing Blog
Bing Maps Sessions at //Build/ Leveraging ... the Windows team announced a preview of the new Maps app which is now available for phones running Windows 10 Technical ...
[Search domain blogs.bing.com] blogs.bing.com/maps/tag/windows-10/
but the link 404'd???
Make of that what you will. :/
@ Captain DaFt
Bing search on Bing Blogs seems to be fubar - ANY search term returns "Not found" errors.
Map development seems to have halted or slowed down dramatically - most of the results are rather stale (2012?); in fact, the latest blog dates back to November 2015.
Its no loss and definitely no big deal there are more than enough map apps that are far better
and accurate with more detail if you intend to use it for driving, still not
sure what there problem is. Does this mean the Germans are not very good at
programming.
All the apps that I had on my Nokia 930 on 8.1 are working fine on WP10 and its still only beta
I'm really curious what is changing June 30 that will make this app quit running? Is the service that converts Windows 8/8.1 apps to run on Windows 10 going to be deactivated June 30? Perhaps some API oddity in Windows 10, like the requests have to be tunneled through some bit of server-side software (either Microsoft or HERE-operated) that is not needed for Windows 8/8.1 HERE to work? This makes me curious.
To answer my own question, after some googling, it's a matter of Windows 10 having no user-visible version numbers -- if this were Android, it'd be like "this app won't work on Android 5, Lollipop" or whatever version. "Windows 10 Redstone", the next Windows 10 phone update, is expected for release June 30, at which point phones will get it OTA. So probably they've found the W10 Redstone preview will not run the HERE app due to some incompatible change.
'..So probably they've found the W10 Redstone preview will not run the HERE app due to some incompatible change.'
Which still leaves the question hanging, what is this 'incompatible change', and what other software will this 'incompatible change' break?
(Happily, I only have to support one Winphone user..so whatever else breaks...meh, that'll learn 'em...)
> So developers have to target a constantly changing platform without a version number.
I think this situation is unique to the Here apps. I haven't heard of documented APIs breaking on Windows Phone ever since 7.x. I suspect this has to do with how they get access to offline maps. In WP 8.x it was up to the Here apps to manage stored maps, while in Windows 10 they are managed by the system. I guess the 'workaround' mentioned by Here's rep allows Here apps to hook into the new map store in a way that lets them continue working, but it's slated to disappear in the next platform update.
The Press got wind, put two and two together - stated that due to 512MB ram specifications, Windows 10 Mobile wouldn't be compatible with existing handsets, limited 512MB memory.
Microsoft knew Windows 10 Mobile wouldn't (*again-WP7->WP8) be compatible with Windows Phone 8.1, but to save face, they applied an interim step 'First release - Windows 10 Mobile', that would be compatible with Windows Phone 8.1, only to ditch compatibility, with the next release 'Windows 10 Mobile Redstone'.
Its clever, but also down right deceiving.
Windows 10 strategy is failing to embrace developers.
Other operating systems have maintained a reasonable level of code reuse, not so with Windows 10, typically we have to re-write the applications and in some cases this requires a considerable amount of development and often finds the Windows 10 environment lacking is required features to deliver the same functionality.
For end users of earlier versions that apps survived several windows operating system versions, however now with Windows 10 the apps appearing that are compatible are first release versions that have not matured like previous operating systems.
Regardless if HERE has a chip on it's shoulder that they where not purchased by Microsoft, I would suggest that the cost benefit of redeveloping their applications to Windows 10 can't not be justified or simply the OS is not delivering the features that it requires - like many other Apps.
Because many applications require a complete re-write for Windows 10 we are seeing an operating system in the market that suffers from minimal support from developers. While the operating system is important, I might suggest good feature rich applications are the selling point. I would certainly not support a mobile phone or desktop operating system that ONLY has core applications developed by Microsoft.
Mobile devices are not only for games, Line of Business applications are critical to many customers, small business and enterprises however Microsoft continues to provide what I would consider a hostile closed shop approach to the free deployment of this class of application.
Android has allowed developer a wider range of API's with unrestricted access for third parties, this has delivered feature rich and a wide range of mature applications, Microsoft either does not allow to some core features or has a tiered approach depending on how much you pay them for the right to develop applications.
I have approached many application developers who have great applications such as government public transport services, educational organizations, etc and have been told they are not going to build Windows 10 applications. If Microsoft does not embrace these organizations then certainly the platforms value is seriously degraded.
We are certainly saddened by the current Microsoft strategy and the apparent ignorance of Microsoft not getting it right. I fear that many more development houses will drop away from this platform.
"We are certainly saddened by the current Microsoft strategy and the apparent ignorance of Microsoft not getting it right. I fear that many more development houses will drop away from this platform.
As a home-based user, blogger, and writer who is increasingly relying on Linux-based apps, that certainly sounds like a coffin lid dropping into place! What good is an OS without a freely-accessible universe of apps?
'..I have approached many application developers who have great applications such as government public transport services, educational organizations, etc and have been told they are not going to build Windows 10 applications. '
And yet, we've just been told for 'compliance' reasons, we'll have to upgrade from Win7 to Win10..despite knowing beforehand that software we use will break. (The developers don't support it, we've tested it..).
We've gone down this road before, for 'compliance' reasons we upped from XP to Win7, and, as we (and the developers, I have to add) told them it would, our software broke horribly and randomly.
In fact, to this day, the software still continues to do so. I'd rather have had some packages we use just stop working completely under Win7, rather than the situation we have where they just limp along, work reasonably, but throw wobblies when they hit whatever 'edge/boundary' conditions they have with the OS.
These wobblies, ok, maybe they'll fubar someone's document, no real big deal, but in our case they can be expensive when it translates to machine control..(think: all the fun things a 4 hp motor spinning at 19,000 rpm with suitable tooling attached could get up to which weren't on the original drawing)
It's on days like this, reading what you posted above, that I'm really glad I got out of this game as my main job, and that I've got my reasons why these OS updates are a bad idea down on paper (there is a strong blame culture here, and I'm not taking the fecally contaminated end of the stick for someone else's asinine IT decisions.)
P.S. Before anyone asks about the compliance, I know not, nor do I care..it's some sort of suit-driven circle-jerk paperchase exercise being pursued somewhere at great cost to taxpayers..
'..Doesn't the Windows EULA specifically say not to do just that very thing?'
Like anyone ever reads that thing...
'..Eek!'
No, more like
screech..
squeal..
screech..
ohshitohshitohshit..
squeal..
chomp..
ohshitohshitohshit..
chew..
frag..
grind..
grind..
..eviscerate!..
ohshit..
slam!
(that last one being the sound of the emergency stop on the CNC being forcefully applied after a mad dash across the workshop...)
I'm unsure I understood the problem: doesn't Windows 10 offer C/C++ programming tools that would allow you to port your application logic, so that you only have to put the platform-specific UI layer on top? Unless you were heavily glued to old Win32 and never made an effort to port your application code to Android and/or iOS, what are the specific issues you're having?
@21mhz
I've not written anything for WP of any version, but have been part of an app development team doing apps for iOS and Android using Xamarin.
Even though we were using the exact same tool and language for the two platforms, the internals of the apps ended up being very different because their structure was largely dictated by the rules of the platform-provided APIs - both UI and low-level APIs.
So much of the app development effort (also true of writing software for computer OSes) was expended on writing glue so that the actual functionality of the app could be presented within the vendor's API framework.
Therefore if the platorm changes from 8.x -> 10 are such that app developers have to unpick their logic, exctract the core platform-independent classes, and rebuild the rest from the ground up for the new APIs, it's a major effort (never mind re-test and re-qualitfy the whole thing). And if there is no revenue stream resulting from that work, only a company with a reliable cash-cow can afford the luxury.
As far as I understood, the platform API changes from 8.x to 10 are nil: you get to use the same Modern UI and the same platform interfaces. This week I changed my phone from one running Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and all 40-something apps I had on the old phone were re-installed from backup without a hitch (some actually started to work better, go figure). I don't think all the app vendors had to change anything in their apps in order to make that happen.
> the platform API changes from 8.x to 10 are nil: you get to use the same Modern UI and the same platform interfaces
OK, now I'm officially puzzled, as earlier you posted that HERE just needed to re-do their UI for WP10?
And on re-reading the original article, HERE are quoted as saying that a ground-up rewrite would be necessary.
> OK, now I'm officially puzzled, as earlier you posted that HERE just needed to re-do their UI for WP10?
No, I was referring to porting apps between Surface and Windows 10 Phone (and the desktop too).
> And on re-reading the original article, HERE are quoted as saying that a ground-up rewrite would be necessary.
I guess that refers to changes in the map storage. With Windows itself now managing the offline maps, it would be stupid and wasteful to let Here apps maintain their separate copies, so some workaround was arranged behind the scenes to hook Here into the system maps without code changes. But then maybe the platform people at Microsoft are not happy about this hack and want it to go away as soon as feature continuity is achieved in the stock Maps.
"With Windows itself now managing the offline maps, it would be stupid and wasteful to let Here apps maintain their separate copies"
If that's the case its no surprise the App developers are jumping ship, its a classic case of embrace, extend, extinguish.
It came preinstalled on my Archos Cesium 50 Win10 phone.
Seems a pretty long way from Here Maps and Here Drive as a driving assistant IMO. The user interface is poor.
I'm still very confused by the different variants of Here: Here Maps, Here Drive, Here Drive+...
I've tried to install Here Drive+ on the said Archos phone, it did install from the Windows Store but I can't get past the login screen: the keyboard doesn't show up.
Sad because it's a nice app. I use it a lot on my Lumia 535.
I am a big HERE on WP fan. It was the first app I downloaded on my Android (dual SIM) christmas present.
It was immediately a less satisfying experience. HERE on WP launches in "Driving Mode" - where the display picks up the orientation of the phone, and displays time elapsed/distance driven (but still warns of speed limits). A very hand fit-n-forget feature.
HERE Android ? Opening screen is locked to portrait (so if the phone is landscape in a cradle, you need a 90degree neck). And you have to *then* select driving mode. Clunky *and* inexplicable.
Also the "Collections" feature is painfully 1980s in execution.
If what they're saying at HERE is the truth, they didn't decide to drop support for Windows 10 because they didn't like Microsoft, but for technical reasons that would have made continuing support uneconomical.
And it also means that since it's a workaround for a fundamental incompatibility that's breaking, that what Microsoft did on its end may have been a legitimate step to improve the security of their operating system.
I'm surprised that an application to display maps on a mobile device has to somehow break the rules software developers are expected to follow, and resort to hacker-type techniques in order to provide its basic functionality. But given the statement that it could work if rewritten from the ground up, likely that is not the issue, the problem could be that the app derives from legacy code written for the Windows desktop, i.e., Windows 7 or earlier.
Dollers to Donuts, it's a UAC-aware re-write that is required.
Modern apps are required to use UAC elevation requests to access resources. It's a major rewrite.
Legacy systems (Win V/7/8) allowed legacy non-UAC-aware applications. Win 10 is tighter. Win10 phone is/will be tighter. I don't know what will be tightened in the new Win10phone release, but it's a no-brainer that UAC elevatoin will be tighter.
It seemed a little ironic that the message on my Lumia saying that the app would not continue to be supported showed up under their strapline of "Maps for Life".
But I guess they're probably using the marketing experience from the VW group. Another one for trading standards and the ASA.
Where I live in northern Spain HERE as implemented for Garmin is awful. It doesn't know that roads in my village that were just reasphalted were ever asphalted, it doesn't know that my village exists, it doesn't know that my Postcode, shared by 1000 people, exists, it doesn't know that the nearby stretch of motorway was completed three years ago and when I'm driving on it through a tunnel shows me as being in the middle of a field.
A high-quality product owned by German luxury firms, just the thing for my Merc (a 1985 190D)?