Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch Apple posted job adverts for six iOS map engineers within the past ten days, perhaps preempting the storm of criticism over the controversial new map app in iOS 6. Any effort to boost the software's team could be seen as too little, too late after fanbois and fangrrls across the world branded the new satnav-like service as …
But I just used the new wonky maps app for TBT directions on my iPhone 4, and aside that it doesn't voice the turns it works way better than the old maps app did, which basically needed you to manually page through the route.
And that's the crux of it, sat nav is a must have feature in a smartphone and google said no, so they've rolled their own, they can fix their stuff that's broken, they can't add turn by turn to the old maps though.
Apple has a thin and fragile veneer of "perfection" over endless software screw ups. There was a time when the cut and paste would refuse to paste a URL; they fixed it but then it came back, and then they fixed it again. Their spill chucker is (even today) unaware of cursor re-positioning; move the cursor and it'll make a total botch of auto corrections. Used free Wifi in a US airport to try to download a free BBC podcast, and it crashed the music playback app in a way that required iTunes (my home PC, at home) to fix. There are a thousand other examples of their human failings poking through the veneer of software perfection.
For what it's worth, Google Android and Google Play also have stupid and inexcusable failings. I won't even bother with RIM; they've skipped the veneer part.
Apple, particularly since the second coming of Jobs, has gradually alienated engineers. Back then, you could buy an Apple and you always had the sense of it being a bit over-engineered and well made, with decisions being taken (like the PPC) for rational reasons, or at least because of a certain element of beauty. At least the hardware architecture was a thing of beauty.
Now with Jobs, we get locked down boot loaders and operating systems. We get devices which are so badly designed you cannot even replace a broken battery. You can only install one operating system, the one that shipped with it. And that operating system was dumbed down to a point I cannot do anything useful with it as an engineer.
For engineers Apple has just become one of the worse consumer electronics companies. It feels like, at Apple you'll only be able to design products deliberately made bad by management decisions and you are not allowed to make it as good as you could. Working at a company which is like that, I know how frustrating that can be. All the interesting stuff inside that device, like for example the GSM/UMTS/LTE baseband has been outsourced to other companies. (there's only a tiny hand-full of baseband stacks, made by very few companies)
So Apple is no longer a place I'd like to work as an engineer. Luckily for Apple, since they have transcended into a religion, product quality doesn't matter anymore.
@S-O
I'd use my iPhone 4S. Or my wife's iPhone 5 that I'll probably buy her next month after the crowds die down a bit (her 3GS battery is on its last legs). Or my Google Nexus 7 tablet if I'm in the mood for Android apps. My RIM PlayBook is also within reach. I might buy a Kindle Fire HD later just for laughs.
We spend more on bananas and milk in the run of a year than Apple/Android gadgets.
I have dark grey socks. What colour are your socks? My colour socks are better than your colour socks.
So, you're using a browser to actually utilize maps on your phone. That's not even a bandaid. More like a "duct tape fixes everything" type approach.
At least the Maps/Latitude/Navigation on my Android powered phone actually work.. and work well. Keep trying to defend your iPhone. We all know the truth.
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