iOS 6 available

[Paul.]

Thanks for that Paul, I may be doing that in a few days.

I think Google already have an App ready to go, they just want to drag out Apples humiliation a little longer to mar the iPhone 5 launch. Google earn more in search revenue from iPhone users than Android users, so doubt it will be a long wait...

All just speculation of course

 

[6th.replicant]

 

[chebby]

There isn't one.

So which Google maps (for mobile) app did I load onto my phone from Google UK this morning? It is working fine and using location services and looks the same as the old one.

 

[Anonymous]

As its vector vases rather than image based it does load stuff much faster. But street veiw is gone and there arnt as nany points of interest. I'm just happy sponsored links are gone.

Google maps has been vector based for at least a year on Android and elsewhere, I believe just the iOS version was still tile based.

 

[Anonymous]

What makes the new maps function poor can I ask? (not confrontational - just asking as I haven't used it yet and likely won't for a while). From what I've seen, it looks like it loads stuff quicker - is there just not as much detail?

I think the app is fine and I do like the 3D fly view stuff, the problem is the data.

A lot/most of the good stuff is commercial and companies that supply to Google are restricted on who else they can supply to, additionally it takes time to source and work out how to serve the data quickly, Google have a few years headstart here.

Old saying GIGO and from the look of Apples data it is definately in the G category.

 

[carter]

Playing the new, no doubt album on iTunes for free.

never noticed this with any other albums before,is it a one off, new feature or does it happen from time to time.

like it

 

[carter]

Playing the new, no doubt album on iTunes for free.

never noticed this with any other albums before,is it a one off, new feature or does it happen from time to time.

like it

not the album but the free bit :silenced:

 

[6th.replicant]

Actually, it'll be good to see this smug wee git get his comeuppance.

And it was a great idea to drop Street View for what is, in effect, sky view, which is for the benefit of whom, exactly - this fella?? :doh:

 

[professorhat]

Actually, it'll be good to see this smug wee git get his comeuppance.

And it was a great idea to drop Street View for what is, in effect, sky view, which is for the benefit of whom, exactly - this fella?? :doh:

I guess if you live in San Francisco, it's pretty good. Or in the Botanical Gardens next to Sydney Opera House.

 

[6th.replicant]

It seems that the Hoover Dam area is being redeveloped by Alton Towers:

 

[Anonymous]

Brilliant. Really liked that one 6th.Replicant. :rofl:

 

[Andrew Everard]

Best bit of new maps is the way Apple has resolved the current dispute between China and Japan over a clutch of small islands both are claiming, thus giving rise to protests against Japanese businesses in China, Japanese people being attacked, arson, Japanese cars smashed up, etc.

Why didn't they just ask Apple? It had the obvious solution all along...

/sites/whathifi.com/files/images/newsarchive4/A3MHG2VCYAABbS3_0.png

 

[bigboss]

It seems that the Hoover Dam area is being redeveloped by Alton Towers:

Yup, that's what it looks like, even on the climb on the other end!

This 3D gimmick merely distorts the map.

 

[bigboss]

Apple has promised to improve its maps.

 

[bigboss]

The stories seem never ending. :rofl:

Is this one of the biggest PR disasters Apple has committed?

I'm sure it will sort things out soon (not sure how, given the huge corrections needed).

 

[MajorFubar]

It's very easy to be racist amongst all this and say, 'well what do you expect from a maps-app made in a nation where purportedly 1/5th of its adult citizens can't find their own country on a map of the globe'. But not only is that racist and over-stereotypical, it ignores the fact that Google is also American and imo they did a great job.

In Apple's defence, I think a major contributing issue is that Google has had years to refine and improve its maps software. I do still remember the non-descript blurry images from the early days of Google Maps and Google Earth, and I remember that in the UK, only the main cities were rendered as anything but indecipherable blobs. The pressure Apple was under, in order to be seen as successful, is that right from the start their maps software had to be seen to be at least as good as what Google already had. And obviously, it wasn’t going to be, as has been proved to be the case. But surely Apple must have known the risks.

 

[Paul.]

It wouldn't be racist at all to say that. It would be xenophobic however...

 

[MajorFubar]

It wouldn't be racist at all to say that. It would be xenophobic however...

Correct, the word wouldn't come to me at the time of writing.

 

[chebby]

Google maps (satellite) is still at least 4 years out of date whether on iPhone or not.

I have just checked and our house still doesn't have the conservatory we had built in August 2008.

Streetview is over 3 years (at least) in our area. (A city and not 'in the sticks'.)

Most GPS systems still think the top of our road didn't go one-way over 4 years ago either. (Even after updates.)

These things are all flawed and should not be relied upon.

 

[cheeseboy]

Google maps (satellite) is still at least 4 years out of date whether on iPhone or not.

I have just checked and our house still doesn't have the conservatory we had built in August 2008.

Streetview is over 3 years (at least) in our area. (A city and not 'in the sticks'.)

Most GPS systems still think the top of our road didn't go one-way over 4 years ago either. (Even after updates.)

These things are all flawed and should not be relied upon.

Kind of a moot point really as most people realise that sat imagery, and even moreso the street view will never be up to date. The standard maps however, there's not really any excuse in this day and age to not have it up to date.

 

[BenLaw]

Apple has promised to improve its maps.

:rofl:

 

[Chisy1]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/williamhenderson/100007660/commercial-air-pilots-can-now-use-ipads-during-flights-does-that-make-you-feel-safer/

I do hope pilots aren't using iOS6 maps!

 

[6th.replicant]

Sorry, don't agree that because Apple is a mapping/satnav novice, and Google has several years' experience, thus Apple should be excused for Map's teething periodontitis problems.

After all, Apple was also a cellular phone novice when it launched the iPhone.

 

[professorhat]

Let's face it, absolutely anything Apple do wrong is going to be big news (just as anything they do right is also big news). If you want to court the media and use them to hype up your products to make you successful, you've got to expect the opposite when things go wrong. Many people love it when successful people / things fail - it's basic human nature. They're lucky that it's just a few things incorrect on a maps application and not actually something serious that might really be an issue for their business.

Apple can't really complain about it (not that they are I don't think) - it would be the equivalent of one of those reality stars courting the media, living their life in the public eye in order to get famous and make money, then bitterly complaining about breach of privacy when someone reveals something they didn't want people to know!

 

[Paul.]

Meh, since mobile me was switched off Apple fans needed a token something to complain about to seem unbiased. Now its maps

I wandered to the Apple store at Cabot Circus today whilst looking for a birthday present for my Brother (he's not getting anything form the Apple store btw). This was just after lunch, and the que was still enormous. Curiously there was a string of about 20 indian chaps, with one guy with a massive roll of 50 pound notes wandering along the line giving them all cash. I wouldn't be confident being in the que behind them, there will be none left!

I had a look at the phone, but am not that flush at the mo and won't buy one until I can have it out right. It is lovely, it doesn't feel like parts, it just feels like one bit. Very light and very solid.

On the maps, it inspired a really interesting article on the Guardian featuring weird maps. Worth a look:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/interactive/2012/sep/07/weird-maps-to-rival-apple-in-pictures

I like this one, its a map of craters on the moon based on composition.