Apple Maps
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Apple looking to hire slew of Maps developers
The public furor about Apple Maps may have died down, but Apple hasn't forgotten about the much-maligned product. According to a report in AppleBitch, the Cupertino company is looking to fill several Software Engineer positions on its Maps development team. The open positions includes spots on the overall Maps team, the MapKit team and the iOS Map Display team. Another position is seeking an engineer to focus on Apple's turn-by-turn navigation experience. You can browse through the full list on Apple's online job board. [Via AppleBitch]
Students add prank street names to Apple Maps
A years-old prank by Afghan university students has made its way into Apple Maps. The Wall Street Journal's Kabul bureau chief Yaroslav Trofimov was browsing Kabul in Apple's Maps app when he noticed something odd. It showed a street not far from him called "Bad Monkey." Another street had the name of "Mojo Way." A third: "Hillbilly Hameed." Being extremely familiar with Afghanistan's capital, Trofimov was sure these street names couldn't be legitimate ones so he tweeted his finds with the hashtag #TooGoodToBeTrue. But as the UN Dispatch explains, these street names were too good to be true after all. In fact, they were pranks pulled off by Afghan university students years earlier when they were added to Kabul's OpenStreetMap (OSM) entry. So why are they in Apple's Maps in 2013? Because Apple had copied a lot of old OpenStreetMap's data in its entirety, apparently without fact-checking to address pranks like these. As Kate Chapman, Indonesia-based director of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, told UN Dispatch: "The old maps were created by a small group of Afghan university students and mapping enthusiasts who assigned prankish fake names to streets that lacked official names or were subjects of naming disputes due to decades of overlapping conflicts. Eventually, these digital cartographers replaced most of the fake street names with the names most commonly used by locals, or simply removed them and left the streets nameless. The issue is that Apple took an old snapshot of the OpenStreetMap data and hasn't updated it since, so things like 'personal' street names are in there, even if they have been fixed since. The fact that they don't update the data shows that the incentive for people to improve the map just isn't going to be there." I've verified the prank street names are still there as of the time of this writing even though they have been fixed on OpenStreetMap. However, as UN Dispatch points out, Apple doesn't have a lot of incentive to fix street names in an area where not many people use iPhones.
Daily Update for January 2, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple supposedly considering Waze acquisition
Of the plethora of iOS navigation apps, probably none is more unique than Waze. The free app uses group-sourced information about points of interest and traffic to make navigating fun. If you've ever tried the app, you know that you can actually turn driving into a game as you motor around town, getting points for driving over virtual markers or contributing information on traffic accidents, speed traps and construction. Now our sister site TechCrunch is reporting that Apple might be looking at acquiring Waze as a way to provide information for the much-maligned Apple Maps app. Last month, there was speculation that Apple might buy Foursquare. But Foursquare is primarily focused on point-of-interest data, not routes or traffic, and it isn't widely used outside of the US. On the other hand, Waze has a huge international following, particularly in countries where Apple Maps has big issues. Waze might also be a much less expensive acquisition for Apple to consider than Foursquare. It's expected that Apple would need to spend more than US$500 million to purchase Foursquare and would only gain POI information. By spending less than that amount to acquire Waze, Apple would have user-generated traffic data and extremely accurate route information. Waze already supplies some map data to Apple Maps. Neither Apple nor Waze has said anything solid about a deal at this point, so like many "news" items that we're hearing these days before CES and Macworld/iWorld, it's simply a rumor.
Tip: Use Google Maps as a transit routing provider for Apple Maps
Now that Google Maps is back on the iPhone, users have plenty of map choices to use. While I prefer Google Maps by a long shot, there are (amazingly) some who like Apple Maps better. Their primary reason: Apple Maps's systemwide integration into iOS. However, a legitimate gripe about Apple Maps is that it doesn't offer transit directions in the same seamless way Google Maps does. Thankfully, Apple built in support for third-party transit direction app shortcuts in Maps. Now with Google Maps back on the iPhone, users can have the best of both worlds: Apple Maps for iOS integration and Google Maps for transit directions. Here's a helpful reminder on how to do just that (courtesy of Jeff Gamet at The Mac Observer -- be sure to check out his post for screenshot step-by-steps): Install Google Maps on your iPhone. Launch Apple Maps and tap the Route button (the arrow bent 90 degrees to the right) in the upper left corner. Tap the Transit button (the one that looks like a bus). Enter your start and end locations. Tap the blue Route button. Apple Maps will display a list of routing apps you can choose from. Find Google Maps and tap the Route button next to it (so many "route" buttons!). You'll be taken to Google Maps where you can get your transit directions. Of course you can still take advantage of other third-party transit routing tools, but if you're happy with Google's transit tech then you can have it back.
iOS 6 adoption grows 29% after release of Google Maps
Apple's launch of iOS was marred by the controversy surrounding its Maps application. The situation was so bad that many people held off on updating to iOS 6 until Google Maps was restored to iOS, says a report by mobile ad exchange company MoPub. MoPub tracks 12,000 mobile apps and noticed a big uptick in ad impressions from iOS 6 devices following the launch of Google Maps last week. Data suggests traffic from unique iOS 6 devices jumped 29 percent in the five days after Google released Google Maps for iOS. MoPub CEO doesn't think this jump is random and attributes it to users who were waiting to update until Google Maps became available. We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it's related to Google Maps. It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available. This report contradicts an earlier report from Chitika that suggests iOS adoption rate only jumped 0.2 percent after the release of Google Maps. Chitika's data, however, only takes into account the number of adopters on the first day and a half after launch. As TechCrunch points out, it's entirely possible that people waited a few days for reviews or for the weekend to make the jump to iOS 6 and the new Google Maps app. Did you update immediately to iOS 6 or did you wait until Google Maps was available to make the switch? [Via TechCrunch]
Google Maps bumps iOS 6 adoption by just 0.2%
As the shortcomings of Apple Maps became more apparent, a vocal sect of iPhone owners refused to update to the new version of iOS. So, when Google Maps popped up in the App Store today, all those remaining holdouts finally jumped on board, right? Well, not quite. As TechCrunch reports, mobile ad network Chitika's figures show that iOS 6 adoption has gone up just 0.2% since Google Maps made its triumphant return. That doesn't mean people aren't snapping up Google Maps like hotcakes; the app jetted straight to the top of the Free Apps list almost as soon as it was available. Unfortunately for Apple, it doesn't appear that the return of Google's navigation tool has done much in the way of boosting iOS 6's user base.
Australian government could be source of Apple Maps bad info
Remember the story earlier this week about police in Mildura, Australia issuing a warning to motorists about Apple Maps when it was found that the app was taking people into the heart of the bush? Apple fixed the issue, pointing the pin for the town into the correct spot. But now, it appears that the company or one of its map suppliers may have picked up the erroneous data from the Australian government. The Register found a source for the map information; the Australian Gazetteer, which is the "authoritative list of 300,000-plus placenames." The Gazetteer shows two Milduras; the actual town, and an entry for "Mildura Rural City" exactly at the location that Maps erroneously showed the town. The latter entry, according to the Register's commenters, is at the center of the local government area referred to as "Mildura Rural City." As The Register notes, Geosciences Australia -- the agency behind the Gazetteer -- can't be blamed, since the data ultimately comes from the state of Victoria. Regardless of the source of the move of Mildura into the scorching Murray-Sunset National Park, at least Apple has corrected the issue.
Tony Fadell claims Scott Forstall 'got what he deserved'
Former Apple employee Tony Fadell, known for his work on the iPod, talked to the BBC's Leo Kelion about his time at Apple and his current work at Nest. He also briefly discussed Scott Forstall and his clashes with the former iOS chief. Fadell didn't elaborate on his relationship with Forstall; he just repeated several times that "Scott got what he deserved." Apple didn't disclose the reasons why Forstall was removed from his position as vice president of iOS software, but reports from insiders suggest Forstall was polarizing within the company and often clashed with other employees.
WSJ: Native iOS Google Maps app being tested externally with turn-by-turn navigation baked in
If Apple's homegrown mapping solution isn't quite cutting it, your navigation needs may soon be met by a native iOS Google Maps app. Citing an unnamed source, the Wall Street Journal says Page and Co. are distributing a test version of the fabled app to folks outside the firm, making good on their earlier commitment to bring Google Maps to iOS. The WSJ's source expects the app to be outfitted with turn-by-turn navigation, but didn't mention when it might finally see an official release. As it stands, the search giant is said to be putting the finishing touches on the app before submitting it for App Store approval.
Apple Maps finally gets turn-by-turn navigation in Australia
According to a report in 9to5 Mac (confirmed by Australian Twitter user Beau Giles), turn-by-turn navigation in Apple maps is now live in the land down under. Unlike the US and UK, which launched with turn-by-turn, Australia did not have turn-by-turn navigation when iOS 6 was released earlier this year. Then iOS head Scott Forstall told an Australian customer in September that Apple needed "to make sure our data is exceptional and qualified before turning on turn-by-turn." Apple's Map availability website showed that turn-by-turn was originally slated to debut in October, but that launch was unexpectedly pushed back to November. Judging from the reports coming out of Twitter, this latest launch date was accurate.
How Yelp's flaws affect Apple Maps
It's been clear from the start that Apple Maps isn't perfect. In fact, in some instances it's proven to be downright broken. And while the blame ultimately lies at Apple's feet, it turns out that you -- yes, you -- might have played a roll in the new app's less-than-stellar debut. You see, Apple Maps relies on data from Yelp for location information on certain businesses, and Yelp relies on everyday users to provide that data. Google also leans on crowdsourced data to flesh out its location services, but as Dave Greenbaum of GigaOM points out, details about a business location on Google Maps must be confirmed by the owner of that business before it becomes gospel. Yelp doesn't have such a safeguard, which is why at times a store might actually be located across the street -- or across town -- from where it appears on Apple Maps. Yelp relies on its local community managers to ensure that duplicate entries for venues are promptly deleted and to help sculpt the user-created information into an accurate picture of each city. Unfortunately, much of the information appears to be too inaccurate to be considered reliable, especially in locations without a vibrant Yelp userbase. Apple's official stance on the app's issues is that the service will continue to improve as more users jump on board. However, it's going to be tough to convince most consumers that it's their responsibility to fix a broken system rather than be able to rely on it from the start.
Mapping Scott Forstall's departure from Apple
When Apple announced earlier today that -- along with several executive leadership changes -- Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall would be leaving the company in 2013, theories began to fly from every corner of the web. (Some on our team began to suspect changes afoot when Forstall didn't have any onstage presence at last week's iPad mini event, though he did appear in the audience -- seated near former Apple software exec Bertrand Serlet.) In this case, however, there isn't a terrible amount of digging that needs to be done to reach the conclusion that Forstall simply isn't a good fit for Apple right now, and he made Tim Cook's decision to part ways a lot easier by shooting himself and iOS 6 in the foot. On the most basic level, Forstall's design philosophy doesn't fall perfectly in line with the rest of Apple. Where hardware guru Jony Ive sees sleek and simple lines, Forstall sees overly ornate virtual bookshelves, a ludicrously detailed digital notebook, and other skeuomorphic touches that were the trademark of the Steve Jobs era. In Cook's quest to make Apple his own, keeping Forstall around probably wasn't helping matters. You need only look as far as Forstall's immediate successor to confirm this notion: None other than Jony Ive will now "provide leadership" on both the hardware and software sides of the design coin from here on out. "His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple's products for more than a decade," boasts the official press release. Indeed. But if you're Tim Cook, you can't just up and fire a guy who has worked so hard to help make iOS the success that it is. Well, you could, but it's a lot easier if the person in question manages to really, really disappoint not only you, but millions of customers all at once. Enter Apple Maps. With Apple Maps in iOS 6, Forstall did two things. First, he pissed off plenty of loyal Apple devotees. And second, he gave Cook a very good reason to say goodbye. Fortune's Adam Lashinksy suggests that the Maps fingerpointing within Apple got to the point where Forstall refused to sign a letter apologizing for dropping the ball (although Jim Dalrymple is throwing some cold water on that). As an employee, that's not the kind of decision that keeps you in the inner circle. It may seem rash, but remember, Apple Maps was so poorly executed that Cook himself had to apologize to Apple's entire customer base. The CEO of Apple had to write a letter suggesting that iPhone and iPad owners download the Bing app or even bookmark Google Maps on their mobile web browsers while the company figures out how to fix its own maps data. That's not something to be taken lightly, and Cook clearly wasn't willing to be put in that situation ever again. For all the good Forstall has done for the company, including his work on OS X, shaping iOS over the years and introducing us to Siri (whether you like her or not), completely fumbling one of the most important functions of the company's mobile operating system would be enough to get anyone the axe. Add to that an attitude about design that just didn't fit what the company was trying to accomplish, and there's really no mystery as to why Forstall is now on his way out.
Put Google Maps back on your iPhone with Maps+
If you're one of the many who are underwhelmed with Apple's Maps and wish you could get Google Maps back on your iPhone, I highly recommend downloading Maps+. Besides using the Google Maps API, Maps+ offers several features now missing in Apple's new Maps app. The app also adds plenty of features that were never in Google Maps on the iPhone, like bicycling directions, location-based alarms, current location coordinates and altitude and more. There are pros and cons to consider with Maps+. For one, point-of-interest search results in Maps+ aren't as good as the old Google Maps app, but often better than Apple's Maps. Also, Maps+ lacks public transport directions and Street View. Then again, the app is free, and if you're missing Google Maps on your iPhone, this is the best way to get them back. A US$1.99 in-app purchase unlocks the app fully, enabling you to set multiple pins, labels, bookmarks and alarms. It's important to note that, even though Maps+ has been available for over a year, it's not in the "Maps Apps" section of the App Store. The fact that Apple is leaving Maps+ off (I would guess, because it uses Google Maps) doesn't bode well for them approving a dedicated iOS Google Maps, something Schmidt has recently hinted at in a non-committal way. Maps+ is a universal app and a free download.
Street View comes to Google Maps web app on iOS, just like they said it would
While the hubbub surrounding Apple Maps on iOS 6 has been somewhat sedated, some people who made the move to Google Maps' web app had been further encouraged by word that it'd be getting Street View imagery soon. And what do you know, barely seven days into the estimated "in two weeks" and here it is. Search for a location (no long press yet), and you'll spy the familiar icon bottom right. This appears in both Chrome and Safari. While perhaps still not quite as slick as the good old app of yore, a definite panacea for all those iOS toutin' virtual tourists.
Tim Cook apologizes for Maps mess
Well, it's hardly a secret that customers are unhappy with Apple's new mapping solution in iOS 6. And, while the company has admitted that, perhaps, it's not quite up to snuff yet, it has played down Maps' flaws and urged customers to be patient. Today, in an open letter to the Apple faithful, Tim Cook struck a far more candid and conciliatory tone, apologizing for failing to deliver a "world-class" product. Cook went so far as to suggest that unhappy customers could check out offerings from competitors like Bing, MapQuest, Google and Nokia -- at least until Cupertino sorts this mess out. You'll find the complete text of the letter after the break. Update: As CNET reports, Apple has now also gone one step further and added a new list of featured mapping alternatives to the App Store, including apps from TeleNav, Garmin, Magellan and others. You can read our editorial on Apple apologies since the launch of the iPhone here.
Editorial: Apple's smart Maps maneuver
More Info Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top (update: more detail) Apple says it's 'just getting started' on Maps for iOS 6, are you willing to wait? (poll) MapQuest picks TomTom Maps to power iPhone and Android turn-by-turn navigation apps It might seem as if Apple chose its iOS 6 release last week to practice the biblical directive to love one's enemy. For, by ejecting Google Maps from updated iPads and iPhones, Apple hath caused glorious comparisons to shine upon its foe. If most people were unaware of comparative feature sets and quality aspects that distinguish Google Maps from Apple Maps, every tech-loving person on God's earth is an expert now. The media love a bloodbath, and Joe Nocera led the rhetorical pack by calling Apple Maps an "unmitigated disaster" in a NY Times piece. He wondered whether such calamity would have ensued if Steve Jobs (who called the 1998 "hockey puck" mouse the world's best pointing device) were guiding the company's product evolution. Mr. Nocera argues the Maps replacement as an indicator that Apple has peaked. I argue that replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps was shrewd, inevitable and an indicator that Apple understands the true battle it wages.
The iOS 6 Maps app is why my next phone may be a Samsung, not an iPhone 5
My next phone won't be the iPhone 5 I've been dreaming of for a year; it'll be a Samsung Android handset. Why? Two words: Google Maps. This isn't a political statement. It's not an empty protest over how bad Apple's Maps app is. It's because for the first time I've lost confidence that an Apple product is the best choice for my needs. In iOS 6 and on the iPhone 5, a significant feature -- one that tens of millions of people rely on daily -- does not work as it should. In fact, calling it "a feature" doesn't do it justice; it's a necessity for any smartphone. For me, it's as important as email and phone calls and surfing the web. Maybe more important -- mapping tells us where we are in the world and where we are going. As of iOS 6, this capability we've come to rely on so heavily can no longer be trusted. The iOS 6 Maps launch has underlined what we already knew: No one does maps like Google does -- not even close. By leaving Google Maps off iOS 6 Apple has done a deep disservice to its user base. That user base, by the way, is orders of magnitude larger than it ever was when the Mac dominated Apple's product line and profit margins; this is something that potentially touches hundreds of millions of users around the world. Apple Maps is not a finished product. I wouldn't even call it a beta product. It misplaces airports and schools and roads. It leads me in the wrong direction. It doesn't show me stores or schools or parks that are clearly right in front of my eyes. This obliterates the user experience on iPhone. I've used every iPhone that has ever existed. My current phone is an iPhone 4S and I pre-ordered an iPhone 5 on launch day. As of yesterday, I've canceled that pre-order and am planning on picking up a Samsung phone this week. Now, before I get into the reasons for my leap to Android (and why Apple Maps are so bad), before someone accuses me of being an "Apple hater," I want to explain how hard a choice this was for me -- and how I am the last person who'd choose to dump on Apple. I write for TUAW. I've used Apple technology almost exclusively for the last 12 years of my life. I also spent half a decade of my life working for Apple. I still have dozens of friends at Apple in design, marketing and sales. Besides my personal and professional connections to the company and its products, I also have a financial interest in seeing the company succeed; I've been steadily investing in it for the last 11 years. But like most other people, if you eliminate all my personal, professional and financial connections, I really only ever went by one criterion when deciding to use an Apple product: I believed it was the best product for my needs; it performed the best out of all the other products out there for what I needed it to do. In short, as Steve Jobs used to say, "It just works." With Apple Maps, it no longer does. With Apple Maps, the iPhone is significantly hampered. Apple's new Maps is a black mark on the company's stellar product record in the Steve Jobs II era and beyond. Sure, Apple has released some iffy stuff (Ping, MobileMe) and hasn't been immune to its share of engineering faults ("Antennagate") or not fully baked features (Siri). But those things didn't hinder a product we were depending on in a significant way for a significant number of users. Apple Maps does. What's so broken about Maps? Sure, it looks different than Google Maps -- Apple would say "better than" -- but it's easy to get used to the way Maps looks instead of the yellow, reds, and greens of Google Maps. And yeah, the elimination of transit directions is also a significant setback, but there are plenty of third-party apps that work better than public transit directions ever did in Google Maps, covering most urban and suburban areas with transit services. The real failure of Apple Maps comes from the fact that it is still clearly an alpha product (not even a beta like Siri -- an alpha) that should never have been released in its current state. Now, as my colleague Michael Rose pointed out, Apple may have had some legitimate reasons (like turn-by-turn navigation that Google didn't allow under its API) to create its own mapping solution. But another significant reason is Apple wants to wean itself off of any dependance it has on Google. Will it be a win for users? Maybe, but only when the entirety of Apple Maps finally works as well as Google Maps does. Unfortunately that's not going to happen any time soon. It feels like Apple put corporate strategy ahead of user experience -- granted, that's happened before (No floppy drives! No serial ports! No optical drives!) but generally in the service of something readily perceptible. I mean, this is a company that says it sometimes doesn't release great products they've created in the labs because they weren't quite right or didn't fill a need that users could better get from someone else. "Not quite right" is an understatement when referring to Apple Maps and "can't get it better anyplace else" is just flat out wrong as long as Google and its mapping data is around. Same location. Apple Maps, left. Google Maps, right. So how bad is Apple Maps? There are Tumblr blogs and Twitter accounts dedicated to how bad Apple Maps is. I thought they were funny and not a big deal -- at first. But then I stepped out over the weekend doing my usual stuff (going to work, meeting friends, traveling) and found out just how hampered my iPhone had become. I live in London. It's the biggest city in the UK. It's one of the capitals of the world that tens of millions of travelers and tourists pass through every year -- not to mention the 10 million people who live here -- and Apple Maps hardly functions here. This is in the biggest, most important city in the UK. Now think about the smaller cities around the country where Apple's data providers have misplaced entire airports, or located villages miles from where they should be. Let me give you an example: today I was in central London and I ran a series of searches on my iPhone 4S in Apple Maps. Every single search query I entered either turned up no results or misplaced results. I was meeting a friend at Circus Space, which I know is somewhere in the Shoreditch (east) area of London, but Apple Maps showed it was located across the city on the west side. Moving on, I decided to do a search for O'Neills Pub. O'Neills is a series of chain restaurants in the UK. In London it's hard to walk for 10 minutes without passing one. When I did the search, Apple Maps showed only three locations (two of them wrong) and all miles from where I was (and where a majority of O'Neills are). I then tested Maps again by searching for "Pret," a series of popular sandwich eateries in London. Pret is even more ubiquitous than O'Neills. Apple Maps returned half-baked results -- only showing me three in the area and totally missing the one I was standing two feet away from. There should be a Pret where the blue arrow is pointing. I know because I was standing right next to it (and even took a photo of it). I've got friends coming to London next month to visit me and over the summer I've been telling them that no matter what they do they need to bring an unlocked iPhone with them because it'll make navigating London so much easier. But now, that won't be the case anymore. Using Apple's Maps on their iPhone is just going to get them lost in London. But this isn't just about London (although, Apple, how hard is it to use Tube icons for tube stations like Google, Bing and Yahoo do?). Apple Maps data is horrible across Europe and Asia. My friend from Singapore was visiting London this weekend and we were exploring the new features of iOS 6 together on our iPhones. Within 30 seconds of using Apple Maps to check out his home city of Singapore it was obvious (and somewhat shocking to him) just how misplaced things were. This doesn't bode well for Apple and their hopes of continued expansion in Asia. [Mike's fellow Brit and former TUAW contributor Nik Fletcher is visiting the US at the moment, and noted on Sunday's Talkcast that he had to throw in the towel on iOS 6 Maps during his first day walking around New York City. He ended up searching for sights and destinations using his wife's un-upgraded iPhone instead. –Ed.] Now to be fair, some people don't have a problem with the new Maps. Indeed, the turn-by-turn directions are very nice, as are the 3D views. But the people saying the new Maps is just fine seem to live in the suburbs of American cities where they rarely use Maps on a daily basis (they only drive from home to work or home to the grocery store or places they already know), or they live in smaller cities where they know where most things are already. However, if you live in a major city or are a business traveler Maps is probably the most important app on your phone. And the fact that you can't trust it anymore and it doesn't work as it should is devastating. Why this is such a big deal In the five years since Apple introduced the first iPhone, mobile maps in our pockets have become a major selling point and a necessary feature for any smartphone. Depending on what study you read, mobile mapping is the number one or number two most-used feature on smartphones (ahead of surfing the web, texting and calling). And Apple, a company known for ease of use and putting their users first was at the top of the pack. The company had the foresight to work with Google, the best mapper in the world, since the first iPhone OS. That's changed in the years since. Apple and Google don't like each other now. It didn't change because Google said, "We're out of here." It's because Apple said, "You're not giving us what we need. We're doing it without you. See ya." As noted above, Google wasn't willing to allow iOS to offer turn-by-turn navigation on Apple's terms, and perhaps the search company was insisting on more access to user data than Apple was willing to give. But negotiations go both ways, and maybe three years ago Apple thought this would be easier than it is -- or that users would be more forgiving than they are. Maps on a smartphone are a necessity. But maps are only as good as their accuracy, the depth of their data and the ability to search for that data. Apple Maps handles direct addresses (full address with ZIP or post-code) pretty well, but available data (businesses, restaurants, etc.) and search are horrible. How is Apple's mapping technique different than Google's mapping technique? The reason Google Maps is so much better than Apple Maps is because of the amount of time each company has invested into mapping, how they cull their data and the resources they've put behind the problem. Apple got into the mapping game in the late 2000s when it started buying up companies in the field. It then took technology and data from these separate companies, leased data from about 20 other companies and threw that all together into their new Maps app. When Google started mapping almost 10 years ago, it originally went the route Apple is going now: buy up small companies, merge all the different sets of data and just hope things work. However, Google soon found out that that was the wrong way to create reliable maps. So Google started mapping from scratch, scouring the earth with Google Street View cars, constantly refining data and integrating its core strength -- search -- into Maps. The result is arguably the best non-military map of the world that's ever existed. Another reason Google was able to quickly build the best mapping system ever is because it had, at its peak, nearly 7,000 people working on Google Maps. That's certainly a much bigger field force than Apple has working on maps, yet both companies are trying to cover the same planet. I'll tell you the analogy I used with a friend today when she asked me why Apple Maps is inferior to Google Maps: if Maps were a novel, Google would write its book from line one on page one, refining the prose along the way, and only stop when it reached the last period on the last page. Google would write the book through completely, telling the entire story as best as possible. Google's writers would be Proust and Tolstoy and Hemingway. Apple's book, on the other hand, would be cut and pasted together from 20 other already written books (fiction, non-fiction, Sears catalogs from 1993), hoping overlays matched and not caring if the editor turned on spellcheck or not. The editor of Apple's book would be E.L. James. How Apple can fix this mess (and Google's stand-alone iOS Maps app). It can't. Well, not anytime soon. It took Google seven years and thousands of people to build up a good mapping service. Apple is not going to fix its Maps in the next three or even 12 months. It's not likely anyway. And what actually scares me is Apple Maps wasn't just thrown together in the last year. It's the result of already at least three years of work and it's still horrible. It's still an alpha product. So no, Apple is not going to fix this any time soon. I mean, we're talking about correctly mapping the entire planet here. That's going to take a lot of time and a lot of manpower. So, if you rely on Maps, I hate to tell you this, but don't think iOS 6.1 in January is going to get Apple's Maps close to the level that Google Maps hit on the iPhone even back in 2007. If you ask me, it hardly competes with MapQuest in 1995. But just because Apple can't fix this mess soon doesn't mean it can't fix this mess faster. Apple can tackle this in one of two ways: 1) Money and manpower. 2) Google. Apple has almost $120 billion in the bank. Everyone on Wall Street says Apple can't possibly ever begin to spend that money. Well, now it can. And it needs to, because the "It just works" mantra of the iPhone is very much on the line. What Apple needs to do is take a chunk of its cash hoard (5 percent? 10 percent? Multiple billions.) and throw it into mapping. Hire the talent and build the fleet to start replicating Google's street-level intelligence, at least in the major cities. Then hire lots and lots of mapping engineers. Give the Google team members a call and offer to double their salary if they jump ship and come work for you -- in fact, it looks like this may already be happening. But even if Apple throws $12 billion at the mapping problem, it's still going to take time to fix (though not as long). In the meantime what Apple really needs to do is crawl back to Google. No, Apple isn't going to get rid of the new Maps. The company's got too much pride for that (and maybe one day, some years from now, Apple's maps will have grown in to something much better than Google Maps). But until then, for the users' sake, Apple needs to get Google Maps back on the iPhone for those who want it. For some users, the Google Maps web app usable in Safari may be a reasonable workaround for the faults in the dedicated iOS Maps app. Unfortunately, for me it's just not a substitute. If you combine it with Google's Search app, it's not horrendous -- it's just very inconvenient. There are now many, many more taps to do the same thing that the native Maps app can do quickly. Then there's the hypothetical standalone Google Maps app for iOS. Except that it's not hypothetical. Two high-level sources inside Google have confirmed to me that the app exists. Where the employees disagree is on the status of the app. One tells me that Google has sent the app to Apple for approval, but Apple is just sitting on it. The other tells me that he believes Google has yet to put the finishing touches on the app and has not submitted it to Apple. But either way, it's a real thing. If Apple still respects its users and really cares about the user experience, like I suspect it does, the company will approve the Google Maps iOS app right away and without further delay. And if Google has yet to submit it, then Tim Cook needs to get on the phone and call Larry Page today and tell him to do so. This is no time to let pride get in the way. Oh, and the statement Apple released a few days ago saying "Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get" is a cop out. A necessary feature like Maps shouldn't be rolled out until it works relatively well; if I reported every Apple Maps mistake in London (like the app allows you to do) I would need to give up my job and personal life because there's just not enough time in the day to correct all of the Maps mistakes in my area and still live my life. When Apple released that statement, I wrote "Some people have called Apple's Maps the company's 'Vista' moment. Though I am quite annoyed by the downgrade, I liken Apple's Maps more to iMovie '08. That's when Apple totally revamped iMovie and turned it into the start of something better, but it didn't start surpassing the old iMovie until the next iteration of the new app." Boy, was I wrong. After a weekend of really using them, the current state of Apple's Maps is way worse than Vista. Why I'm going to Samsung You never miss anything -- and realize how heavily you rely on it -- until it's gone. That's the case with Apple Maps. Until my first full weekend of usage of Apple's new Maps in iOS 6, I didn't realize just how heavily I relied on Google Maps on my iPhone in my daily life. Whenever I needed to find anything in London, it was just there, at my fingertips. Now it's not. I can live with sometimes spotty iCloud email or a not fully baked Siri, but as it turns out I can't live without reliable maps, not when I live in a major metropolitan area and frequently travel to other European cities. And as I said, even if Apple throws billions of dollars at Maps, it's still going to take a lot of time to fix. What's the most difficult about Maps in iOS 6 is the loss of faith. Now I never know if something I'm looking for really might be close to me, but I'm just not seeing it -- or if something that Maps says is there will actually be there, which can theoretically go beyond inconvenient to dangerous. True, the browser version of Google Maps is there, but it's an inferior experience; it's slow, clunky and doesn't integrate across the OS like the native Maps does. For me, knowing that Maps is my "killer app," it's just not good enough. Don't get me wrong, I think Samsung has blatantly ripped Apple off, but that also means its got the best copy of the iPhone out there. And it uses Google Maps -- something I trust implicitly. I don't like having to print out maps before I leave the house -- like I had to today -- so I know without a doubt that I can get to the place I need to go. My phone should be able to do that. The iPhone no longer dependably does. Samsung's phones and Google Maps can. This, of course, is another problem for Apple. The company just gave Android its biggest selling point ever: "We have maps that work. We have maps that you can trust." I didn't cancel my iPhone 5 order lightly. It hurt to do so. But I did it for the same reason I originally went with Apple products years ago -- they "just work." The iPhone 5's maps no longer "just work." So that phone is not the best choice for me any longer. It's a shame too, because I was loaned an iPhone 5 for 24 hours on Saturday and it literally is a thing of true beauty. Hands down, it is the best designed phone ever. It's light and thin and fast and beautiful. But it doesn't have a critical feature that I rely on anymore. So, what should you do? If you like iOS and the iPhone and don't depend on Maps as your "killer app," by all means, stay with the iPhone. If the browser version of Google Maps, or one of the third-party nav or search apps, works for you then don't sweat it. I know I'll still be using all of Apple's other products -- because they still "just work." And if Apple allows Google Maps in the App Store, I'll jump ship back to the iPhone 5. But if you rely heavily on Maps -- especially if you live outside of America or travel a lot -- you might want to seriously think about whether you can live with iOS 6's Maps. If not, Android is now the main game in town that has Google Maps. Either way, let me know how you feel about Apple's Maps in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter (@michaelgrothaus) if you want to recommend a good Samsung phone for me.
Apple says it's 'just getting started' on Maps for iOS 6, are you willing to wait? (poll)
Now that iOS 6 has arrived on Apple tablets and phones, users at large are getting their hands on the company's new Maps app for the first time only to find at least a few things out of place. The lack of navigation for public transportation was a known limitation going in, but misplaced landmarks, geographical oddities and suddenly blank areas where Google Maps had an abundance of tags (all being cataloged by The Amazing iOS 6 Maps Tumblr, as seen above) have some users bristling. A spokesperson for Apple tells All Things D that it expects things to improve as more people use Maps (check out the entire statement after the break), but is that enough? Hit the poll selections below to let us know if the new experience is truly a move in the right direction.%Poll-77848%
Navigon and StreetPilot Onboard update adds public transport, Apple Maps and iPhone 5 support
Navigon's gearing up for tomorrow's big day by updating its, erm, Navigon and StreetPilot Onboard apps. The refreshed software adds support for the iPhone 5's new 4-inch display as well as baking in public transport listings to Cupertino's presently underwhelming mapping offering. It's also gaining the promised "last mile" function to record the location of your car when finishing your journey on foot, sparing you the embarrassment of getting lost in the multi-storey lot when you return. The company's offering a $10 discount on its apps if you pick 'em up before October 3rd, while the in-app purchase of Urban Guidance has been reduced from $5 to $3 for the same period. Update: We've had a note from Garmin to say that while Navigon update is now available, StreetPilot Onboard has been slightly delayed.
