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Apple's vector maps save memory, go further when you're offline
One of the unsung features of Apple's iOS 6 Maps app is that it uses vector-based -- rather than raster-based -- maps that chew up less bandwidth and can be stored in a much smaller amount of memory. Many iOS 6 users are now finding that they can actually use the Maps app without a data connection, provided that they've "visited" the areas of interest while online to pre-cache a lot of the map information. The main difference between vector and raster maps is that vector maps are mathematically described and resolution independent, while raster maps are essentially simple flat images that are loaded into a map app. Using the mathematical description of locations allows Apple's Maps app to use up to 80 percent less bandwidth and store much more map data on the device. After reading a post about this capability on AppleInsider, I did a quick test of iOS 6 Maps with my iPhone in Airplane Mode. What I found was that I was able to peruse maps at street level of accuracy offline, provided that I had previously looked at those locations while online to load the data. For example, the images in the gallery below show my home location, a state-level map of the Western US, most of South America, street maps of Ushuaia, Argentina and a satellite view of a neighborhood in Auburn, Wash., that I lived in as an child. Note that the Airplane Mode indicator is present in all of the screenshots. %Gallery-167612% Are the offline maps perfect? No, but if you're planning a trip and want to have street-level maps available for use offline, it's now possible to pre-load those maps by simply looking at them online ahead of time. The cached vector information will give you something to look at even if you've turned off cellular data on your iPhone to avoid data roaming charges.
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.
Exchange calendar oddity in iOS 6 may trigger meeting cancellations [Updated]
The iPhone's support for Microsoft's dominant email and calendaring Exchange platform is an essential part of iOS's appeal to business users. Integrating MS's ActiveSync mobile device connectivity into Apple's gear, which started back with iPhone OS 2.0 in 2008, helped make the upstart smartphone into a viable alternative to the dominant BlackBerry ecosystem (and look how that worked out). Update: See Thursday's post for more firsthand information on how Exchange and iOS have a history of not playing nicely. Unfortunately, ActiveSync has always been a mite quirky on iOS. While the core email sending and receiving functionality usually does as it should (with sustained support for push email a sometime exception), calendaring doesn't always fare as well. Delegation of calendar rights, access to third-party calendars and meeting invitation handling are among the sore spots that may cause issues for power users. It now looks like iOS 6 may be exacerbating some of these challenges. MacRumors highlights an internal memo from a "very large company" asking employees specifically not to upgrade their devices, as there may be some situations where declining a meeting invitation inadvertently sends a full cancellation notice to all the other attendees. In fact, I've seen this behavior before, only very rarely -- it came up once or twice on both iOS 5.1 and from iCal under OS X Lion over the course of a few months, while working with Exchange 2007 meeting invites -- but the current instantiation seems to be easier to trigger. Meetings with large numbers of attendees may be more problematic, and/or meetings where the organizer and the recipient are not part of the same Exchange organization. What can make this sort of issue more frustrating for both IT and device users is that these issues are usually intermittent, hard to reproduce and may hinge on very particular combinations of circumstances and Exchange microversions. There's a reason Microsoft sells expensive service and support contracts with its infrastructure products, and also plenty of reasons why hosted Exchange and alternatives like Google Apps are gaining ground on traditional in-house installations. You may be eager to try out the latest and greatest version of iOS, but if you're depending on your company's IT department to support your connectivity to the enterprise calendar system (to say nothing of VPN, file services, email and all the rest) then please do yourself a solid and check with your local gaggle of geeks before you upgrade -- not afterward.
Apple retail employees encouraged to report Maps issues
With many thousands of staffers in the US alone, Apple's retail team has numbers on its side. It also has geographic diversity, with stores in 45 of the 50 states. Lots of people in lots of places who presumably carry lots of iOS devices -- just what you need if, perchance, you're looking to clean up some facepalm-worthy glitches in a shiny new mapping dataset. Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore tweeted early this morning that store managers are asking employees to report Maps errors that they see in iOS 6 while they are out and about while working, on the clock. We've independently confirmed that a communication to that effect did go out to retail staff members (at least in the US and Canada), although we don't know precisely what it said. MacRumors suggests that the map quest will be fairly formal and well-organized, with teams of employees dedicating up to 40 hours per week, cumulatively, to the wayfinding fixes; submitted data would go through a dedicated Apple portal rather than being bundled with general user feedback. Allen's initial report suggested the effort would be voluntary. Of course, calling for fixes to map errors isn't purely the province of those who are being paid out of Cupertino's hoard of dragon gold: you too can help the cause by reporting errors and missing features in iOS 6's Maps app. Tapping the page curl on the lower right corner of the map reveals several controls including the "Report a Problem" button, which in turn gives you all the necessary feedback options. [via AppleInsider]
Consumer Reports compares Apple Maps, Google Android navigation
Consumer Reports took a close look at Apple's Maps application and compared it to Google Maps on Android 4.0.4. The reviewers used both mapping solutions to navigate from point A to point B in the greater NYC area. Despite all the negative press on Apple's Maps, Consumer Reports had some good things to say about Apple's mapping solution. Overall, Apple impressed our staff with the graphic presentation for the interface, results, signage, and points of interest info. However, there is less customization throughout than Google -- a mixed blessing when driving, where distractions can be dangerous. Google comes across as more business like and less fun. The consumer product review company concluded that both "the free Apple and Google navigation apps provide clear routing directions" and both "provide a good solution for standard software." Consumer Reports added that Apple may have "a less-mature product," but it expects the application to improve over time.
Early iOS 6 adopters report problems getting Exchange push email: are you affected?
We all know about the central issue surrounding iOS 6. For the suits and ties among us, however, there's a potentially more glaring problem with Exchange support. Some users quick to upgrade to Apple's latest mobile OS report losing automatic push delivery of their email, requiring that they check for themselves to get any fresh messages. The issue isn't carrier- or device-specific, and attempts to reboot, reconfigure or restore devices are at best temporary fixes: what flows smoothly at first runs dry several hours later. Apple technicians are aware that the flaw exists, but it's tough to know if and when engineers will have a fix -- the company typically waits until it has a solution in hand before it goes on the record. We've reached out to Apple for a possible comment all the same. In the meantime, let us know if your Exchange access (or push data as a whole) is going awry. [Thanks, Daniel] %Poll-78044%
So, your beta just expired. Now what?
You're an iOS developer. Your beta just expired. Now what? Here's a simple cheat sheet for anyone feeling lost at sea. Download a gm copy of iOS 6 for your device. You'll find it at developer.apple.com/ios. Connect your device to iTunes. Locate it in the sources list, the blue-gray list at the left of iTunes. It appears under DEVICES>. Option-click (or Alt-click) Check for Update. A file browser window appears. Navigate to the "ipa" firmware update file you downloaded. Select it. Agree to whatever is asked of you. Apple will check your device for upgrade and then apply it. Wait. Your upgrade should proceed "in-place" without overwriting your data. If it fails for any reason, you may have to perform a full restore instead.
Switched On: iOS 6 gets back from the app
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Apple's App Store has more smartphone apps than those of its competitors. But the sheer size of the library is not the only source of consternation for Google or Microsoft, which would both readily concede that it's also important to obtain the kind of key apps, optimized apps and platform-first apps the iPhone enjoys. The iPhone's commanding marketplace lead is due to several factors. These include the huge number and historical affluence of its users and the ease of its App Store. The iPhone, though, was not the first phone to have apps. In fact, in its early days, it didn't have apps at all as the company urged developers to create optimized web apps for the platform similar to what Mozilla is now advocating for its streamlined mobile operating system Boot2Gecko. Apple originally put its efforts into creating archetypical apps for tasks such as calling, browsing, email and mapping. Rather than open the iPhone to third-party developers at first, it handpicked partners for various features, such as Google for maps and Yahoo for weather and stocks.
Tim Cook's apology shows that Apple cares, but still needs to fix problem
Last week I wrote an article criticizing Apple's new Maps capability explaining why it was a deal-breaker for me and why I was leaving the iPhone. That article generated hundreds of comments (in agreement and disagreement), tweets, and emails to me and TUAW, some going so far as calling for me to be fired. Since that article was published, the criticisms of Maps have exploded, so much so that Tim Cook released a rare public apology from Apple and pointed users to mapping apps from competitors. While that may help stem the bleeding until Apple can figure out how to fix its Maps mess, there are two things about Tim Cook's statement I want to address. The first is that Cook's apology shows that Apple truly cares about its users. You know those times you mess up and realize how hard it is to apologize for your mistake? It's usually pride or embarrassment that gets in the way of apologizing. Either way, it's still incredibly hard to admit you were wrong. Now multiply that feeling by a million, knowing that your apology -- the admission that you were wrong -- will be reported by every major newspaper and tech blog in the world. On top of that, when your company is almost always right in its business choices, admitting a mistake is a huge mark against it. Add to that the suggestion that some third-party companies' products -- some of them from your major competitors -- might do the job of your mobile OS's new feature better than your product does. Put those all together and you might have an idea of how monumental and significant Tim Cook's apology was. That shows just how mature Apple is and exactly how much the company cares about the user experience its customers enjoy. I've written in depth about Tim Cook before and this just solidifies my opinion about him. He is the best CEO on the planet and the person to lead Apple into the future. But here's the second thing: As much as I believe in Tim Cook and appreciate his acknowledgment of the Maps fiasco, his suggestions that users check out other mapping or web apps aren't a real solution to the problem. Most of the mapping apps highlighted by Apple are really navigation apps. They get you from point A to point B. They can get you from St. Louis to Chicago. That's not the problem with Maps. The real issue is the lack of extensive localized and accurate POIs and the ability to search thoroughly for them. A POI is a point-of-interest, which can be something major like a monument or a park, or something smaller like the corner drug store. None of the apps suggested by Cook have the POI database that Google does and obviously, neither does Apple Maps. Also, none of the apps have the search capability for POIs that Google does. And if you're one of the iPhone's tens of millions of users living in a major city like New York or London or Singapore and don't own a car, you don't care about driving between cities -- you care about being able to find any of the four dozen businesses that could be located on the single city block you're on. [There is already an app for this specific purpose from Google, the free Google+ Local app, which links to Google's web maps. The paid Where To? app also features local business search. -Ed.] Another suggestion from Cook was to add the Google Maps web app to your home screen. The reason this isn't a real fix is because a web app doesn't have the fluidity, interactivity, or ease of use that a dedicated maps app does. If you think I'm wrong, I challenge you to use nothing but the Google Maps web app on your iPhone for a week. You'll soon agree with me as to how much it hampers your iPhone experience. Apple's only solution -- and I think they know this -- is to return to Google. They need Google's extensive POI database and its search capabilities. Whether that Google solution is getting a standalone app in the App Store or integrating Google Maps back into iOS while offering Apple Maps as a secondary option is something Apple needs to decide. But Apple needs to decide quickly, because it is not going to be able to build a POI database and map search capabilities that can compete with Google in just a few months, or even a few years. I'll close by saying that it's a shame that the Maps mess overshadowed the iPhone 5 launch. From an engineering and design perspective, the iPhone 5 is the best smartphone ever made. It's a work of art. It just needs for all of its core, built-in services to work, accurately and completely.
Apple's recent apologies
Apple CEO Tim Cook's apologetic letter to iOS 6 customers is the third large-scale apology the company has issued in so many months. Now the web is wondering: is this evidence of a more "human" Apple, or a company with a problem? On July 13, Apple posted a letter from then senior vice president of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield (currently "senior vice president") regarding the EPEAT rating system. Earlier that month, the company had removed its products from the EPEAT system and announced that it would not be submitting future hardware for evaluation. Concerned city and government accounts announced their intention to avoid Macs without EPEAT certification. Apple issued one statement confirming its position before pulling a total reversal, just a week after the initial announcement. Mansfield's letter read, in part: "We've recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT." Meanwhile, Apple's retail chief, John Browett, told the company's retail employees that the company "messed up" when it implemented new staffing formulas that resulted in shift cuts and general disarray among workers. While not a public apology, Browett's message represented Apple implementing another rapid, 180-degree policy change. Today, Tim Cook is apologizing to all iOS 6 customers for the current state of its Maps app. For many, the apology was warranted. Users in the UK especially are having a hard time with Maps. It's very unusual for Apple to release a public product that's subpar for so many. What happened? Aside from the obvious Herculean task of creating a global mapping application from scratch, that is. Liz Larson, writing for Fast Company, asks: "How should companies evaluate which functions are better outsourced and which should be maintained in-house? These often mission-critical decisions -- when made out of haste or hubris -- can be enough to put brand reputation and loyalty at stake." She goes on to say that Apple's strength is in creating an elegant, aesthetically pleasing experience, not cartography: "The inner workings of digital cartography don't directly fall under either of these camps. Based on the public's consensus of the revamped maps, that much is clear." Rene Ritche at iMore has another take on what happened. Or, what continues to happen inside Apple: "This isn't a case of measuring a response to an unforeseeable situation twice and cutting it loose to the press and public once. This is a case of risk assessment and mitigation gone wrong, and of brand currency expended. Apple doesn't only have to fix maps, they have to fix the process that resulted in Tim Cook having to write this letter." While it's unusual for Apple of all companies to be so publicly apologetic, it's satisfying to feel that complaints are acknowledged and generating action within the company. Thanks, Apple. Now, fix this thing.
Editorial: Apple apologies actually aren't that infrequent, and that's okay
Today, Tim Cook made his first major apology as the CEO of Apple. It probably won't be his last. Despite the obvious knee-jerk reaction regarding the Maps debacle, it's actually interesting that this particular scenario is yet another example of humans having extraordinarily short-term memories. It's the same reason that whatever game we most recently saw is the "best or worst ever." (Packers v. Seahawks 09.24.2012, I'm looking at you.) In truth, Apple has a fairly solid history of ingesting pride in the iPhone era, when it surged headfirst into the realm of serving consumers in a way that it never had before. And moreover, hearing Cook apologize isn't something that should be mocked or berated; one can only hope that more companies of all shapes and sizes develop a policy of listening and reacting. Allow me to explain.
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.
Foursquare rolls out iPhone 5 / iOS 6 update, Explore gains more personalization options
Foursquare is on an update tear. Aside from the "Always On" feature it introduced recently, the company just rolled out a new iPhone update that lets users create more personalized maps. Compatible with iOS 6, the update improves upon the existing Explore map with a more tailored search experience -- you can map out places you haven't been, top destinations, favorite spots, or where your friends have checked in. The app also promises to be faster and to have an improved design that takes advantage of the iPhone 5's larger screen. The new update certainly goes along with the company's philosophy that Foursquare is a discovery and recommendations engine rather than just another social service. Let's just hope the new Apple Maps doesn't hamper that experience.
Google Maps Street View will be available via Mobile Safari in two weeks
According to many of our readers, if Apple's iOS 6 Maps software isn't suitably filling in for the old Google-powered Maps then the quickest workaround is simply using Google Maps as a web app. While we'll likely be waiting some time to find out if a standalone replacement from Google really is in the cards, The New York Times' David Pogue mentions -- while bemoaning some navigation related mishaps in the new app -- Street View imagery will be accessible that way "in two weeks." Hopefully users will find that makes the wait easier, but at least they're not making you carry around one of those backpacks to make it all work.
Daily iPhone App: djay for iPhone 5 brings new features to the wider screen
Algoriddim's music-mixing djay app has been a hit on both Mac and iOS for a while now, so it's not brand new by any means. But the iPhone version has just been updated with some new features, including compatibility with the iPhone 5's wider screen. And while a lot of developers have been content to simply spread things out with the extra real estate, Algoriddim has gone the extra mile, and actually added in some functionality that takes advantage of the extra space. You can see the difference above: The new version has volume sliders on each side of the virtual turntables, and the BPM is represented for each track above those sliders. There are two other big changes in the app that take advantage of new features in iOS 6. The first is that audio can now be routed within the iPhone, which Algoriddim calls a "game-changer" this means that the iPhone can send one signal out of its Lightning dock adapter, and another out of the headphone port at the same time, which means that with the right setup, DJs can listen to one track while another is playing. The latest version of djay, obviously, supports this. And the other change is that you can now buy and display music from iTunes right inside the app, which means users can pick up new jams without ever stopping the beat. Both of these features are pretty impressive, and make a big difference in how djay can be used to play music from the iPhone 5. And as if all of that wasn't enough, djay for iPhone 5 is now also on sale for just $0.99, which is a crazy price for such a feature-filled app. Algoriddim has won multiple awards for this one already, and the new features with the wider screen and iOS 6 mean this one's a must-grab if you don't have it yet.
Users reporting a big bag of hurt with iTunes Match and iOS 6
I don't use iTunes Match and I probably never will. I have seen a constant stream of complaints from people who use the service, with their music libraries unceremoniously deleted, re-downloaded and deleted again -- and that's just one of the many issues I've seen since the service began. Now iOS 6 appears to add another irksome wrinkle into Apple's service. Detailing a number of issues in iOS 6 pertaining to iTunes Match on his iPhone, Apple Discussions member Steve Lawrence notes that: Once you have downloaded music to your iPhone, you can no longer delete it. Which means that eventually your iPhone will be full.* You cannot decide to download just the tracks you want to listen to from an album any more. It's the whole thing or nothing. Another user reports maddening issues with corrupted songs. Since the beginning, there has been a lot of confusion as to how Match does its thing. Apple doesn't really provide a streaming music service, where all your stuff is somewhere accessible via the cloud, but instead offers your music available for download on any device at a given time. *In fact, iOS 6 manages the memory automatically, deleting the oldest and least played songs first. Still, why not allow a user to control this? What happens when your device is almost full but you want to download a huge app like Infinity Blade? Automatic is great, just give us a manual override. Are you seeing issues with iTunes Match on iOS 6? Are you happy with the service?
Apple reportedly had one year left on Google maps contract
It would appear Apple and Google could have kept the Maps app powered by Google for another year, at least according to sources who spoke to The Verge. The decision was made before WWDC this year, and caught Google unaware (according to sources), which is why we still don't have a Google Maps app. According to the report, Apple felt Google's offering was lagging behind. Plus there's the contractual limitation of turn-by-turn directions (available on Android), as well as the added drama of Google requesting more branding and the inclusion of Latitude. Despite having a year left on the established app, however, Apple decided to go it alone. The Verge, and we here at TUAW, are already seeing progress on data points which were missing or incorrect, but mapping the planet and adding relevant data for businesses and such is -- quite literally -- no small matter.
New survey says iOS 6 users aren't as happy as they were with iOS 5
The word from mobile customer research firm On Device (as reported by TechCrunch) is iOS 5 eked out a bit more customer satisfaction than iOS 6 has thus far. The company checked with 16,000 iPhone users, and even though it's only a small deviation, it's the first time there has been a dip in the numbers measured by On Device. iOS 6 users have a reported satisfaction rating of 7.65, compared to 7.75 for iOS 5. When iOS 5 came out, that number was a jump from 6.93. In fact, every iOS release has seen an increase until now. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it's all the negative talk of the new Maps app, and because such a large percentage of users are using their phones for navigation, any trouble with Maps can have an effect on user satisfaction. It's just one set of numbers, and the satisfaction change is very small. We'll see more data from more surveys in the coming weeks and see if a trend develops. [via TechCrunch]
iOS 6 ships with WiFi plus cellular feature missing
Back in August, much buzz arose about a new iOS 6 feature. WiFi plus Cellular promised to allow apps having trouble with WiFi to connect using cellular data. This option promised to allow devices to tap into their data plan upon encountering shaky WiFi connections. As Megan Lavey-Heaton wrote this Summer, This scenario can occur you've made a WiFi connection and it turns out to be pretty bad. The connection to the router is solid, but the Internet itself is pretty horrid -- case in point, most hotel rooms I've stayed in the past couple of years. Benjamin cites cases where you're making the transition between a place with WiFi, such as your home or a coffee shop, and places without. There's a middle ground where you're barely hanging onto a WiFi connection. Fast forward to the Autumn, and iOS 6's release. For anyone installing iOS 6, and navigating to Settings > General > Cellular, you would have seen this instead. The options go directly from "Personal Hotspot" to "Use Cellular Data for". Sometime between the final iOS 6 golden master release and the public distro, Apple pulled the plug on WiFi Plus Cellular. We have contacted Apple for comment but do not expect a reply. This is a disappointment for many users, who we think would have welcomed a flexible approach to flaky WiFi connections. If you're a developer who installed the initial GM, you've probably lucked out. The final dev release's Cellular settings screen looks like this.
Apple reportedly meeting with Swiss Federal Railway over iOS 6 clock
Remember that iOS 6 clock the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) said Apple copied from them? It seems they'll be sitting down together soon to discuss an arrangement. As noted by CNET, the SBB doesn't necessarily want money from Apple and is "proud" its design wound up in iOS 6. I'm not sure what they want (perhaps a Swiss logo on the clock?), but we'll keep you posted.
