iOS 6 Maps

[Ddrak]

I'm chuckling at some of the silliness...

http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com

I'm doubly chuckling at Apple's response that "they'll get better as people use them more".

Dd

[Harlowe]

Some of those results are hilarious and yeah, that response was brilliant PR.

[Taxious]

Ahaha thanks for the share - a co-worker and I were just talking about how shitty Apple is, now I can link this to him.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

This is where I wish Steve Jobs was alive to say something really condescending.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

This is where I wish Steve Jobs was alive to say something really condescending.

Steve Jobs wouldn't have let this ship.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

This is where I wish Steve Jobs was alive to say something really condescending.

Steve Jobs wouldn't have let this ship.

I was about to agree with you and say: "No, I guess he wouldn't have.", but I got to thinking, how did the last one go out the door with something as serious as a non-functioning antenna? I guess the difference is that his condescending remarks would've been if he thought the product was perfect. I don't see any possible variation of "you're holding it wrong" happening here. "You're driving to the wrong places." Doesn't work. So maybe in this case he wouldn't have shipped it.

Even as someone who can't stand Apple, I have to admit that they do have a pretty good reputation for quality control. One thing that hasn't changed though, is Apple arrogance, even if the context is a little different. Telling everyone that it'll suck less if you use it more is at least IMHO on par with something Jobs would say.

One of my weird career distinctions is that that a company I worked for demo'd one of my projects (which I told them wasn't ready to demo) to Bill Gates, and it blew up spectacularly in front of him and half the Microsoft management. I wasn't there, but they told me the fatal error popup box was like 20 feet across on the huge projected screen. They told me that Bill Gates was totally gracious about it, and said something like "That's OK, usually that happens to me. Tell your programmer not to be embarrassed." Seems like everything I've ever heard about him is positive. I hear in person he's just a regular, really nerdy guy.

So, I don't deny totally being an MS fanboi, but I just have a hard time understanding why as a customer people would allow themselves to be talked down to like Apple does to their customers. As a customer, in this case, anything other than "sorry, we screwed it up, and we're working around the clock to fix it" would be totally unacceptable. It's like that chick (everyone knows one like her) who the more you treat her like shit, the more she comes back. It's like Apple and its customers are co-dependants

[Ddrak]

Steve would absolutely have kept the Google maps. This isn't a "you're holding it wrong" moment, as Free said, it's a flat out PR nightmare, especially given Google has a maps app that Apple's been sitting on and not allowing in the store. Their quality control is definitely dropping as Google and Microsoft's advances force them into faster and faster release cycles. Right now, the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are really just barely catching Jelly Bean and the latest round of Android phones, and WinPhone 8 will likely surpass both of those. Apple *is* losing the hardware/OS race and it's only the fact that they have the best app store that's keeping them afloat right now.

It's amazing listening to the Apple fanbois cry "Google Maps sucked in the beginning too!" because comparing Google 6 years ago to Apple now is flat out retarded. If you're proud to be 6 years behind then your codependency is showing. Fact is Google and Bing maps crap all over Apple's botched job right now, and will continue to do so because neither is standing still.

Having said that, dropping Google's maps for their own is absolutely the right move for Apple. What they SHOULD have done is introduced the Apple maps as an alternative option that they could develop into a viable replacement, and they should have expected to invest double what Google has (~10,000 people for 5 years) just to pull it off. It takes time but forcing your user base to drop a fully working product for a shit new one is just customer abuse.

Apple knows it can't work around the clock to fix it any time soon (though they apparently have the maps team under "lockdown" - bet that helps morale). There's just too much wrong with the base data and that takes a god-awful long time to repair. They're caught between switching back to Google and losing an insane amount of face (not to mention Google will nail them to the wall in licensing concessions), allowing a downgrade to iOS 5, or continuing to abuse their own customers with "trust us, the maps are awesome because if you load up San Francisco at exactly the right angle in a demo it's amazing".

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I thought they got all their map data from TomTom. I've had a TomTom for probably 5 years and it's been absolutely awesome. It's hard to believe we're talking about the same maps. I'm just trying to grasp how a company so big could botch the maps so bad. And yeah, Apple is wise to be scared of Google.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

I've been a pretty loyal iPhone user since the beginning, but even I see the writing on the wall. Unless things are vastly improved in the next iPhone HDW & OS I'm moving over to Lumia & WP8.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I think Windows 8 is an abomination (mostly because of Metro) on the desktop, but it sure looks sweet for phones.

[Ddrak]

I thought they got all their map data from TomTom. I've had a TomTom for probably 5 years and it's been absolutely awesome.

This.

I can only guess they got the feed from TomTom like 5 years ago when they started the project and haven't resynced or something?

Just this morning I found this gem:

photo.PNG

Hotel. Close to airport. Small amount of runway noise...

[Fallakin Kuvari]

I think Windows 8 is an abomination (mostly because of Metro) on the desktop, but it sure looks sweet for phones.

It certainly does. Nokia hardware is so appealing for it too (not a big fan of HTC in general, but those certainly look good as well).

[Freecare Spiritwise]

The story keeps getting better:

Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch

[Ddrak]

Wow - no one has ever suggested that Adding people to a late project makes it later. Glad Apple pioneered that.

15 people? Are they serious? Google hires around 10k people around the world to keep their maps ticking...

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Just like Windows gave us a de-emphasis on hardware, I'm hoping that virtualization will someday give us the same de-emphasis on software. I should be able to run Win8 on an iPhone, or Android on a Windows phone. Right now that would take a de-emphasis on the app stores, so I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[Harlowe]

This was amusing..

http://gizmodo.com/5945799/the-definiti ... gle-image/

[Ddrak]

It's interesting to see the people that don't distinguish between the maps on iOS5 and the full Google Maps (like you get on Android). Usually goes "No way - Apple maps are way better because you get turn-by-turn, and can get transit plugins, and (insert other stuff Google maps has done for a year or more)".

Dd