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A letter from Tim Cooks


2fastkuztoms

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That's a nice note, but I don't think it will make people happy. The loss of transit directions and spotty international coverage are too difficult to overcome.

 

As for me, I've had access to Apple Maps for several months now and find them superior to Google Maps for iOS in almost every way. I am presumably one of the lucky ones.

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I have used google maps for ever and they still have flaws. They don't always find the best route. In their earlier incarnations they had my house one street over. But then I've also had problems with Garmin maps and also with Navigon. I stopped using the old apps because it had no turn by turn directions and have used Navigon exlusively since you can predownload the maps that you need. It comes in handy if there's no 3G or 4G when you're in the middle of nowhere. I use Navigon almost exclusively and I will not use Apple's new maps until they allow me to pre-download maps.

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Could be that Tim Cook & Co. were trying to emulate one of Jobs's "Reality Distortion Field" magic tricks.

 

Engineer: "There's no way that the Maps app will be ready for <enter date here>."

 

Tim: "It will be ready. You can do it; just try harder."

 

Engineer: "It cannot be done because <blah blah blah> and <blah blah blah>. Perhaps in a year, we will be much closer."

 

Tim: "Absurd. I find your lack of faith troubling and unworthy of our genius staff. <throws a Jobs-style temper tantrum>"

 

Even Jobs couldn't always pull this magic off. Many at Apple must really miss him.

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I use Navigon almost exclusively and I will not use Apple's new maps until they allow me to pre-download maps.

I think Navigon is the benchmark for turn-by-turn as well. It's excellent! Though I am playing with Waze now and it seems to do a good job on routing.

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IMO, They did not have a choice but to make their own map system. Google would not allow them to have turn by turn without further control of the system, which we all know apple would not give. I actually like the new maps app, and it has not led me astray, but then again, I havent tried it when going to places I did not already have directions to.

 

Also, it seems like apple is on top of fixing it. People have reported that just a few days after reporting a problem, that it was fixed. It is a 1.0, so I will give them some slack, especially since google maps was not always as good as it is now.

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I have not tried the traffic feature of the new Maps app. Navigon's is darn good and saved me a bunch of time yesterday. I had a dinner engagement and it rerouted me around a 30 minute accident traffic tie-up. This was a business dinner with a prospective client and Navigon saved my behind. Granted, I had already called, but still.

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Apple has messed up before, they aren't perfect and they generally apologize and fix the problem.

 

Apparently the new maps is a huge improvement for users in China, something I hadn't considered. I've also seen lots of people saying the new maps finally has shots of their town, etc where as before Google just had "no data" tiles. I've also heard from people who say it sucks in their area and gives bad directions.

 

I don't know who to believe, all I can say is it seems good to me here in the DFW area.

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Apple had to do something. Google Maps lack of voice navigation made it impossible to use in heavy traffic conditions. It's not like you can pick up your phone while driving and try and flip between the map and the written directions. Apple maps isn't great but at least now we might get some healthy competition that will lead to some great innovations.

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I have used it for over a week now. For a living, I drive a tow truck and a GPS/Navigation combo is my life saver. So far I have put Apple Maps to use for well over 1,500 miles and it has not led me wrong thus far. For a 1.0, this app rocks in my professional opinion.

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I have used it for over a week now. For a living, I drive a tow truck and a GPS/Navigation combo is my life saver. So far I have put Apple Maps to use for well over 1,500 miles and it has not led me wrong thus far. For a 1.0, this app rocks in my professional opinion.

 

I have also used it and if it does not steer me wrong, and it hasn't so far, it will replace my Navigon, which I really like.

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Apple had to do something. Google Maps lack of voice navigation made it impossible to use in heavy traffic conditions. It's not like you can pick up your phone while driving and try and flip between the map and the written directions. Apple maps isn't great but at least now we might get some healthy competition that will lead to some great innovations.

 

Actually, Google navigation does do voice, and does it well.

 

Blinders people. Loose them. :blink:

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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Actually, Google navigation does do voice, and does it well.

 

Blinders people. Loose them. :blink:

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

I suspect he could be referring to the fact that Google maps in ios did not have voice turn by turn like the Android version did.

 

Sent from my Dark Jelly Belly using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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I suspect he could be referring to the fact that Google maps in ios did not have voice turn by turn like the Android version did.

 

Absolutely. Google Maps for iOS is absolutely inferior to Google Maps for Android.

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Title is wrong. It's Tim Cook, not Cooks.

 

Perhaps is was just a thought that was left unfinished. "A letter from Tim Cook's..."

...Mom

hand

brain

dog

nanny

 

Or it was a letter from several cooks who are named Tim?

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I think it was a clever statement on how figuratively hot the letter was and the OP just accidentally capitalized "cooks"

 

"A letter from Tim cooks."

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I've seen a couple of people reporting that they thought iOS maps was sending them on crazy routes, only to find out that it was routing around accidents or slowdowns. Apple is using the anonymous traffic data to update their maps' traffic info in real-time, something the iOS Google maps app didn't do... Google seemed to get their traffic data from some other service and it was always out of date here in DFW, you'd be stuck in traffic before it would turn yellow/red. So far the new maps seems to be always up to date.

 

I've been testing it and so far, in the DFW area, it has yet to be wrong or have any issues that I can see. I'm hearing from more folks that its map data is better than the old maps was (things like Google satellite showing an empty field, new maps showing the actual house).

 

From what I can tell, most of the bad maps seem to be in certain parts of Canada and Europe, the US seems to be good (even better for some), and China is supposedly a vast improvement.

 

 

Saw some blog chatter about an interesting idea... Nokia owns NavTeq IIRC. Their market cap is only 10 billion. Apple could spend some money to buy them and get the whole mapping operation, plus a gaggle of patents and some smart engineers. That would be a good idea but no clue how much they'd hold out for. Since Microsoft seems to be releasing a Surface phone I doubt there will be much of a market for Windows 8 phones.

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