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So you all heard the jokes about Apple Maps right?

#1

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/10/apple-maps-discloses-location-of-classified-taiwan-military-base/

It went from -Hilarious- to -Oh fuck.....-


#2

bhamv3

bhamv3

On the one hand, as a Taiwanese person, I have to say, dammit Apple!

On the other hand, realistically speaking China probably already knows about that place.


#3

sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

I agree with bhamv2, that is likely one of the most spied upon islands in the world...


#4

Jay

Jay



#5

Bowielee

Bowielee

holy shit...


#6

PatrThom

PatrThom

The incident made headlines. At least nobody was seriously injured, but the video caused much consternation.

--Patrick


#7

GasBandit

GasBandit

















#8

Jay

Jay





#9

MindDetective

MindDetective

The Hunger Games parody video made me laugh out loud.


#10

strawman

strawman

I'm just hoping they aren't using the same code for 911 calls.

"911, what is your emergency"
"I think I'm having a heart attack!"
"It appears you are in morocco, sir, shall I forward you to the morocco emergency services?"
...
"Sir, are you still there?


#11

Gared

Gared

So I finally upgraded to iOS 6, as I'd been waiting for a Google Maps app, and they finally released one last night/this morning, and I decided to test out Apple Maps. It already fails. I told both of them to give me directions from my apartment in Kent, WA, to my parents' house in Cambridge, WI. Google wants me to turn right out of my parking lot onto the street that runs by our complex; Apple maps wants me to drive through the fence separating my apartment complex from the one next door, then turn right onto the street at the end of their parking lot, and then onto the street that runs by our complex. I'm pretty sure that the complex owners wouldn't appreciate me driving through a fence.


#12

GasBandit

GasBandit

The government of Australia is warning people that using Apple maps there could be potentially fatal.


#13

Jay

Jay

Just fucking use Waze, it's awesome.


#14

Bowielee

Bowielee

So, this uses google maps, right? Is it some sort of different google maps that what Android uses? I ask because I use the google maps app for Andriod all the time and only once was it incorrect.


#15

Gared

Gared

Bowielee said:
So, this uses google maps, right? Is it some sort of different google maps that what Android uses? I ask because I use the google maps app for Andriod all the time and only once was it incorrect.
Click to expand...
This uses Google maps, now. In iOS 5 and lower, it also used Google Maps, but it was just called "maps" and wasn't specifically branded as Google, as it was part of the operating system itself. In iOS 6, Apple dropped Google's mapping service and switched to their own product, which has been doing an amazingly crappy job. The Google Maps app that I used to test Google vs. Apple Maps last night was only just released.

Edit: product. They switched to their own product. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if they had switched to their own produce. Tomatoes cannot tell distances worth a damn.


#16

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Jay said:
Just fucking use Waze, it's awesome.
Click to expand...
Waze is shit for finding named locations but fantastic when you type in the address. Enjoy the little -game- mechanic it has too.


#17

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

DarkAudit - You can disagree with me all you like but if you type Wal-Mart or What-a-burger into Waze you will not get the nearest location to you on an ANDROID system. However if you type the location of the nearest one into Waze, it'll be great.


#18

DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Waze is crap. It will consistently send you miles out of your way to take it's chosen route, and then continue to insist you backtrack as much as 20 miles to get back on that route.

The mapping tool was an absolute piece of excrement. Not only for having so much to correct for my hometown, but also for having virtually no documentation on how to use, and for taking days, if not weeks for corrections to go live. If they ever did.


#19

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

DarkAudit said:
Waze is crap. It will consistently send you miles out of your way to take it's chosen route, and then continue to insist you backtrack as much as 20 miles to get back on that route.

The mapping tool was an absolute piece of excrement. Not only for having so much to correct for my hometown, but also for having virtually no documentation on how to use, and for taking days, if not weeks for corrections to go live. If they ever did.
Click to expand...
Unless you use exact locations.


#20

DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Gilgamesh said:
Unless you use exact locations.
Click to expand...
I did. And the chosen route home was a good 20 miles longer than the route I was taking. Then it would constantly demand I backtrack at every intersection for the next 25 miles before it finally decided to reroute.

I took the shouter route at least a half dozen times with Waze running, and it never caught on.


#21

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

DarkAudit said:
I did. And the chosen route home was a good 20 miles longer than the route I was taking. Then it would constantly demand I backtrack at every intersection for the next 25 miles before it finally decided to reroute.

I took the shouter route at least a half dozen times with Waze running, and it never caught on.
Click to expand...
That's definitely a shame. However, zero issues with that here.


#22

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I use google maps.

'spretty good.


#23

Jay

Jay

"I have issues using an app and thus everyone's else appreciation of the app is bad kkkaaaaay"


#24

papachronos

papachronos

I use Waze all the time around Cleveland where I live, and lots of other places as I work (I drive about 35k miles per year as a consultant), and never had problems with it until recently... when I went to my college reunion in Buckhannon, WV. On that trip it completely wigged out... so I think DA had a valid complaint, and Waze is just screwed up in West Virginia for some reason.


#25

Zappit

Zappit

Apple maps wasn't bad, it was just set up for a post-Mayan apocalypse world. Then it will be perfectly accurate.


#26

GasBandit

GasBandit



#27

PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
Click to expand...
FWIW, if, as depicted, I were driving a Starfleet vehicle, wherever it is I'm going, I wouldn't need roads...

--Patrick


#28

strawman

strawman

It's funny that the map icon shows you the fastest way from Apple to Google.


#29

GasBandit

GasBandit

stienman said:
It's funny that the map icon shows you the fastest way from Apple to Google.
Click to expand...
Well, that could explain why Apple wants people searching for that to drive off a bridge.


#30

tegid

tegid

All my friends who have iOS devices shared over facebook how much fun this new apple maps was, with its 3d and all, when it was released. So, what I get from all this is: very fancy, fun to use, but not necessarily useful. Sounds like half of what Apple has been doing lately.


#31

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

That's what happens when a company loses their visionary.


#32

Necronic

Necronic

Lets see if they can maintain their standard "We don't acknowledge or respond to technical issues" when dealing with foreign sovereigns.


#33

Covar

Covar

After the first weekend I stopped having issues with apple maps. If it was still giving me issues I'd probably go download something else, but I just don't feel the need.


#34

fade

fade

Necronic said:
Lets see if they can maintain their standard "We don't acknowledge or respond to technical issues" when dealing with foreign sovereigns.
Click to expand...
Tim Cook released an apology email acknowledging the shortcomings of apple maps very shortly after its release.

Apple released this product knowing full well its shortcomings because they thought they could crowdsource better mapping (from their own lips), or (more likely) use it as a bargaining chip. As far as I can see, with the release of Google Maps, Apple got exactly what it wanted.


#35

Necronic

Necronic

That's a pretty new mentality from them though. Last time there was a major technical blunder Steve Jobs basically just said "Deal with it. You don't want our product that's fine, we don't need you."

Telling that to a foreign country whose national security you may have violated would not work well.


#36

HowDroll

HowDroll

I've used Apple Maps in 5 states and haven't had a single issue...


#37

strawman

strawman

Apple maps couldn't locate the us post offices near me.

None of them.


#38

fade

fade

I think someone else said it, but Apple Maps seems to work well as a driving and mapping tool when you already know where you're going. It sucks greatly when it comes to locating something unknown. I've had bad luck here in Houston, in which the Yelp DB is fleshed out quite well.


#39

Espy

Espy

HowDroll said:
I've used Apple Maps in 5 states and haven't had a single issue...
Click to expand...
I've used it in 3 states and had no issues either.


#40

fade

fade

You know, I've had basically zero problems with the new app. Today, in fact, I compared the new Google Maps app to the native app, and in terms of user experience, as usual, Apple wins hands down. I was trying to get directions from a location different from the one I was at (my wife's location) to the restaurant we were meeting at for lunch. It was nonintuitive to do this on the google app, and I could not find the means to share the directions. What's more, it was Google that failed when it came to predicting what I was looking for. It was also google maps that *gasp* put the restaurant in the wrong location. With Apple Maps, the workflow was simple: search, click arrow for directions, oh wow, a "from here" option, click, search (finds wife's location and restaurant with 3-5 keystrokes--google required whole words), click the immediately obvious "share this location", which pops up a selection of sharing mechanisms.

This is where Apple wins. It's the answer to "why" when apple-haters ask. There was a chance the directions were off (they weren't), but the experience was so intuitive. It worked exactly the way I expected it to work, hardware and software. Just like my 8 year old powerbook. Just like my MacBook Pro. All on this solid, nearly indestructible brick that's been through hell and back (for the phone and both laptops). My dell? It creaked and groaned since the day I bought it just picking it up. I have to pay panasonic an assload of money for the same durability. That's the stuff I pay for. I'm not paying for the apple logo. I'm paying for the FreeBSD and POSIX compatibility, and the gestalt experience. I don't fricking care when a Samsung commercial shows me something there are like 50 apps for on the app store, or brags about greater horsepower there's roughly a 99.5% chance I'll never ever tap into.


#41

GasBandit

GasBandit

I think the problem is you expected to do stuff with your finger. When I need to go somewhere, I just tap the mic button (or vlingo on my old droid phone) and say "Navigate to best buy" or whatever. Then the only finger touching I need to do after that is if I want an alternate route due to traffic or something, and that's an obvious button right there on the screen.

Really, with the voice recognition stuff available for android these days, I barely even type any more. It's all voice control and text to speech.


#42

Calleja

Calleja

I can't believe this wasn't posted in this thread before: http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/

Apple Maps had a friend (apple fanboy, I seem to want to add for entirely schadenfreudesque reasons) get his car completely stuck in mud, where iOS was telling him a friend's house was. Of course, it wasn't even a road, but his iPhone told him to go that way, DAMMIT! Oh man, that was a fun week.


#43

Gared

Gared

I have to say, now that I've used the Google Maps app, that strictly as a map, it does what I need it to do. As a GPS/Nav app, it's atrocious. Especially around Seattle, with all of the freeway junctions, overpasses, and underpasses. I used it this past weekend to find a friend's new house in a portion of the city where I always get lost. Getting to the house wasn't so bad, except that just at the end of the instructions when I needed to know what street to turn onto, another of my friends called me and apparently superseded the direction giving abilities of the app, so I had to drive around in circles for a while waiting for the app to realize it was still running. Getting home was a whole 'nother story. While I really didn't need the directions home, I still had the app on and wanted to test its abilities. Every time the freeway that I was on (I-5, where I was supposed to be) crossed over another road, the app promptly activated my ear piece and told me to turn right, onto the ramp. Literally every single time. Apparently it had trouble determining which road I was on and was constantly attempting to get me back up onto I-5 from the road below, which I had obviously teleported down to.


#44

fade

fade

GasBandit said:
I think the problem is you expected to do stuff with your finger. When I need to go somewhere, I just tap the mic button (or vlingo on my old droid phone) and say "Navigate to best buy" or whatever. Then the only finger touching I need to do after that is if I want an alternate route due to traffic or something, and that's an obvious button right there on the screen.

Really, with the voice recognition stuff available for android these days, I barely even type any more. It's all voice control and text to speech.
Click to expand...
I do not like voice control. It doesn't work too well in a small office, either. Unless you want to be rude, I guess. On top of that, I have a rare last name that none of the voice recognition software seems to recognize.


#45

GasBandit

GasBandit

fade said:
I do not like voice control. It doesn't work too well in a small office, either. Unless you want to be rude, I guess. On top of that, I have a rare last name that none of the voice recognition software seems to recognize.
Click to expand...
I thought you were in a car, though. Trying to navigate.


#46

Necronic

Necronic

Why people would use a GPS/route planner over a simple map completely confounds me. Give me a map and I can figure out where to go and go there with confidence. Give me a route planner and I will put my hands into a machine that gives me confusing last second directions and be concerned the entire time that I am going the wrong way.


#47

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

That's because a lot of people have no idea how to interpret an address and read a map. It's a dying skill.


#48

fade

fade

I've never used a maps app that didn't have a map on it that I double check before leaving. For both aforementioned apps, the map with all the streets is right there. Hell, Google maps even includes the bike trails, which my Houston map does not. I've found it really useful for extended bike treks.


#49

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

fade said:
I've never used a maps app that didn't have a map on it that I double check before leaving. For both aforementioned apps, the map with all the streets is right there. Hell, Google maps even includes the bike trails, which my Houston map does not. I've found it really useful for extended bike treks.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Necronic is referring to a simple paper map *gasp... a printed map!* I know I was.

Google maps figures everything out for you. You do not need to know anything about maps to use google maps.


#50

figmentPez

figmentPez

Necronic said:
Why people would use a GPS/route planner over a simple map completely confounds me. Give me a map and I can figure out where to go and go there with confidence. Give me a route planner and I will put my hands into a machine that gives me confusing last second directions and be concerned the entire time that I am going the wrong way.
Click to expand...
  • I can carry a phone with me at all times. Carrying a sectional map isn't nearly as handy.
  • My phone lets me look up businesses much quicker than a phone book.
  • Digital maps can be more up-to-date than an old sectional map.
  • "The map is not the territory" -Alfred Korzybski. A map can't tell me where I am if there aren't any street signs, which is the case in some areas of Houston. A GPS can tell me roughly where I am, even if I don't recognize any landmarks.
  • A GPS can give voice directions. Unless you've got a passenger reading the map for you, this can be very useful in unfamiliar territory.
  • A good GPS doesn't give last second directions and can be used to view the entire trip in advance.
  • Google Street View can show me what parking is like at a given location, and where to look for the correct entrance for a specific business. Try knowing that in advance from a sectional map. Want to talk last second directions? Try turning into a parking lot off of a 50+ mph feeder road where two entrances in 15 feet don't connect to the same lots.


#51

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Necronic said:
Why people would use a GPS/route planner over a simple map completely confounds me. Give me a map and I can figure out where to go and go there with confidence. Give me a route planner and I will put my hands into a machine that gives me confusing last second directions and be concerned the entire time that I am going the wrong way.
Click to expand...
So so many reasons. figmentPez hit just a few of them out of the park. Can't understand why a person uses a cell phone instead of a landline rotary phone either? ;)


#52

Gared

Gared

Necronic said:
Why people would use a GPS/route planner over a simple map completely confounds me. Give me a map and I can figure out where to go and go there with confidence. Give me a route planner and I will put my hands into a machine that gives me confusing last second directions and be concerned the entire time that I am going the wrong way.
Click to expand...
When I'm driving by myself, or when I have time to print a map from Google before leaving the house/office/etc., I much prefer to just do a quick few minutes study of a paper map and be done with it. If I'm driving with my wife (who honestly doesn't know her right from her left), and I haven't had time to study my route, I use a route planner or GPS. However, seeing how the Google Maps App handled I-5 with onramp spaghetti, I'll just stick to studying the route before hand from now on.


#53

GasBandit

GasBandit

I like not having to take my eyes off the road. "In a quarter mile, turn left onto Main Street" etc is nice. I've never had a problem with google navigation telling me to turn too late. If anything, it gets me paranoid with its "In one mile/half mile/quarter mile/200 feet" notifications so that I get in the lane way early.


#54

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Note, I was not saying that a paper map was "better". I was saying that reading them is a dying skill that many people nowadays don't even understand the basics of.


#55

fade

fade

Azurephoenix said:
I'm pretty sure Necronic is referring to a simple paper map *gasp... a printed map!* I know I was.

Google maps figures everything out for you. You do not need to know anything about maps to use google maps.
Click to expand...
yeah, I know he was. I was just saying that i never saw a gps app that didn't allow you to do both. In fact, I think it'd be odd not to check the map screen before you took off.


#56

Necronic

Necronic

Azurephoenix said:
I'm pretty sure Necronic is referring to a simple paper map *gasp... a printed map!* I know I was.
Click to expand...
I should have been clear. I was referring to a digital map. Every time I get my gf to look up directions to something she gives me the "step-by-step" GPS answer. All I want is the damned map. If you can't get somewhere in 4-5 turns there is something seriously wrong with the place you are going.


#57

Calleja

Calleja

Necronic said:
I should have been clear. I was referring to a digital map. Every time I get my gf to look up directions to something she gives me the "step-by-step" GPS answer. All I want is the damned map. If you can't get somewhere in 4-5 turns there is something seriously wrong with the place you are going.
Click to expand...
Some of us have broken senses of direction, bro. I seriously would not be able to go ANYWHERE, even in my own hometown, besides maybe one or 2 places, without Google Maps. I'm not even exaggerating. I'm one of those "turn three lefts and gets lost" kinda guys. I have NO sense of direction WHATSOEVER. I've relied on a pretty good visual memory my entire life, but that means that things like painting a house that I used for reference makes me feel completely and utterly lost.

I also have no spatial perception to speak of, and I'm sure those things are related. Like the part of the brain that handles direction also handles spatial perception and mine is atrophied or something.


#58

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Guess I'm too old school for these parts lol. My kids are going to learn how to read a map damn it!


#59

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Azurephoenix said:
Guess I'm too old school for these parts lol. My kids are going to learn how to read a map damn it!
Click to expand...
Teach them how to write letters while you're at it. Oh and make sure their online experience starts with Dial-Up.


#60

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I will teach them to write letters, tie proper knots, use a compass and read maps and plenty of other things that people nowadays consider obsolete/beneath them. I don't want my kids to be the useless morons I see around nowadays when their battery is dead in their phone.


#61

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Azurephoenix said:
I will teach them to write letters, tie proper knots, use a compass and read maps and plenty of other things that people nowadays consider obsolete/beneath them. I don't want my kids to be the useless morons I see around nowadays when their battery is dead in their phone.
Click to expand...
How about you just teach them to charge their battery?

Did you hear that plane btw?


#62

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Gilgamesh said:
How about you just teach them to charge their battery?

Did you hear that plane btw?
Click to expand...
I'm going to assume you're not the outdoorsy type. I enjoy dirtbiking, hiking, fishing, hunting and cross country skiing and you don't really get reception in the places that we go. I'll be teaching the kids those things too as they get older and phones aren't very useful out there.

Teach them to just charge their battery. You're so clever. How witty.

Not sure what you're getting at with the plane comment.


#63

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Azurephoenix said:
I'm going to assume you're not the outdoorsy type. I enjoy dirtbiking, hiking, fishing, hunting and cross country skiing and you don't really get reception in the places that we go. I'll be teaching the kids those things too as they get older and phones aren't very useful out there.
Click to expand...
By then, there will be reception out there, coverage will be everywhere. Obviously.

Azurephoenix said:
Teach them to just charge their battery. You're so clever. How witty.
Click to expand...
eGYwV.gif


Azurephoenix said:
Not sure what you're getting at with the plane comment.
Click to expand...
I think that would be the case :)


#64

bhamv3

bhamv3

Sometimes it still freaks me out that I have a detailed map of the ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD right here in my hand.

For example, entirely randomly, I just scrolled to a city called Beira in southern Mozambique, and zoomed in until it told me there's a golf course next to a telegraph office and meteorological observatory next to a river called Rio Chiveve and a road called Capitaes De Sofala.

And then, with just a few flicks of my finger, I'm now staring at an island called Niulakita, part of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu.

This thing is scary man.


#65

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Gilgamesh said:
By then, there will be reception out there, coverage will be everywhere. Obviously.
Click to expand...
I can never tell if you're being sarcastic or not. There most certainly will NOT be cell coverage in remote areas of the rocky mountains any time soon. Especially since cell signals are line of sight propagation based.

I'm also bemused by the fact that you're implying I'm an idiot for wanting to know and teach my kids the fundamentals behind the technology we have today.


#66

fade

fade

Can't it be both? I mean, I teach my kids the outdoorsy stuff, but if I'm in the car, and directions are needed, a phone is right there. It kind of reminds me of the conversation that Egg and Jack have regarding umbrellas in Big Trouble in Little China.


#67

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

fade said:
Can't it be both? I mean, I teach my kids the outdoorsy stuff, but if I'm in the car, and directions are needed, a phone is right there. It kind of reminds me of the conversation that Egg and Jack have regarding umbrellas in Big Trouble in Little China.
Click to expand...

Of course it can... that's the general idea. The best of both worlds.


#68

PatrThom

PatrThom

Azurephoenix said:
The best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
Yes. Like Christmas lights. Bright and indoor/outdoor.

--Patrick


#69

Jay

Jay

HowDroll said:
I've used Apple Maps in 5 states and haven't had a single issue...
Click to expand...
I MISS U


#70

GasBandit

GasBandit

Every child should be dropped in the colorado wilderness at age 10 with a compass, a map, a thermal blanket and a utility knife.

Hope you went to scouts, worthless maggotspawn.


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