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Apple's CEO Tim Cook personally apologize for the Maps fiasco
- Thread starter Vic
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Treefingers
Member
No he apologized.
You should try reading what he said.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/apple-map-fails-ios-6-maps_n_1901599.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/09/27/apple-maps-six-most-epic-fails/
You could literally find lists like these everywhere.
Sure its a small sample but its still hilarious tbh.
"We're sorry but you either deal with it (while we work on it for 2013, more like 2014) or get yourself a third party app that you either pay for or use a slow web app"
That's hardly saying anything beyond "deal with it". Thankfully I didn't move to iOS 6 (I'm not using my home computer while traveling) so now I know not to upgrade.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Just curious...Does this statement:
Mean that Apple initially launched a Maps that wasn't Google Maps? Curious more than anything, as I didn't have me an iPhone until the 4S (where Google Maps was the thing).
Mean that Apple initially launched a Maps that wasn't Google Maps? Curious more than anything, as I didn't have me an iPhone until the 4S (where Google Maps was the thing).
Cosmic Schwung
Member
I'm assuming it's the comedy value he's enjoying.
Who terminated the relationship? Show your work.
Fjolle
Member
Sigh. Like Ping or Antennagate didn't get to the public?
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
"It's gonna get better? Use something else until then?"
That's the same as saying nothing at all.
No I said read what he wrote. You still haven't.
Treefingers
Member
No it's always been Google Maps.
Okay, what would you want him to say? "Free iPhone 5s to everyone and Google Maps is back!!"?
Weird, so what's he talking about then? He doesn't know his own products?
It's called spin.
Pai Pai Master
Banned
They simply wanted to get Google out of iOS6 as much as possible, and they jumped the gun here. Bad move that did them more harm than good.
Don't they have another year left on their agreement with Google anyways? If they wanted feedback, they should have kept Google Maps as the default map service, and released an Apple Maps beta app for public testing and development.
Don't they have another year left on their agreement with Google anyways? If they wanted feedback, they should have kept Google Maps as the default map service, and released an Apple Maps beta app for public testing and development.
CherryWoodFuton
Member
I'm torn..on one hand I appreciate Tim's tone in this letter far more than Job's smug as fuck one during Antennagate. On the other hand Jobs did offer free bumpers....Where's my free bumber Timmy??????????
Hahaha, oh man. How did they fuck it up so badly? That's hilarious.
The app has always been called "Maps", but in the past, Google provided it, now it's just Apple's. The name is the same, the app isn't.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Dude wtf are you even talking about.
Apple did.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
So the "ground up" thing is just the fact that they were integrating what Google had and was developing into iOS, correct?
MilesWebber
Member
He's the most powerful homosexual in the world!
This is what they should have done. There's tons of Apple faithful who would have used Apple Maps and helped improve it.
Throwing away Google Maps right away for this untested map service was beyond dumb.
No, if that was the case, their Maps wouldn't be fucked up.
I'm saying you should read what the guy wrote. Clearly the words are not being comprehended. A sentence like "we're doing everything we can to fix it" didn't even register. The only explanation is that you didn't read it.
Did they? How do you know? Reports were Google was as much responsible for the split. People need to substantiate their claims.
FalsettoVibe
Member
Why didn't they just wait till it was ready to release it?
It's been posted before on this matter. We even had a discussion on it. Try to keep up.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3407614/apple-over-a-year-left-on-google-maps-contract-google-maps-ios-app
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Don't say anything until you have a road map for:
1. Improving map data
2. Detailing how cities' transit apps around the world are coming along (since that's their big solution for their missing transit data).
If this announcement is just acknowleging the situation, then that's fine, but nobody should pat them on the back for being compelled to say something and having no solution when they do.
This is damage control and means fuck all. We know that this app will take years to get fixed and will *never* reach the old maps app level.
It's as much a "deal with it" message as it can get. When Apple gives me the ability of changing the default app to a third party one is when I'll accept this "apology".
Revengeance
Member
In addition to the inaccuracies and bad search results, I really despise the vector based imaging. I like the iPhone 5, but coming from Android Google Maps, this kinda sucks.
This. People hoping that crowd-sourcing will magically fix everything are in for a surprise i think.
because they're expecting the users to send in the corrections.
It's been reported that, at the very least, there was a year remaining on the existing agreement. Even if Google were trying to renegotiate on particularly onerous terms, Apple could have waited a year on their mapping solution to roll it out. As for Google being difficult, they wouldn't be, as Google cares more about keeping millions of iOS users using Google services than they do about converting a handful to Android.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Oh. Their software is going to be updated in the future! What a revelation! Yeah I obviously missed that....
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
The more the story of Apple switching away from Google Maps comes out, the more the whole situation makes sense. It's unfortunate that they had to rush to market with a product that has so many issues, but considering how it all played out behind closed doors, if all the stories are to be believed, they did have to make a switch as soon as possible.
Now, I know everyone is going to say "but..but... one more year on the agreement!" which was reportedly true at the time that they gave notice to Google. That was before WWDC in June, so it is quite possible that the agreement has several months less than a year to go when iOS 6 dropped. Had they not elected to move ahead now, they may have found themselves in dire straights next year when iOS 7 will be shipping and their agreement would have expired ahead of the new launch.
Also, if the reports are to be believed, and Google was refusing to provide turn-by-turn data, than Apple was giving up a competitive advantage to Android for at least another year. Apple knew they had to get turn-by-turn working as soon as they could.
Of course, they aren't just a little bit behind Google on this. They're YEARS behind, and there simply is no way to make up that ground quickly. I believe they'll do what they can to make a competitive product as quickly as possible, but anyone who thought these maps were going to be on par with Google right out of the gate was deluding themselves. Luckly the data is server-side, so we should see improvements come about without the need for an update to the app itself.
By the way, while I recognize that many people have had problems with new Maps app, I'm not amongst them. The times that I've used it it has worked really well and turn-by-turn has been flawless. Your mileage varies apparently depending on your location.
Now, I know everyone is going to say "but..but... one more year on the agreement!" which was reportedly true at the time that they gave notice to Google. That was before WWDC in June, so it is quite possible that the agreement has several months less than a year to go when iOS 6 dropped. Had they not elected to move ahead now, they may have found themselves in dire straights next year when iOS 7 will be shipping and their agreement would have expired ahead of the new launch.
Also, if the reports are to be believed, and Google was refusing to provide turn-by-turn data, than Apple was giving up a competitive advantage to Android for at least another year. Apple knew they had to get turn-by-turn working as soon as they could.
Of course, they aren't just a little bit behind Google on this. They're YEARS behind, and there simply is no way to make up that ground quickly. I believe they'll do what they can to make a competitive product as quickly as possible, but anyone who thought these maps were going to be on par with Google right out of the gate was deluding themselves. Luckly the data is server-side, so we should see improvements come about without the need for an update to the app itself.
By the way, while I recognize that many people have had problems with new Maps app, I'm not amongst them. The times that I've used it it has worked really well and turn-by-turn has been flawless. Your mileage varies apparently depending on your location.
Treefingers
Member
I thought Google Maps used vectors on Android
Bulbo Urethral Baggins
Banned
Seriously, I haven't had one single problem yet. I've used it for about a week now to test it and used the turn by turn directions for a 3-4 hr. drive and not a single issue yet. Maybe my part of the country is mapped better?
That there is no small part of your answer.
Turn by turn is actually pretty good. TomTom is supposedly providing that data. The problem mainly lies in a lack of POIs and subpar satellite imagery internationally.
Interfectum
Gold Member
the new apple maps cant even locate restaurants that are 2 minutes away from where i live. its awful. just put google maps back on.
I guess I'm one of the few people that have had pretty much zero problems with the new maps, turn-by-turn, POIs, and all. I realize that other people might be having some issues, but I feel like this issue is waaaaaay overblown and it's actually already improved quite a bit since beta 1, and that was with far fewer people using it and providing user data
Bleh. Reading this letter compelled me to launch Google Earth on my desktop. What a ridiculously good application, especially when paired with additional KML data like http://www.davidrumsey.com/
on Android it has for a long time. On desktops it's enabled only on browsers supporting WebGL. not quite sure why anyone would hate it since it generally performs far better than the old png-tile solution.
I also haven't had an issue but I've only used it in downtown Vancouver, so I won't be able to judge the quality as well as someone else.
It does since Google Maps 5.0 in 2010.
Sidenote: Appleinsider were really into the new maps in the beta:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/08/03/inside_apples_new_vector_based_maps_in_ios_6.html They sure are pretty smug about the new vectors and imagines that this sudden move makes Apple Maps move to the forefront of maps technology.
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