Looks like Apple's map software has lots of issues

[cl-scott]

The OP should probably edit the title and remove the "in England" part.

I only caught a small snippet of it, but they were talking about it on some radio program or another yesterday and the person was saying how they were driving south along the embarcadero in SF, and the maps program thought they were going north. So, it's not just limeyland that is having troubles. I'm sure I could make some jokes about the lack of straightness in a city like SF, but I'll leave it up to people's imaginations.

 

[TuxDave]

I only caught a small snippet of it, but they were talking about it on some radio program or another yesterday and the person was saying how they were driving south along the embarcadero in SF, and the maps program thought they were going north. So, it's not just limeyland that is having troubles. I'm sure I could make some jokes about the lack of straightness in a city like SF, but I'll leave it up to people's imaginations.

I would attribute that more to reflections than anything else. The GPS portion of the phone hasn't changed and so figuring out which direction you're going shouldn't have changed.

 

[NFS4]

Absolutely dreadful

 

[cl-scott]

I would attribute that more to reflections than anything else. The GPS portion of the phone hasn't changed and so figuring out which direction you're going shouldn't have changed.

Not so sure about that. Few months back my parents came to visit, so we were up in the exact same area getting off BART when we had a fun, "I thought you had the map" moment. So being the only one with a smart phone, I pulled out my Gnex and it had no problems tracking us on a cable car along the same area. Even when we had to get off and walk a few blocks, still had no problem tracking my location.

And let's not forget, this is basically the street that marks the boundary between the city and the bay. Go 10-20ft in one direction, you're going to literally be in the bay most places along that road. It's not like you're in the middle of downtown Manhattan or something, with skyscrapers flanking you on every side. I'm not claiming to have any idea what the actual problem was, but the idea of it being some kind of signal reflection seems a bit dubious to me when you've got a couple miles worth of open space in the form of the bay on one side.

 

[WelshBloke]

Absolutely dreadful

:biggrin:

OK thats funny.

 

[TuxDave]

Not so sure about that. Few months back my parents came to visit, so we were up in the exact same area getting off BART when we had a fun, "I thought you had the map" moment. So being the only one with a smart phone, I pulled out my Gnex and it had no problems tracking us on a cable car along the same area. Even when we had to get off and walk a few blocks, still had no problem tracking my location.

And let's not forget, this is basically the street that marks the boundary between the city and the bay. Go 10-20ft in one direction, you're going to literally be in the bay most places along that road. It's not like you're in the middle of downtown Manhattan or something, with skyscrapers flanking you on every side. I'm not claiming to have any idea what the actual problem was, but the idea of it being some kind of signal reflection seems a bit dubious to me when you've got a couple miles worth of open space in the form of the bay on one side.

I'm pretty familiar with the area but I'm given a couple options. Either the maps update actually made the software abandon GPS data and made southbound motion seem northbound. Or something caused the GPS data to be incorrect. Or someone made up the story all together.

Another option would be something that I see on my Garmin when navigating. To prevent signal loss from making it look like your position is jumping all over the place it can go into a mode where it guesses where you are. So if it wants you to exit the highway but you stay on, for a couple seconds it will show you as exiting but then quickly correct itself to show yourself as having not exited. That's another possibility.

Normally I am fair on plausible stories but I really can't imagine a map update getting the basics of direction wrong.

 

[shortylickens]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

 

[WelshBloke]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

Mapping software and the mapping data is probably the most complicated thing you will ever run on a handheld device.

 

[jpeyton]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean).

It takes a month to assemble a fleet of vehicles to drive/map/photograph every road, street sign, house, building, storefront and hotspot in America?

EDIT: Forget just America, Apple's headaches in America are minor compared to how their Maps app is faring globally.

http://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/Her-har-vi-vel-glemt-noe-2768181.html

And the bad press for iOS6 maps is going viral globally today. Everyone is jumping on this bandwagon.

 

[Phynaz]

Looking forward to seeing the iFans defend iOS Maps as the greatest mapping app ever.

Why would you let something as small as maps on a mobile phone get you in such a rage that you have to resort to calling people names?

 

[Dulanic]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

So I always hear the line for Apple that "it just works". So when it doesn't, no biggie it should get fixed? Sorry, that's kind of hypocritical. Apple fans would bash the hell out of Google if this happened to Android.

 

[Eug]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

Uh, what?!?

Assuming you're not just joking... They're all bent out of shape over this because it's a huge step backwards, and one that will likely take years to rectify.

I really hope Google releases a Maps app, and Apple is forced to release it through iTunes. However, I suspect that won't really help us so much, because iOS will default to using the built-in Maps apps when Maps is linked from other apps.

 

[Phynaz]

EDIT: Forget just America, Apple's headaches in America are minor compared to how their Maps app is faring globally.

http://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/Her-har-vi-vel-glemt-noe-2768181.html

And the bad press for iOS6 maps is going viral globally today. Everyone is jumping on this bandwagon.

Awesome, let's go through and find one-offs where Google maps are borked. But you are correct, it's all bandwagon jumping, heard mentality. It's easy to do, and makes the uniformed feel better about themselves.

 

[TuxDave]

Awesome, let's go through and find one-offs where Google maps are borked. But you are correct, it all bandwagon jumping, heard mentality. It's easy to do, and makes the uniformed feel better about themselves.

When I was driving in Florida I decided to use Google maps to find a Walgreens (or was it Walmart?) and it lead me to this abandoned warehouse. Google maps isn't perfect either. I thought it was and after that lesson I bring my Garmin GPS around when travelling. I don't have to care about preloading any data or anything AND at least for now it hasn't given me incorrect POI.

 

[Dominato3r]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

Missing tranist data is big. Knowing when a bus/train arrives and departs is huge (for me anyway).

 

[Phokus]

I dont know why people are all bent out of shape over this. Apple will probably fix it less than a month after release (tomorrows release I mean). What people should be more worried about is other stuff thats bad or just not impressive, the maps are a minor, easily corrected issue.

Hahahahahaha, it's going to take WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than a month to fix this, are you nuts? This isn't just fixing a few lines of code. This is the whole freaking world we're talking about.

 

[WelshBloke]

Awesome, let's go through and find one-offs where Google maps are borked. But you are correct, it's all bandwagon jumping, heard mentality. It's easy to do, and makes the uniformed feel better about themselves.

I think its looking like more than one or two one-offs thats making iOS maps look bad at the moment.

 

[foghorn67]

This is more than a bandwagon.
You do know these are ios users reporting the huge amount if issues, right?

 

[Phynaz]

When I was driving in Florida I decided to use Google maps to find a Walgreens (or was it Walmart?) and it lead me to this abandoned warehouse. Google maps isn't perfect either. I thought it was and after that lesson I bring my Garmin GPS around when travelling. I don't have to care about preloading any data or anything AND at least for now it hasn't given me incorrect POI.

Funny

I've read stories about Google maps taking people the wrong way down one-way streets. I think there was even one where somebody was heading for a river and had an OMG moment just before they went in.

 

[jpeyton]

Awesome, let's go through and find one-offs where Google maps are borked.

Please do. Google has logged 5 million miles, collected 20 petabytes of image data, mined untold amounts of metadata from those images, and has invested years of labor into refining maps. It's not perfect, but it's not a first effort either. How many years will it take before Apple catches up?

It's easy to do, and makes the uniformed feel better about themselves.

By all means, inform us.

 

[Phokus]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[WelshBloke]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[SAWYER]

 

[bearxor]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

That one's on Yelp.

 

[Jodell88]

Yeah, I don't get the funny either.