By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Apple maps is terrible.

selnor on 26 September 2012
rocketpig said:
superchunk said:

Yes. Google's voice integration works with any app. Its effectively voice text entry. Its the reason why if I say "play Micheal Jackson", I'll get prompted to use Google's Music, Youtube, CM10 Music player, GrooveShark, or Pandora. Then I can set one of these as a default if I wanted.

Anytime you open anything that uses text entry, you have a voice option. Additionally, you can launch anything via voice as well.

Of course this really becomes useful with Android 4 (ICS) and 4.1 (JB). Pre-these it was only text-entry for the most part and no real 3rd party integration. JB really makes it on par with Siri in functionality along with a better sounding voice.

I keep hearing mixed reviews of JB's voice operation versus Siri (but in all reviews, they're close). Some say JB doesn't understand dialects as well as Siri and doesn't handle slang words as well as Apple's service. Others say that Siri is slower and that its voice is more uneven.

Meh. I don't know what to believe at this point. I've used Siri quite a bit and it's pretty good. Understands me close to 100% of the time, though it's a little slower than I'd like.

All in all, I hope Apple and Google continue to push each other in this market. I think it's the future of mobile computing... Not useful in all situations, but extremely useful in some (such as driving).

The major downside I see right now is that JB just isn't being delivered to enough devices. It only has something like 2% of the Android market right now. Google promised that this would change soon but I'm not seeing much in the way of results yet.


WP 7.5 mango has also had voice everything for 1 and a half years. I dont get wy people fail to know that. Microsofts is rather amazing and accurate.



Around the Network
selnor on 26 September 2012
rocketpig said:
superchunk said:

Yes. Google's voice integration works with any app. Its effectively voice text entry. Its the reason why if I say "play Micheal Jackson", I'll get prompted to use Google's Music, Youtube, CM10 Music player, GrooveShark, or Pandora. Then I can set one of these as a default if I wanted.

Anytime you open anything that uses text entry, you have a voice option. Additionally, you can launch anything via voice as well.

Of course this really becomes useful with Android 4 (ICS) and 4.1 (JB). Pre-these it was only text-entry for the most part and no real 3rd party integration. JB really makes it on par with Siri in functionality along with a better sounding voice.

I keep hearing mixed reviews of JB's voice operation versus Siri (but in all reviews, they're close). Some say JB doesn't understand dialects as well as Siri and doesn't handle slang words as well as Apple's service. Others say that Siri is slower and that its voice is more uneven.

Meh. I don't know what to believe at this point. I've used Siri quite a bit and it's pretty good. Understands me close to 100% of the time, though it's a little slower than I'd like.

All in all, I hope Apple and Google continue to push each other in this market. I think it's the future of mobile computing... Not useful in all situations, but extremely useful in some (such as driving).

The major downside I see right now is that JB just isn't being delivered to enough devices. It only has something like 2% of the Android market right now. Google promised that this would change soon but I'm not seeing much in the way of results yet.


WP 7.5 mango has also had voice everything for 1 and a half years. I dont get wy people fail to know that. Microsofts is rather amazing and accurate.



ebw on 26 September 2012

Here's a pretty interesting article on the Apple Maps move. It's all rumours but the story is highly plausible.

http://allthingsd.com/20120926/apple-google-maps-talks-crashed-over-voice-guided-directions/



Scoobes on 27 September 2012

Interesting info:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Apple-Google-Maps-iOS-iPhone,news-16109.html

Apple still had a year left on their contract with Google for the maps app but thought it was falling behind and terminated the contract. A full year in which they could have beta tested their own maps app...




Get your Portable ID!

famousringo on 28 September 2012

So much drama. Apparently Apple's maps aren't so bad that Google doesn't feel the need to lie about how bad they are:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/27/googles-ilost-motorola-ad-faked-an-address-to-lose-ios-6-maps

This really is "antennagate" all over again.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

Around the Network
ebw on 28 September 2012
Scoobes said:
Interesting info:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Apple-Google-Maps-iOS-iPhone,news-16109.html

Apple still had a year left on their contract with Google for the maps app but thought it was falling behind and terminated the contract. A full year in which they could have beta tested their own maps app...

http://daringfireball.net/2012/09/timing_of_apples_map_switch

There's a difference between "a year left" and "a full year left".  What I find interesting are all the anecdotes of people who did beta test iOS 6 but didn't report any errors to Apple.  It might be worth taking slings and arrows now in order to get the data they need to improve it (while simultaneously withholding it from the industrial spy that is Google).  In other words, this is the beta test; what I don't understand is why they didn't just announce it as a beta product the same way that Siri was last year.

I found this paragraph from http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/26/how-google-was-skyhooked-by-apples-new-ios-6-maps interesting:

Consider that in early 2010, when Skyhook Wireless inked a deal with Motorola another Android licensees to use its own WiFi-based geolocation features in place of Google's Location Services, Android product manager Steve Lee stated, in emails revealed through subsequent court proceedings reported by the New York Times, that the deal "would be awful for Google because it will cut off our ability to continue collecting data to maintain and improve our location database."

This was around the time Apple was being investigated for "tracking users".  Shortly after they stopped using Skyhook for location services and switched to their own solution (which also required building up a large data set).



superchunk on 28 September 2012

Even Tim Cook realizes its a bad app.

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/09/28/apples-tim-cook-apologizes-for-maps-debacle-says-app-fell-short/

Mr Cook suggests using other 3rd party solutions, including Google's mobile maps (via browser) until they fix their app. But doesn't give a time frame. Its obvious they are working diligently on it, but I wouldn't expect it to be corrected very quickly.



Alby_da_Wolf on 28 September 2012
kowenicki said:
Apple admitting a mistake and apologizing. Wow.

Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave!   

But forget crappy maps, the new iPhlop feature is... PURPLE PHOTOS!!!   

http://www.cultofmac.com/192996/major-iphone-5-camera-issue-is-causing-purple-halo-effect-on-photos/

PS: In that same page we can read "Cult of Mac", "Purple" and "Halo", just imagine all those things together, this must be a new peak of kitsch.   



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


superchunk on 28 September 2012

That's odd. I actually has a really good camera. I wonder if those users have some odd app installed.



dahuman on 28 September 2012
selnor said:
rocketpig said:
superchunk said:

Yes. Google's voice integration works with any app. Its effectively voice text entry. Its the reason why if I say "play Micheal Jackson", I'll get prompted to use Google's Music, Youtube, CM10 Music player, GrooveShark, or Pandora. Then I can set one of these as a default if I wanted.

Anytime you open anything that uses text entry, you have a voice option. Additionally, you can launch anything via voice as well.

Of course this really becomes useful with Android 4 (ICS) and 4.1 (JB). Pre-these it was only text-entry for the most part and no real 3rd party integration. JB really makes it on par with Siri in functionality along with a better sounding voice.

I keep hearing mixed reviews of JB's voice operation versus Siri (but in all reviews, they're close). Some say JB doesn't understand dialects as well as Siri and doesn't handle slang words as well as Apple's service. Others say that Siri is slower and that its voice is more uneven.

Meh. I don't know what to believe at this point. I've used Siri quite a bit and it's pretty good. Understands me close to 100% of the time, though it's a little slower than I'd like.

All in all, I hope Apple and Google continue to push each other in this market. I think it's the future of mobile computing... Not useful in all situations, but extremely useful in some (such as driving).

The major downside I see right now is that JB just isn't being delivered to enough devices. It only has something like 2% of the Android market right now. Google promised that this would change soon but I'm not seeing much in the way of results yet.


WP 7.5 mango has also had voice everything for 1 and a half years. I dont get wy people fail to know that. Microsofts is rather amazing and accurate.

You really like to bring up your WP7.5 a lot Selnor, the problem with Windows Phone isn't it's functionality, it's how stupid ugly the Windows 8 UI is. 9 out of 10 people asking me for advices on Smart Phones say they've also checked out Windows Phones and think the GUI is just fugly and I agree with them, that's the problem. I don't want to walk around on a street using it because it's just straight up embarrassing. They really need to come up with a better looking UI, like now.