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Apple

Apple Rolls Out Maps Redesign To All US Users (cnet.com) 47

Posted by msmash from the pushing-forward dept.
Apple's redesigned Maps app has arrived. From a report: The company on Thursday said its revamped app is now available for US users and will arrive in Europe "in the coming months." Apple Maps' redesign makes navigation faster and more accurate and gives users "comprehensive views of roads, buildings, parks, airports, malls and more." Apple rebuilt its mapping service from the ground up by outfitting hundreds of planes and cars with custom sensors and lidar, which then covered over 4 million miles. It hopes the latest iteration of its Apple Maps software will be enough to woo users away from Google Maps, Waze and other rivals.

"We set out to create the best and most private maps app on the planet that is reflective of how people explore the world today," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services, said in a press release. "It is an effort we are deeply invested in and required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to reimagine how Maps enhances people's lives -- from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation -- all with privacy at its core." Along with the new Maps apps, real-time transit will be available in Miami starting Friday, in time for the upcoming Super Bowl.
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Apple Rolls Out Maps Redesign To All US Users More

Apple Rolls Out Maps Redesign To All US Users

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  • I don't travel enough to evaluate Map apps well, but popped it open for a quick look. Seems like crap. Still uses Yelp for business ratings and information. This is an increasingly terrible idea since it forces using a different and increasingly unpopular service to contribute anything. The streetview clone is a desolate wasteland. Hope you like the highways of NY, because that's all there is. Got bored after that.

    • A lot of business information no longer comes from Yelp. There also is a tool for submitting your own businesses to be included. https://mapsconnect.apple.com/ [apple.com]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      We've used Apple Maps a total of four times. Two of those times it took us on a detour off the main road, into a neighborhood, a loop around the neighborhood, and then back out to the main road exactly where we had turned off. One of the other times it took us on a route through back roads and neighborhoods that was a good 20 minutes longer than staying on the main highway. We gave up on it after that.

      Shortly after we started using Google Maps instead of my wife's iToy we followed a realtor from one hous

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by MikeMo ( 521697 )
        Nice anecdote. I have used it hundreds, possibly thousands of times since it first came out, traveling across the country multiple times, and I have never experienced any of the problems you are talking about. OH, I’m a realtor, too.

  • I'm generally a transit user, but occasionally I do have to drive. Google follows the tacit standard of displaying green for smoothly-flowing traffic, yellow for somewhat busy, and red for stop-and-go. Apple has - finally - copied this for busy traffic... but they don't display anything for areas without congestion. This is sub-optimal in the situation where it's not clear whether the map is displaying "all is good" versus "I don't have any data yet" - either of which can be the case in the general area aro

    • How do they compare for transit? I mostly drive using Apple maps, here in NL they were far ahead of Google for a good while, with fine-grained traffic info (though Google have caught up since). But for transit the situation was reversed. Apple had, well, nothing. Google was quick to provide accurate public transport routing, including live data, delays, platform changes etc. But Apple have caught up to some degree by now.

      Sadly, neither app has adequate support for EV drivers (no journey plan with ch

      • How do they compare for transit?

        Well, honestly whenever I go back and try them out for transit... I find both of them inferior to a dedicated transit app - OneBusAway, when it comes to the Seattle area. So I'm not really comfortable saying Apple is better than Google or vice-versa.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Google is generally pretty good with public transport. It's got all the times and when using it to navigate it always gets on the right bus or train.

        The main issue I have with it is inaccurate stop data for busses. Sometimes it points to the wrong bus stop when there are several in the same location, and once the bus stop had moved about 50m away (it was a terminal) and it took me a while to find it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      I'm generally a transit user, but occasionally I do have to drive. Google follows the tacit standard of displaying green for smoothly-flowing traffic, yellow for somewhat busy, and red for stop-and-go. Apple has - finally - copied this for busy traffic... but they don't display anything for areas without congestion. This is sub-optimal in the situation where it's not clear whether the map is displaying "all is good" versus "I don't have any data yet" - either of which can be the case in the general area aro

  • A man using Apple Maps walks into a bar... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @04:44PM (#59672094)
    or a hotel, or possibly a church...

  • I am glad Apple continues to work on maps. I've found it OK in recent years - some places automatically open in Apple, and I don't bother switching most of the time.

    At the same time, I have found the growing prominence of ads in Google Maps (in the form of highlighted pointers) getting increasingly annoying... but I don't blame Google for trying to make some money off of all their map work.

    • This. A few months back I finally had enough of ads on Google maps and replaced all my default map uses with Apple Maps. It took a little getting used to the slightly different interface but I’m no longer told about trendy things to do in my neighborhood every time I open maps.

  • Still no bicycle directions....google gives me dedicated bike lanes, overall elevation change, can clearly see severity of grade visually anywhere along your route..

  • Hint: Don't add extra crap (Score:3)

    by enigma32 ( 128601 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @05:42PM (#59672402)

    I've long thought that it will be tough to dethrone google in this category, but they've added so much BS to the maps app in the past year or so that I'm quite ready for an alternative.

  • Can I finally delete an entry? (Score:3)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday January 30, 2020 @05:59PM (#59672454) Journal
    One thing I found out is if I'm using Maps (on company iPhone), and plug in a location in the "search" bar, I cannot delete that entry from the list.

    Sure, the option to delete is there when you swipe left, but after selecting Remove, the entry comes back.

    You literally cannot remove an entry without linking to an iPhone account [imyfone.com]. Which is utter bullshit. Requesting a location and your account have zero linkage.

    Needless to say, this little tidbit does not appear [apple.com] on an official Apple page describing how to remove an entry.
    • So... don't search for anything on your company phone that you don't want them to see? It's their phone, after all. Hitting up the local rub 'n' tug might be a nice way to kill an evening, but leave the corp device behind.

  • What price are you willing to pay for the mapping services?

    With google, you are paying with your privacy. They know every place you have ever been to and, increasingly, where you will be at a future time.

    With apple, you take an occasional detour into neighborhood roads. But you get to live privately if you want.

  • Replace Waze ?
    So they added a menu system to report heavy traffic, accidents, hazards and the other kind of hazards on the road and are showing those real-time to other people using the Maps app on the same route with a veto-ing capability ?
    No ?
    The "red line" on Maps might be a "grave accident" and "traffic standstill" on Waze.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Until apple maps can tell me where the bear traps are, I'm sticking with waze.

  • They just got sick of people using Google Maps. Ah well - maps does do some funky stuff sometimes.

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