It appears that Apple is making good on Tim Cook's promise. Just a week after the CEO posted an open letter regarding the shortcomings of the new Maps application, users are starting to see improvements.
Particularly, users are starting to notice an improvement in the 3D aspect of Apple's Maps app. Landmarks, like the Statue of Liberty, and buildings, that were once missing from the flyover mode are now present...
While most media attention about Apple Maps has centered on bridges on dry land, landmarks that don't exists and other oddities, the digital cartographers at Cupertino, Calif. have been stuffing the app with some amazing features, like offline browsing. Unlike maps in iOS 5, Apple's vector-based Maps are cached and GPS navigation work even without an Internet connection.
For instance, Apple's vector maps loaded while in San Francisco, Calif. can still be browsed on a flight from Anchorage, Alaska to Lima, Peru, according to AppleInsider. The writer was able to navigate across the state and via street-level maps as far west as Salt Lake City, Utah -- and in 3D, to boot. By comparison, Google Maps, which use bitmap tiles, would let you navigate offline for about a 10 mile radius before complaining.
Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting story up this morning which takes a look at Tim Cook's first year as Apple's CEO. The article also offers a few previously unknown tidbits related to late CEO Steve Jobs's role in the iOS 6 Maps project (originally an afterthought during the iPhone development). It also touches upon the retirement of hardware boss Bob Mansfield and his $2 million a month advisory agreement with Cook, Apple moving away from Intel, the iPad mini later this month and more...
Apple is allegedly crowd-sourcing its retail army to help improve iOS Maps, if a pair of reports out this morning are to be trusted. A pilot program, allegedly voluntary for employees, would have a team of ten employees at one store dedicate 40 hours of staff time per week toward manually examining melted bridges, street addresses that are off and other Maps inaccuracies related to their respective areas...
iDB discovered a week ago that Google is set to introduce street-level photography on the iOS platform in form of a web app in about two weeks. Today, The Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg made it a fact, claiming that the software is coming as early as Thursday, possibly tomorrow. The journalist had some hands-on time with the web app which includes both360-degree photographic street views and interior photographic views of certain businesses...
Consumer Reports, an influential U.S. magazine published monthly since 1936 by Consumers Union, gave Apple's iPhone 5 a thumbs-up recently but initially slammed iOS 6 Maps navigation ("we were disappointed"). Melted bridges aside, the publication known for its reviews and comparisons of popular products took both Apple Maps and Google Maps for a spin, concluding that Apple's offering is "certainly more favorable than comments and articles that we've been reading online"...
The song-a-day man Jonathan Mann can be funny as hell, even more so considering he's been able to write a song a day for more than two years straight without ever running out of inspiration. He's back at it again with a new song about Apple's mapping woes. If you like it, check out his birthday song to Siri from last week (part one from last year is here). Joy of Tech also has a nice take on what happens when Apple Maps meet Siri...
With last Friday's addition of 22 new countries, the iPhone 5 is now available in 31 major markets but many would still be hard pressed to buy one due to dwindling stock both in the United States and in other countries around the world. By all accounts, the iPhone 5 demand is off the charts, Mapgate be damned.
Matter of fact, quite the opposite is happening: demand for the iPhone 5 is surging as mapping woes don't appear to slow sales (though customer satisfaction ratings did take a hit). Looks like that CEO apology was a pre-emptive maneuver to smartly protect the brand in the long haul...
Piggy-backing on the ongoing Apple Maps drama, The New York Times gives us a couple interesting tidbits that help explain the origins of Google Maps on the iPhone. For starters, Apple never intended to put maps on the iPhone. It was a decision late CEO Steve Jobs made last minute, one that would cost Apple its reputation five years later as Apple rushed its own solution out of the door too early.
In a way, the report notes, Apple Maps continue on a string of Internet services missteps, with notable examples of the recently axed Ping social network for music, Siri, a controversial digital assistant, the MobileMe suite of web tools and recent iCloud outages.
These blunders expose Apple as a hardware and design-focused culture, which is more often than not a difficult match for online services on a world scale, where Google rules the landscape by a wide margin...
Apple appears to be really determined to avoid having this Maps thing snowball into a devastating PR catastrophe which, by the way, already has tarnished Apple's reputation. Following yesterday's unexpected CEO apology and the subsequent recommendation of mapping services on the web as well as third-party Maps alternatives, Apple has made a subtle change in Maps wording.
No longer are Apple Maps being referred to as "the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever". Instead, the app's now about "a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease"...
iOS 6 Maps is stepped in controversy, but not everyone hates it, including yours truly. I've never personally experienced any navigation issues with the iOS 6 Maps app, and for me, it's a huge upgrade over the stock Google Maps app of yesteryear.
One problem that I do have with iOS 6's Maps, however, is how dumbed down the feature is on older devices. Devices like the iPhone 4 get left out when it comes to true turn-by-turn navigation and Flyover (3D) support.
As usual, the jailbreak community comes to the rescue with a new tweak that unlocks iOS 6 Maps on older devices. It's appropriately titled: Unlock iOS 6 Maps, and it's a free download on Cydia's Big Boss repo. Take a look inside for a video walkthrough...
Apple's really determined to right the mapping wrongs. In addition to posting a public apology on its web site and offering instructions on accessing mapping web apps from Google and Nokia, the Cupertino, California-headquartered designer of gadgets just posted a curated recommendations section in the App Store, listing third-party Maps alternatives for the iPhone and iPad...