What was wrong with Apple maps again?

[Phelonious Ponk]

Remember back when it first came out and there were some severe problems? What were they? Did they fix them?

I ask because we took a family trip this weekend and, to make things easier, I entered all the street addresses of all the people we'd be visiting into my iPhone, so I could use Siri and just say "Directions to so and so" I didn't think about setting Google Maps as my default mapping program though, so when I spoke to Siri, it loaded up Apple Maps.

And it worked perfectly. In fact, I liked it better than Google Maps. Bigger, clearer graphics that are easier to read at a glance; simpler, more intuitive verbal directions...and this is the best part -- it automatically darkened the screen between turns, and came back up just before the next turn. This kept battery use to a minimum and kept the iPhone from running hot, which it always does with Google, as it leaves the screen lit up constantly.

Tim

 

[amirm]

It has gone from a flaw to a feature. It now represents modern art: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/ar...look-these-crazy-cool-dali-esque-scenes/5911/

Good thing your destination was not this:

Just playing with you....

 

[NorthStar]

Nice to see you happy (as always) Tim! :b

And Amir doesn't lose his good sense of humor.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

What was it doing, though? Bad directions? I like the interface but I don't want to keep using it if it's going to screw up.

Tim

 

[Whatmore]

Keith should be along soon to tell you what was wrong with it

 

[rblnr]

In some tests I saw, it has improved substantially over the year or so as more and more data has been received and integrated. You don't hear about problems much anymore.

It definitely came out too early, reflecting Apple's eagerness to free itself from any Google dependence. In most places now with any population density, it's fine by all accounts. If you get lost Tim, I don't think it will be from Maps

 

[amirm]

What was it doing, though? Bad directions? I like the interface but I don't want to keep using it if it's going to screw up.

Tim

I have not kept track of it. But there were two problems:

1. Creating those pretty 3-d pictures of the cities from 2-d satellite pictures. The imagery it uses are all normal photographs. You can't turn a photo sideways and see more detail. Right? Yet seemingly you can in these map programs. That is accomplished by synthetically creating 3-d models from multiple 2-D pictures taken at different angles. The magic here falls apart if you have occlusion (parts hidden). The program then attempts a smooth blending of the discontinuity resulting in the type of images I posted. In practice, these are eye candy features and not likely something you use to navigate. It did however play a star role in public/press to make Apple's situation look far worse.

What I guess was surprising was that Apple is usually late to the party on whiz-bang features until they figure out how to do it right. In this case, they got ahead of the game than even others in introducing a feature which has some fundamental flaws. In my quick look it doesn't appear Apple has made much progress in fixing these problems as they are hard to resolve.

2. Simple mapping errors. Streets that didn't exist, didn't go in the direction you thought, etc. As far as I have read, Apple has fixed a lot of this. This is easier to deal with as your users can provide feedback to you on what is right and wrong and you go and fix it. "Crowd sourcing" is the huge buzzword here were you use the world at large to help you create a more accurate database. Google has a commanding lead on this and just bought a company that specializes on this (Waze). Apple should have bought them given the problem they have.

I am not a user of Apple mapping products so can't tell you how bad this problem still is. A quick google search shows that people are still complaining. Whether it hits you or not, will depend on where you live and the routes you pick. All else being equal, I would think that Google mapping is more accurate and optimized. Do a comparison search for your next few journeys and see which is better. I often do that with my phone and google maps as compared to my car navigation. Ditto for traffic overlay.

What you noted as some cool features that Apple has added and again, while I am not a user, they may have an advantage there since that is where they innovate (user interface) as opposed to data they had to buy (mapping). In the case of navigation though, if the database is wrong, no amount of cool features will make up for it. I remember having one of the earliest navigation systems on my "PDA" and was driving near candian border and the stupid thing told me to make a U-turn right in the middle of a bridge just because there was another road under it going 90 degrees opposite of it! It as so frustrating as no matter what I would do, it kept insisting on that route. We had to use paper maps to get to our destination.

 

[Steve Williams]

Anyone remember the old trip tix from the AAA many years ago

 

[amirm]

Anyone remember the old trip tix from the AAA many years ago

I do. I remember getting excited holding those in my hands! Made you feel special like you had some secret hints about where you were going.

The other day I went there to pick up some area books and wondered why we still pay the same amount of money to them even though that value is long gone....

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Interesting. I didn't even turn on the 3D and probably never would, except for entertainment value. It did give me a couple of weird verbal directions over the weekend; I ignored them. But it found Aunt Anna's cattle farm, at the far end of a few rural roads outside of Blountville TN. I suppose it does get more remote, but she's the only address on the last road. I expected that one to be a challenge. My two favorite things were really big, easy to read, "next turn" indicators at the top of the screen so you could easily double check the next move at a glance while driving, and the auto shut down of the screen during long stretches, that booted back up in time to tell you about the next turn. Google Maps could use both of those.

It was interesting. I'd never used it because when I got the iPhone they were in the middle of their map troubles and I immediately downloaded Google Maps. Didn't take long for that tempest to put itself in the teapot.

That wasn't the great discivery, though. Prior to this last week, I hadn't used Siri much at all. I can't imagine not using it now. Voice recognition has come a long way, huh?

Tim

 

[amirm]

Voice recognition has come a long way. But people have such a poor impression of it that they won't even try it. Most of the negative feedback comes from car navigation which due to long design cycles in car industry, is 4+ years old. The Google voice recognition, is remarkable. It even recognizes my full name and does a search on it! The power partly comes from having all of the Internet as context of what is being said. I use mine all the time but I can't get my wife to use it. She hates looking things up on her phone while I am driving. So I keep asking her why she won't use voice input and she just won't.

If you have not used voice input, I urge you to give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised as Tim just expressed.

 

[mep]

Anyone remember the old trip tix from the AAA many years ago

I do too. Was it really that many years ago? I guess it was. I moved to Indiana in 1990 and joined AAA and was getting trip tickets during that time frame which means 23 years ago.

 

[rblnr]

She hates looking things up on her phone while I am driving. So I keep asking her why she won't use voice input and she just won't.

I know some people who are self-conscious or simply uncomfortable talking to a machine, it's as if you're talking to yourself. I've found google voice to have better recognition than Siri but the gap seems to be closing.

 

[HedgeHog]

I guess this wouldn't affect English users but early Apple Maps German needed work: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/09/25/how-to-report-issues-with-ios-6-maps/

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Voice recognition has come a long way. But people have such a poor impression of it that they won't even try it. Most of the negative feedback comes from car navigation which due to long design cycles in car industry, is 4+ years old. The Google voice recognition, is remarkable. It even recognizes my full name and does a search on it! The power partly comes from having all of the Internet as context of what is being said. I use mine all the time but I can't get my wife to use it. She hates looking things up on her phone while I am driving. So I keep asking her why she won't use voice input and she just won't.

If you have not used voice input, I urge you to give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised as Tim just expressed.

I missed this the last time; funny. One of my closest friends has a Sicilian last name that simply does not look like it sounds at all. The funny thing about Siri is it recognizes it and finds him, but it butchers the pronunciation when it repeats it back to me!

And it seems to be pronouncing some words better with time. Surely that must be my imagination.

Tim

 

[rblnr]

And it seems to be pronouncing some words better with time. Surely that must be my imagination.
Tim

You can actually tell it what the correct pronunciation is.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

You can actually tell it what the correct pronunciation is.

So do I just say, no, Siri, that's " "?

Tim

 

[rblnr]

So do I just say, no, Siri, that's " "?

Tim

not quite yet, but you can do this now:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/arti...recognition-and-pronunciation-of-proper-names

and this in the fall:

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/06/24/siri-can-learn-how-to-pronounce-your-name-in-ios-7/

which is probably more along the lines of what you want.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

not quite yet, but you can do this now:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/arti...recognition-and-pronunciation-of-proper-names

and this in the fall:

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/06/24/siri-can-learn-how-to-pronounce-your-name-in-ios-7/

which is probably more along the lines of what you want.

What I want is to have a casual conversation with a personal secretary who lives inside my phone and takes dictation, retrieves files, reads them to me, gives my directions and finds the closest Thai restaurant. And it's a lot closer than I thought it would be.

Tim

 

[rblnr]

And it's a lot closer than I thought it would be.

Tim

Yes, and it's smaller and thinner than Kirk's tricorder