15 ms·

You know what I really never use the map on my phone for? Figuring out how many trees there are. Do the directions work?

by imgabe 8y ago

stevenjohns 8y ago
That's your use case. I've used maps a lot to try to find hidden or secluded parks -- often with great success. I'm talking postcard-perfect views around the Sydney harbor, small beaches around various bays, isolated parks near beautiful rivers and a whole lot of other places that are really beautiful and probably only known to the locals. Lots of these places were a brisk walk away from high-traffic areas too. This is not to dismiss your question on the directions, though, which is certainly an important part of using maps on a phone.
- imgabe 8y ago
  I am being overly crabby. I do appreciate the author's enthusiasm for maps. But still, I stick to Google Maps because Apple Maps has a reputation for giving terrible directions. That's where the Google Maps moat is. The directions are generally good and will route you around traffic, which is crucial.
- nkozyra 8y ago
  > That's your use case. But also likely the most common one. It's not fair to lump it in with the dozens of other map use cases.
- crazygringo 8y ago
  That's great... but wouldn't satellite view be better for that anyways? Would you even trust an "interpreted" map with levels of green for what you're doing?
  - BoorishBears 8y ago
    I have a knack for finding good driving roads with Google Maps. It doesn’t really work in satellite view because the trees make for a ton of visual noise at the relatively low resolutions shown. A good indicator for me is green in the map, and no street view (street view tends to cover busier routes, I drive roads street view wouldn’t bother with)
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    Satellite views can be too busy for some uses.
  - jumelles 8y ago
    That's an interesting point, as all maps are (by definition) only representations, invariably leaving something out - the question is what to leave in the map.
- panopticon 8y ago
  > I've used maps a lot to try to find hidden or secluded parks -- often with great success. I generally use Google Earth to do this, and I'm extremely skeptical that Apple Map's foliage would work half as well.
towndrunk 8y ago
> Do the directions work? Sadly for Apple Maps... No.
godelski 8y ago
I don't know if it has been updated since, but literally two months ago it could not get you from Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore. It frequently asked me to go in the complete wrong direction. I can't trust it when it can't connect two popular areas that are relatively nearby. That said, it was fine for anything that was on major highways.
chipotle_coyote 8y ago
In the area Apple's new maps are in, in my experience (important to underline that): yes, they do. I've been using these new maps since they appeared in the iOS 12 beta, so close to half a year, and they're pretty good. And, yes, to a comment you made below this one, Apple Maps is getting good at handling traffic. I find them equal to Google, although not as good as Waze. (Yes, I know Google owns Waze, but I'm standing by this. Waze does better than Google Maps here.) As the linked blog post shows, they're definitely not perfect; I haven't encountered anything particularly egregious, but the fun thing about maps is that virtually everyone will run into what are ostensibly "edge cases" eventually. Apple Maps has steered me wrong before, but so has Google and Waze. (Waze has gotten much better at destinations in the last few years, after their purchase by Google, although they still have a disquieting penchant for "shortcut" directions that include "make this uncontrolled left turn across three lanes of traffic." Not only does Apple rarely do that, Google rarely does that.)
stephen_g 8y ago
I find vegetation massively helpful, because I have a pretty good idea of the shape of the forest areas around my city (both from driving around and also from looking at satellite/aerial photos). I can actually find a lot of places faster looking at the shape of the forest, parks, etc. than by either looking at the streets or even searching! It's just making the map data match the real world better, and making it useful for more than just driving.
leokennis 8y ago
It depends greatly on use case. When I’m hiking somewhere “in the country”, it’s of tremendous help to see every tree (and even what type) and shed on a map as it helps me with orientation. When I’m blasting down a highway, not so much.
acomjean 8y ago
Don't you use your street maps to ID trees? http://gis.cambridgema.gov/dpw/trees/trees_walk.html http://gis.cambridgema.gov/dpw/trees/trees_walk.html Or pick a tree for adoption? https://www.cambridgema.gov/IWantTo/AdoptATree https://www.cambridgema.gov/IWantTo/AdoptATree Cambridge MA arborist has mapped all its trees.

You know what I really never use the map on my phone for? Figuring out how many trees there are. Do the directions work?

by imgabe 8y ago

You know what I really never use the map on my phone for? Figuring out how many trees there are. Do the directions work?

stevenjohns 8y ago

That's your use case. I've used maps a lot to try to find hidden or secluded parks -- often with great success. I'm talking postcard-perfect views around the Sydney harbor, small beaches around various bays, isolated parks near beautiful rivers and a whole lot of other places that are really beautiful and probably only known to the locals. Lots of these places were a brisk walk away from high-traffic areas too. This is not to dismiss your question on the directions, though, which is certainly an important part of using maps on a phone.

imgabe 8y ago
I am being overly crabby. I do appreciate the author's enthusiasm for maps. But still, I stick to Google Maps because Apple Maps has a reputation for giving terrible directions. That's where the Google Maps moat is. The directions are generally good and will route you around traffic, which is crucial.
nkozyra 8y ago
> That's your use case. But also likely the most common one. It's not fair to lump it in with the dozens of other map use cases.
crazygringo 8y ago
That's great... but wouldn't satellite view be better for that anyways? Would you even trust an "interpreted" map with levels of green for what you're doing?
- BoorishBears 8y ago
  I have a knack for finding good driving roads with Google Maps. It doesn’t really work in satellite view because the trees make for a ton of visual noise at the relatively low resolutions shown. A good indicator for me is green in the map, and no street view (street view tends to cover busier routes, I drive roads street view wouldn’t bother with)
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  Satellite views can be too busy for some uses.
- jumelles 8y ago
  That's an interesting point, as all maps are (by definition) only representations, invariably leaving something out - the question is what to leave in the map.
panopticon 8y ago
> I've used maps a lot to try to find hidden or secluded parks -- often with great success. I generally use Google Earth to do this, and I'm extremely skeptical that Apple Map's foliage would work half as well.

towndrunk 8y ago

> Do the directions work? Sadly for Apple Maps... No.

godelski 8y ago

I don't know if it has been updated since, but literally two months ago it could not get you from Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore. It frequently asked me to go in the complete wrong direction. I can't trust it when it can't connect two popular areas that are relatively nearby. That said, it was fine for anything that was on major highways.

chipotle_coyote 8y ago

In the area Apple's new maps are in, in my experience (important to underline that): yes, they do. I've been using these new maps since they appeared in the iOS 12 beta, so close to half a year, and they're pretty good. And, yes, to a comment you made below this one, Apple Maps is getting good at handling traffic. I find them equal to Google, although not as good as Waze. (Yes, I know Google owns Waze, but I'm standing by this. Waze does better than Google Maps here.) As the linked blog post shows, they're definitely not perfect; I haven't encountered anything particularly egregious, but the fun thing about maps is that virtually everyone will run into what are ostensibly "edge cases" eventually. Apple Maps has steered me wrong before, but so has Google and Waze. (Waze has gotten much better at destinations in the last few years, after their purchase by Google, although they still have a disquieting penchant for "shortcut" directions that include "make this uncontrolled left turn across three lanes of traffic." Not only does Apple rarely do that, Google rarely does that.)

stephen_g 8y ago

I find vegetation massively helpful, because I have a pretty good idea of the shape of the forest areas around my city (both from driving around and also from looking at satellite/aerial photos). I can actually find a lot of places faster looking at the shape of the forest, parks, etc. than by either looking at the streets or even searching! It's just making the map data match the real world better, and making it useful for more than just driving.

leokennis 8y ago

It depends greatly on use case. When I’m hiking somewhere “in the country”, it’s of tremendous help to see every tree (and even what type) and shed on a map as it helps me with orientation. When I’m blasting down a highway, not so much.

acomjean 8y ago

Don't you use your street maps to ID trees? http://gis.cambridgema.gov/dpw/trees/trees_walk.html http://gis.cambridgema.gov/dpw/trees/trees_walk.html Or pick a tree for adoption? https://www.cambridgema.gov/IWantTo/AdoptATree https://www.cambridgema.gov/IWantTo/AdoptATree Cambridge MA arborist has mapped all its trees.