6 ms·

Google Set to Release iOS Maps App Tonight

186 points by azazo 14y ago

TamDenholm 14y ago
How do Google get their apps like this approved? Indie developers get rejected all the time for replicating a function that an apple app already does, but google has chrome and others and now maps? If Apple want to distance themselves from Google, surely they could just not approve any of their apps.
- saurik 14y ago
  Apple made a decision at some point (seemingly under pressure) to allow not just Chrome, but all "browsers" (a term that I feel needs to be put in quotes, as all of these applications, including Chrome, must use Apple's HTML renderer, and only thereby have control over some aspects of how requests are cached and the surrounding UI).
  - statictype 14y ago
    Hasn't Apple allowed browser apps that wrap UIWebKit well before Chrome? I'm pretty sure there were already stand-alone browser apps in the App Store before Chrome came.
    - marknutter 14y ago
      There were for sure. Opera is one.
      - ynniv 14y ago
        Opera Mini is not a browser but rather a view into a browser in The Cloud. All network connections and JavaScript evaluation happens elsewhere, and the phone displays the resulting image and proxies clicks back to the server. Apple's sticking point has always been code evaluation on the phone, and currently only permits JavaScriptCore to evaluate code retrieved over the network.
    - saurik 14y ago
      Yes: that was actually what I was intending to imply; specifically, that Google wasn't blazing trails here nor are they being given special exceptions.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  Apple's approval rules/guidelines are not set in stone. They change all the time. A couple years ago they were very strict (and non-agreeable to most people), but since they've backpedalled a bit and have been much much leaner about "replicating already-existing functionality" - approving and even promoting calendars, notebooks, ebook-readers, browsers, calculators, mail clients, weather clients, etc.
  - astolarz 14y ago
    I would think the recommendation to use rivals' products might also have something to do with the potential approval of Google Maps: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUSBRE88R0SN20120929 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUS...
- baddox 14y ago
  The "duplicate functionality" restriction hasn't been enforced for years.
jaytaylor 14y ago
The article was kind of confusing to me.. Does "release" in this case mean they are going to push the button to allow users to download it from the app store tonight? Or have they just submitted it and they are awaiting approval?
- barredo 14y ago
  When you submit an app to the appstore you have two options: release it as soon as Apple approves it or release it on a date you set (assuming Apple approved it before). It's very convenient for scheduling app releases on certain launch dates obviously
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
kgrin 14y ago
Curious whether it'll actually have the voice nav, which was (apparently? allegedly?) at issue in the first place. I guess we will (might?) find out soon enough.
- mcrider 14y ago
  Voice nav would be the only reason I'd use Apple Maps; If google maps has it I'm certainly switching back.
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    Have you tried Mapquest? It's had voice nav all this time.
    - ben1040 14y ago
      Has the nav on Mapquest gotten any better? I had an iPhone 4S for a few weeks last year and tried the Mapquest app. I found that it was terrible when driving down a freeway. Every time I crossed an overpass, it would assume that I was on the cross street, and recalculate. Then it'd wise up to me being on the freeway again, and recalculate once more. Repeat a mile or two down the road at the next overpass. I would have figured they'd have implemented some heuristic that considered the likelihood of me traveling 70mph in one direction only to immediately turn onto a cross street. But at the time, that seemed to not be the case.
  - randomdata 14y ago
    Without Siri integration, it loses the real appeal of Apple's voice navigation system. Being able to say things like "I need gas", or "take me home" without taking attention away from the road are what really sell the voice navigation on the device, in my opinion. I realize Google has been adding their own voice recognition to their apps, but there is no easy way to activate it without having to look at the screen; a no-go while driving.
    - paul9290 14y ago
redact207 14y ago
Have iOS6 users been waiting this long to get GMaps back?? Given the blowout, why on earth didn't Apple give special approval to GMaps and push the existing version back into the App Store?
- cleverjake 14y ago
  The existing version was an Apple app, that used google technology. They would have to relicense the data to use the past maps app. I'm sure they'd rather spend that money to improve the new one.
  - g0atbutt 14y ago
    They actually had about a year left on their license. Source -> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57520590-501465/apple-google-maps-contract-had-one-year-left-report-claims/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57520590-501465/apple...
    - panacea 14y ago
      Having a few months up your sleeve on current licensing terms doesn't mean you could sit back and wait for the expiry date before acting.
      - drivebyacct2 14y ago
        Really? Jeez the doublethink in this thread is strong. Why is the alternative to "keep what works until you can't", "ditch it with months on the license to push an inferior, downgraded experience"? Why couldn't they have spent that time getting data partnerships that apparently is going to solve all of their problems?
        cleverjake 14y ago
        I would imagine they were working from a standpoint of "this is the last major launch before the license is up.". Could you imagine if the google maps app was shut down? people would go bannanas. >>Why couldn't they have spent that time getting data partnerships that apparently is going to solve all of their problems? I would imagine they have been spending years on this already. Google has just been spending nearly a decade doing the same thing. When you are both world class development companies, a several year lead is insurmountable for a very long time.
HaloZero 14y ago
I wonder how many developers will do that block of code that opens web links in Chrome if its available on your phone.
- joshschreuder 14y ago
  Do you mean like a gmaps:// type URL protocol? I guess it depends on how many apps bump out to Maps anyway, I haven't seen any personally. Normally maps are integrated into the app (which means at this point supporting IOS6 means integrating Apple Maps)
  - jaredsohn 14y ago
    The Facebook and Eventbrite apps both allow launching the msps app.
  - packetslave 14y ago
    Maps SDK was released as well: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-new-way-to-add-google-maps-to-your.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-new-way-to...
    - joshschreuder 14y ago
      Ah cool, I figured this would be coming with the new app.
ericlevine 14y ago
That's very good of Google to release the new maps app before the end of the holiday shopping season. If I were an Android executive at Google, I'd be fuming that they're providing a workaround to the broken software of their biggest competitor going into such an important season for selling phones.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- dubcanada 14y ago
  What does that have to do with anything? Google is going to sell the exact same amount of phones with or without Google Maps on iOS.
packetslave 14y ago
The app appears to now be available on US iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354
- hnriot 14y ago
  I get the usual error about the app is no longer available :( I really hope apple sort out their store problems soon.
yoda_sl 14y ago
Now that it s out,it will be interesting to have some side to side comparison of data accuracy and additionally on Data usage between the 2 apps. The previous iOS 5 apps was using image tiling but these new app seems to use the vector based one, so in a way similar to what Apple maps s doing.
akgerber 14y ago
Still no bike maps on iPhone.
Sym3tri 14y ago
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354?mt=8
mrb 14y ago
Yeah suure, "Google to release Maps tonight". More like: "Apple to approve Maps tonight". Google submitted Maps to Apple months ago (although Eric Schmidt remained voluntarily ambiguous and avoided to say it explicitly): http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/25/eric-schmidt-on-google-maps-on-ios-we-think-it-would-have-been-better-if-they-had-kept-ours-but-what-do-i-know/ http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/25/eric-schmidt-on-google-maps-on... After firing the iOS Maps manager (Rich Williamson), Apple decided to take the only sensible approach of finally pushing a button to let Google Maps in the app store, as a short-term stop-gap solution to end their endusers' frustration.
- tedunangst 14y ago
  More like "Clock to tick forward to Google decided date to release already Apple approved Maps".
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

186 points by azazo 14y ago

How do Google get their apps like this approved? Indie developers get rejected all the time for replicating a function that an apple app already does, but google has chrome and others and now maps? If Apple want to distance themselves from Google, surely they could just not approve any of their apps.

saurik 14y ago
Apple made a decision at some point (seemingly under pressure) to allow not just Chrome, but all "browsers" (a term that I feel needs to be put in quotes, as all of these applications, including Chrome, must use Apple's HTML renderer, and only thereby have control over some aspects of how requests are cached and the surrounding UI).
- statictype 14y ago
  Hasn't Apple allowed browser apps that wrap UIWebKit well before Chrome? I'm pretty sure there were already stand-alone browser apps in the App Store before Chrome came.
  - marknutter 14y ago
    There were for sure. Opera is one.
    - ynniv 14y ago
      Opera Mini is not a browser but rather a view into a browser in The Cloud. All network connections and JavaScript evaluation happens elsewhere, and the phone displays the resulting image and proxies clicks back to the server. Apple's sticking point has always been code evaluation on the phone, and currently only permits JavaScriptCore to evaluate code retrieved over the network.
  - saurik 14y ago
    Yes: that was actually what I was intending to imply; specifically, that Google wasn't blazing trails here nor are they being given special exceptions.
pooriaazimi 14y ago
Apple's approval rules/guidelines are not set in stone. They change all the time. A couple years ago they were very strict (and non-agreeable to most people), but since they've backpedalled a bit and have been much much leaner about "replicating already-existing functionality" - approving and even promoting calendars, notebooks, ebook-readers, browsers, calculators, mail clients, weather clients, etc.
- astolarz 14y ago
  I would think the recommendation to use rivals' products might also have something to do with the potential approval of Google Maps: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUSBRE88R0SN20120929 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/29/us-apple-cook-idUS...
baddox 14y ago
The "duplicate functionality" restriction hasn't been enforced for years.

jaytaylor 14y ago

The article was kind of confusing to me.. Does "release" in this case mean they are going to push the button to allow users to download it from the app store tonight? Or have they just submitted it and they are awaiting approval?

barredo 14y ago
When you submit an app to the appstore you have two options: release it as soon as Apple approves it or release it on a date you set (assuming Apple approved it before). It's very convenient for scheduling app releases on certain launch dates obviously
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

kgrin 14y ago

Curious whether it'll actually have the voice nav, which was (apparently? allegedly?) at issue in the first place. I guess we will (might?) find out soon enough.

mcrider 14y ago
Voice nav would be the only reason I'd use Apple Maps; If google maps has it I'm certainly switching back.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  Have you tried Mapquest? It's had voice nav all this time.
  - ben1040 14y ago
    Has the nav on Mapquest gotten any better? I had an iPhone 4S for a few weeks last year and tried the Mapquest app. I found that it was terrible when driving down a freeway. Every time I crossed an overpass, it would assume that I was on the cross street, and recalculate. Then it'd wise up to me being on the freeway again, and recalculate once more. Repeat a mile or two down the road at the next overpass. I would have figured they'd have implemented some heuristic that considered the likelihood of me traveling 70mph in one direction only to immediately turn onto a cross street. But at the time, that seemed to not be the case.
- randomdata 14y ago
  Without Siri integration, it loses the real appeal of Apple's voice navigation system. Being able to say things like "I need gas", or "take me home" without taking attention away from the road are what really sell the voice navigation on the device, in my opinion. I realize Google has been adding their own voice recognition to their apps, but there is no easy way to activate it without having to look at the screen; a no-go while driving.
  - paul9290 14y ago

redact207 14y ago

Have iOS6 users been waiting this long to get GMaps back?? Given the blowout, why on earth didn't Apple give special approval to GMaps and push the existing version back into the App Store?

cleverjake 14y ago
The existing version was an Apple app, that used google technology. They would have to relicense the data to use the past maps app. I'm sure they'd rather spend that money to improve the new one.
- g0atbutt 14y ago
  They actually had about a year left on their license. Source -> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57520590-501465/apple-google-maps-contract-had-one-year-left-report-claims/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57520590-501465/apple...
  - panacea 14y ago
    Having a few months up your sleeve on current licensing terms doesn't mean you could sit back and wait for the expiry date before acting.
    - drivebyacct2 14y ago
      Really? Jeez the doublethink in this thread is strong. Why is the alternative to "keep what works until you can't", "ditch it with months on the license to push an inferior, downgraded experience"? Why couldn't they have spent that time getting data partnerships that apparently is going to solve all of their problems?
      - cleverjake 14y ago
        I would imagine they were working from a standpoint of "this is the last major launch before the license is up.". Could you imagine if the google maps app was shut down? people would go bannanas. >>Why couldn't they have spent that time getting data partnerships that apparently is going to solve all of their problems? I would imagine they have been spending years on this already. Google has just been spending nearly a decade doing the same thing. When you are both world class development companies, a several year lead is insurmountable for a very long time.

HaloZero 14y ago

I wonder how many developers will do that block of code that opens web links in Chrome if its available on your phone.

joshschreuder 14y ago
Do you mean like a gmaps:// type URL protocol? I guess it depends on how many apps bump out to Maps anyway, I haven't seen any personally. Normally maps are integrated into the app (which means at this point supporting IOS6 means integrating Apple Maps)
- jaredsohn 14y ago
  The Facebook and Eventbrite apps both allow launching the msps app.
- packetslave 14y ago
  Maps SDK was released as well: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-new-way-to-add-google-maps-to-your.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-new-way-to...
  - joshschreuder 14y ago
    Ah cool, I figured this would be coming with the new app.

ericlevine 14y ago

That's very good of Google to release the new maps app before the end of the holiday shopping season. If I were an Android executive at Google, I'd be fuming that they're providing a workaround to the broken software of their biggest competitor going into such an important season for selling phones.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dubcanada 14y ago
What does that have to do with anything? Google is going to sell the exact same amount of phones with or without Google Maps on iOS.

packetslave 14y ago

The app appears to now be available on US iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354

hnriot 14y ago
I get the usual error about the app is no longer available :( I really hope apple sort out their store problems soon.

yoda_sl 14y ago

Now that it s out,it will be interesting to have some side to side comparison of data accuracy and additionally on Data usage between the 2 apps. The previous iOS 5 apps was using image tiling but these new app seems to use the vector based one, so in a way similar to what Apple maps s doing.

akgerber 14y ago

Still no bike maps on iPhone.

Sym3tri 14y ago

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-maps/id585027354?mt=8

mrb 14y ago

Yeah suure, "Google to release Maps tonight". More like: "Apple to approve Maps tonight". Google submitted Maps to Apple months ago (although Eric Schmidt remained voluntarily ambiguous and avoided to say it explicitly): http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/25/eric-schmidt-on-google-maps-on-ios-we-think-it-would-have-been-better-if-they-had-kept-ours-but-what-do-i-know/ http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/25/eric-schmidt-on-google-maps-on... After firing the iOS Maps manager (Rich Williamson), Apple decided to take the only sensible approach of finally pushing a button to let Google Maps in the app store, as a short-term stop-gap solution to end their endusers' frustration.

tedunangst 14y ago
More like "Clock to tick forward to Google decided date to release already Apple approved Maps".
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]