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>Wow. New GMaps totally annihilates Apple Maps in every which way Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to

by vvhn 14y ago

>Wow. New GMaps totally annihilates Apple Maps in every which way Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to be much better When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be) 1 - In POI and searching. However in the limited searches i did (in the Bay area so i guess the Apple Maps critics immediately discount that) both did the same. Given the widely documented inaccuracies and just downright lack of data in the rest of the world, this is probably orders of magnitude better. 2 - Public transit - This is obviously a no-contest. Apple Maps just doesn't have it. 3 - map data - This is probably the same as POIs. >Navigation is great, so much better than Siri's dreadful voice, easy to navigate from A>B with a tap of your destination. Navigation isn't great on Apple maps because of Siri's "dreadful voice" ? >Great release - welcome back I agree but the whole annahilation bit a quite hyperbolic.

acchow 14y ago
>Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to be much better Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? Can you elaborate on what you find much better in Apple Maps? It probably has better typography/layout design, but other than that?
- starik36 14y ago
  For me, the missing piece in Google Maps is that it does not integrate with my contacts. Most of my searches are based on contacts. Probably coming in v2. Otherwise pretty solid.
  - notimetorelax 14y ago
    Is it possible at all in the current version of iOS? I had an impression that all default apps are Apple's and it cannot be changed.
    - pilif 14y ago
      The in-app search widget could allow you to type in names of contacts. It doesn't at the moment. Well. It does, but it doesn't actually search for the contacts address
      - notimetorelax 14y ago
        I see, I thought you wanted to open Google maps from contacts app.
  - nachteilig 14y ago
    I saw this too and found it to be a bummer. Does it work with Gmail contacts if you log in? I hope they'll integrate the local iOS address book with the next version.
- vvhn 14y ago
  >Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? True. Google has everyone beat in finding things. These advantages are apparent in the Google maps website itself. Once found though Apple Maps is smoother, more responsive and, in general pleasing to look at (although the last part is subjective and personal preference and many people will find the Google Maps better maybe). Map data deficiences in Apple maps are well documented at this point and map data is the single most important thing about a map. Google Maps is superior ( and i'm guessing outside of the bay area/the US, orders of magnitude better ). I did miss out on another big advantage of Google Maps - Street view (which i guess is part of the data but it is still unique to Google Maps) The original comment waxed lyrical about how it "annahilates" Apple Maps in "every which way" which didn't gel with my experience. it's better in the parts it is expected to be. I wonder if anybody, let alone Apple, will ever be able to come even close to Google Maps for sheer data.
  - acchow 14y ago
    I wonder where the variation in performance is coming from. I'm reading some anecdotes saying Google Maps is more responsive and some saying Apple Maps is. On the same hardware. Perhaps they are using different definitions of "responsive"? Can you elaborate on your experience? Some people do not notice the difference between 20fps and 60fps. But there's more to that than responsiveness. In comparing the two apps: How quickly do searches happen? When clicking on a result, how quickly does the info card come out? How long does it take to draw the map when you pan to a distant part of the map?
    - taligent 14y ago
      My findings: For searching. Google Maps has a much better autocomplete all round. Faster, more readable and elegant. Once you have selected an entry then Apple Maps jumps straight there. Google Maps does this pointless move animation making it about 2-3x slower. For panning. Apple Maps is definitely smoother and has a higher frame rate. Especially if you have traffic/hybrid mode enable in which case even on my iPhone 5 Google Maps is lagging really badly. The biggest difference is that Apple Maps shows you a checkerboard for missing tiles whilst Google Maps has a blurred image. Apple Maps also has a fade in transition for loaded tiles which is a nice touch. For POIs. Apple Maps is showing me lots of restaurants, bars etc. Google Maps is showing me nothing. This is in both Sydney and Melbourne. For UI. Google Maps has a much better UI with info card. Apple Maps requires you to click on a small button which goes to a separate screen with more options. I really hate the sidebar that Google implemented. It is far too difficult to click with the tiny button especially one handed. And it isn't that intuitive that the street view picture is actually a button. Overall. Google Maps has much better street data. Apple Maps had a much smoother UI, actually showed POIs here in Australia and the inbuilt 3D view is better implemented. The 2.0 versions of both apps should be real nice.
- 89a 14y ago
  This is the main issue with Apple Maps. - Type Pub name, "Not Found" - Type Postcode, It points to completely the wrong street - Type street name/number, it thinks I mean some street in America (Map screen was focused on london)
  - gnaffle 14y ago
    This is exactly my experience with Apple Maps as well. It's so unusable that after a few tries, you just stop using the app altogether.
  - stevewillows 14y ago
    This is actually what pushed me to Android. I'm a heavy maps user (read: easily distracted). I'm not sure people understood how much they took the original gmaps for granted until Apple released their own.
- pretoriusB 14y ago
  >Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? He means that the actual searching (ie the querying to find) is not well implemented. Besides that, no, the purposes of a Map app is much more involved: show you turn by turn instructions, public transit routes, bookmarks, etc...
gnaffle 14y ago
Where I live, annihilation is actually an apt description. Apple Maps is completely unusable for me. I don't know how they managed to put the airport where _it used to be 25 years ago_, for instance. It can't find one of the biggest swimming halls outside of town, and last time I needed driving directions it put me on the wrong side of a roadblock, whereas Google Maps routed me the correct way (running on an old iOS device).
runjake 14y ago
When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be) How is it shoving a Google account down your throat? It took me a minute to find where to log into my Google account so that I could retrieve my saved Maps places. How do you contrast this with Apple Maps, which transparently uses an iCloud account on the backend? Do you lay the blame on Google? Or Apple, for not having system-wide account services for Google (as they do with Facebook and Twitter).
- vvhn 14y ago
  i don't want to log in to an account. Everytime i tap search, three fourths of the screen is filled with how my life would better if logged in to my account. It's a big nag screen.
  - omfg 14y ago
    I find that rather annoying too. Every other click it seems to be asking me to login to my Google account. Kind of makes me wonder why they are so insistent.. Good way to get data for local ads?
    - accoinstereo 14y ago
      The more data they can associate with a given user the better.
  - thechut 14y ago
    Try logging in. The results may surprise you. If you use Chrome signed-in on your computer it will remember your recent map searches from your computer and pop them up first on your phone. Pretty useful feature if you ask me, and it will get rid of "the big nag screen"
    - vvhn 14y ago
      I'm absolutely certain it will be pretty nifty. However, once i have willingly decided not to do a login ( i don't use gmail or Chrome ) it should just not feel the need to shove that to my face everytime. A first time setup prompt is all that is needed and once you say no it should tell you " ok, you're missing out but in case you do feel like trying it out - it's in settings->log into account". Since Apple Maps works perfectly fine for my area ( yes, i'm aware there's a world outside the Bay Area where Apple Maps is horrible), the constant nag for a login is enough to for me to stop using it. It is an awesome app though.

by vvhn 14y ago

acchow 14y ago

>Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to be much better Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? Can you elaborate on what you find much better in Apple Maps? It probably has better typography/layout design, but other than that?

starik36 14y ago
For me, the missing piece in Google Maps is that it does not integrate with my contacts. Most of my searches are based on contacts. Probably coming in v2. Otherwise pretty solid.
- notimetorelax 14y ago
  Is it possible at all in the current version of iOS? I had an impression that all default apps are Apple's and it cannot be changed.
  - pilif 14y ago
    The in-app search widget could allow you to type in names of contacts. It doesn't at the moment. Well. It does, but it doesn't actually search for the contacts address
    - notimetorelax 14y ago
      I see, I thought you wanted to open Google maps from contacts app.
- nachteilig 14y ago
  I saw this too and found it to be a bummer. Does it work with Gmail contacts if you log in? I hope they'll integrate the local iOS address book with the next version.
vvhn 14y ago
>Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? True. Google has everyone beat in finding things. These advantages are apparent in the Google maps website itself. Once found though Apple Maps is smoother, more responsive and, in general pleasing to look at (although the last part is subjective and personal preference and many people will find the Google Maps better maybe). Map data deficiences in Apple maps are well documented at this point and map data is the single most important thing about a map. Google Maps is superior ( and i'm guessing outside of the bay area/the US, orders of magnitude better ). I did miss out on another big advantage of Google Maps - Street view (which i guess is part of the data but it is still unique to Google Maps) The original comment waxed lyrical about how it "annahilates" Apple Maps in "every which way" which didn't gel with my experience. it's better in the parts it is expected to be. I wonder if anybody, let alone Apple, will ever be able to come even close to Google Maps for sheer data.
- acchow 14y ago
  I wonder where the variation in performance is coming from. I'm reading some anecdotes saying Google Maps is more responsive and some saying Apple Maps is. On the same hardware. Perhaps they are using different definitions of "responsive"? Can you elaborate on your experience? Some people do not notice the difference between 20fps and 60fps. But there's more to that than responsiveness. In comparing the two apps: How quickly do searches happen? When clicking on a result, how quickly does the info card come out? How long does it take to draw the map when you pan to a distant part of the map?
  - taligent 14y ago
    My findings: For searching. Google Maps has a much better autocomplete all round. Faster, more readable and elegant. Once you have selected an entry then Apple Maps jumps straight there. Google Maps does this pointless move animation making it about 2-3x slower. For panning. Apple Maps is definitely smoother and has a higher frame rate. Especially if you have traffic/hybrid mode enable in which case even on my iPhone 5 Google Maps is lagging really badly. The biggest difference is that Apple Maps shows you a checkerboard for missing tiles whilst Google Maps has a blurred image. Apple Maps also has a fade in transition for loaded tiles which is a nice touch. For POIs. Apple Maps is showing me lots of restaurants, bars etc. Google Maps is showing me nothing. This is in both Sydney and Melbourne. For UI. Google Maps has a much better UI with info card. Apple Maps requires you to click on a small button which goes to a separate screen with more options. I really hate the sidebar that Google implemented. It is far too difficult to click with the tiny button especially one handed. And it isn't that intuitive that the street view picture is actually a button. Overall. Google Maps has much better street data. Apple Maps had a much smoother UI, actually showed POIs here in Australia and the inbuilt 3D view is better implemented. The 2.0 versions of both apps should be real nice.
89a 14y ago
This is the main issue with Apple Maps. - Type Pub name, "Not Found" - Type Postcode, It points to completely the wrong street - Type street name/number, it thinks I mean some street in America (Map screen was focused on london)
- gnaffle 14y ago
  This is exactly my experience with Apple Maps as well. It's so unusable that after a few tries, you just stop using the app altogether.
- stevewillows 14y ago
  This is actually what pushed me to Android. I'm a heavy maps user (read: easily distracted). I'm not sure people understood how much they took the original gmaps for granted until Apple released their own.
pretoriusB 14y ago
>Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination? He means that the actual searching (ie the querying to find) is not well implemented. Besides that, no, the purposes of a Map app is much more involved: show you turn by turn instructions, public transit routes, bookmarks, etc...

gnaffle 14y ago

Where I live, annihilation is actually an apt description. Apple Maps is completely unusable for me. I don't know how they managed to put the airport where _it used to be 25 years ago_, for instance. It can't find one of the biggest swimming halls outside of town, and last time I needed driving directions it put me on the wrong side of a roadblock, whereas Google Maps routed me the correct way (running on an old iOS device).

runjake 14y ago

When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be) How is it shoving a Google account down your throat? It took me a minute to find where to log into my Google account so that I could retrieve my saved Maps places. How do you contrast this with Apple Maps, which transparently uses an iCloud account on the backend? Do you lay the blame on Google? Or Apple, for not having system-wide account services for Google (as they do with Facebook and Twitter).

vvhn 14y ago
i don't want to log in to an account. Everytime i tap search, three fourths of the screen is filled with how my life would better if logged in to my account. It's a big nag screen.
- omfg 14y ago
  I find that rather annoying too. Every other click it seems to be asking me to login to my Google account. Kind of makes me wonder why they are so insistent.. Good way to get data for local ads?
  - accoinstereo 14y ago
    The more data they can associate with a given user the better.
- thechut 14y ago
  Try logging in. The results may surprise you. If you use Chrome signed-in on your computer it will remember your recent map searches from your computer and pop them up first on your phone. Pretty useful feature if you ask me, and it will get rid of "the big nag screen"
  - vvhn 14y ago
    I'm absolutely certain it will be pretty nifty. However, once i have willingly decided not to do a login ( i don't use gmail or Chrome ) it should just not feel the need to shove that to my face everytime. A first time setup prompt is all that is needed and once you say no it should tell you " ok, you're missing out but in case you do feel like trying it out - it's in settings->log into account". Since Apple Maps works perfectly fine for my area ( yes, i'm aware there's a world outside the Bay Area where Apple Maps is horrible), the constant nag for a login is enough to for me to stop using it. It is an awesome app though.