Days after Tim Cook’s apology, Apple’s Maps shows improvements

“On the heels as Apple CEO Tim Cook’s public apology to iOS customers for the poor performance of their Maps app, Apple has been quietly improving their heavily criticized iOS 6 Maps App with more accurate Fly-Over 3D and location data,” Jonathan Pena reports for AppleTell.

“Previously, users of Maps experienced inaccurate data and distorted images when using 3D Flyover visuals in iOS 6,” Pena reports.

Read more, and see screenshots, in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Are you seeing improvements in Apple’s Maps app?

61 Comments

  1. Tim Cook, “Apple is proud to announce that Maps is less shitty than it was. Thanks to our fans and hard working employees we have raised the bar again. I have officially rated Maps ‘crappy’, a significant improvement from the previous rating ‘steaming pile of odorous dung’. That is all.”

        1. Yeah, ok… and how exactly are the Republicans going to not do that when all they want to do is reinstate the very policies and practices that brought us to the brink of a second Great Depression a few years ago?

          Pull your head out of your ass and learn some history.

          Bottom line is, we are not in great shape, but we were in better shape than at the end of the reign of The Shrub. We’d be in MUCH better shape were it not for the obstructionist Republican regime in Congress who seemingly has absolutely no ability to compromise or cooperate it do what is in the best interest of the country. They’d rather cock-block the Administration in an attempt to sabotage a re-eelection so they can get back to having the good old boys club and continue to make their millions on the backs of the other 99%

          Now, stop watching Fox News, and was the feces from your face.

      1. Never had a problem with the new Maps app. Best guess is that where there were problems the hue and cry were amplified by ‘droid users and competitors.

        In a month this will be a forgotten issue, as was antenna gate. OTOH, how’s that OS upgrade thing working out for you ‘droid apologists?

  2. I drove from the SF Bay Are to Truckee, CA near Lake Tahoe (about 200 miles each way) last Saturday and returned on Monday. On Saturday the Turn by Turn worked fine, but Siri randomly directed me to take four or five non-existent turns off of the highway, then quickly corrected herself. On the way back this never happened and directions were flawless. Turn by turn maps are a vast improvement over google maps and worked perfectly. This is a much safer way to drive and with audible turn by turn, it is far better than Google Maps ever was, even with the few quickly corrected mistakes on the way up. Also nice that the maps stay on or come back on whenever there is a change of directions.

        1. Tell you what I am already preferring it to Google maps (except for some minor issues I previously mentioned) its user interface is a delight which was emphasised when I was thrown back form Apple maps to Google maps the other day through an app when, despite years of casual use i still found I couldn’t really easily work the damn thing beyond anything pretty basic as with any google held together by string, interface in fact. As Apple maps develops its going to be so much better considering its underlying technology already shines out by comparison.

  3. Maybe in US, in India it is still as bad as it can be. But still sticking with apple. Anything to avoid google shit, it is just a personnel opinion, if people are happy with google then that is all that matters to them.

    Come on apple pull up your socks you have a mountain to climb.

  4. I have looked for many addresses and businesses in houston tx since installing IOS6 and I have not had any problems at all
    And it’s way faster
    So I don’t know what all the bitching is about

  5. Didnt have any problems. MUCH prefer the new maps to Google. Turn by turn is excellent, and the Maps are easier to read than Google – less clutter.
    Another storm in a teacup, yet another ‘slow news day’.

  6. I clicked a Louisville, KY address in my address book and it took me to Maps somewhere in Alabama. Yeah, it’s off. How can it be better if here hasn’t been a software update?

    1. Seriously? You do know the map data isn’t all contained in your iPhone, right? The app can’t improve without a software update, but the data it displays is on Apple’s servers.
      This is like asking how CNN’s news page can change without you downloading a brand new version of your web browser.

  7. I have been a critic of the crappy Apple maps app, so yesterday I decided to do a test. I got in the car and typed in Subway in an area where there are 5 Subway restaurants nearby and no subway (as in transit) to throw things off. The stores are all within 1.5-2 miles of the point where I searched with the mapping app.

    It found 1 and did not have the address correctly marked on the map. It didn’t list the others nearby. It also did a marginal job on routing, as there are a number of options.

    Checked the same in an app found in the app store drawing in Google data and it found all stores and gave a better route.

    Still not impressed. It’s Betaware.

    1. Wow… couldn’t find Subway…? I fear the sky will be falling shortly and the earth will open up and swallow us all. Nice to know how serious this is, and how permanent the damage will be… I’ll have to hold up my iPhone 5 purchase until it can figure out that damn Subway problem. Those mediocre sandwiches are not to be missed at all costs…

      1. Subway was chosen as a convenient destination that had multiple locations within a given radius- not a destination to eat. It could have been 5 Apple Stores were that that many in the same area.

        Jesus, what a Fanboi.

        1. Someone replying sarcastically doesn’t mean fanboi. Just as much as your criticism doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an Applehater. Maybe they just like to be a smart ass.

  8. I have been having problems with finding certain places. But its usually because the name is off…but google maps usually could provide names that were a little off and I don’t know if apple maps does. For example, I typed Toyota Collision Center and it took me to the wrong Collision center…what I should have typed in was World Toyota Collision.
    So, part user error…but at the same time I would think there could be a little error in something like that.

  9. I’ve had good, but imperfect results from iOS6 Maps. Still, having used many different turn-by-turn systems since ’97, I am well acquainted to good but imperfect results. They all are imperfect, yet useful.

  10. Cook was a complete idiot to apologize. Sign of a whimpy ass baby. We now know that things were not near that bad, and reviews have been pretty good. He sounds like a asswhimp Bay area lib that is overly touchy feely and too queer-like. Man up you dud.

    1. Ah, a post from an illiterate fuckwit who’s incapable of coming up with a decent user name, instead using ‘x’, which the dumb and poorly educated always used to use, as they couldn’t even write their own names.
      And ‘x’ expects us to take its illiterate ramblings seriously?
      Fuck off back to your mummy’s basement, ‘dud’.

  11. Amazing. Apple fandroids/fanbois report that they haven’t noticed any difference in Maps although Apple reports significant improvements. These morons are either too dense to recognize that problems existed or are too stupid to understand Apple’s simply worded press release.

      1. slang has a way of meaning different things to different people.

        I don’t see how your interpretation of the use of the term is the only one. Words aren’t limited only to the the highest corporate bidder’s copyrighted meaning.

        Google has copyrighted the name “Android”, but the English language support the conjunction of “fan” and the generic word “android” just as easily as it can “fan” and the generic word “boy”.

  12. Works 1000% better than my Garmin. Apple offers 3 route choices from my home to the office. I pick my favored route. (not offered by Garmin). I can deviate and it doesn’t scream RECALCULATING, RECALCULATING like the Garmin nags me. Apple just accepts my detour and keeps me going. Plugs into my dash and speaks through my vehicle speakers. I love being able to surf to my desired destination and just drop a pin and have it take me there. No need to wade through a slow Garmin interface and no need to know the street address of everywhere I want to go.

  13. Maps does very well around LAX; however, the icons are a totally different matter. Since the day Maps came out, I have submitted 30-50 times to have the LAX Theme Building icon moved from the street to its proper location. Nothing. If anyone is working for Apple and reads this, Focus on Los Angeles International Airport and tighten up the data. We have submitted a lot of corrections and no change. Aaarrrrgghhh, Just some creative ranting!

  14. I went on a binge the other week and submitted about 50-60 problem reports for Oxford UK – almost all of them were incorrectly positioned pins for various businesses (and colleges of course) …

    Most of them have clearly now been fixed – this took maybe 3-4 days… the system is working.

  15. I drove from West London to Shepperton Studios and back yesterday. Used Apple’s maps. Worked perfectly – couldn’t have done this with Google maps in iOS5. So what’s the fuss?

    It’s all FUD.

  16. Apart from the dire satellite view across large chunks of southern England, the only issue I have is that due to the app requiring access to the map servers, if you’re staying in an area with virtually no phone service, let alone data, if you need directions then you’re screwed, as I have been this week. Having said that, directions from home to my destination worked flawlessly, while Google maps couldn’t even find the address, let alone the area, and all the roads are narrow un-designated lanes. If you can get a connection, it works very well indeed.

  17. The turn by turn navigation is nice and works fairly well except when it comes to finding my home. When I punch in my address, it takes me to a street with the same name 4 towns and about 10 miles away. I have reported the error a few times but it still has not been fixed.

  18. It still is a completely untrustworthy app, I rely on the maps app quite a lot in my job in the art department for the film industry, we need to find businesses, addresses and are always driving and picking up/dropping off stuff all day. I struggle to find correct addresses, street numbers are wrong, businesses aren’t listed, phone numbers are incorrect, addresses incorrect. I can’t trust the information it gives me so I often end up web searching to confirm the data, often finding out it was incorrect….

  19. It’s a huge upgrade from the previous google maps. Due to lack of turn-by-turn in the past I used mapquest. This is much better than mapquest. I’ve had no problems, joy to use!

  20. This week went up to San Rafael and Richmond in the Bay Area. My mother’s 85 year old memory wasn’t always spot on in finding the right path to the homes. The area had changed since she was last there fifty odd years ago. Maps showed us where the two family houses were located and helped me navigate the complex freeway system in the Bay Area, since I’m from the LA area now. Maps did great.

  21. I’m in the UK and the new apple maps are poor in my area. When I mentioned this I was shot down and asked if I’d come back and say when the maps function was good again. Well I’m here to say that there has not been an improvement or even any change where I live despite having used the ‘report a problem’ feature in lots of places. Though I still have not made peace with apple somehow thinking it is their customers job to fix the inaccurate, out of date information used to build the map.

  22. I don’t doubt people have had problems with Apple’s Maps but I have not. I know I don’t get out much but here in the UK I find the turn-by-turn fantastic and accurate. No complaints so far. Google have had a huge advantage in years and, lest we forget, slurped a lot of data and STILL haven’t given it back so we must ask whether they are thieves in the Samsung mould. I certainly wouldn’t trust them.

  23. For several weeks, I’ve been running Apple Maps in parallel with the built in satnav system that came with my now 10 year old Lexus. I’ve found a number of issues with Apple Maps, many with the map database and some with the functionality. They have been documented before so I won’t repeat them. Hopefully, the shortcomings of Apple’s system will be ironed out and next year I’ll be able to report that v2 is functionally comparable to the 10 year old Lexus system.
    But, so what, I already have an in-car satnav. The big disadvantage of the inbuilt car system is that when I park my car I cannot take it with me. At this point a pocket system has a huge potential advantage. This is especially valuable in places like SE England where public transport systems are such an important part of everyday travel. However, Apple’s current system ignores public transport. If Apple can build public transport into their navigation system and fully integrate it with car, cycle and walking, it would become an absolutely essential tool for me.
    In the meantime, Apple Maps is a no more than a backup for my inbuilt car system and I will continue using other software for public transport information.

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