http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304543904577398502695522974-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html

Since they got together in 2007, the iPhone and Google Maps have seemed like ideal digital bedfellows.

Google Inc.'s GOOG -1.81% blockbuster map service—which allows web users to find businesses, check traffic conditions and get directions—has helped Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.68% iPhone become wildly successful. Surging iPhone use has, in turn, driven tons of web traffic to Google's search engine through Google Maps.

But not for long. Mobile map technology is about to become the latest battleground in the two tech giants' escalating war over who dominates the future of computing.

Later this year, Apple is planning to oust Google Maps as the preloaded, default maps app from the iPhone and iPad and release a new mapping app that runs Apple's own technology, according to current and former Apple employees. Apple could preview the new software, which will be part of its next mobile-operating system, as soon as next week at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, one person familiar with the plans says. Apple plans to encourage app developers to embed its maps inside their applications like social-networking and search services. Technology blog 9to5Mac earlier reported that Apple will launch its own maps app in its next mobile-operating system.

Apple has been hatching the plan to evict Google Maps from the iPhone for years, according to current and former Apple employees. The plan accelerated as smartphones powered by Google's Android software overtook the iPhone in shipments.


It's Apple versus Google in a battle of the maps as Apple is expected to unveil its new map app. WSJ's Jessica Vascellaro has the details.

Apple has quietly acquired at least three cutting-edge map companies, melding their technology with its own. Last fall, Apple took a first step in developing a proprietary mapping service with the virtually unnoticed release of a "geocoder"—the brains behind a mapping app that translates a phone's longitude and latitude into a point on a map, like an address. Before that, it relied on Google's geocoder.

Mobile ads associated with maps or locations are estimated to account for about 25% of the roughly $2.5 billion spent on mobile ads in 2012, according to Opus Research, up from 10% in 2010. That is expected to grow as the number of location-aware software apps grows.

But more than ad revenue, Apple is going after the map market to have more control over a key asset in the widening smartphone war. Google Maps is used by more than 90% of U.S. iPhone users. So Apple believes controlling the mapping experience and offering features that Google doesn't have can help sell more devices and entice developers to build unique apps for iPhone users.


In the short term, Google will lose some ad revenue and miss out on data about what local businesses people are searching for—which it uses to pitch retailers on buying certain ads. Longer term, it is likely to hurt Google's ability to generate map-related revenue, according to former Google employees.

A Google spokeswoman said it would be premature to comment on something that hasn't happened.

Apple's turnabout on Google goes well beyond maps. How the war plays out will help shape how people use technology for years to come.

"Apple is aiming squarely at Google on multiple dimensions," says Rajeev Chand, a managing director at investment bank Rutberg & Co., citing mapping and Web search. "Google and Apple are in a battle over data, devices, services, and the future of computing. This is the historic battle of today."

For years, Apple and Google were models of cooperation. Each largely stuck to its separate world—Apple made computers and other hardware; Google offered Web search and sold online ads. Apple's longtime chief, Steve Jobs, had close relations with Google chief Eric Schmidt, who sat on Apple's board of directors from 2006 until 2009.

The rise of the iPhone and other smartphones changed all that. Mr. Jobs felt blindsided by Google's push into mobile devices with its own Android operating system. Google has since entered the hardware business directly, buying Motorola Mobility Holdings, which makes phones. Google recently also launched a music, movie, book and mobile-app store to compete with Apple's iTunes. Android-phone shipments now surpass iPhone shipments globally.

Some Google executives privately say they think Apple is trying to wean iPhone users away from using traditional Web search on its phones.

The use of Google search on the iPhone is believed by several mobile industry analysts to generate the majority of Google's mobile search-ad revenue. Google has accelerated its plans to develop its own voice-activated search assistant for Android-powered mobile devices, which is expected to launch later this year, these people said.

Apple's goal is to develop a "holistic" technology that integrates maps with other Apple software, says a person briefed on the strategy. For instance, if Apple's iCalendar program knows that a person has a meeting across town soon, and traffic is backing up, it might alert the person about road conditions.

Originally, Apple's iPhone strengthened ties between the two companies. On Halloween in 2006—just months before the iPhone was announced—Apple's product-marketing head, Phil Schiller, and other executives met with Google engineers to determine how the iPhone could use Google's mapping data to let people see their locations and get directions. At the meeting, one Google employee attended wearing a nun costume.

The two companies struck a quid pro quo: When an iPhone user opened the mapping app, Apple would send Google information about the position of a particular phone. Google would then return mapping images and other data. The January 2007 iPhone news release called Google's mapping service "groundbreaking."

Google's release of Android, the rival smartphone operating system, started souring things. In 2008, Mr. Jobs warned Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that if they continued with Android, Apple would head to court and claim Android copied the iPhone. Google proceeded, and Apple sued a slew of Android-device manufacturers. The cases are still making their way through the courts.

Maps added to the rancor. That same year, Apple executives including Mr. Schiller sat down with Google executives, including Vic Gundotra, then a vice president in charge of Google's mobile apps, to renew the agreement over the iPhone's mapping app.

New tensions emerged when Apple grew concerned that Google was aggressively gathering data from the app, according to people familiar with Apple's thinking. Mr. Schiller worried it could compromise users' privacy, these people said.

Google executives felt Apple was unreasonable in insisting on controlling the look of the maps app and enabling only some of its features—like an "a la carte menu" where Google provided only the "back end" technology that powers it, according to a Google executive.

The two sides bickered over a Google Maps feature called Street View, which lets people see an actual photo as if they are standing in the street. Apple wanted to incorporate Street View on the iPhone just as Google already offered it for Android phones. Google initially withheld the feature, frustrating Apple executives, according to people on both sides of the debate.

Apple executives also wanted to include Google's turn-by-turn-navigation service in the iPhone—a feature popular with Android users because it lets people treat their phones as in-car GPS devices. Google wouldn't allow it, according to people on both sides. One of these people said Google viewed Apple's terms as unfair.

Google executives, meantime, also bristled at Apple's refusal to add features that would help Google. For instance, Google wanted to emphasize its brand name more prominently within the maps app. It also wanted Apple to enable its service designed to find friends nearby, dubbed Latitude, which Apple refrained from doing, said people on both sides.

Relations between Messrs. Schiller and Gundotra got tense. Jeff Huber, then a Google vice president of engineering, eventually started handling talks with Apple as Mr. Gundotra moved on to a new project within Google, people familiar with the matter said.

In 2009, Mr. Schmidt confided in colleagues his concern over the fraying relationship, one of these people said. Around that same time, Mr. Jobs decided that location services were too important for Apple to rely on a partner that was also becoming a formidable competitor, says a person familiar with the matter.

So Mr. Jobs began looking outside Apple for talent to build its own mapping technology. In 2009, Apple bought a small Los Angeles company, Placebase, that was trying to build a service like Google Maps. When the Placebase team arrived in Apple headquarters in Cupertino, they formed Apple's new "geo team"—and initially sat across the hall from Mr. Jobs.

In August 2009, Mr. Schmidt quit the Apple board, with Mr. Jobs citing the growing competition in a news release. The relationship deteriorated further when Apple decided to enter the lucrative business of selling mobile advertising—until then, a business dominated by Google and smaller mobile ad firms. Mr. Jobs courted a mobile-ad service, AdMob, but Google snatched the company for $750 million in November 2009.

In January 2010, Apple bought an AdMob rival, Quattro Wireless. The fight left Mr. Jobs more eager to sever ties. Shortly after the acquisition, he told Apple employees in an all-hands meeting, that Google's behavior suggested that its "Don't be evil" corporate motto was "bull—," according to former Apple employees. The comment was understood to imply that Google had betrayed its relationship with Apple by entering its turf.

Google executives, including CEO Mr. Page, have publicly said that Google began work on Android in 2005, before it knew of Apple's plans for the iPhone.

When Apple in 2010 bought Poly9, a maker of zoomable 3-D maps, it raised alarms at Google, says a person familiar with Google's reaction, which took it as a sign that Apple was serious about building its own service. Poly9, a small company based in Quebec, had built technology similar to Google's own satellite mapping service, Google Earth, which allows users to browse around a three-dimensional globe.

Meanwhile, Apple's geo team worked on features that might be able to one-up Google. Apple kept the details secret, even in-house. When one member of the geo team asked another what he was working on, he did little more than shrug, says one person familiar with the matter.

Apple had catching up to do. Employees worked on mapping designs to sub out Google's from the iPhone. They began work on a navigation app that resembles an in-car GPS device, says a person familiar with the project.

Apple also began licensing data about road-traffic conditions and local businesses from around the world. Apple needed more data for a critical step: building its new "geocoder," the code that translates longitudes and latitudes into actual addresses.

Apple wasn't pleased with Google's geocoding in part because Google's geocoder wouldn't let Apple use it unless Apple also showed a Google map every time it did so.

So Apple engineers worked on building their own geocoder. In a sign of the geo team's growing importance, Apple moved it into the esteemed iOS software unit, which is run by Scott Forstall, who oversees many of Apple's top priority projects.

Apple quietly launched its geocoder last fall inside its latest iPhone software. It has remained all but unnoticed outside a small circle of software pros.

Since Apple released its own geocoder, every time iPhone users open its map app, it is Apple's technology that translates their position, not Google's. Software developers can also use a version of the Apple technology, CLGeocoder, to build apps that let users, for instance, tell their friends what neighborhood they are in or search for nearby eateries.

With Mr. Page now running Google and Tim Cook at Apple's helm, the companies aren't bickering much in public. But the rivalry is heating up.

Members of the Google Maps team in recent months have told colleagues they worry about Apple replacing their program, given that as many as half the people who access Google Maps own Apple devices, says someone familiar with the matter.

The Google Maps team takes solace in the growth in Android devices, which preload Google Maps.

Knowing that Apple might reveal its new mapping software the week of June 11, Google scheduled a news conference for June 6. The purpose: to unveil "the next dimension of Google Maps."

Because competition is bad!

http://www.dailytech.com/Quick+Note+Apples+Maps+App+Flunks+at+Geography+Navigation/article24926.htm

Still early obviously, but fail is fail.

general public.

Altho I have a feeling you and Nopayne wouldn't mind Apple users turning off of bridges.

My wife owns an iphone 4, and I'm happy with my ipod Touch. And just last week I kept trying to steer my mom towards an iphone 4 but she was adamant about turn-by-turn directions and a bigger screen.

What I do have issues with are some of their business practices (itunes, patent litigation) and the RDF-propagating userbase. The sane and reasonable users are fine; the ones that believe Apple can do no wrong are the ones that are bothersome.

>>The sane and reasonable users are fine; the ones
>that believe Apple can do no wrong are the ones that are
>bothersome.

You sound like southerners who talk about "He's one of the good ones."

iTunes users = race traitors

I get it now.

(How's THAT for sane?)

>Altho I have a feeling you and Nopayne wouldn't mind Apple
>users turning off of bridges.

>Altho I have a feeling you and Nopayne wouldn't mind Apple
>users turning off of bridges.


http://i.imgur.com/kSwqw.jpg

Yikes.

http://imgur.com/a/36BhQ#1

Pretty interesting, the Apple pics look sharper up close while Google's look better from further away.

Apparently Google's version loaded faster and was smoother, though.

Only partial swipes, as the pictures add a lot to the article

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/09/how-google-builds-its-maps-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-well-everything/261913/

Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view. The deep map contains the logic of places: their no-left-turns and freeway on-ramps, speed limits and traffic conditions. This is the data that you're drawing from when you ask Google to navigate you from point A to point B -- and last week, Google showed me the internal map and demonstrated how it was built. It's the first time the company has let anyone watch how the project it calls GT, or "Ground Truth," actually works.

In keeping with Google's more data is better data mantra, the maps team, largely driven by Street View, is publishing more imagery data every two weeks than Google possessed total in 2006.*

Google is up to five million miles driven now. Each drive generates two kinds of really useful data for mapping. One is the actual tracks the cars have taken; these are proof-positive that certain routes can be taken. The other are all the photos. And what's significant about the photographs in Street View is that Google can run algorithms that extract the traffic signs and can even paste them onto the deep map within their Atlas tool.

The sheer amount of human effort that goes into Google's maps is just mind-boggling. Every road that you see slightly askew in the top image has been hand-massaged by a human. The most telling moment for me came when we looked at couple of the several thousand user reports of problems with Google Maps that come in every day. The Geo team tries to address the majority of fixable problems within minutes. One complaint reported that Google did not show a new roundabout that had been built in a rural part of the country. The satellite imagery did not show the change, but a Street View car had recently driven down the street and its tracks showed the new road perfectly.

I came away convinced that the geographic data Google has assembled is not likely to be matched by any other company. The secret to this success isn't, as you might expect, Google's facility with data, but rather its willingness to commit humans to combining and cleaning data about the physical world. Google's map offerings build in the human intelligence on the front end, and that's what allows its computers to tell you the best route from San Francisco to Boston.

I mean, even if it sucked, it would still go over well with the fanbase.


And if it worked well, being able to natively support mapping in the OS's interface is always useful.


It's strange that they didn't boot Google off their devices the minute Google introduced Android OS devices.

once google made public it's plan to roll out android. The addition of bing as a search engine was a sign of the future severing of the ties between apple and google. I think the competition between Apple and Google is a good thing. It pushes both companies to improve their product and the results so far are extraordinary.

http://i49.tinypic.com/10ruxl5.jpg

Since 1976

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/23/source-apple-aggressively-recruiting-ex-google-maps-staff-to-build-out-ios-maps/

This is just sad.

"Many of my coworkers at Google Maps eventually left when their contracts ended or on their own accord. One guy looked around for other GIS work and ended up at Apple when a recruiter contacted him. He had heard rumors for a while that Apple was going to develop its own in-house mapping platform, and given his experience at Google, he was an easy hire. Apple went out of their way to bring him down to Cupertino and he’s now paid hansomly as a GIS Analyst. Another coworker that was a project lead at Google Maps, left for the East Coast after his contract ended, and was recently contacted by an Apple recruiter. The position sounds like a product development manager position, and will pay him $85k+ and all the moving expenses from the East Coast. He’s gone through 2 rounds of interview and seems like a frontrunner to land that position."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ketYUfQX9f4

And an interesting post on what needs to be done to fix Apple's mapping system:

http://blog.telemapics.com/?p=399

Perhaps the most egregious error is that Apple’s team relied on quality control by algorithm and not a process partially vetted by informed human analysis. You cannot read about the errors in Apple Maps without realizing that these maps were being visually examined and used for the first time by Apple’s customers and not by Apple’s QC teams. If Apple thought that the results were going to be any different than they are, I would be surprised. Of course, hubris is a powerful emotion.

If you go back over this blog and follow my recounting of the history of Google’s attempts at developing a quality mapping service, you will notice that they initially tried to automate the entire process and failed miserably, as has Apple. Google learned that you cannot take the human out of the equation. While the mathematics of mapping appear relatively straight forward, I can assure you that if you take the informed human observer who possesses local and cartographic knowledge out of the equation that you will produce exactly what Apple has produced – A failed system.

I sometimes work for a hospital system in San Diego, and Google maps had the street address/location for the main hospital (where the E.R. room is) off by about 9 blocks.

We noticed it and reported the problem. Another department in the hospital contacted Google via whatever process they had to and six weeks later the address was still incorrect.

We ended up sending an email to about 5,000 employees asking them to report the problem using their home computers.

It took another 3 weeks for Google to update the location.

And at least Google, Bing, Apple, and Yahoo all have reporting mechanisms. If the address is incorrect on a car GPS that uses a DVD people may never get updates.

If you need life saving help , CALL 911. (No agenda with any map here, this is good medical advice.)

Should I go into a frothy rage to keep up the theme?



Nah, jk.


Sometimes 911 isn't as practical if you're already mobile yourself (for example, if you're already driving and you're with someone who needs medical attention).

But with that said, I agree with you.

>Sometimes 911 isn't as practical if you're already mobile
>yourself (for example, if you're already driving and you're
>with someone who needs medical attention).
>
>But with that said, I agree with you.

It all depends. Driving sometimes seems like a better idea than calling 911, but sometimes it's the wrong idea.

For true medical emergencies it's often better to call 911 and get paramedics sent out. For less urgent issues sometimes driving could be an option. If you're not trained to assess these situations you could make the wrong call. (I'm not trained enough to make the right call in all situations.)

Example: If you feel like you just had a heart attack and decide to drive yourself to the ER you might have another heart attack while in route and crash your car.

Or if you think someone has been poisoned you might get immediate actionable advice from 911 that you would not get until you talk to a doctor at the E.R , which could be many minutes/hours longer.

Sometimes moving someone can injure them.

Sometimes waiting for the equipment paramedics have (like a portable defibrillator) can save the patients life, when the time spent driving to the ER may have closed the window of time that a treatment is effective.

Also, the tri-age process at the ER might delay medical attention - while paramedics provide immediate attention once on the scene. (Which might cost more money - but might save your life.)

When you're driving someone to the ER you might become very distracted by their distress , and you may end up getting into an accident due to fast/erratic driving cause by driving under such stress.

It also depends how far help is away. If you live an hour away from the nearest hospital and/or paramedic service you might have to take that into account too.

It's a judgement call, but if you do decide to drive then it is a RISK to depend on any online or in-dash navigation. This sin't about Apple maps - it's about all maps. (Try to find a map without a liability disclaimer on it.)

Talk to your doctor for more advice.

Nor do I disagree with you now. I'm just saying that this was never a discussion about "finding an emergency room vs calling 911".

Not every "medical emergency" is a life-threatening emergency. Calling 911 isn't *as* practical for like a fractured arm or severe ankle sprain. (I'm not saying those are "emergency room" worthy injuries either, just throwing out examples of "needs hospital attention")

This shit is wack.


Several months :(

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3407614/apple-over-a-year-left-on-google-maps-contract-google-maps-ios-app

"The decision, made sometime before Apple's WWDC event in June, sent Google scrambling to develop an iOS Google Maps app — an app which both sources say is still incomplete and currently not scheduled to ship for several months."

>Several months :(
>
>http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3407614/apple-over-a-year-left-on-google-maps-contract-google-maps-ios-app
>
>"The decision, made sometime before Apple's WWDC event in
>June, sent Google scrambling to develop an iOS Google Maps app
>� an app which both sources say is still incomplete and
>currently not scheduled to ship for several months."

I keep hearing people say "They should have ran a Apple Maps (with Apple data) beta concurrent with the Apple Maps App with Google Data (the maps app in iOS 5 and below.)"

But they might not be able to ship another map application on iOS while they had the agreement with Google.

I think the terms of the agreement may have been unpalatable to Apple. (I'm still unclear about a maps on the web replacement.)

Also, who at Google decided to NOT build a maps application in house for a case like this? Google's lost about 100 million iOS users (based on upgrade numbers) in the past week. That can't be good for them, or their customers (the advertisers, not iOS users - who are the product.)

In the meantime Motion X, Garmin, TomTom, Waze,Mapquest,Navigon, and other mapping applications have an opportunity to fill this gap. Plus maps.google.com works pretty well for everything except turn by turn.

FYI :If you need street view on iOS there's an application called "Street View Live" that has it. It's not integrated, and it's not a full featured map, but it's something.

Specifically, the one in the original post and the one chief linked. Basically answers all your questions.

They just mentioned that the length of the agreement had not yet expired.

> I keep hearing people say "They should have ran a Apple Maps (with Apple data) beta concurrent with the Apple Maps App with Google Data (the maps app in iOS 5 and below.)"

I haven't heard any of this.... all I've heard was "why didn't they wait till it was ready?" But you're welcome to provide relevant sources if you want.

> But they might not be able to ship another map application on iOS while they had the agreement with Google.

Irrelevant. It's Apple's closely defended ecosystem, why would Apple ever agree to a stipulation like that? Does that sound like *anything* Apple would do?

> I think the terms of the agreement may have been unpalatable to Apple. (I'm still unclear about a maps on the web replacement.)

Certain elements were unpalatable to both sides; don't try and protect Apple in this. Both sides had elements they refused to budge on.

From WSJ:

"New tensions emerged when Apple grew concerned that Google was aggressively gathering data from the app, according to people familiar with Apple's thinking. Mr. Schiller worried it could compromise users' privacy, these people said.

Google executives felt Apple was unreasonable in insisting on controlling the look of the maps app and enabling only some of its features—like an "a la carte menu" where Google provided only the "back end" technology that powers it, according to a Google executive.

The two sides bickered over a Google Maps feature called Street View, which lets people see an actual photo as if they are standing in the street. Apple wanted to incorporate Street View on the iPhone just as Google already offered it for Android phones. Google initially withheld the feature, frustrating Apple executives, according to people on both sides of the debate.

Apple executives also wanted to include Google's turn-by-turn-navigation service in the iPhone—a feature popular with Android users because it lets people treat their phones as in-car GPS devices. Google wouldn't allow it, according to people on both sides. One of these people said Google viewed Apple's terms as unfair.

Google executives, meantime, also bristled at Apple's refusal to add features that would help Google. For instance, Google wanted to emphasize its brand name more prominently within the maps app. It also wanted Apple to enable its service designed to find friends nearby, dubbed Latitude, which Apple refrained from doing, said people on both sides."



> Also, who at Google decided to NOT build a maps application in house for a case like this?

Maybe because Apple let them know last minute that they were removing it from iOS6? Google provided the API for the app, but Apple built the old maps app using their data. Why would Google bother building an iOS Maps app well over a year before the contract would expire?

From Verge (the first paragraph!):

"Apple's decision to ship its own mapping system in the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 was made over a year before the company's agreement to use Google Maps expired, according to two independent sources familiar with the matter. The decision, made sometime before Apple's WWDC event in June, sent Google scrambling to develop an iOS Google Maps app — an app which both sources say is still incomplete and currently not scheduled to ship for several months."


> In the meantime Motion X, Garmin, TomTom, Waze,Mapquest,Navigon, and other mapping applications have an opportunity to fill this gap. Plus maps.google.com works pretty well for everything except turn by turn.

Great. You go do that then.

an iPhone maps app ASAP, especially after the way MS kinda did em dirty.

>In the meantime Motion X, Garmin, TomTom,
>Waze,Mapquest,Navigon, and other mapping applications have an
>opportunity to fill this gap. Plus maps.google.com works
>pretty well for everything except turn by turn.

Never seen it in action, I'm curious how it stacks up to Google's.

I have a friend that works for them so I may be biased, but he showed me the maps on his Win7 phone and they definitely seemed better than Apple's latest try.

Nothing new or unexpected, just the viewpoint from one of Apple's more ardent supporters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/technology/personaltech/apples-new-maps-app-is-upgraded-but-full-of-snags-review.html?smid=tw-nytimes

I've never heard of Compass before this, but it sounds pretty sick:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/what-makes-googles-maps-so-good/

On this call, Google pointed out a new feature that I hadn’t seen before: compass mode. On an Android phone, you can call up a location like Trafalgar Square in London. You hold the phone in front of you to see a Street View-like photo of the scene — and as you look left, right, up, down, or behind you, the view changes, as though you’re looking through a magic window at another place in the world. You can even use Compass mode to look around inside places — I tried Delfina, the San Francisco restaurant — to get a feel of the décor before you go there.



Looks like Pogue is going to do a piece on Nokia's mapping system next.

I'm thinking 2009-2010ish

It's right there on my phone already... Where the fuck have I been.

i actually thought it was in the first prototype vid. but cant find that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRfVKzuUJ4

just follow which way the wind is blowing.

he's not a fanboy more or less of anything, he just writes what most people want to hear.

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Pogue has always been an unabashed Apple supporter. Just reread his Nexus 7 review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/technology/personaltech/nexus-7-googles-new-tablet-seriously-challenges-the-ipad-state-of-the-art.html?pagewanted=all

He's basically incredulous that he's even praising an Android product, and even tries to find fault with the NAME of the device.

see?

you dumb fuck.

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Ok, here's Pogues iphone 5 review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/technology/personaltech/apples-iphone-5-scores-well-with-a-quibble-review.html?pagewanted=all

Just read the first few paragraphs and it sets the tone. He even finds a way to sneak in digs on Android.

I just hadn't read pogue's iphone 5 review

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/



To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

I hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come during the Tim Cook era.

Siri is still a beta test, yet they don't advertise it as such.

I haven't been disappointed with it and I have found it to be pretty accurate. I was actually impressed by the way it allowed me to multitask driving directions and voice dialing my brother. It's definitely more developed than the maps app. Hopefully Apple will be able to fix maps on the fly and it will be more useable in the future. Right now I have to get by with 3rd party applications to navigate. This was a pretty serious blunder by apple. I live in a pretty big city, Boston, so not having public transit directions built natively into the app was big misstep for Apple. They need to buy or partner up with a company that has massive amounts of transit data. I don't know who they will find though since Google has that game pretty well dominated.

My major gripe with the new Maps is the disappearance of public transportation directions. I live in San Francisco without a car and rely on public transportation every day. I used the old Maps to figure out which buses to take and when/where to transfer.

Strangely, the icon is still there but directs you to the App Store to find another solution. This a huge fail in my opinion. I know someone in QA at Apple and I'm upset he didn't warn me, knowing I use it every day.

Fuck the new Maps

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

The phone as a whole is different story, but rehashing iPhone vs the World on individual features is not even a contest.

>http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304543904577398502695522974-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html
>
>Since they got together in 2007, the iPhone and Google Maps
>have seemed like ideal digital bedfellows.
>
>Google Inc.'s GOOG -1.81% blockbuster map service—which allows
>web users to find businesses, check traffic conditions and get
>directions—has helped Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.68% iPhone become
>wildly successful. Surging iPhone use has, in turn, driven
>tons of web traffic to Google's search engine through Google
>Maps.
>
>But not for long. Mobile map technology is about to become the
>latest battleground in the two tech giants' escalating war
>over who dominates the future of computing.
>
>Later this year, Apple is planning to oust Google Maps as the
>preloaded, default maps app from the iPhone and iPad and
>release a new mapping app that runs Apple's own technology,
>according to current and former Apple employees. Apple could
>preview the new software, which will be part of its next
>mobile-operating system, as soon as next week at its annual
>developer conference in San Francisco, one person familiar
>with the plans says. Apple plans to encourage app developers
>to embed its maps inside their applications like
>social-networking and search services. Technology blog 9to5Mac
>earlier reported that Apple will launch its own maps app in
>its next mobile-operating system.
>
>Apple has been hatching the plan to evict Google Maps from the
>iPhone for years, according to current and former Apple
>employees. The plan accelerated as smartphones powered by
>Google's Android software overtook the iPhone in shipments.
>
>
>It's Apple versus Google in a battle of the maps as Apple is
>expected to unveil its new map app. WSJ's Jessica Vascellaro
>has the details.
>
>Apple has quietly acquired at least three cutting-edge map
>companies, melding their technology with its own. Last fall,
>Apple took a first step in developing a proprietary mapping
>service with the virtually unnoticed release of a
>"geocoder"—the brains behind a mapping app that translates a
>phone's longitude and latitude into a point on a map, like an
>address. Before that, it relied on Google's geocoder.
>
>Mobile ads associated with maps or locations are estimated to
>account for about 25% of the roughly $2.5 billion spent on
>mobile ads in 2012, according to Opus Research, up from 10% in
>2010. That is expected to grow as the number of location-aware
>software apps grows.
>
>But more than ad revenue, Apple is going after the map market
>to have more control over a key asset in the widening
>smartphone war. Google Maps is used by more than 90% of U.S.
>iPhone users. So Apple believes controlling the mapping
>experience and offering features that Google doesn't have can
>help sell more devices and entice developers to build unique
>apps for iPhone users.
>
>
>In the short term, Google will lose some ad revenue and miss
>out on data about what local businesses people are searching
>for—which it uses to pitch retailers on buying certain ads.
>Longer term, it is likely to hurt Google's ability to generate
>map-related revenue, according to former Google employees.
>
>A Google spokeswoman said it would be premature to comment on
>something that hasn't happened.
>
>Apple's turnabout on Google goes well beyond maps. How the war
>plays out will help shape how people use technology for years
>to come.
>
>"Apple is aiming squarely at Google on multiple dimensions,"
>says Rajeev Chand, a managing director at investment bank
>Rutberg & Co., citing mapping and Web search. "Google and
>Apple are in a battle over data, devices, services, and the
>future of computing. This is the historic battle of today."
>
>For years, Apple and Google were models of cooperation. Each
>largely stuck to its separate world—Apple made computers and
>other hardware; Google offered Web search and sold online ads.
>Apple's longtime chief, Steve Jobs, had close relations with
>Google chief Eric Schmidt, who sat on Apple's board of
>directors from 2006 until 2009.
>
>The rise of the iPhone and other smartphones changed all that.
>Mr. Jobs felt blindsided by Google's push into mobile devices
>with its own Android operating system. Google has since
>entered the hardware business directly, buying Motorola
>Mobility Holdings, which makes phones. Google recently also
>launched a music, movie, book and mobile-app store to compete
>with Apple's iTunes. Android-phone shipments now surpass
>iPhone shipments globally.
>
>Some Google executives privately say they think Apple is
>trying to wean iPhone users away from using traditional Web
>search on its phones.
>
>The use of Google search on the iPhone is believed by several
>mobile industry analysts to generate the majority of Google's
>mobile search-ad revenue. Google has accelerated its plans to
>develop its own voice-activated search assistant for
>Android-powered mobile devices, which is expected to launch
>later this year, these people said.
>
>Apple's goal is to develop a "holistic" technology that
>integrates maps with other Apple software, says a person
>briefed on the strategy. For instance, if Apple's iCalendar
>program knows that a person has a meeting across town soon,
>and traffic is backing up, it might alert the person about
>road conditions.
>
>Originally, Apple's iPhone strengthened ties between the two
>companies. On Halloween in 2006—just months before the iPhone
>was announced—Apple's product-marketing head, Phil Schiller,
>and other executives met with Google engineers to determine
>how the iPhone could use Google's mapping data to let people
>see their locations and get directions. At the meeting, one
>Google employee attended wearing a nun costume.
>
>The two companies struck a quid pro quo: When an iPhone user
>opened the mapping app, Apple would send Google information
>about the position of a particular phone. Google would then
>return mapping images and other data. The January 2007 iPhone
>news release called Google's mapping service
>"groundbreaking."
>
>Google's release of Android, the rival smartphone operating
>system, started souring things. In 2008, Mr. Jobs warned
>Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that if they
>continued with Android, Apple would head to court and claim
>Android copied the iPhone. Google proceeded, and Apple sued a
>slew of Android-device manufacturers. The cases are still
>making their way through the courts.
>
>Maps added to the rancor. That same year, Apple executives
>including Mr. Schiller sat down with Google executives,
>including Vic Gundotra, then a vice president in charge of
>Google's mobile apps, to renew the agreement over the iPhone's
>mapping app.
>
>New tensions emerged when Apple grew concerned that Google was
>aggressively gathering data from the app, according to people
>familiar with Apple's thinking. Mr. Schiller worried it could
>compromise users' privacy, these people said.
>
>Google executives felt Apple was unreasonable in insisting on
>controlling the look of the maps app and enabling only some of
>its features—like an "a la carte menu" where Google provided
>only the "back end" technology that powers it, according to a
>Google executive.
>
>The two sides bickered over a Google Maps feature called
>Street View, which lets people see an actual photo as if they
>are standing in the street. Apple wanted to incorporate Street
>View on the iPhone just as Google already offered it for
>Android phones. Google initially withheld the feature,
>frustrating Apple executives, according to people on both
>sides of the debate.
>
>Apple executives also wanted to include Google's
>turn-by-turn-navigation service in the iPhone—a feature
>popular with Android users because it lets people treat their
>phones as in-car GPS devices. Google wouldn't allow it,
>according to people on both sides. One of these people said
>Google viewed Apple's terms as unfair.
>
>Google executives, meantime, also bristled at Apple's refusal
>to add features that would help Google. For instance, Google
>wanted to emphasize its brand name more prominently within the
>maps app. It also wanted Apple to enable its service designed
>to find friends nearby, dubbed Latitude, which Apple refrained
>from doing, said people on both sides.
>
>Relations between Messrs. Schiller and Gundotra got tense.
>Jeff Huber, then a Google vice president of engineering,
>eventually started handling talks with Apple as Mr. Gundotra
>moved on to a new project within Google, people familiar with
>the matter said.
>
>In 2009, Mr. Schmidt confided in colleagues his concern over
>the fraying relationship, one of these people said. Around
>that same time, Mr. Jobs decided that location services were
>too important for Apple to rely on a partner that was also
>becoming a formidable competitor, says a person familiar with
>the matter.
>
>So Mr. Jobs began looking outside Apple for talent to build
>its own mapping technology. In 2009, Apple bought a small Los
>Angeles company, Placebase, that was trying to build a service
>like Google Maps. When the Placebase team arrived in Apple
>headquarters in Cupertino, they formed Apple's new "geo
>team"—and initially sat across the hall from Mr. Jobs.
>
>In August 2009, Mr. Schmidt quit the Apple board, with Mr.
>Jobs citing the growing competition in a news release. The
>relationship deteriorated further when Apple decided to enter
>the lucrative business of selling mobile advertising—until
>then, a business dominated by Google and smaller mobile ad
>firms. Mr. Jobs courted a mobile-ad service, AdMob, but Google
>snatched the company for $750 million in November 2009.
>
>In January 2010, Apple bought an AdMob rival, Quattro
>Wireless. The fight left Mr. Jobs more eager to sever ties.
>Shortly after the acquisition, he told Apple employees in an
>all-hands meeting, that Google's behavior suggested that its
>"Don't be evil" corporate motto was "bull—," according to
>former Apple employees. The comment was understood to imply
>that Google had betrayed its relationship with Apple by
>entering its turf.
>
>Google executives, including CEO Mr. Page, have publicly said
>that Google began work on Android in 2005, before it knew of
>Apple's plans for the iPhone.
>
>When Apple in 2010 bought Poly9, a maker of zoomable 3-D maps,
>it raised alarms at Google, says a person familiar with
>Google's reaction, which took it as a sign that Apple was
>serious about building its own service. Poly9, a small company
>based in Quebec, had built technology similar to Google's own
>satellite mapping service, Google Earth, which allows users to
>browse around a three-dimensional globe.
>
>Meanwhile, Apple's geo team worked on features that might be
>able to one-up Google. Apple kept the details secret, even
>in-house. When one member of the geo team asked another what
>he was working on, he did little more than shrug, says one
>person familiar with the matter.
>
>Apple had catching up to do. Employees worked on mapping
>designs to sub out Google's from the iPhone. They began work
>on a navigation app that resembles an in-car GPS device, says
>a person familiar with the project.
>
>Apple also began licensing data about road-traffic conditions
>and local businesses from around the world. Apple needed more
>data for a critical step: building its new "geocoder," the
>code that translates longitudes and latitudes into actual
>addresses.
>
>Apple wasn't pleased with Google's geocoding in part because
>Google's geocoder wouldn't let Apple use it unless Apple also
>showed a Google map every time it did so.
>
>So Apple engineers worked on building their own geocoder. In a
>sign of the geo team's growing importance, Apple moved it into
>the esteemed iOS software unit, which is run by Scott
>Forstall, who oversees many of Apple's top priority projects.
>
>Apple quietly launched its geocoder last fall inside its
>latest iPhone software. It has remained all but unnoticed
>outside a small circle of software pros.
>
>Since Apple released its own geocoder, every time iPhone users
>open its map app, it is Apple's technology that translates
>their position, not Google's. Software developers can also use
>a version of the Apple technology, CLGeocoder, to build apps
>that let users, for instance, tell their friends what
>neighborhood they are in or search for nearby eateries.
>
>With Mr. Page now running Google and Tim Cook at Apple's helm,
>the companies aren't bickering much in public. But the rivalry
>is heating up.
>
>Members of the Google Maps team in recent months have told
>colleagues they worry about Apple replacing their program,
>given that as many as half the people who access Google Maps
>own Apple devices, says someone familiar with the matter.
>
>The Google Maps team takes solace in the growth in Android
>devices, which preload Google Maps.
>
>Knowing that Apple might reveal its new mapping software the
>week of June 11, Google scheduled a news conference for June
>6. The purpose: to unveil "the next dimension of Google
>Maps."


<--- Blind faith

This stinks.

Found a neat blog with in-depth posts on the evolution of the maps apps. If you're mildly interested in maps data and/or lessons in UI, definitely worth the click


Year of changes between Google and Apple maps:

https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-apple-maps


Building integration and AOI evolution on Google Maps:

https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat