[HN Gopher] Apple Maps. vs Google Maps
___________________________________________________________________
Apple Maps. vs Google Maps
Author : ColinWright
Score : 132 points
Date : 2021-07-10 11:40 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.forbes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.forbes.com)
| r0m4n0 wrote:
| Apple Maps has a long way to go on biking directions. Today on
| the Chicago waterfront I selected biking directions and it just
| said "unavailable"
|
| I do like the contextual directions on Apple Maps they say "at
| the next signal turn left" but I refuse to use two map apps
| ghostly_s wrote:
| Apple Maps does not yet offer cycling directions in Chicago,
| period. Despite it being on their "coming soon" list about 2
| years ago. I would love to switch, cmon guys.
| brewdad wrote:
| Do you have "avoid busy roads" enabled for biking directions? I
| think it may be the default and would explain why it had
| trouble near DT Chicago.
| cromwellian wrote:
| Personally I have a decade of travel in Google Maps timeline,
| hundreds of cities, dozens of countries. I use that and exif data
| in photos as a way to self document my life and look back on what
| I did.
|
| Apple offers nothing like this. I can even download a Takeout
| dump from Google import it other apps for processing.
|
| Apple Maps POI database still seems pretty bad IMHO, but worse is
| that it's search function is broken. If I am searching for
| something, return results sorted by distance. Sometimes Apple
| Maps returns businesses with the same name in other states or
| countries before one right next to me. Maybe their POI database
| isn't the problem, and it's search. Given the years they've had
| to improve their broken App Store search, it doesn't raise my
| confidence that it'll improve soon.
| Maxburn wrote:
| Apple maps has a lot of weaknesses, particularly the search along
| route limitations that I bump into all the time. Mostly in the US
| it's "good enough" though.
|
| BUT when I started seeing so many obvious advertising things
| going on in google maps the writing was on the wall. Lately the
| advert items started looking an awful lot like my starred places,
| that's some dark patterns I'm not going to put up with.
| threatofrain wrote:
| Still better than partnering with Yelp, I would think. Apple
| Maps puts Yelp front and center like one of its star
| performers.
| ericmay wrote:
| True but at least they are kind of partnering with different
| companies and keeping additional ecosystems alive. Like using
| DDG for example.
| TheParkShark wrote:
| Hopefully this is going away soon enough. This is from iOS 14
| last year, https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/08/26/apple-
| maps-will-l....
| Schiendelman wrote:
| It looks like it's stopped doing that in some countries
| recently. I've seen tripadvisor, and some that are native
| photos!
| wpearse wrote:
| Here in New Zealand there's State Highway 1 which runs the length
| of the country. Because of our geography (long and thin) it's
| basically the only way to cover long distances quickly.
|
| Inexplicably once or twice a year Apple Maps decides that
| different sections of SH1 is closed and sends you on a wild
| detour.
|
| Right now, Apple Maps thinks that a short 30m (100ft) stretch of
| SH1 is closed just north of Warkworth. (It's not closed, I drive
| it daily, and have reported to Apple weeks ago.)
|
| The suggested detour is a miserable, slow, and windy drive. Why
| Apple, why?!
| mr-ron wrote:
| I opened up my settings to allow Google maps to have access to my
| location all the time, even when not using the app.
|
| I have found the Timeline feature in Google maps to be a huge
| game changer in terms of 'where ive been' and 'what Ive done'. I
| can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down, where
| I was at a given time. It will even match pictures with the
| locations.
|
| Especially for journaling vacations (sometimes weeks later), and
| reliving memories, its the greatest app Ive used in some time.
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| > I can look back months, see exactly what routes I went down,
| where I was at a given time.
|
| So can Google.
|
| I'd love to have these features but the price is just too high.
| The price would be too high even if I trusted Google (which I
| don't), because _every company that collects personal
| information will be hacked_ because no company is properly
| incentivised to protect users ' data.
| sfifs wrote:
| > So can Google
|
| More interestingly so can _anyone_ who can get a subpoena or
| some equivalent judicial order issued to have Google release
| your location to them.
| beagle3 wrote:
| You know your phone service provider has that location
| information in resolution that's almost as good, right?
|
| The only way to opt out is to turn your phone off
| (equivalently, leave it at home).
|
| For some people, the fact that google _also_ knows it is no
| big deal. For some it is. But if you are worried about your
| whereabouts being leaked, how can you justify using a phone
| in the first place? Verizon and AT &T are more likely to get
| hacked than google (or just sell that info outright, which
| they have done wholesale before)
| sfifs wrote:
| > You know your phone service provider has that location
| information in resolution that's almost as good, right?
|
| Not really. Tower triangulation is nowhere close to as
| accurate. It places you in the general agea with a pretty
| large error bound. Leaking Behavioural details require fine
| grained location.
| Closi wrote:
| > You know your phone service provider has that location
| information in resolution that's almost as good, right?
|
| Just because one industry has access to my location data
| without me being able to stop it, doesn't mean I'm going to
| give any other company that wants it unfettered access to
| my location data for whatever purpose they want.
|
| With maps the good news is I _do_ have an opportunity to
| pick providers that have better privacy policies.
| websites2023 wrote:
| You know that most people don't have a choice in whether or
| not to have a cell phone, right?
|
| Privacy fatalism helps no one. Demanding that someone who
| is concerned about their privacy to "justify" their
| situation -- one which they have no practical way of opting
| out of - is victim blaming.
|
| Some people don't want to be tracked. Any steps they take
| to reach that state are valid. Absolute privacy is
| impossible in this dystopia we now inhabit --- much of
| which has been built by the people who frequent this board
| --- but these doesn't make Google's absolutely trash
| privacy practices any less egregious.
| stickfigure wrote:
| ...not to mention they whip out a credit card to make every
| purchase. And let's not get started on what their ISP
| records.
| dimitrios1 wrote:
| I don't think succumbing to defeatism is the correct
| response to the gross privacy invasion. Take the
| victories where you can, and fight who you can.
| okwubodu wrote:
| I don't see how voluntarily letting a service see your
| location is an invasion of privacy.
| websites2023 wrote:
| "Voluntarily" is doing some heavy lifting there. Is it
| "voluntary" if it's required to use the service --
| including aspects that don't "need" it? Is it "voluntary"
| if the use of that data is governed by one-sided terms
| that the collecting party can change at any time, for any
| reason, with little notice or no notice at all? Is it
| "voluntary" if the technology is so complex that any
| average-intelligence user could not possibly weigh the
| pros and cons of such a decision in the face of a $1T
| company's cabal of PhD holding ML scientists inventing
| new ways to exploit that information?
|
| At this point, location tracking by companies is about as
| "voluntary" as using the web itself.
|
| Or about as voluntary as actions which are performed with
| a pistol to one's head.
| DenverCode wrote:
| I don't believe that was their point.
|
| If someone chooses to be privacy focused, then they will
| likely opt out of the things that they can control - that
| doesn't change because there are others they can't.
| a254613e wrote:
| >I'd love to have these features but the price is just too
| high.
|
| I know you're speaking in broader terms, but for anyone
| interested you can have this specific feature (location
| history) using owntracks and owntracks recorder completely
| privately.
| tshaddox wrote:
| What is the price?
| freyr wrote:
| If you carry a cell phone, your location is already logged by
| by the wireless carriers, whom I trust much less with my
| data, both in terms of keeping it secure and not reselling it
| to third parties [1].
|
| Certainly, some people will want to minimize the number of
| parties that know you were in location X at time Y. But I'd
| guess that for many people, myself included, that data simply
| isn't that sensitive or interesting.
|
| [1] All the major U.S. carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint,
| T-Mobile) have been fined for reselling users' location data
| without consent: https://www.govtech.com/network/wireless-
| carriers-face-200m-...
| kccqzy wrote:
| I've used the app Arc for the same purpose: recording my
| location all the time even when not running so I know where
| I've been. But Arc has an excellent privacy policy: all
| location data stored and processed locally. This is a
| compromise: local processing means the app can be slow, but IMO
| the privacy aspects far outweigh a sluggish UI.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arc-app-location-activity/id10...
| ehsankia wrote:
| That's the thing, to me, the fact that the information is
| connected to me is the reason I use Google maps. I understand
| it's not for everyone, but to me it's a feature, not a bug.
|
| The issue with privacy labels also is that you have to list the
| worst possible scenario, whereas through options, you can
| possibly reduce that list quite a bit.
|
| Google Maps now has an incognito mode which unless I'm wrong
| would be equivalent if not more privacy centric than Apple
| Maps. But again, the privacy labels can't show that, they only
| show labels for the worse case.
| kfajdsl wrote:
| I consciously leave a lot of the Google data collecting
| features on.
|
| More than once, Google search suggestions have been
| freakishly good; this is coming out of my ass, but I feel
| like they might use your contacts for suggestions, which I
| usually notice studying last minute for a test or whatnot.
|
| Then, of course, you have things like Google Photos, the
| aforementioned Google Maps features, etc.
| randomperson_24 wrote:
| Apple Maps is unusable in any city that is not US City OR Big
| City in Europe.
| SirensOfTitan wrote:
| We were already using Apple Maps pre-iOS15 because its turn-by-
| turn directions were far superior.
|
| With Google Maps, we were often surprised by the directions: it
| would be like keep left... keep left...TURN AROUND NOW.
|
| Apple Maps often shows the next two directions, and more clearly
| dictates what we should do next.
|
| ... with iOS15, Apple maps are just gorgeous, and I've completely
| deleted Google maps (I now have no dependence on Google services
| for personal life).
|
| Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google
| Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move to
| jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real
| changes.
| marcinzm wrote:
| It's been years and Google maps still recommends an
| illegal/suicidal/likely impossible u-turn near my parent's
| place in NYC. Might be time to switch to Apple Maps for driving
| directions.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| > Google has sat on its hands the last couple years with Google
| Maps: it has hardly improved at all, and outside of their move
| to jack up prices for API users, I haven't heard of any real
| changes.
|
| It's a pretty mature product, so you'd expect the pace of
| signjificant change to be much slower. And large, noticeable
| change (like a redesign) is a poor metric, as it often feels
| like a PM getting their wings at the expense of user
| experience, including muscle memory in an app as useful as
| Maps.
|
| Despite these caveats, I can think of a new feature off the top
| of my head: a heatmap of all photos I've ever taken appearing
| on Google maps. I just moved to New York and it's been both
| useful and delightful to rediscover where I've been from a new
| perspective, driven by the serendipitous photos I took over the
| last decade of sporadic visits.
|
| Yet another new feature I just remembered is Live View compass
| calibration. Anybody who lives in a big city can relate to how
| irritating compass quality is around large buildings. The
| ability to calibrate my compass in two seconds via camera
| recognition of the street scene is a huge quality of life
| improvement.
|
| Im usually hesitant to disagree with other people's opinions,
| but it really sounds like you either have no familiarity with
| Google Maps or are stuck in a 2010 Apple vs Google fanboy-war
| view of the world. The reason Maps is so wildly popular is
| because it consistently pushes out user experience both
| improvements that are straightforwardly (if incrementally)
| useful and occasional larger "cool" (and also useful) features.
| To get as wildly wrong an interpretation as yours (of Maps as
| somehow stagnant) reeks of willful ignorance.
| abraham wrote:
| The Google Photos mobile apps have heatmaps of photos.
| https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21301932/google-photos-
| re...
|
| Disclosure: I work for Google, not on Maps or Photos.
| nixy wrote:
| But a map app is so much more than street maps and navigation. I
| have tried to switch to Apple Maps, and it works great for
| navigation or getting an overview of the streets. But I cannot
| use Apple Maps to explore!
|
| With Google maps, I just fire it up and search "sights" to find
| places near that are worth a visit. "Public beaches" to find
| where I can go for a swim. If I try the same with Apple Maps,
| more often than not I get sent to a place in Myanmar or similar
| which happens to be tagged as "public beach".
|
| Also when I search for a business on Google maps, I get photos
| and reviews. With Apple Maps I am happy if I get a link to a
| website.
| cdubzzz wrote:
| I agree with you but to be fair I just tapped "public beaches"
| in to Apple Maps and got a bunch of nearby public beaches.
|
| The Yelp integration is what annoys me. I don't care much about
| the stars or anything in Google Maps but the photos and
| sometimes comments be can very instructive. On Apple Maps this
| information is hidden behind a third party service I don't use
| or want to use.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I assume they are working on getting rid of Yelp and only use
| it as a stop gap until they get their own sufficient data.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| They don't seem to be collecting any replacement data from
| their users...
| [deleted]
| throwaway284534 wrote:
| My biggest issue with Apple Maps is that I know it has
| information that it isn't telling me about, especially so when
| public transit is involved. Apple almost always picks the worst
| route when commenting through NYC's subway, suggesting that you
| take the closest line and transfer in another station, rather
| than walking a block to the line directly. And it's almost always
| the case that you'll arrive at a mid-trip station just as your
| connecting train leaves the platform. You've just added a minimum
| 10 minute wait, plus the time and energy it took to walk through
| the station!
|
| I would avoid Apple Maps entirely if they allowed Google Maps
| full access to the Watch OS.
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| Nobody mentioned the battery/heat issues with Google Maps. My
| iPhone on a sunny dashboard running Google Maps almost always
| overheats and drains the battery.
|
| I've switched to Apple Maps on long drives because it uses
| significantly less battery and phone stays cooler. Has anyone
| else experienced this?
| nvr219 wrote:
| I use Waze because I want to know where the cops are.
| exegete wrote:
| With CarPlay Apple Maps now has an option to report radar and
| hazards. Google also now owns Waze and uses info from it to
| show hazards.
| wpearse wrote:
| My experience (NZ) is that it's 50-50 whether you get the
| "Fixed speed camera ahead!" warning before, or after, you
| drive past the speed camera. (Even approaching the same
| camera from different directions!)
|
| The position of the cameras is correctly marked on the map,
| so you just need to keep an eye on the map rather than trust
| the audible alerts.
| seriousquestion wrote:
| How reliable is that?
| cromwellian wrote:
| Super reliable. I used to get at least 1 speeding ticket per
| year, I haven't had a ticket in 8 years thanks to Waze.
|
| Also Waze time estimates are stupidly accurately. You think
| you can beat their estimate by driving faster but it somehow
| accounts for that, eg if average speed on 101 is currently 80
| mph the estimates will reflect that. Waze puts Apple Maps to
| shame for navigation.
|
| The way it reports adding a stop (say for gas station) as how
| many minutes off route is extremely useful.
| pfranz wrote:
| It's been fairly reliable in practice, but it's based on
| crowd sourcing. It'll ask you to confirm if you see one
| someone else has flagged. Sometimes you're the first to see
| it, sometimes the alert is out of date and there's no
| officer.
| post_break wrote:
| I've tried to use Apple Maps but it just straight up cant find
| normal places that have existed for ages. I don't know what the
| deal is.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| Outside of niche cases, every user I've ever talked to, here or
| in-person, has only ever used brand loyalty as their reason for
| using it. With a userbase like that, why bother making a good
| service, particularly when you don't have the institutional
| competency to do so?
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| Okay, in a comment you left literally three minutes before
| this you were accusing someone else of being "stuck in a 2010
| Apple vs Google fanboy-war view of the world," and now you're
| saying, in so many words, only people who are fanboys use
| Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why should Apple
| bother. Pick a lane.
| wutbrodo wrote:
| Yes, the juxtaposition occurred to me. But this is not an
| accurate representation of my view:
|
| > you're saying, in so many words, only people who are
| fanboys use Apple maps because Apple fans are sheep so why
| should Apple bother.
|
| This is a reasonable interpretation if you read my comment
| carelessly, because I was pretty imprecise with my
| phrasing.
|
| First off, I don't think my sample is close to
| representative of all users, but I've come across it often
| enough in diverse enough contexts that I'm comfortable
| considering brand-loyalty-as-motivation to be a non-trivial
| part of the market dynamic here.
|
| I'm also not artificially deducing brand loyalty from
| assumptions about the quality of the product, and I
| recognize that its most famous failings don't encapsulate
| overall product quality (in fact, I didn't make any direct
| claims about product quality). The "brand-loyal" people I'm
| referring to are the ones who've explicitly said to me that
| they use Apple Maps so that it can "get more user data and
| get better". This kind of altruism is vanishingly rare in
| most product relationships, and brand loyalty is by far the
| most parsimonious explanation. This shouldn't be
| surprising; theres a reason that Apple's marketing and
| product competencies are world-renowned, and I have plenty
| of other from-the-horse's-mouth examples (like the family
| members who sincerely ask me why I'd choose an Android, as
| they had _literally_ never heard a reason other than "can't
| afford an iPhone").
|
| Apple's relatively poor competency at services (vs hardware
| products) is a subjective claim, but one that isn't an
| unreasonable conclusion for a thoughtful person to land on
| (or disagree with).
|
| To put it all together, something like this more accurately
| conveys my point:
|
| I have enough data points of strong brand loyalty shaping
| Apple consumer behavior, particularly in the case of Maps,
| that I fairly consider it a non-trivial factor in usage of
| the product. I don't discount (and in fact directly call
| out) the possibility of the app fitting a specific consumer
| better, nor do I claim that it's not a better product
| overall, as I'm not familiar enough with it to make that
| claim. A situation with stickier brand loyalty _requires_
| less competition on usability than the counterfactual (this
| is practically tautological).
|
| If you can't see the difference between the above and the
| trivially-disprovable factual claims in the comment I
| described, then your definition of "fanboy" seems to be
| little more than "dislike a product I like".
| T3RMINATED wrote:
| apple maps sux
| edhelas wrote:
| vs OpenStreepMap
| CalChris wrote:
| The FA presents a good argument and as a consequence I deleted
| Google Maps and a few others. I also turned off Location Services
| for a few apps, notably WhatsApp. I'll try Apple Maps for awhile
| which in the Bay Area should be a low bar to clear. I'm also
| looking at OpenStreetMaps apps.
| o_m wrote:
| I use Apple Maps for navigation and Google Maps in the browser
| for everything else.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| What a tight rope this author has to walk. You want commute
| suggestions but you don't want google to know where you live or
| work?
|
| I'll bat for google on this one, the value I get from Gmaps vs
| the value they get from my data seems like a fair exchange.
|
| Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city transport
| department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out of that or
| even finding who to contact.
| jabyess wrote:
| > Also PSA, if you use Bluetooth with your car, your city
| transport department is tracking you. Best of luck opting out
| of that or even finding who to contact.
|
| Can you say more about this? I've never heard of it.
| RyJones wrote:
| Not sure what they're pointing to, but TPMS tracking is
| possible as well.
|
| https://youtu.be/TDYoo7TGNcw
| post_break wrote:
| Houston does it. They have bluetooth trackers on all the
| highways. They use it for determining congestion based on how
| often you can ping the same address. Keeps pinging? Gridlock.
| Pings once, traffic moving.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| Sure, here's the one I've had experience with:
| https://addinsight.com.au/
|
| They put powerful bluetooth sensors on poles or in roadside
| cabinets. They're pretty cheap to deploy so have become
| widely used.
|
| Pretty much if you have two bluetooth devices talking to each
| other, you can be tracked by your bluetooth mac address.
| (Same as wifi networks and sniffing with wireshark etc)
|
| Or if you have a device pinging with a non-random mac (ie
| your car).
|
| If you've got an iphone and it's not actively being used, you
| get a random mac, no problems.
| foolfoolz wrote:
| you don't even need bluetooth. there's license plate readers on
| all highways which feed into traffic indicators on apps or
| those road signs that say how many minutes away places are
| aunty_helen wrote:
| License plate readers are costly and need to be positioned
| with a good field of view etc.
|
| Bluetooth sensors are more widely used, you've just never
| noticed them.
|
| Also, the highway congestion is most likely done with
| magnetic inductance loops.
| Allezxandre wrote:
| But the point is that Apple Maps also has the commute
| suggestions without the privacy cost
| lyongu wrote:
| As long as you're using a cellular network, you're trackable,
| no? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFns39RXPrU
| Allezxandre wrote:
| Maybe, I don't know, but it doesn't mean we should just
| give up on protecting our data everywhere else.
|
| A GPS or Bluetooth signal would be far more precise as a
| mass surveillance tool, so let's not give that up
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| Not being tracked in addition by an advertising company is
| worth something to me.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I'm curious - does anyone reading this agree with the notion that
| Apple maps is becoming comparable to Google maps?
|
| I haven't given it a fair shot in almost a decade I guess, and it
| was almost unusable then. Does anyone here use it as a daily
| driver? What are the strong and weak points?
| brnt wrote:
| Wherever I've been (I hike a lot), I find that OSM is superior
| to both.
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| I agree. Organic Maps also has climbing/mountaineering routes
| that are completely hidden on Google/Apple maps. My friends
| download GPX files prior to going out, I just open up OSM. :)
| brundolf wrote:
| I've been exclusively using Apple Maps for 3 years, never
| looked back. Spending most of my time in urban-ish areas, it'll
| not know about some destination maybe once a year. The UX for
| live directions is great; it'll give you little details like
| "go past this stop sign and turn at the one right after it"
| which are really nice. The UI is generally less crowded too.
| voisin wrote:
| I use Apple Maps as my primary GPS in my vehicle. I have spent
| the last few years on the road driving across North America and
| Google Maps repeatedly made objectively incorrect decisions in
| rural areas that would take me in quasi-off road situations.
| After I got frustrated being led astray I started comparing
| routes on both and found that it seems to be a logic issue for
| Google Maps, where it would save 5 km of distance and not
| recognize the unpaved backroads with tons of twists and turns
| would add significant time. Apple Maps somehow did recognize
| this.
|
| I only kept Google Maps installed for info on things along a
| route or opening hours but since then I've deleted it and just
| use Duck Duck Go to do searches, combined with Apple Maps for
| GPS.
|
| Edit: one more thing: in the city I am from there has been a
| lot of development. Google is missing a ton of roads in near
| areas where Apple Maps is not.
| dilly_li wrote:
| I think that's probably because Apple doesn't even know that
| backroads existed so Apple Maps couldn't optimize the route.
|
| If Apple Maps had knew those backroards, they would probably
| output the same routes! :-D
| voisin wrote:
| I thought that might be the case but when I zoom in I can
| see the back roads in Apple Maps. I am pretty sure it is a
| algorithm issue. Google doesn't have enough data about how
| slow those back roads are and maybe relies on that data
| more than Apple does.
| heliodor wrote:
| The bad choices in rural areas for Google Maps seems to be a
| recent thing. My guess is that it's a result of a new
| approach of combining computer vision of satellite imagery
| with phone location data from ranchers driving on their
| private dirt roads.
| hackmiester wrote:
| And that is absolutely what I would expect from Google:
| clueless, heavy-handed of the latest shiny technology
| rather than using existing methods and data that were
| working perfectly.
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| Google Maps took me down all sorts of goofy unpacked
| backroads in Crete this past month. It'd cut the driving
| distance in half and double the driving time. Although my
| Fiat Panda rental did surprisingly well on uneven, unpaved
| roads.
| kccqzy wrote:
| I had the same experience even in Santa Clara County.
| Google maps led me to drive on unpaved roads along the
| farms near Gilroy in order to avoid the congested 101.
| It's not worthwhile, and I'd argue Google should expose
| an option to let me express my preference.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| We probably shouldn't be surprised that a navigation app
| that tells you to make left turns during rush hour in San
| Francisco doesn't behave any more rationally in rural
| areas that _aren 't_ a stone's throw away from the
| company's own headquarters.
|
| Being able to express your preference isn't what Google
| is all about. Their attitude is that they know best.
| tethys wrote:
| Had the exact same experience with Google Maps in Crete!
| Although already a few years ago.
| siva7 wrote:
| i've also experienced this in a major german city. it's
| awful how bad google has become since this update. apple
| maps works as expected
| rdiddly wrote:
| Yep there are many private roads and driveways being shown as
| part of the road network. Google treats private roads as just
| roads. (Which is a pretty good analogy for how they treat
| private information as just information, but I'm being
| flippant.) I'm waiting for the wrongful-death suit by the
| family of the shot trespasser.
| voisin wrote:
| An apt analogy, and I think your discussion of private
| roads / driveways is accurate as to what the problem is.
|
| I will never forget being led from a highway, to a side
| road, to a gravel road, to a rougher gravel road, to a one
| lane gravel road, to something that looked like a washed
| out river at best, only to be blocked by a large steer
| standing in the middle of the "road" that appeared to be as
| stunned by my presence there as I was. I ended up having to
| reverse quite a bit before I could find somewhere to turn
| around. I deleted Google Maps shortly thereafter.
| [deleted]
| stickfigure wrote:
| > objectively incorrect decisions in rural areas that would
| take me in quasi-off road situations
|
| I would pay money for this feature.
| dwighttk wrote:
| I use Apple Maps when I use maps and haven't had any issue.
|
| However I generally don't use any turn by turn instructions
| until I'm close to a place I haven't been before.
|
| Haven't used Google maps since my very first smartphone
| (probably late 2011) kept trying to send me the wrong way down
| one way streets in Atlanta.
| adrr wrote:
| How do you use Apple Maps in rural areas? The lack of an
| offline mode makes it impossible to use without internet.
| Google maps I can download the area.
| acdha wrote:
| Yes. I stopped using Google Maps years ago because Apple's
| estimates are far more accurate and less stressful (mostly DC-
| Boston corridor). Google would suggest routes which were
| allegedly faster but that was based on assuming no traffic
| anywhere so things like unprotected left turns across major
| roads would be a net time savings.
|
| Actual arrival times tended to be about the same as Apple's
| original estimates when, say, it turned out that I-95 really
| did have traffic at the same places it always does.
| zerocrates wrote:
| Huh. I know for sure here (DC metro area) Google's navigation
| definitely takes traffic into account both for time estimates
| and routing. It'd be pretty useless otherwise: traffic is
| pretty much the major component of travel time for many/most
| trips.
| acdha wrote:
| It seemed to take _current_ conditions into account - route
| around areas that are already bad but it didn't seem to
| account for typical volume at the time you'll likely be
| somewhere. We used to get these routes showing normal
| speeds all the way through NYC, even though it was obvious
| that conditions would be different by the time we go there.
|
| I'd hope they've improved it since then. I mostly stopped
| using it because I'd get tons of unprotected left turns on
| major roads or zig-zag routes through neighborhoods and it
| just wasn't worth having to deal with that to save a
| minute.
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| I haven't used Google Maps in a while, but I remember
| joking that it gave time estimates as if everyone was
| driving Ferraris: they always seemed to be extremely
| optimistic.
|
| The OP's comment about Google's directions often giving you
| things like unprotected left turns across major roads
| matches my experience with Waze, so I wonder if Google is
| pulling in more data/algorithms from them now. I know lots
| of people love (loved?) Waze and I used to be one of them,
| but I eventually just couldn't handle how almost every ride
| with Waze had become the algorithmic equivalent of your
| crazy uncle saying "I know a shortcut. Trust me."
| h0l0cube wrote:
| It's mostly fine. But I can't trust it to be up-to-date for
| business locations and opening hours. Some places (even high-
| traffic places like McDonalds) are missing, some closed places
| haven't been removed after months (years?), and opening hours
| are just as broken. I'll always double check with a Google
| search. It's been fine for public transport and driving
| navigation.
| brundolf wrote:
| I've had the occasional issue with location metadata but it's
| pretty rare in my experience
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| Business information in Apple Maps -- at least in the US --
| comes from Yelp. I haven't really had the experiences you're
| describing, but I live in northern California, where Yelp
| seems to be pretty up-to-date most of the time. (With a
| caveat that it's been worse in 2020, but I suppose that's not
| unexpected for a crowdsourced directory during a year most of
| the crowd wasn't going out.)
| pfranz wrote:
| I don't know if that's entirely true. I wouldn't say I lean
| on business hours in the app often, but things have gotten
| weird with Covid. In the last month I found a bunch of
| hours wrong in both Yelp and Apple Maps--they each had
| different wrong hours listed. Maybe Apple pulls from Yelp
| monthly or quarterly? Maybe Apple populated their own
| database years ago and maintain it separately? Whatever the
| method they each have their own way for users to report
| incorrect hours.
| stevehawk wrote:
| I consider Apple maps to be trash most everywhere I use it,
| which is the American midwest. Last time i searched for
| "lawnmower repair" in my area it netted one result. I believe
| there's more than a dozen within ten minutes of me though. I
| normally have to look something up in Google Maps (where i keep
| location services disabled), then copy and paste the address
| into Apple Maps for Carplay.
|
| The other day when watching a Silicon Valley rerun I couldn't
| help but laugh because they said "is it Apple maps bad?" and i
| thought "THAT JOKE HASN'T AGED BECAUSE IT'S STILL TERRIBLE."
| boopmaster wrote:
| On the flipside Google maps gives me all kinds of local
| business number to services that either do not exist or are
| definitely not local. Pairs nicely with street view images of
| destructed empty space overgrown with brush.
| moogleii wrote:
| I greatly prefer the UX of Apple Maps for navigation, but the
| search is still bad compared to Google Maps. The verbal
| directions and UI are clearer IMO.
|
| Both have been equally bad at keeping directions up to date,
| though, but I live in a relatively mutable city. If I were
| living in the burbs, I would probably stick with Apple Maps.
| illuminati1911 wrote:
| I use Apple Maps in Shanghai. It's very fast, accurate and
| shows bicycle/scooter lanes, indoor maps for malls etc. very
| well.
|
| Google Maps even with VPN (to bypass the censorship) is nearly
| unusable here by modern map software standards.
| kccqzy wrote:
| Apple Maps in China is not powered by their own data. It's
| data licensed from a third party (Gao De). Chinese law
| prevents private citizens and corporations from mapping the
| country unless with a special license.
|
| But yes I agree with you from my own visit in Shanghai that
| Google Maps is not worth using in China.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| It's not a fair comparison in China, where Apple has decided
| to provide the Chinese govt with data so they can operate and
| Google has refused to.
| voisin wrote:
| Source? Genuinely surprised to hear Google had the superior
| privacy policy.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| Well, Google doesn't operate services in China so is not
| giving data to China. If you look carefully in the TOS
| for your Apple products, you'll see that iCloud data
| (including like messages) are operated by Apple with the
| exception of China, where they are operated by a third-
| party contractor who does the dirty work of complying
| with Chinese government speech laws/police requests.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-
| china-ce...
| voisin wrote:
| Interesting. I didn't realize Google did not operate any
| services in China. I thought the Chinese government
| filtered certain services that they didn't have the
| ability to censor.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| Well, for instance, there is no Google.cn, there is only
| Google Hong Kong.
|
| Google Maps will still give you very basic maps in China,
| but at least in both Beijing and Shanghai the maps are
| unusable unfortunately.
|
| You're correct that they are blocked by China. The reason
| they are blocked is because they haven't built a censored
| version of their search and don't provide China with data
| from emails, etc. - this is in contrast with Apple's
| approach. I don't know where it falls on censorship,
| since Apple isn't in the search business, but my guess is
| you would notice differences in Siri's behavior (for
| instance).
| fossuser wrote:
| I've been using Apple Maps exclusively for the last couple of
| years.
|
| I find it to be better, but there's a major caveat that I
| primarily use it in the Bay Area.
|
| Outside the bay it's worked for me too, but it's just rare that
| I test it in that way (where failures are a lot more likely).
|
| UI is much nicer and app performance feels way faster too.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Same here, been using it for a few years in the Bay Area. The
| main reason I prefer Apple Maps is that the user interface is
| vastly better, especially in a car with CarPlay. I've used it
| on long road trips in the US as well, but I will often do a
| route sanity check against Google Maps in areas I'm very
| unfamiliar with.
| beagle3 wrote:
| I only drive in rather large cities, and find that Waze >>
| Apple >> Google from a usability perspective; Waze and
| Google Maps supposedly Use the same backend these days, but
| somehow both UI and navigation in Waze seems to work
| better.
|
| I really really like OSM through Organic Maps (previously
| through maps.me) but it has no congestion data, so mostly
| useless for driving during business hours.
| ribit wrote:
| Apple Maps is quite good if you use it one of the major US
| cities... but it's still weak in most other places. As a
| European customer, Google maps have more up to date
| information, better traffic data, public construction
| information etc.
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| I'm in Europe and use both depending on what I need. If you
| don't know where you want to go yet, or you need data about a
| business, Google is better. For the rest I prefer Apple's UX.
| hackmiester wrote:
| Spoken directions in Apple Maps are unmatched.
|
| "Go past this stop sign, then at the light, turn right on X
| Avenue" - it's exactly how you would expect human directions.
|
| Google Maps is absolutely worst in class, behind all
| competitors I have ever used, in spoken directions. Here is a
| very common Google Maps direction from where I live: "In 300
| feet, keep left toward Alabama 231 South / Alabama 431 South /
| Memorial Parkway Southwest, then keep left onto Memorial
| Parkway Southwest."
|
| By the time Google Maps finishes reading this direction, it's
| taken so long that you will actually miss the next step in the
| directions. Google Maps doesn't interrupt itself in this
| situation, and it is often extremely long winded.
|
| Even when you start directions on Google Maps, you get a mostly
| pointless, long-winded direction. "Head east on Pratt Avenue
| Northeast." And if you start by traveling perpendicular to that
| direction, you'll often get, "Head east on -- Head east on --
| Head east on -- Head east on --", repeating every time you pass
| an intersection, until you finally comply by heading east. Good
| luck if you don't know which direction is east.
|
| Speaking of this nightmare scenario, Google Maps will also get
| stuck rapidly talking over itself if you accidentally select
| walking directions, but you are driving. Apple Maps detects
| this situation and automatically fixes it.
|
| So I guess I use Apple Maps because it doesn't have any of
| these extremely frustrating and borderline dangerous problems.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| _Even when you start directions on Google Maps, you get a
| mostly pointless, long-winded direction. "Head east on Pratt
| Avenue Northeast."_
|
| Argh, don't you just love that. Hey, dumbasses: if I knew
| which way was east, I wouldn't have needed to ask you!
| spideymans wrote:
| I've been using Apple Maps in Canada, and I'd say it's
| decidedly better than the competition. Navigation is at least
| as good as Google and Waze, and the UI/UX is far superior.
| Biggest deficiency is search and POI information. I'll usually
| search a location on Google Maps to get general information
| about it, before using Apple Maps to navigate there.
| chadlavi wrote:
| I deleted google maps from my phone in 2017 or so and haven't
| missed it at all.
| vikingcaffiene wrote:
| I made the switch back to Apple Maps a while back. It's great.
| I'm not sure what specific features you want to know about.
| zepto wrote:
| I agree with the notion. It was pretty terrible for the first 3
| years. A second place contender for a few years after that, but
| for the last few years it has been clearly as good.
|
| I am not going to enumerate strong and weak points. It's a
| matter of taste at this point. Just try it again.
| olivertaylor wrote:
| I almost entirely use Apple Maps. I live in a large city so the
| data is very accurate. And I only really use it for driving, so
| I can't compare transit, hiking trails, etc. When I travel to
| less populated parts of the country Google Maps is far more
| accurate and complete. That's the only difference I've noticed.
| ghaff wrote:
| Google Maps is pretty good for transit and pretty bad for
| hiking trails. Can't speak to Apple Maps. While imperfect,
| OpenStreetMaps is fairly reliable for hiking trails,
| including unofficial ones, in populated areas of the US at
| any rate.
| chalst wrote:
| Exactly the same experience in Germany. I use Google Maps
| for driving directions and OSM for everything else.
|
| I recently had GM tell me to go the wrong way up a one-way
| street; OSM knew better.
| dan-robertson wrote:
| One thing that really winds me up is that the colour scheme in
| google maps is 'wrong' in the sense that it does not match
| existing local maps. Apple maps have put a lot of effort into
| making the colour scheme and labels match existing maps. At
| least where I live in the uk.
|
| Motorways show up in blue with white-on-blue-rounded-rectangle
| labels (matching road signs) with A-roads in green. Junction
| numbers show up as white-in-black-rounded-rectangle like on
| road signs. On google maps, the motorways and A-roads are
| yellow. Motorways get blue labels but it's the wrong shade and
| shape. A-road labels are slightly better. A failure of apple
| maps is that they don't show junction numbers on the regular
| maps while google does. But their maps mostly look like the
| road atlases I remember.
|
| If I look at public transport, apple have made a much better
| attempt to match the look of underground maps in London
| (failure example: the map doesn't make it obvious that the
| jubilee line stops at green park.) Google maps don't get such
| good results though they try to match colours of lines. Google
| maps don't have national rail but apple do. If I look at New
| York, apple have tried to capture the different style of their
| metro network (also their American road labels look like the
| road signs and this seems less the case for google but I don't
| know so much about US road signs.)
|
| The feature I really wish for, especially in car play, is plan
| views of road junctions like roundabouts or weird
| intersections. Neither maps app does this.
| toyg wrote:
| I used it occasionally, at one point it was better than GMaps
| when data connection was spotty. But sooner or later I'd always
| go back, because directions-related features always felt better
| in the Google world.
|
| This is in Northern England though. In the Big Smoke it might
| be different.
| hellisothers wrote:
| Apple Maps has a different tracking/lag time on your location
| compared to Google Maps such that every time I try to switch I
| start missing (a lot of) turns while driving. Maybe it's time
| to just get used to the different cursor...
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| This happens to me too. It's like the turn is very far away
| and next thing you know you passed it. Apple needs to improve
| this.
| bengale wrote:
| I use it as my primary GPS now and I live in south of the UK.
| shanty wrote:
| These conversations pop up every now and again on HN. I was
| getting frustrated with Google Maps a few years ago, when I
| read one of these articles on here about how Apple Maps is
| better than Google Maps. I decided to give it a try (and fully
| uninstalled GMaps so that I would be forced to use it.)
|
| I live around Austin, TX, so there could be variations in my
| experience, but generally for common use cases, Apple Maps is
| on par. Where I find it excels above Google Maps is on
| navigation and directions, hands down. When my wife puts on
| Gmaps navigation on her phone I put on Apple Maps on mine. (we
| have same phone and network). If there ever is a mistake, slow
| update, mispronunciation, etc. it is always on Google Maps
| side. This has cost us a lot of time, until we finally switched
| over to rely on Apple Maps for navigation. The search and
| interface are also about the same, but I prefer the Apple Maps
| a bit more, but that is more personal preference.
|
| Where it underperforms is in the search and reviews avenue, as
| it primarily relies on yelp reviews rather than native reviews,
| which can be hit or miss. I don't really miss it, but if it do,
| I just search google for the place to read their reviews. Also,
| Some place results lack correct details in Apple Maps (rare)--I
| think since many places have to update the info themselves,
| this might drive the issue. Example would be updated menu links
| or hours for holidays.
|
| Many of the other posts on this thread point out the
| differences along other use cases, where Google Maps excels,
| but for daily, average use, I am happy to use Apple Maps as
| daily driver.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I prefer the driving and lane instructions on Apple Maps.
|
| With a few notable exceptions it has gotten me where I'm going
| every time.
|
| The few exceptions are places near me where the address is a
| bit wonky on Apple Maps and the driving instructions are either
| completely bonkers (routes around a house through a parking lot
| instead of directly) or off by one street. The address is
| correct, but the access road doesn't have a name, so it gets
| confused.
| konart wrote:
| Depends on your location. Apple maps is almost unusable here in
| Russia.
|
| Then again - even Google Maps have hard time competing with
| Yandex and 2Gis
| DevKoala wrote:
| I haven't used Google maps since 2017. I started using Apple maps
| once they fixed their issues in California and took the stance on
| privacy.
|
| I have never missed Google maps.
| yawaworht1978 wrote:
| Google maps has a couple annoying features, the main one being
| the location arrow is confusing, I am by far not the only one
| saying this. And as of recently, in some locations I have
| been(large western European capitals) it is lagging, on different
| networks and devices. Many wrong turns taken because of that,
| this is very time consuming during peak traffic hours in large,
| dense cities. Not sure about apple maps, but Google maps has me
| on the fence considering changing the app.
|
| Also is there a feature where I can save "school for kids",
| "work", "sports"? I could not locate it.
| cryptofistMonk wrote:
| This article just showed me an ad with my exact last name
| embroidered on a t-shirt... Bit ironic
| TimMurnaghan wrote:
| I never got to the article as I gave up after 25 "no" clicks on
| the cookie form. (I know I could block better - but sometimes I
| like to see the state of the bad ui design). Websites like
| Forbes and The Conde Nast ones don't exist in my world as I
| don't go there.
|
| As to Apple maps I gave up when the dumped us in a field in
| Norfolk (England). It was about 5 miles from the proper
| destination, and no clue how to get to a road going there.
| wayanon wrote:
| Apple Maps in London UK is pretty bad with business info - I've
| had to make correction reports for a few things in my
| neighbourhood I never have to for Google Maps.
| komuher wrote:
| Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe especially
| for medium sized cities (in big cities apple works fine but still
| a lot worse then google).
|
| For me it seems like fair exchange to give some data, for free
| and very good service that have no real competition :)
| GeekyBear wrote:
| >Google maps >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> apple maps here in Europe
|
| Apple has been creating their own map data and switching over
| to it for a while now.
|
| North America is complete and Europe is just starting with the
| UK finished and online and the Iberian Peninsula just coming
| online a month ago.
|
| https://www.justinobeirne.com/new-apple-maps-portugal-spain
| ginko wrote:
| Well in the medium sized Norwegian city I live in Google maps
| doesn't have integration for the local public transport
| company, but Apple maps does. It's also significantly more
| responsive.
| philjohn wrote:
| I tried Apple Maps again recently to drive to my daughter's
| school half an hour away.
|
| Despite it stating that the destination was indeed that school,
| I ended up in a residential street over 3 miles away.
|
| The carplay interface of it also wasn't as easy to follow as on
| Google Maps - which is surprising.
| hobr wrote:
| This happened to my wife and me just last night on the east
| coast of the UK. We followed directions to a named restaurant
| POI on Apple Maps and ended up in the middle of nowhere.
|
| Google Maps took us right to the door.
| gotbeans wrote:
| I tried apple maps 2 years ago just because my android died
| and my wife pulled out her iphone.
|
| It was on a tahoe trip to ski, we happened to hit a snowstorm
| that day. Apple Maps decided to optimize the route and
| suggested a better route through a friggin road that passed
| rather close to a ski station (could even look the name up).
|
| We had a 4x4 and we were fine for the most part, but things
| got really bad when descending, started loosing traction and
| in one turn we actually slided and the snow stopped us on the
| edge of a cliff, not even exagerating.
|
| To be 100% clear, this is entirely our fault. We should have
| been with chains from the very beginning. But it's still
| shocking to me Apple Maps would suggest such a freaking route
| in the middle of a snow storm. Would Gmaps have done the
| same? Probably?
|
| Experience was bad enough to swear never open AMaps again.
| wrycoder wrote:
| I've been using the Verizon map app for navigation for many
| years. Until recently, it's been better for me than Google-
| it's simplified, which is good when driving.
|
| But it's not as reliable, in the sense that it sometimes
| recommends seasonal roads that are closed in the winter and
| even in the summer need AWD.
|
| I haven't had any problem with Apple Maps, and I appreciate
| the integration with the Apple Watch. So, I'm using it
| more. Plus, the Yelp app connects to Apple Maps
| automatically.
|
| And I'm drifting away from Google, anyway.
| macintux wrote:
| > But it's still shocking to me Apple Maps would suggest
| such a freaking route in the middle of a snow storm.
|
| I think you're significantly overestimating Apple's AI
| efforts if you think that's shocking.
|
| Google, _maybe_ they're smart enough to pull that off
| today, but I'd be surprised.
|
| However, I'm notoriously bad at predicting future tech, so
| what do I know.
| Angostura wrote:
| In the UK Apple Maps is my preferred choice for Navigation.
| Google wins over finding actual places, though Apple Maps is
| getting better fast> I also use Apple Maps driving in France
| with no problems.
| jbluepolarbear wrote:
| I switched to Apple Maps a couple years ago and it's been much
| better for me around the US; especially, Denver and Portland
| areas. Google maps still has a lot of issues with navigating
| around Portland.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Apple Maps is even worse? Because in my pop 200k city (somewhat
| big for Germany), OSM has far better information already.
| komuher wrote:
| I think Germany is kinda special case in Europe (privacy laws
| etc) so google maps are probably a lot worse then in the rest
| of Europe :) [Never use google maps in Germany and i only
| visited Germany once in my live :)]
| smoldesu wrote:
| Yeah. I've used OpenStreetMap too, and while it does tend to be
| more accurate than Apple Maps, Google Maps is _still_
| unmatched. If you 're on an iPhone, I'd recommend you switch to
| OpenStreetMaps at the very least.
| FlyingSnake wrote:
| OpenStreetMap >>>>>>>>> Google maps pretty much everywhere in
| EU (and RoW). I had better data in Harz, Bohemian Switzerland,
| Girona, Laos, Indian jungles etc which was way better than what
| Google provides.
|
| I would rather give my data to the qualitatively better option
| OSM than a controversial foreign firm that has questionable
| stance on user privacy.
| hk__2 wrote:
| Really? In my experience (Europe, mostly France/Italy),
| OpenStreetMap has a lot more details than Google on "long-
| term features": roads, (hiking) paths, public toilets and
| fountains, etc; while Google is a lot better for POIs and
| restaurants/bars/museums/etc. On a given street, OSM will
| have the exact position of every tree but not so much about
| restaurants, while with GM you get their opening hours,
| ratings, menus, etc. Also, GM has public transports in a lot
| of cities.
| nextos wrote:
| In brand new neighbourhoods, I've also found OSM much
| better than Google Maps. E.g., lots of new developments in
| Cambridge were extremely well annotated whereas Google Maps
| didn't even have streetnames. This is super helpful when
| you are shopping for a new property.
| Aachen wrote:
| It's a rare opportunity when I get to map actual new
| roads. Usually it's filling in details like a trash bin
| here, a hedge there... roads are a much more important
| core feature. If you ever spot an unmapped neighborhood,
| just let me know! ;)
| _delirium wrote:
| I spot them pretty often in the suburbs and exurbs of
| American cities. Those areas tend not to have as many
| active mappers as urban areas, so new subdivisions
| sometimes go a while before anyone maps them. Even then
| the first-cut mapping is usually someone not actually
| there just tracing from the Bing imagery.
| darekkay wrote:
| When I moved into a new neighbourhood, the street name
| was on neither map. I've updated both. OSM update was
| fast. Google took several months to update, even though I
| had provided official documents as requested. The
| frustrating thing was that most delivery companies had
| issues during this time. Also, some online shops didn't
| consider my address valid.
| kaba0 wrote:
| But google maps will get the opening hours bad more often
| than not due to COVID changes. And frankly, I am fed up
| with google - I used to help correcting said hours in the
| earlier contributor model, but will no longer do so since
| there is no reason to feed data into that monstrosity that
| doesn't give back anything in return to society.
| jshmrsn wrote:
| May I ask what RoW stands for? Google isn't being helpful
| since it's just the word "row".
| schlu wrote:
| I think they mean "Rest of (the) World"
| jbullock35 wrote:
| Republic of Wales
| TheTrotters wrote:
| OSM doesn't seem to have public transportation data which
| makes it useless unless you exclusively use a car.
| darekkay wrote:
| That'a not true. It may be missing in your area, but it is
| a core feature of OSM.
| komuher wrote:
| Dunno about google maps in Germany (cause of German laws) but
| in Italy, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Austria (all places that
| i visited in europe and use google maps) i found google maps
| to be excellent but i didnt use OSM for like last 3 years so
| cant speak about that :) * And still OSM was a lot better
| then Apple maps few years ago.
| post-factum wrote:
| In .cz there's mapy.cz, BTW.
| pomian wrote:
| Mapy.cz works globally. It's excellent. Don't have to
| share anything.
| smcl wrote:
| Unfortunately the best feature isn't global: https://en.m
| apy.cz/ceskoza100?x=16.7243354&y=49.3595814&z=8
| whoisstan wrote:
| Nicely done. Are there other overlays like this?
| sukritikapoor wrote:
| Google Maps has unmatched traffic data accuracy, especially
| here in India where it has literally hundreds of millions of
| Android devices moving on roads.
| WA wrote:
| Map data yes, traffic data no. And the latter is quite
| important for driving.
| bjohnson225 wrote:
| Yeah, the data on Apple Maps is just not good enough here. The
| opening hours are frequently just wrong and can't be trusted.
|
| Part of the reason for that is they use Yelp as a data source
| which is pretty much non-existent here. If I look at a popular
| local restaurant on Apple Maps (one which has thousands of
| reviews on both Google and TripAdvisor) then the opening hours
| are just wrong and seemingly pulled from Yelp where the
| restaurant is unclaimed and has just 9 reviews, all in English
| rather than the native language.
| ehsankia wrote:
| That's what many don't realize. Apple shows really fantastic
| and detailed 3D handcrafted maps each year at WWDC, then when
| you dig deeper, you find out that it's only for like 3
| American cities and it's coming in a year... Basically
| useless for 99% of people.
|
| While Maps also has some discrepancies between cities and
| also different countries, in general it's a lot more
| consistent and features roll out more widely.
| pfranz wrote:
| You make it sound like Apple's efforts stop after
| announcing at WWDC. They do seem to be following through.
| The "new maps" were announced in 2018. They finished the
| continental US in January 2020 and since expanded to
| Canada, UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy with the
| most previous update released last month.
|
| Justin O'Beirne has followed Google/Apple maps in detail
| for years https://www.justinobeirne.com/
|
| Forbes is an American business magazine and the author
| covers cover security and surveillance. So I wouldn't think
| his advice is meant for everyone.
| [deleted]
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Yeah, over here most Yelp reviews are utter crap. Maybe 1-4
| reviews and the average is around 2 stars for really good
| places.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in almost
| every way.
|
| Apple's cycling routing is miles ahead of Google's.
| vagrantJin wrote:
| > In London I find Apple Maps superior to Google Maps in
| almost every way
|
| Google Maps is good in a backwater town in some country
| you've never heard of.
| cromwellian wrote:
| You mean like Karachi, Pakistan? Is that a backwater town
| to you?
| komuher wrote:
| Good for you one mega-city in Europe* got proper apple
| treatment after 10 years lets wait 20 more years for other
| monster cities, and then they can maybe add some cities under
| a 10 million population :D
| tshaddox wrote:
| What's the other option? Google is the only internet map
| ever? Or no other internet map can ever release anything
| until they have perfect global coverage?
| yunohn wrote:
| I don't think Apple needs perfect coverage, just more
| than "parts of the USA and 10 major cities worldwide".
| folli wrote:
| How about OSM?
| incone123 wrote:
| Love osm and osmand, but if I'm travelling in town then I
| go to Google map for real time traffic and public
| transit.
| extra88 wrote:
| What is a good iOS app for turn-by-turn directions
| (driving, biking, walking, public transit) that uses
| OpenStreetMap data?
| distances wrote:
| Organic Maps is IMHO the most usable OSM app for Android.
| It's available also for iOS, no idea if it's 1-to-1 but
| worth giving it a try.
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| Organic Maps is amazing. For hiking and climbing it has
| routes that Google and Apple do not put on their maps.
| For offline mode you can download entire US states or
| countries and the search is instant once you've
| downloaded the data to your phone. I still use
| Google/Apple Maps for navigation, but mostly because I've
| never give Organic Maps navigation a try.
| extra88 wrote:
| It's in the store. It touts working offline, do you have
| save map data for an area first or can you use it the
| same way as other map apps?
|
| I've used Google Maps' offline saving feature when
| traveling internationally and where cell service is poor
| or absent.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/organic-maps/id1567437057
| distances wrote:
| It works only offline. You download the area before you
| can zoom in; there's no online tile-on-demand.
| wrycoder wrote:
| OM is ok, but the contours are coarse and in meters. I
| use Gaia, which has far more capability and also works
| offline. But, note that Gaia has been bought recently by
| Outside. I'm concerned about maintaining privacy, based
| on the email they sent.
|
| I should mention that Apple Maps, being vector based, can
| be pre-downloaded using the hotel wifi when you are in a
| roaming area and will work for many blocks around the
| hotel without using the radios. Google won't.
| woadwarrior01 wrote:
| Same in Dublin, Ireland. Here, the quality of Apple Maps
| improved significantly about a year ago.
| cianmm wrote:
| Their shop/restaurant opening times are still totally
| useless though. I live in Stoneybatter (next effectively 15
| min walk from the city centre for those not from Dublin)
| and I'd estimate that at least 1/3rd of the correct
| waypoints, opening times, and associated data in the area
| is from me slowly correcting stuff over the last few years.
| wrycoder wrote:
| For restaurants, etc, I usually start with Yelp, which
| uses Apple Maps for navigation. I get the rest of the
| details from Yelp. (I'm in the US)
| tpush wrote:
| Apple Maps tends to be better in English speaking countries,
| or otherwise where there's a lot of iPhones. Google Maps is
| almost universally better anywhere else.
| airpoint wrote:
| For cycling in London, in my experience:
|
| CityMapper >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Apple Maps >>>>> Google
| Maps
| andylynch wrote:
| It is, though one thing apple could improve is the feedback
| on errors- it's routing thinks some major streets are one way
| here and that others aren't which seems hard to fix.
| madeofpalk wrote:
| I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling
| directions in London. That was the only reason why I used
| Google Maps.
|
| Apple does give me some funky directions through Victoria
| Park, though I'm always surprised when any map service can
| route through parks somewhat well.
| saurik wrote:
| Why did you switch?
| sbuk wrote:
| > I was very happy when Apple "finally" added cycling
| directions in London. That was the only reason why I used
| Google Maps.
| saurik wrote:
| Yes: I absolutely understood the catalyst, but not the
| reason. I will rephrase my question: why did you _want_
| to switch? Is that less confusing? The person I am
| responding to seemed eager to leave Google Maps, but
| couldn 't because of one critical feature; once that
| critical feature was there, removing the reason they had
| not to switch... but, there still had to be some
| remaining reason why the person switched: a reason that
| had caused them to be waiting to switch this whole time
| (and while I have some ideas as to what that reason might
| be, it isn't at all obvious which one and I didn't want
| to bias the answer by suggesting any). Is this really
| such a strange concept? :(
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| Personally I prefer using Apple Maps when possible
| because the app is a lot more fluid, it has a dark mode,
| and it feels better about privacy.
| Clampower wrote:
| Apple Maps doesn't even have cycling navigation in Amsterdam
| lol.
|
| Literally unusable.
| Cockbrand wrote:
| Apple Maps doesn't have cycling navigation anywhere, kinda
| strange for such a hip and (self proclaimed) environmentally
| conscious company. That renders it literally unusable
| anywhere, IMHO.
|
| [Edit: I just learned from another comment that Apple Maps
| _does_ have cycling directions at least in London, which I
| didn't know about]
| andylynch wrote:
| It does as part of the 'New Maps' but very limited
| geographically unless you're in China, California, or a few
| other cities- see https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-
| availability/#maps-cycling
| jhpauley wrote:
| Why post shit that's behind a paywall? Really, why?
| unclewalter wrote:
| I love the way Apple Maps gives turn by turn directions: "go past
| these lights and at the next set, turn left". Just way more
| understandable as a ... human.
|
| However, it commonly gives me just the wrong destination. Just
| the other day, it put me five blocks away from the actual address
| in Downtown LA. Which is... well, suboptimal.
| beefman wrote:
| Apple's driving coverage has been improving and is now as good as
| Google's in the SF Bay area. Google is still better at walking
| directions (especially involving building access), and I'm sure
| their coverage is superior globally. Apple doesn't support multi-
| point itineraries and doesn't have depart at / arrive by
| functionality, which can be very useful.
|
| Apple has generally copied Google's mobile UI approach, which has
| been devolving for a few years now (2018 brought the large and
| useless bottom "explore" panel IIRC). Google's iOS app is almost
| impossible to use as an actual map now -- it's exceedingly
| difficult to pan, orient, or zoom to inspect things. Everything
| you do has to be part of some flow that somebody designed, while
| it flashes surveys at you. Trying to do anything else just
| bounces you between flows in a loop. It's become and idiot app to
| the point that I wonder how those involved sleep at night.
| pfranz wrote:
| > Apple doesn't support multi-point itineraries
|
| I've never tried multi-point itineraries with Google Maps, but
| the new iOS beta has an "add stop" feature. It's not exactly
| what I was hoping for because it only has predefined searches
| ("food", "gas", etc). What it does is pause your original trip
| with a button to continue. If it could do a generic search
| along the route it would be exactly what I need most of the
| time without being too confusing to use.
| aiddun wrote:
| Apple Maps in iOS 15 will have leave at/arrive by. I've been
| using it in the beta
| dan-robertson wrote:
| For an iPad, I find the apple ma-s ui much better. E.g. for
| search results in portrait, apple give you a column on the side
| (so you can see the map) but google fill your screen with
| results which makes more sense on a small phone. Google do the
| same "better" thing in landscape. I also find Apple's street
| view copy much nicer to use but obviously they have the late-
| mover advantage. Google now have a poor copy of this interface
| but it's hidden away.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Imo Apple does easier directions.
|
| Sometimes, going on some weird detour with Waze is appealing.
| Apples routes are usually a few minutes longer.
| thedougd wrote:
| In a Honda with Android Auto and Carplay, Google Maps on Android
| will take advantage of both vehicle displays whereas Carplay will
| not. The next turn and distance until next turn is displayed on
| the speedometer display while showing the full map and UI on the
| dashboard center display.
|
| Is this broadly true or specific to vehicle?
| aeharding wrote:
| Apple Maps needs to provide bicycle directions in my city
| (Madison, Wisconsin). Until then, it's literally nonfunctional
| for the vast majority of my trips.
| mark_l_watson wrote:
| Even though Apple Maps is improving rapidly, Google Maps usually
| gives me slightly better results.
|
| But, I use Apple Maps almost always because of two things:
| privacy, and because of my Apple Watch.
|
| If I need Google Maps then I run it from Safari on my iPhone.
| plank_time wrote:
| I use Apple CarPlay almost exclusively now, and will never buy a
| car that doesn't support it anymore.
|
| When using navigation, I will often use Apple Maps. Their biggest
| advantage is that their directions will say "after the next stop
| sign, turn right at the following traffic light." Thats so much
| more useful than most other Map apps. So in the city, I prefer
| Apple Maps. If I need the shortest route including traffic or if
| I need to drive fast and watch out for cops, I will use Waze.
| brundolf wrote:
| In my experience Apple does a pretty great job with redirecting
| around traffic and stuff too. I'm sure it won't be as good as
| Waze since that's their whole thing, but it's plenty good
| enough for me
| stuart78 wrote:
| I've been using Apple Maps since getting my first CapPlay
| compatible car. I switched because the Google Maps app was (and
| remains) awful to use. GM forces you to view a very small view of
| where you are going next. Multiple click to access trip view and
| custom map scale. In contrast, Apple Maps makes it easy to toggle
| between multiple views with one click and the UI is less
| cluttered.
|
| Personally, I like to use the map to occasionally update my
| mental map, not for turn by turn spoon-feeding. Apple's app makes
| this much more convenient.
|
| Additionally, bookmarking in Google Maps remains primitive and
| hard to manage. Apple introduced collections over the last few
| years which are great.
|
| What I miss the most about Google Maps is the photos, which are
| generally better than Yelp (and don't open a new app).
|
| Apple has work to do outside of US, but their maps make steady
| progress year after year, and if the US indicate where rest of
| the world is headed, things will get better.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| i would be in a minority here but i use osmand+ on my phone. in
| my city, openstreetmaps is still in its infancy relatively
| speaking so what i do is, if i go somewhere and i see problem
| spots, wrong turn or missing road or a point, intersection or
| something. I just mark it and once home, i update the map for
| everyone.
|
| while this might not be for everyone. It is time consuming for me
| but i find this a good exercise for myself. i use streetcomplete
| (android app) often to update the streets and that is a good
| feature of openstreetmaps
| toastal wrote:
| 100% this spirit. I like how I can take an active role in my
| community helping with this kinda stuff. I ask business owners
| all sorts of missing details you can't add to the other maps.
| Some people have laughed when my maps are appear empty in some
| places, but when I show them how easy it was to meaningfully
| contribute and the aforementioned details, I hear comments of
| jealousy.
| barneybooroo wrote:
| I mostly rely on audio turn by turn walking directions (in
| London) and was surprised how bad Google Maps was. For example,
| it would give directions like "head south on High Street" as if I
| know which way south is?
|
| Apple Maps isn't perfect but I can just about rely on audio for
| navigating (and the occasional glance for everything else)
| ehsankia wrote:
| I'm curious what the privacy labels for Google Maps in Incognito
| mode would be. The thing with the labels is that you have to list
| all the labels as if all the features were enabled and set to the
| least private option. Google maps has over a decade of features
| that people use and love.
|
| For example, I personally would be outraged if they removed
| Timeline, which I rely on daily, but that feature alone probably
| adds a dozen privacy labels, even though it's optional.
| aeromusek wrote:
| The other difference is that Google Maps has to build
| everything into the app directly. The privacy label for Apple
| Maps gets a 'free ride' on _so_ many things by virtue of
| piggybacking on OS-level functionality.
|
| Same thing applies to Messages vs. WhatsApp/Messenger and bunch
| of others.
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