When the iPhone 5 was released, Steve Wozniak was waiting in-line as he typically does. The Apple co-founder probably could just walk into the Cupertino base and grab a device early, but he enjoys the experience, as he has said in the past.
With the iPhone 5 also came his first impressions of the new Apple-based in house mapping system. He wasn’t too thrilled, just like a majority of Apple fans. While in Sydney, Australia, Wozniak stated he was even “disappointed” in the maps application while speaking at a Fusion-io company event.
ZDNet has the exclusives:
“I tried to navigate somewhere, and I couldn’t get to where I wanted to by voice,” he told ZDNet Australia. “So, I was a little disappointed, because I love navigation by voice with my Google [Android] phones, actually, since they always get it and are based on a better database.”
Well, the voice navigation tidbit he can’t be disappointed about, that’s an Android feature, and phones are different. It’s just something that takes getting used to; but like most stories, the ending is happy, and Wozniak says Apple’s issues with Maps aren’t that severe:
“I have been reading about the problems, and I don’t know if they are that severe,” he said.
Apple introduced their ‘complete’ version of the Maps application only a week ago. As iOS continues to update, the Maps application will continue to be fixed and become more detailed. They’ve done a great job and just have to smooth out a few flaws.
I agree with Woz’s statement about the issues not being severe, how about you?
[via AppleInsider]
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I haven’t experienced anything severe at all … I never use sattalite maps anyways and barely use nav (I rather memorize my routes) I use the map app to get an idea of where I’m going (that’s why I do miss street view) but that’s me and everyone is different.
It’s probably not too bad in urban areas, but it’s pretty bad out here in northern BC and Alberta; Tumbler Ridge, BC is mislocated; and Rolla, BC, DeBolt, AB, and Bonanza, AB aren’t on the map at all (the city names aren’t, that is; they do have the roads). Those particular ones aren’t a big problem since I know them, but it does mean that I can’t trust the maps for the parts of this region that I *don’t* know. And, being a rural area, I suspect the problems out here will take longer to fix than the urban ones.
I’ve tried searching for locations nearby and been bumped across the
continent, or shown results that are clearly not the best matches (even a
common business name). A second search each time typically produced
better results. Many roads are not marked nearly as informatively as in Google (such as one way streets or segments), and the colours don’t stand out nearly as much in Hybrid as in Google maps.
But
all that said, it’s not devastating. Just issues what one might expect
in a v1 product, hopefully to be addressed in short order in following
updates.
Not being a driver, I can’t really test navigation, but I’ll keep testing it when I’m driven places 🙂
Wozniak didn’t say “iOS 6 maps problems aren’t that severe”, he said “I don’t know if they are that severe”, a totally different thing. He’s not saying we’re overreacting, he’s saying he has no idea, and probably hasn’t seen very many issues.
I haven’t had much good luck with the maps, it’s so bad I can’t even rely on it. I’ll be going back to Navigon in the meantime till the maps app is proven to be more reliable.
I agree – this article very much misrepresents what Woz said. I have a hard time understanding how on earth “don’t know if they are that severe” could be interpreted as “aren’t that severe” by the author, let alone using it as the headline! Pretty shoddy…
I was quite shocked when I tried to help out Apple’s maps by adding a location. It didn’t surprise me that the location was missing, since these maps are in the early stages of their development, but when I tried to help out and I couldn’t for the life of me drag the pin they were asking me to drag to mark the location (it wouldn’t let me pick up the pin and just kept scrolling around the map) I was frustrated. Definitely not an Apple-like experience. 🙁
ya, that got me at first to. Just find the correct location and hold on it to drop the pin there
Ah, thanks for that. Wow, that’s not very intuitive. A little instruction from Apple would be nice there.
I’m willing to have SOME patience on Apple to update Maps, but not a lot. With Google’s statement that they wont be releasing an iOS maps app because Apple doesn’t want them to I’m mostly disappointed that Apple gave google maps the boot when their own maps app wasn’t ready.
Check out the latest story on the front page.
I think turn by turn in Apple Maps works great. I am disappointed searches are not even close to what Google Maps would be able to produce.