Apple Maps

218 'Apple Maps' stories July 2013 - August 2013

When the iPhone first launched, it was preloaded with Google Maps. In 2012, Apple replaced it with its own mapping application known as Apple Maps. It launched in beta in the iOS 6 beta, and was released to the public that fall.

After its launched, it was clear that it was no on the same level of quality as Google Maps. The poor launch led to a public apology from Tim Cook and ultimately led to the firing of Scott Forstall.

Apple Maps Features

Over the years, Apple has continued to adds features to Apple Maps. iOS 11 brought lane guidance and a speed limit widget on the navigation, and indoor location mapping.

Apple has also added proactive location suggestions (time to get home when you are leaving work, etc), integration with public transit, Yelp integration, and integration with ride sharing services like Lyft and Uber.

With iOS 12, Apple has proclaimed they are rebuilding Maps from the ground up.

Maps is being rebuilt from the ground up to better reflect the world around you. The new underlying map uses Apple data and features enhanced geographic context like pedestrian paths and parks, more detailed building outlines and parking lots, better road network coverage, and more. You’ll also be able to get where you’re going with improved routes, whether you’re on the road or on foot. The new Maps is now available in Northern California and is coming soon to the rest of the United States.

While the general consensus is that Google Maps offers more accurate data and navigation, Apple Maps is widely considered to be the most used mapping application in the world since it’s built into every iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Reuters Tim Cook Profile: How the Maps fiasco led Apple to rethink the future of iOS, and being tough and decisive when it counts

Ben Lovejoy Aug 22 2013 - 6:31 am PT

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Image: reuters.com

Reuters is today running a profile on Apple CEO Tim Cook. There’s of course the inevitable angle in there: stock down, no major new products launched, questions asked about whether Cook has what it takes. But what emerges is a picture of a man who knows he isn’t Steve Jobs and isn’t trying to be.

In the day to day at Apple, Cook has established a methodical, no-nonsense style, one that’s as different as could be from that of his predecessor. Jobs’ bi-monthly iPhone software meeting, in which he would go through every planned features of the company’s flagship product, is gone. “That’s not Tim’s style at all,” said one person familiar with those meetings. “He delegates.”

Yet who also doesn’t shy away from making big decisions in tough circumstances.

[The Apple Maps fiasco] prompted him to fast-track his thinking on the future direction of the critical phone and tablet software known as iOS, a person close to Apple recounted.

Cook soon issued a public apology to customers, fired Forstall, and handed responsibility for software design to Jony Ive, a Jobs soul-mate who had previously been in charge only of hardware design.

“The vision that Tim had to involve Jony and to essentially connect two very, very important Apple initiatives or areas of focus – that was a big decision on Tim’s part and he made it independently and very, very resolutely,” said Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co. and an Apple director …
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Apple and Google having ‘lots and lots’ of meetings, getting along better, says Eric Schmidt

Ben Lovejoy Jul 12 2013 - 4:29 am PT

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Photo: salon.com

The sometimes stormy relationship between Apple and Google appears to be growing friendlier, with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt telling Reuters at the annual Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley that the two companies were having “lots and lots” of meetings.

Schmidt did not provide details about the nature of the meetings during comments to reporters at the annual Allen and Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on Thursday. He noted that Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, who joined him at the press briefing, was leading many of the discussions.

The two companies are in “constant business discussions on a long list of issues,” Schmidt said.

The two companies started out close. Schmidt joined Apple’s board in 2006, and the iPhone launched with both Googlemaps and YouTube on board. That was to change after Google’s Android platform began growing in popularity. It was revealed in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography that Jobs threatened “thermonuclear war” on Google over what he felt was a copycat product …
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