Thanks, that makes sense now. I guess Apple's got nothing to worry about with Maps in China then. I wish they'd just integrate it with the regular vector maps that everyone else sees. It's just weird that there's currently two different mapping system in use depending on whether you're in China or not. Google managed to integrate AutoNavi into their maps, so I can't see why Apple couldn't do the same. Maybe they're working on it and this is just an interim solution.Here is a comparison of a map area in iOS 6 maps that will look different depending on whether you are looking at it from China or elsewhere:
Outside China, Inside China
Other things to note:
1) Its not using Apple cartography, or at least it is different from the cartography Apple uses elsewhere. I'm betting its AutoNavi's cartography, since many Chinese map services mimic the Google Map style.
2) Its not using vector data, it looks like its using tiles, like the "old" maps. But it seems to load faster than the old ones.
3) Both Google and Apple are using AutoNavi in China (both screenshots below show attribution to AutoNavi). Apple shows more data at higher zoom levels than Google, it may even have more data for some reason. This is also a random small town, in case you want to know how detailed data is:
4) It follows PRC geography. Note the 9-dashed line that represents China owning most of the South China Sea, and another dash to include Taiwan:
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
iOS 6 |OT| New Maps? googy pls
- Thread starter bananas
- Start date
They could easily just put a permanent NC grabber there and it'd look fine;
You're right though, the removal itself is a weird decision.
Yup, I have to reset every 2 or 3 days or the phone just slows to a crawl. This morning nothing would even open. Reboot seems to fix it. On a iPhone 4.
Really tempted to jailbreak iOS 6 just to get toggles and brightness accessibility. But even then it's poorly implemented. How long until Apple finally gets around to doing these things? There's a whole useless page on the switcher for the volume bar, if you take that away you could fit 4 toggles on that screen and squeeze the volume slider, and even a brightness slider, on the playback controls page.
^Made that trying to find a solution to how to keep the switcher to only two pages (previously playback and vol. bar) without ditching the volume access and adding a brightness access as well. I think something like that would work nicely and make sense, since volume is for music and brightness is for video (which both can be controlled via the playback controls). If I had the coding skills i'd try and make a JB tweak out of it.
October is still a long ways away.. what're the chances of them actually sneaking useful new features before release, anyway?
^Made that trying to find a solution to how to keep the switcher to only two pages (previously playback and vol. bar) without ditching the volume access and adding a brightness access as well. I think something like that would work nicely and make sense, since volume is for music and brightness is for video (which both can be controlled via the playback controls). If I had the coding skills i'd try and make a JB tweak out of it.
October is still a long ways away.. what're the chances of them actually sneaking useful new features before release, anyway?
Macho Madness
Member
I'd say iOS 6 has been feature complete since WWDC. These betas are mostly designed so that devs can get their stuff running on the new APIs and whatnot.
Neverender
Member
God damn it the podcast app is terrible. It keeps losing my podcast progress and it's so annoying.
Here is a comparison of a map area in iOS 6 maps that will look different depending on whether you are looking at it from China or elsewhere:
Outside China, Inside China
Other things to note:
1) Its not using Apple cartography, or at least it is different from the cartography Apple uses elsewhere. I'm betting its AutoNavi's cartography, since many Chinese map services mimic the Google Map style.
2) Its not using vector data, it looks like its using tiles, like the "old" maps. But it seems to load faster than the old ones.
3) Both Google and Apple are using AutoNavi in China (both screenshots below show attribution to AutoNavi). Apple shows more data at higher zoom levels than Google, it may even have more data for some reason. This is also a random small town, in case you want to know how detailed data is:
4) It follows PRC geography. Note the 9-dashed line that represents China owning most of the South China Sea, and another dash to include Taiwan:
It looks like you have to be in Mainland China for it to work. I'm in Hong Kong and my HK maps aren't as good as the screenshot you posted earlier.
Pretty much. Best advice is to delete it until an update fixes these things (that should never have made it into a public release).
mescalineeyes
Banned
Arguably the biggest iOS5 feature was nowhere to be seen before the iPhone 4S' unveiling.
Yeah, there probably will be some iPhone 5 exclusive stuff.
You mean on the icon? No.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Yeah, I would think just RFID and maybe a new Maps feature. And then maybe some small enhancement to the Camera app or something.
mescalineeyes
Banned
LTE yo, otherwise why bother with the bigger form factor.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
*goes to look for local bus routes* oh right.
*checks to see if any apps are registered as routing apps in app store* nope
*actually searches for apps* found 6
Hope they get routing app registration up and running
*checks to see if any apps are registered as routing apps in app store* nope
*actually searches for apps* found 6
Hope they get routing app registration up and running
Could you share which city you're located in and/or how you found those 6 apps? Maybe it's a canada thing?
mescalineeyes
Banned
He looked for them manually, judging by what he wrote.
Macho Madness
Member
Well yeah, I meant feature complete for all current devices.
Technosteve
Banned
Jellybean seems better then iOS 6, might jump ship next refresh
TBH, I'm feeling the same way... after having my iPhone jailbroken, I don't think I can go back to not having these tweaks and waiting months again for another jailbreak.
I like that they integrated Facebook with contacts, but there are some issues. Instead of just filling in my existing contacts, they just add another contact. And if they don't put up their phone number on Facebook (and many of my friends don't), I'm gonna have to have double contacts for each person because the FB imported ones aren't editable.
It keeps finding and downloading random old pocasts for me :/ And it's super unresponsive on a 4S. How did Apple think this was good enough to release?
so, is maps still completely empty for us canadians? when i had ios6 on my ipad earlier last month, there was barely anything on the map for calgary.
The mess of the podcast app is confusing. How easy it was to subscribe and find podcasts on iTunes is pretty much entirely responsible for the podcast market. How they did something so perfectly on desktops but so messy on iOS is odd. Why release it now? Should have been part of iOS 6 to give them more time to fix it up.
Technosteve
Banned
Maps works fine for me, but I'm in Vancouver. *shrug*
Inside Apple's Go-Slow Approach to Mobile Payments
I'm surprised to hear that Apple considers NFC to not be secure nor ready for primetime. I guess this means the next iPhone won't have any surprises?
WSJ said:
I'm surprised to hear that Apple considers NFC to not be secure nor ready for primetime. I guess this means the next iPhone won't have any surprises?
Battery life is a really weak argument for not using NFC. Like super duper weak. NFC is an ultra low power passive style tech. Impact on battery life in negligible unless you're broadcast /writing nonstop. Even then I can't imagine it being an issue.
Their small cut is probably what drove the decision more.
Security is not a problem either, if it was they wouldn't be using less secure implementation in credit cards currently. So unsecure that they scramble to cover up mythbusters from busting it.
Their small cut is probably what drove the decision more.
Security is not a problem either, if it was they wouldn't be using less secure implementation in credit cards currently. So unsecure that they scramble to cover up mythbusters from busting it.
jts
...hate me...
Not that far from that idea either, and I'm a god damn die hard.
After like a month of iOS 6, and not counting the bugs of course, the experience doesn't really add anything new to the iPhone. I can post faster on Facebook and use Do Not Disturb at night? I think that's pretty much it.
And the maps suck, damn it.
Will wait for the new iPhone and the full iOS 6 though. But still.
Technosteve
Banned
Here is a map feature that i want, bookmarking locations and then showing each on on the map at once. Then be able to sort through those pins by distance to you and create a waypoint in which it figured out the best route to all the points you want to go.
Well that's a pretty dumb thing to say by the Wall Street Journal. They can't announce NFC mobile payments that link to credit or debit cards because they don't have any announced hardware that supports the feature.
That's like if they announced Siri at WWDC last year and said "Oh, by the way, this doesn't work on any iOS device in existence, LOL."
These recent reports of Apple apparently still playing the waiting game on NFC is kinda dashing my hopes or it on the next iPhone. I just hope they don't actually know the whole story (or have deliberately been thrown off), and Apple's is prepping up their Passbook-based solution.
lunarworks
Member
Apple not totally embracing NFC makes sense, in a way. There's like 3 or 4 different standards all at each other's throat right now trying to establish dominance. Apple's choice was "try to pick a winner" or "roll your own".
Myself, I'm still not totally comfortable with my phone taking on the role of my wallet. It makes it all that more valuable to pickpockets, and gives you a single point of failure.
Myself, I'm still not totally comfortable with my phone taking on the role of my wallet. It makes it all that more valuable to pickpockets, and gives you a single point of failure.
One very big problem with Apple's location servers in Australia is that it identifies locations based on the LGA rather than the actual suburb name.
This has always been an issue with Find My Friends and now that they're taking over Maps, it's become an even bigger issue. Often the name of the LGA is the same as nearby suburb so in effect, the address shown is completely off.
Just to show how bad it is, I've circled all the places labeled in Sydney that are more than slightly wrong. About half of the places I haven't circled are also wrong, but close enough to where they should be:
If you search for "Merrylands":
It'll tell you the address is Holroyd, New South Wales. Yes, the LGA is Holroyd, but LGAs aren't used in addresses, ever. The area in red is the suburb of Holroyd, the area in blue is Merrylands.
This also means a lot of labels are in the wrong locations because they've been processed by the LGA rather than the suburb. I tried to find a street in a particular suburb on Friday. It didn't recognise it at all and put the pin down at what it thought was the next closest match - nowhere near the place I was looking for.
Another issue is that the names are shown on the maps are exclusively LGA names. No suburb names appear whatsoever. You may get a pin in the right location if you searched for the suburb, but even then it will still preference LGAs before suburbs.
Here's what happens when you search for "Baulkham Hills":
Baulkham Hills is a suburb in Sydney, but the LGA by the same name is particularly big - half of it is in suburban Sydney and the other half is some rural netherlands. I've highlighted the suburb of Baulkham Hills in red (the correct location) and the LGA in light red. The place the pin is dropped, and that Apple has labelled, is called Forest Glen, and like most of Australia, there's absolutely nothing there:
This has always been an issue with Find My Friends and now that they're taking over Maps, it's become an even bigger issue. Often the name of the LGA is the same as nearby suburb so in effect, the address shown is completely off.
Just to show how bad it is, I've circled all the places labeled in Sydney that are more than slightly wrong. About half of the places I haven't circled are also wrong, but close enough to where they should be:
If you search for "Merrylands":
It'll tell you the address is Holroyd, New South Wales. Yes, the LGA is Holroyd, but LGAs aren't used in addresses, ever. The area in red is the suburb of Holroyd, the area in blue is Merrylands.
This also means a lot of labels are in the wrong locations because they've been processed by the LGA rather than the suburb. I tried to find a street in a particular suburb on Friday. It didn't recognise it at all and put the pin down at what it thought was the next closest match - nowhere near the place I was looking for.
Another issue is that the names are shown on the maps are exclusively LGA names. No suburb names appear whatsoever. You may get a pin in the right location if you searched for the suburb, but even then it will still preference LGAs before suburbs.
Here's what happens when you search for "Baulkham Hills":
Baulkham Hills is a suburb in Sydney, but the LGA by the same name is particularly big - half of it is in suburban Sydney and the other half is some rural netherlands. I've highlighted the suburb of Baulkham Hills in red (the correct location) and the LGA in light red. The place the pin is dropped, and that Apple has labelled, is called Forest Glen, and like most of Australia, there's absolutely nothing there:
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
I've been thinking about it, but I'm too tied I to the infrastructure of Apples
Really was enjoying the Samsung Falaxy S3 I had the other day
mescalineeyes
Banned
It's not. They are pretty fucking equal in my book. Only iOS has worthwhile apps.
I've been thinking about doing the same thing. I was originally set on waiting for the iPhone 5 and then getting that this year (I currently have a 4) but I might just see if I can hold off longer and get whatever is next in the Nexus line
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
Same
Isn't the New Nexus device not out this year?
I've got the four too, but it doesn't seem as if iOS 6 is pushing the envelope enough. In reality in kidding myself that it is anywhere close to android
The main things iOS still has over android is looks and logic. Some parts of android still look fucking comical, with horrible overlays, and of course there's the app situation. But it's getting better for android
I actually have no idea. I just assumed they followed a pattern similar to Apple and there would be a successor to the Galaxy Nexus this year. Maybe not? I still haven't really decided, I'm just not excited about iOS 6 at all whereas 4.1 looks pretty good.
Coming from a jailbroken iPhone, iOS 6 has been a sort of pain in the ass quite frankly. Nothing major, but these add up.
I mean, why can't I control the music playing, from the lock screen, without having to fuck with the double tap mechanism which is unreliable at times. I just want to quickly pause/skip etc, but each time I want to do that simple task, gotta double clickity click. Worst part is, even when I do double click, the spacing is such shit on those buttons that I often hit the wrong one (like skip track when I meant pause, fuuuu).
PS. made this mockup (for a verge post I did) showing how the playback controls should look in iOS 6 if they adopted the music app look and lose the whole need for double tapping; http://cl.ly/HudG
Second thing is brightness control, wtf must I go to the settings app and navigate to the wallpaper menu every time I want to adjust the damn thing. You would expect some consistency with iPad functionality allowing you to adjust it from the switcher. Another thing from the settings is wifi/3G/etc. I need my god damn toggles man. I've mocked it up before, but it isn't hard to implement right. Get on it Apple.
Meh, unintuitive imo. That entire animation needs to be re-thought anyway when they (imo inevitably) change the way you access notification center. I mean visually, not pulling it over everything but something else.
NC really fucked with the whole linen concept as well (not to mention a basic iOS ux philosophy).
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
I thought they normally release at their I/O conference. Anyway, I might buy the G.Nexus next month if the next iterations of the iOS 6 beta doesn't show enough to keep me
I still have my iPad anyway
mescalineeyes
Banned
Just buy it then. Only bugfixes here on out.