How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple

Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by andrewljohnson on Monday September 24, 2012 @02:42AM (#4563484)

Maps-gate, antenna-gate, BS-gate. Every time Apple ships an iDevice, the internet and tech press spin some yarn about a defect in the device, how it isn't a big enough improvement, how it's only smaller and thinner, how it's copying Android.

And what happens... every, single, time? The public buys them in droves, and adores them to the last man.

Apple Maps is both a strong technical flourish, and it's a bold strategy for overtaking the leaders by bolstering OpenStreetMap, and I think that end game is going to work.

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by i386 on Monday September 24, 2012 @04:00AM (#4563668)

Here here. Apple have had plenty of failures even after Jobs second coming (Hello Ping!) and its highly revisionist of the technology talking heads to think otherwise.

I believe Apple could have spent another year on it behind closed doors and not gotten much further than they are now. What Apple Maps needs is right now is users, well, using Apple Maps to help direct locations that need improving (that are not downtown San Francisco or Cupertino).

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by kaiwetzel on Monday September 24, 2012 @06:33AM (#4563978)

Not being a native speaker I had to google for it but it seems the correct usage is "hear, hear"[1]. (Just pointing it out in case other people are in a similar situation as me).

[1] http://www.unbecominglevity.com/2008/11/10/hear-hear-or-here...

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by huskyr on Monday September 24, 2012 @04:10AM (#4563690)

Note that Apple Maps isn't using OpenStreetMap. It's using a combination of a few different sources, mostly TomTom maps.

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by adsr on Monday September 24, 2012 @04:38AM (#4563761)

They are using a combination of different sources, but OpenStreetMap is on of those sources.

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by mooreds on Monday September 24, 2012 @08:51AM (#4564351)

Here's a post about what data sources Apple is using: http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/6/11/3078987/apple-tomtom-op...

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by sunkencity on Monday September 24, 2012 @04:00AM (#4563670)

Dissing apple surely beds for a higher page-view count. I'm sure the problems with the maps will be fixed soon.

Nobody knows the real reason, or combination of reasons why Apple is not using Google Maps. It could be Apple and it could be Google, it could be both. It's all just guesses that are fueling the anger at both sides.

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Re:How Apple's Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple by bluedanieru on Monday September 24, 2012 @04:01AM (#4563672)

Counterpoint: iPhone is huge in Japan and led a minor revolution in phones here (prior to iPhone non-Japanese phones were unheard of here). Now you can't even get proper directions to some of the largest train stations, including the busiest one, Shinjuku. I don't know how it is in the States, but in Japan this isn't a regression or an inconvenience, it's a total removal of a heavily used feature. I can't think of a better way Apple could have fucked up the experience for Japanese users.

And they were doing so well here, too.

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