Spinning off from this thread, there must be a kajillion apps out there, but there’s never the one you can find that does exactly what you want it to do. As a result, you get more and more annoyed with it, and get different apps to replace it, but they don’t quite do what you want, either.
Let’s list the apps we really want. If someone comes along who can recommend an app to someone else, so much the better.
I want an app that:
Lets me put in just the shows that I want to follow from every streaming service, cable channel and TV network and alerts me when a new episode or season has dropped.
I’d love to see greater Google Maps integration with other data sources.
I mean, I’ve seen apps for things like geological maps, political boundaries, halfway points between two places, battlefield maps, radius from a point, nuclear weapon effects mappers, AR type apps that show before/after, and so forth.
It’s kind of a pain to have to load a separate app for each one, when it would sure be great to be able to have a pull-down for any given location that would show whatever the data sets/AR options are for where you are, or the point you’re looking at and be able to view it from there.
So maybe not a separate app, but a better API/interface of some kind that would let people with map-centric content integrate easier and better with Google Maps.
Have you tried the app Just Watch? It allows you to input what streaming services you have and you can set up alerts for various things. Not sure if new seasons is one of them.
I’d like to see a Straight Dope app, but realize that just isn’t feasible at this time. Maybe when I win the lottery and buy the board.
Many of these apps are licensing Google Maps information databases. The Google database is much, much larger than what we see in Maps and they don’t want to give it away. Thus all of the specific apps.
How’s that work? I’m just saying that it’s a pain in the ass to what amounts to multiple map apps, when it could be integrated. I mean, why do I have to go to Rockd to see what the geological features of the area around me are, instead of just having a layer in Google Maps? Same thing for stuff like radius around a point, halfway between two points, and so forth.
Google Maps does indeed have an API, allowing software developers to use the functionality.
I can’t (off the top of my head) recall the costs, that was not my business when I was integrating a “drop shipping” delivery service for a mid-level UK supermarket and their sister company, a furniture company.
My main job on that project was an integration with Google to direct drivers to correct addresses.
It kind of got wonky when one major supplier failed to respect the UK area codes, which typically are a single string, ie, the King lives in “SW1A 1AA”.
Note the space… Our EU based supplier removed it, meaning huge losses for no reason at all. So if Charles had ordered anything it would be sent to “SW1A1AA” and never arrive.
As an aside, this is probably more a copyright/business partnerships question than an app issue. Mapping software can (and do) integrate with one another in various ways, but the usual problem is that the underlying map itself (if authored or “creative” enough to be copyrightable) and/or its points of interest (which usually aren’t copyrightable, but can be subject to licensing terms and digital rights management) can’t be acquired for free by third parties who want to integrate them.
The guy who made a battlefield map might not want it to be commoditized as just another generic map layer in somebody’s app. The university that made a geological map might want to keep their own branding and app.
It’s not a technical barrier to integration, it’s a commercial one.
For the relatively rare case of the layers actually being freely available (such as some government-produced works, like your county’s GIS layers) or a basic basemap (like Openstreetmap or ESRI’s), you usually can include them in other software and add additional layers on top of them. If you can find the underlying data source to one of those layers, and the terms allow it, you can combine many of them into one map with tools like Gaia on your phone, or Caltopo and Felt on the web. And for the really complex stuff (with a much higher learning curve) there are apps like QGIS. There’s an entire industry around this (which is lots of fun!), but often commercial concerns prevent a freer remixing of maps, sadly. With the latter, especially, you can use Google Maps as a basemap, import other online map layers easily, and even scan in paper maps and georectify them to properly overlay them on top of the other layers.
I think this rather depends on your personal approach.
There are two schools of thought, I would say.
One: the UNIX philosophy. A range of tools each of which does exactly what it is supposed to; no more and no less. They are designed to be easily combined to create what you want.
Two: the does everything app. There have been lots of attempts to create this, AI being the latest.
I’m an old UNIX dog, so I know which side of the fence I sit. But YMMV, as the saying goes….
Because Google is a business that needs to make money, not give away extra layers of information. The Maps app is the “free” layer available to the public and serves as an advertisement for their other services.
