I think its OpenStreetMap data, with traffic and routing from TomTom. Having looked at the OpenStreetMap maps for my area, they look fairly unreliable including misspelt road names.
Yeah I was skimming this threadon Mac Rumors and the new Maps seems horrendous.
There is also this rather amusing Tumblr.
The main thing I was looking forward to in iOS 6 is spoken turn-by-turn directions. I currently use Waze, and listen to its directions over bluetooth when I’m riding my motorcycle. So this morning I updated my iPhone 4, and fired up Maps…
… Only to find out that the spoken navigation is only an option on the 4s or 5.
I’m quite irritated. There’s no reason why the spoken navigation couldn’t work on my 4- after all, Waze has been doing it for about a year now. It really feels like the only reason they restricted it to the 4s and the 5 is to give users another reason to upgrade to the new phone.
Well, I think that was the final straw. Looks like I’ll be switching to the Galaxy S3 instead of upgrading to the 5.
I think this commercial for the Galaxy SIII is on point. (Link is to YouTube.) I have the 4s and I like it fine, except I DETEST typing on it, but I have no desire to upgrade yet. The additions just aren’t a big enough draw. I have another year on my contract anyway.
If you wait a few more months, you can get the S4. I think it drops in February.
:rolleyes:
There’s no indication that Samsung is dropping another iteration so quickly. The S4 hasn’t even been announced, let alone given a release date.
I doubt it. It will probably be in the summer like the Galaxy S3. But the Galaxy Nexus 2 should be released soon though I haven’t heard anything specific about it.
And for those who don’t mind a bigger device, the Galaxy Note 2 will be released in October and looks really great. I have the first Note and absolutely love it. I will probably hold out for the Note 3 but if I was in the market the Note 2 would be my choice without any doubt.
However for who want a more regular-sized phone right now, IMO the GS3 is the best choice and IIRC the price has come down recently.
And for those who want something a bit different the newly annnounced Windows Phone 8 models from Nokia and HTC look pretty good too and are definitely worth a look.
No need to be a dick. I read a report that it was a few days ago. Samsung has apparently since denied it.
Yeah, I’ve read a lot of things on the internet.
The new maps is looking like a hilarious clusterfuck. There is already a website for iOS6 map fails. I played with it a little bit on my updated iPhone 4 last night and kind of liked the UI but was planning on waiting until I get my 5 tomorrow to really test it.
The best bet right now is to make an icon that links to the browser url for Google Maps and keep using that. I bet that iOS 6.1 comes out shortly with map improvements.
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/09/ios-6-maps-app-disappoint.html
Wow, why are there no good keyboard apps for iPhones? I thought for sure *Swype *was available on iOS, and I was going to recommend it, but after some checking, it doesn’t seem to be available.
A good keyboard is an essential for me, which is why I got a phone with a slideout physical qwerty keyboard. But, in addition to the standard Android touchscreen keyboard, my phone also came preinstalled with Swype, which was so good, I found myself hardly ever using the physical keyboard. But then, last Christmas during Google’s app sales, I bought two new keyboard apps, each for the insanely cheap price of 10 cents! Those were *SlideIT *and Swiftkey, both of which are so awesome, I can’t decide which I prefer and now occasionally alternate between the two depending on what I’m doing.
SlideIT, which is a lot like Swype, is great for people with fat fingers, since you don’t have to tap individual keys - you just slide your finger around (without lifting it) in the general area of the keys you want, and it figures out which ones you meant to press. Not only does it make typing faster and more accurate, but it’s actually kinda fun, since it seems like magic.
Then, with SwiftKey, it’s a more conventional touchscreen keyboard, but it has pretty awesome predictive powers. It not only learns from your typing input, but can also be easily set up to learn words from your texts, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, or RSS feeds.
So, my phone came stock with three different keyboards (physical, standard Android, & Swype) and I added the two additional keyboards for twenty cents, which now gives me five different choices. (not counting voice input, which I also use in some situations)
So, if you’re a diehard iPhone fan and don’t ever want to switch, I recommend that you never check out an Android phone with *Swype *or SlideIT, because you may instantly be hooked.
I could never get used to the Swype paradigm, but I bloody love Swiftkey. I’ve been using it for a while, so I can often send a short text with two keypresses per word.
This was written by a guy with average guy hands, I assume? Because let me tell you, there are a lot of people who already can’t hit the upper corners with their thumb; unless I want to just rest the phone on my fingers only (having no actual grip whatsoever on any edge of the phone), I can only barely hit the same-side upper corner (left thumb-upper left and right-right) if I hold it juuust right (holding it any higher makes it difficult to reach the bottom of the screen). And if I want to reach the opposite top corner? No choice but to just have it on flat fingers that don’t even reach the other side of the phone.
That’s a pretty awesome ad. The agency earned their fee on it for sure. Sort of a karmic bitchslap for the old Mac vs PC ads of a few years ago.
Apple has kinda apologized for the map problem and explained that since they use crowd sourcing, it will improve quickly. There is maybe some truth to that since the data is on the server side so it actually won’t require an OS update. Reportedly, the Maps Team at Apple and sequestered until the fix their shit.
Meanwhile Google had submitted their own ap to the Ap Store. It’ll be interesting to see if it gets approved.
My new iPhone arrived today, yay! I was running the 3GS and the battery was barely lasting a day if that so I am well looking forward to a shiny new phone. Just waiting for the new SIM to be switched on, and all systems will be go!
The maps app is utterly dismal. I was quite looking forward to it, thinking the satellite imagery might be even better than Google’s. big joke: most if the UK has ‘pixels’ tens of yards wide, and some is even in black and white!
A friend of mine from the UK is visiting right now, and he and I have been comparing the maps app. For my local area (Columbus, Ohio) it looks pretty great. (I have an iPhone 4 – well, until later today when my 5 arrives 
– so I don’t have 3D flyover mode, though.) In parts of the UK he was looking at, there were a lot more problems with grayed-out areas, cloud cover, and stuff in incorrect locations. From that plus what I’ve read online, it seems the maps coverage on non-US locations is significantly worse, unfortunately.
I’m hoping they improve it soon as I would like to have a Google alternative, but as it stands right now I’ll probably download the Google Maps app as soon as it’s available.
You’re quite the charmer.
I happened to drive by my local AT&T store at just before 9pm last night and there were already a few people sitting in folding chairs out front. Those guys in the front of the line will get their phone in ten minutes which is probably four or five hours before I’ll get mine. Why didn’t they just order theirs on-line and sleep in a warm bed last night?
Mine has been on the UPS truck since 6:01am but it probably won’t be delivered until early afternoon. My boss who, if anything, is more of a nerd than I am is fine with me skipping out to get it once it’s delivered.