In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Quite a lot of news related to the recent launch of Apple Maps along with iOS 6. We already mentioned some backlash and Google and Apple Maps. And here's what's new.

Most surprising is A letter from Tim Cook on Apple Maps, that starts with: "At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better." This was a topic discussed over Slashdot amongst many other digital places.

Other Apple Maps related news:

• An entry on Apple's New App Store Feature Section for Alternative Maps Apps
• Another Slashdot discussion on Why Apple Replaced iOS Maps
• MacRumors also had an entry named How To Report a Problem With iOS 6 Maps Data
• O'Reilly have a full article titled Apple's maps problem isn't about software or design. It's about data.: "As Stephen O’Grady has pointed out, the problem with maps is really a data problem, not a software or design problem. If Apple’s maps app was ugly or had a poor user interface, it would be fixed within a month. But Apple is really looking at a data problem: bad data, incomplete data, conflicting data, poor quality data, incorrectly formatted data."
• If you're looking for Apple Maps reviews, TMR shares plenty of them (4 links), including: "A lot of people think that the new maps are a substantial downgrade, not just in terms of missing features (Street View) or features that will require third-party plugins (transit directions), but in terms of basic features like local search and directions. Josh thinks that local search is “a tremendous step backwards and something that cripples iOS for Apple’s customers” because it’s limited to names, addresses and Yelp categories."
• APB also shared their Quick Take on Apple Maps in iOS 6
• MapQuest took the opportunity to remind us in 2 entries about the updated MapQuest app for iOS
• Direction Mag thinks Apple Needs to Acquire TomTom
• Ogle Earth shares an entry on Apple Maps and the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands

My personal experience with Apple Maps was rather very positive so far. Maybe my region is just lucky, but the Apple Maps app is great looking, fast (for the data it displays) and was accurate enough for the 500km of roads where we've been relying on Apple Maps last weekend. And the 3D for my city (Montreal) is awesome, much better than the 2D Google-maps based iOS 5 app. I haven't used the Apple Maps search feature extensively and I haven't compared with what's being offered on Android nowadays.

Please allow the recent silence, busy week, I should be able to catchup next one. Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

Regarding Google and Apple Maps:

• MacRumors claimed that Apple's Split with Google Over iOS Maps Driven by Turn-by-Turn Navigation Dispute, that Google's Work Toward Standalone iOS Maps App Complicated by Integration with Google Earth and apparently, Apple Reportedly Had Over a Year Left on Maps Contract with Google
• Slashdot discussed Apple Reportedly Luring Ex-Google Mappers With Jobs

From official sources:

• Google Maps now offers underwater imagery, a topic discussed by Slashdot in Google Captures 'Street View' of Underwater Habitats
• Street View reaches other new places, introducing Imagery of Chile and Croatia on Google Maps, and Andorra too
• Google Maps for Android has been updated, and you get all your Google Maps searches in one place
• Live Road Traffic Launches in 3 New Countries, in three new cities: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City, Kuwait and Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Your can now explore the great indoors of France with Google Maps for Android

From other sources:

• Slashdot discussed California Legalizes Self Driving Cars, and to my knowledge, Google is leading the way the car's future
• Here's Geoception, a new Google Earth-based game: "In a nutshell, you command and control a fleet of combat drones to provide local and regional security, eventually taking over the whole world."
• The GEB also offers an entry named Cambodians fighting malaria with SMS and Google Earth
• And yes, there was another imagery update

With today's release of iOS 6, Slashdot discusses a story named Major Backlash Looms For Apple's New Maps App.

Their summary: "Michael DeGusta writes that Apple's new Maps app is the very first item on their list of major new features in iOS 6, but for many iPhone and iPad users around the world Apple's new maps are going to be a major disappointment as the Transit function will be lost in 51 countries, the Traffic function will be lost in 24 countries, and the Street View function will be lost in 41 countries. 'In total, 63 countries with a combined population of 4.5 billion people will be without one or more of these features they previously had in iOS,' writes DeGusta. 'Apple is risking upsetting 65% of the world's population, seemingly without much greater purpose than speeding the removal of their rival Google from iOS. Few consumers care about such battles though, nor should they have to.' The biggest losers will be Brazil, India, Taiwan, and Thailand (population: 1.5 billion) which overnight will go from being countries with every maps feature (transit, traffic, and street view) to countries with none of those features, nor any of the new features, flyover and turn-by-turn directions. Apple's maps are clearly behind in some key areas, but they will presumably continue to improve over time. Google has committed to making their maps available everywhere, so it seems likely Google will release their own iOS maps app soon, as they did with YouTube, which has similarly been removed from iOS 6."

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source front:

• Wonder where OpenLayers 3 is heading?
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.4 was released
• Here's a short entry on creating hillshades with gdaldem

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly links to a few interesting stats on mobile maps in the context of Apple Maps vs Google Maps, including "In the US, Google gets about 31 million users a month on its Maps app on iOS. On average those users spend more than 75 minutes apiece in the app each month." and "90% of all iOS users used the Google Maps app at least once during April 2012. Only 71% of Android users used the Google Maps app."
• Slashdot discussed a story named Chuck Schumer Tells Apple and Google To "Curb Your Spy Planes", referring to the new high-resolution imagery coming later this year to Apple Maps and Google Maps

In the maps category:

• TMR shares an entry on fantasy maps, with the book 'Here be dragons' by Stefan Ekman
• Via O'Reilly, I stumbled onto the Art of GPS article which shares beautiful GPS-related visualizations, here's the U.S. electricity network

24 hours ago Apple announced  the new 'Maps' app for iOS 6, which includes turn-by-turn navigation, real-time traffic and 3D maps: "Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature. All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever."

Here's the reactions on the geoblogs and other sources:

• Let's start with MacRumors which were amongst the first to let us know about it
• Spatially Adjusted links to the Apple attribution page for the Maps app, and it's TomTom data for navigation amongst other sources, and not surprisingly, there's still OpenStreetMap data in there like for the latest Photo app

• Spatially Adjusted also shares an interesting entry named Will Apple Maps Impact Web Mapping? "Thus in the short term, it becomes one more API we must learn if we are deploying to Apple devices. [...] Second, it might not be useful for GIS applications. [...] Third, if you are already using Google or Mapbox, do you really need to switch?"
• Peter Batty also shares an interesting reaction: "Another interesting development is that a good number of major car manufacturers have committed to adding a button on their steering wheel within the next 12 months that will activate Siri on your iOS device, which will make iOS devices even more attractive as in car devices. [...] The most obvious thing missing from Apple Maps that Google Maps has is Street View. They also didn't mention anything about an offline mode, which Google announced last week. [...]  Another thing missing, which I use a lot on Google Maps on my iPhone, is routing using public transit."
• Adena at APB is collecting 'facts' about Apple's new Maps app

• The Map Room links to Cult of Mac's 4-minutes hands-on demonstration of the Apple Maps app
• You can read more on The Verge, Gizmodo, and several other generic sources 
• If you want to see the 10-minutes video announcement and demo of the Maps app, fast forward to about 98 minutes into the talk

I expect more Apple Maps information and analysis in the coming weeks, and by the time it becomes available as part of iOS 6 "next Fall".