Apple updates iOS 6, Safari Apple updated its iOS mobile operating system on Thursday – and no, it didn't fix the deservedly maligned Maps app – along with an update for its Safari web browser for OS X 10.7.5 Lion and OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion . The Safari update weighs in at a trim – for Apple, at least – 47MB, but the iOS update, downloading at this …
Seriously? Google's maps can be accessed through Safari on any iOS device: just visit maps.google.com. It even offers more features than the old app. Did it not occur to you to try it? You can even pin the page to one of the iOS home pages if you want, so it opens up like an app.
There are also any number of (often free) GPS navigation apps for iOS devices. Those even give you offline maps, albeit without the pretty aerial photography.
As for Apple's own Maps app: there's nothing wrong with that either. The dataset is not part of the application itself, so why you expect an iOS update to fix it escapes me. The iOS Maps application has barely changed: the only new bits are the vector-based data handling and the 3D "flyover" feature. That's it. Everything else is much as it was in iOS 5 – even down to the littler page curl in the lower-right corner.
The mapping data itself is stored in a database on some servers and downloaded on demand, and that's what is being so heavily criticised by people (who presumably don't live anywhere near me in Italy).
The Maps app is just an intermediary – a client. No amount of iOS updates will change that. Your post shows a shocking amount of ignorance about how this kind of application works. Which is impressive given that this is an IT website.
Google's mapping data was shit in the beginning too. Where I live, it's still pretty mediocre, and dangerously outdated in places. (In fact, Apple's dataset is better than Google's and even has the local roads – including a ten-year-old bypass that Google's database still doesn't seem to know about – labelled correctly.)
So Apple clearly don't have a monopoly on dodgy map data. Google have, however, had rather longer to sort theirs out. I wonder what their excuse is.
Funny, this argument... 'just use the website, instead of the app! Much better than any app! More functionality compared to the app!'.
That's what people were saying when the BlackBerry Playbook was launched. But no, apps were it. Without apps, playbook was branded an epic fail!
-proud playbook owner, looking smug, and happily typing this out on his playbook tablet. Without using apps. The playbook contains a gps, btw. Unlike that other 'mini-me' tablet.
Google cannot provide an app. The ToS that Apple has for the app store stipulates that apps cannot "compete" with built-in apps. So if Apple approved it, then they would for all apps that compete and thus violate their own ToS. Apps have been pulled from the app store in the past because Apple added similar functionality into iOS itself. So I wouldn't hold your breath on Google "helping" Apple fix their issue by create a Google Maps app. They are going to make Apple live by their ToS and suffer the consequences.
Not sure what's wrong with everyone. The new maps app I've found is more accurate in my area (Phoenix, Arizona) finally showing my dentist on the correct northwest corner of the nearby intersection rather than the southwest corner Google maps always showed him on. The turn by turn directions have been accurate and helpful and I've probably used them about 30 times, always with 100% accuracy. I suppose if you don't drive yourself around and want to use mass transit it must be a downgrade but we don't really have much in the way of mass transit here so I didn't notice the loss. In fact if the previous maps app did something with regards to mass transit I wasn't aware of it. Lastly street view was cute but I'm not missing it. You could argue the 3D building view on the new iOS maps app is just as cute and useless.
But, they do not rock with Koreans, with Liancourt Rocks showing up instead of Dokdo (on Google's maps, and both Dokdo and Takeshima on Apple's maps), on maps of Korea outside of Korea. Seems to be causing problems for Appke in Korea.
Apple uses the utterly rubbish excuse that it cannot use Kokdo on Korean maps because Korean law prohibits taking map data out of the country. Oh, so, we can SEE Korean words and names other than Dokdo, but not Dokdo. Lame excuse. Besides, when i was in China in August, Korean names shiwed up in googlemapps, so, why was Apple having a problem if Google was not, at the time?
Maybe there is more to the sacking of Korea's Apple head?
May really be maps related.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/10/26/2012102601282.html
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/11/02/2012110200577.html
"However, Dokdo is not disputed territory, since it is officially administered by Korea and Japan merely insists on a flimsy colonial-era claim to the islets.
Tokyo nonetheless seems to have persuaded global tech firms like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that it would be more "neutral" to use names that would appear to legitimize the Japanese claim.
According to reports on Thursday, Apple has decided to show both the Korean and Japanese names for the Dokdo islets in its new English-language mapping service for the iPhone, apparently under pressure from Japan."
Well lucky you. Where I am, the maps are in black and white, and at awful resolution. Try looking up some famous landmarks to test out the fluff that is the 3D view, pick the suggestion the app gives you and "no results found". How can that be when it was the app that suggested it in the first place?! If you want to have public transport information, tap the icon to get some "suggestions" of other apps you could use to find what you need. Well that would be peachy if any of them actually had data on the transit systems around me.
The Safari update weighs in at a trim – for Apple, at least – 47MB, but the iOS update, downloading at this very moment onto your Reg reporter's three-plus-year-old iPhone 3GS, is a Brobdingnagian 780.5MB.
...
As per usual, the Safari update can be downloaded from Apple's Mac App Store by clicking – what else? – the Updates icon in the App Store app, now at version 1.2.1. The iOS update is accessible through the Summary pane of the iTunes after selecting your target in the Devices list in the left-hand pane.
Well, you can also get the iOS update by going to Settings->General->Software Update on the phone itself -- where it weighs in at a svelte 69.7MB.
Except of course the maps app has been updated. The pixellated sections of Gloucestershire have been fixed and the black and white images are now in colour. The 3D terrain (not the 3D cities) also seems to have been tweaked slightly to be more dramatic as well.
The app is perfectly usable and it's only people with an axe to grind who will continue to try and make it out to be broken.
Maps is now showing road numbers in the UK for A and B roads and some errors close to me have been fixed - one town particularly has moved from the side of a hill to its real location.
There are still some bad spelling mistakes and weird location names in London. And of course no street view. And the vertical location data and OpenGL mesh rendering still looks strange and squishily Dali-esque in most places.
But it's getting close to being usable.
Problem is devs still can't use turn-by-turn because if we do MapKit kills our apps and opens Maps instead.
Apple of course has not updated Safari (or much else) for Snow Leopard users who are stuck with Safari vs 5.0. No security updates ..zilch..typical...
Of course as good little Apploids we are supposed to drop everything upgrade to Lion or Mountain Lion ..fine but then I lose a range of applications needing PPC code (yes they still exist).
I am sorry this continues to be a huge security FAIL!
@ HipposRule
"Why the flip are you using a map app to drive near your home - are you that dumb?"
Why even bother with this post? Just to be nasty?
There two blindingly obvious reasons to use the maps app when driving near your home:
1. To test it so that you can see whether it's likely to work how you want it to work when you are in places that you do not know so well.
2. Because it has traffic awareness, which you do not have, and so may well find you a quicker route home / to wherever you're going.
Also, there's always the possibility that the OP has just moved to the area and doesn't know the roads so well. In fact, if you live in a big town or city it can take a long time to get to know all the little ways around, especially if like most of us you spend most of your time driving to and from work and shops rather than just out driving down side streets for fun.
WTF Apple.
Personally cant get the safari security update. Try to download and get ... (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.) (102). Don't know what that is, but even tried the old switch it off and back on again trick - nothing. Won't download.
Is it me or is there an increasing trend of bugs in Apple's software?
My f@#£ing iPhone 5 going to 'No Service', then deciding it's going to stay there - Even when I drive right up to a pissing cell tower.
I've taken two handsets back to apple since the ip5 came out. One for a large scratch on the back when I unboxed it, and another one for 'signal problems'. This is my third, and no matter what I try - 75% of the time I get my phone out of my pocket to check, it appears to be stuck on 'No Signal', until I give in and toggle aeroplane mode, and it magically jumps back to full signal. Interestingly, when stuck on this 'No Signal' mode, if I fire up NavFree, my GPS will not work either, yet both return to normality after toggling... I do note from the Apple update notes that they also included a possible fix for this...
"• Resolves an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances"
Also, has anyone else noticed that after using navigation software for anything over 30 seconds, the phone gets ridiculously hot? (And this is WITHOUT the handset on charge).
I'm starting to seriously regret not going for the GS3.. :-(
My f@#£ing iPhone 5 going to 'No Service', then deciding it's going to stay there - Even when I drive right up to a pissing cell tower.
I used to get that with an iPhone 3GS - I had to reboot to get the signal back, and this was in the middle of London not out in the sticks. The ultimate solution proved to be getting a different brand of phone ...
There seems to be an issue with network settings, mine (4s) sometimes gets its knickers in a twist too and refuses to find the 3G network. Go into settings, and in "General" there is a "reset" option. If you select "network reset", it nukes any stored data, and will probably work again. The only problem is that it will lose any stored WiFi passwords so you'll have to re-enter them, but I found it generally the quickest way to make it behave again.
Not sure what it is or why, but it happens about every 2 months or so.
I have similar issues with my 4S. It will often drop down to Edge, GPRS or no signal which is resolved by switching Airplane mode on and off. Same thing used to happen on my 4 as well. This is a pretty basic thing for a mobile phone and it has put me off getting a 5. Indeed, I only got a 4S because my 4 got stolen prior to end of contract!
The maps app is serviceable but in London it is a bit of a pain as it doesn't show the tube stations unless you zoom right in and then you cant see much of the surrounding area (which is handy if you are working out the best way of getting somewhere). It also doesnt actually label them with the station name or differentiate between underground and overground stations, they all use the same icon, so you end up tapping on them to see what they are. Bit poor really for a major capital city
"...downloading at this very moment onto your Reg reporter's three-plus-year-old iPhone 3GS..."
iOS 6 must be painful to use on a 3GS.
I found iOS 5 to be almost an "upgrade too far" —my 3GS feels positively lethargic a lot of the time now. But I've stuck with it, because the free messaging over wifi in iMessages is worth the pain. I don't see any reason to upgrade to iOS 6 though. There's nothing new apart from a [better / worse / different*] maps app and bloody ArseFace built-in —which counts as a downgrade, in my book.
*Delete as appropriate
Unfortunately a lot of people, including me, are finding that the App Store Safari update won't download, with users getting the message "HT1222 Error: The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.)(102)"
Luckily CNET have a version that does download and install. Never met up with this problem before.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
