If I remember correctly the Apple maps are/will be based on Openstreetmap project. If that's the cas, and Apple will provide content to the open community then I think it's great idea they are moving on from Google. But with Apple's history in basically everything my hopes for them helping the Openstreetmaps are low.
not sure about LLVM/Clang, but they based webkit on KHTML, leaving them no choice but to open source it. Apple does good for open source (CUPS being another example), but make no mistake: they're not doing it to be charitable
Who said they were? Better yet, who is? Which for-profit companies contributing to open source solely for charitable purposes? One of the primary reasons anybody — individual or company — invests time and energy into an open source project is because, when all is said and done, it's in their shared interest to do so. Sometimes the invested time pays dividends, sometimes it's mostly charity. But few people — and even fewer for-profit companies — participate in open source projects to be "charitable."
I think it's really great to have some competition in the maps world (Google, OpenStreetMap, Apple, Bing, MapQuest), but I'm worried that Apple won't allow Google maps to put out their own app on iOS, meaning if it's inferior, we're stuck with it.
Yes. I wont be updating to IOS 6 unless there is a choice of mapping apps. I'm sure Apple maps will be a good product, but unless it's really as good as Google, or I can still install a Google maps app, then I will not update to 6.
I'm less concerned about transit and walking routing (because I am sure Apple will get there), but more concerned about search of maps. OSM search is currently nowhere near the level of Google maps search.
On google maps I can search for things like "usps near south lake tahoe" and it do what I expect. Try that on OSM, or anything remotely not a well formed address. Google maps has some sophisticated logic for biasing towards current location, and it knows the names of places, like 'moscone center', or 'facebook offices'. And of coruse, I cna mispel them all and it still find it.
If Apple maps can't do the same, then no matter how pretty the 3D view is, it will disable one of the main (for me) functions of the device.
you shouldn't ignore that Apple's trying to do what it's taken Google 10 years to do. They'll get it right, but expecting feature parity on day one isn't reasonable. At the end of the day there are humans making all this stuff work.
Out of curiosity, I wonder what it would have taken for Google to provide all of the updates it's provided to the Android Maps app these past few years. Was it just Android and iPhone competition? I feel like there's probably more to the story.
I've switched from iPhone to Android and back to an iPhone again, and the only things I liked better about the Android were Swype and the Maps. The iPhone app is at least now servicable. The 6.0 will break it for me (I use transit directions all the time), so I'm left hoping Google saves the day.
