Tim Cook responds to iOS 6 Map app issues in public letter
by Justin Horn on Sep 28th, 2012 @ 9:23 amTo our customers,
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.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.
While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
Good to see Apple respond to this. Not really saying too much, but admitting they fell short and are working to improve is a step in the right direction. People can respect that, rather than feeling Apple’s arrogance if they kept ignoring or denying the issue. I don’t see any other way they could have responded. In this case the critics were right, the new Maps was a step down in usability, with the only bright spots being the 3D mode and turn by turn.
I miss Steve a lot here though, he would’ve just told us we were tapping it wrong.
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[app review] vlingo comes to iPhone
by Justin Horn on Dec 4th, 2008 @ 12:36 am
I hadn’t heard of this app until today as this has only been a Blackberry toy up until now. Following Gruber on Twitter I saw he was playing with vlingo [iTunes link] earlier today and he seems like a pretty cool guy so I thought I would give it a try. I have to say I already find this more useful than the new google mobile app. The voice recognition quality seems on par with google and I think google is probably the best out there in this field. The new google mobile app does have the cool lift the phone to your face and speak trick (look ma, no hands), but as Gruber pointed out a few weeks ago they used undocumented APIs…so you can’t blame vlingo for not bending the rules on their first version. I have a feeling in a future update they might do something similar to what google is doing. Also, the google mobile app doesn’t yet support my favorite feature of vlingo and I would take this feature over the hands free any day.
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iPhone 2.2 released on November 21!
by Justin Horn on Nov 21st, 2008 @ 12:48 amWell the rumors were right, iPhone firmware is out early Friday morning (or Thursday night) Eastern Standard Time. Didn’t think we would see this until middle of the day tomorrow. So this concludes our when will iPhone 2.2 firmware be released? poll. Thank you to all of those of you that participated!
To get it just make sure you update to the latest iTunes (8.0.2) and plug in your iPhone and go!
Here are the release notes:
iPhone 2.2 Software Update
This update contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:
• Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View
- public transit and walking directions
- display address of dropped pins
- share location via email
• Enhancements to Mail
- resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching
of email
- improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes
application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
• Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes
you to the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard
Setting
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