So much for the “Apple is all about privacy whereas Google monetizes you” schtick.
It seems to me that advertising is the real secret cabal that is running the world.
“Secret cabal” as in capitalism and its imperatives sure, pretty out in the open though.
Me: “What the fuck? I didnt tell it to take me to Starbucks.”
Siri: TRY STARBUCKS NEW PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE NOW AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME
“What the fuck you gonna do? Use Android?!??! Fuck you and and be happy about it” - Tim Apple, probably
Doesn’t Google Maps have ads?
Kind of.
They’re not in your face. But they make sure their sponsors show up on the maps with custom pins
I don’t know. Probably.
The answer you’re looking for is, “Of course it does!”
Sundar Pichai: “Huh, well I guess we’ll just follow Tim Apple’s lead and start injecting ads in google maps and anyone who uses google maps API too.”
There are already ads in Google Maps, there is nothing for them to follow.
What? Where are they? Maybe it depends on the region…
Between this and android phones with ads on lockscreens, I’m ready for someone to finally release a good Linux phone.
or at least something I can install on a Google pixel
graphene with no play store.
Aren’t there privacy friendly OSes you can already install on your Google Pixel?
yes
Organic Maps or OsmAnd is out there, just saying.
Wanting to mention CoMaps and that it was forked from Organic Maps.
The projects aren’t very diverged yet so you can still migrate your pins with an easy export/import
Organic Maps is so fucking good, I keep so much of it downloaded as a backup for when I’m offline, because it just works. That said, I still use Google maps due to the reviews of businesses and traffic data when navigating normally, but it’s good to know a great alternative is out there.
Sadly, finding businesses and traffic data are 99% of the reason I open google maps. I have organic installed, but I’ve since found out that “I want to go somewhere I don’t know the way to but have found out the street address some other way, and I don’t care about the traffic in between” simply doesn’t happen.
It happens for me when I’m offline and the stupid Google Maps downloads didn’t work. I don’t even bother with downloading Google Maps any more, I just use CoMaps instead.
You might want to switch to CoMaps. Most developers fled there after the owners of Organic Maps showed shady behaviour regarding donations and the future of the project
I’ll check it out. Any links to articles on the shady behavior?
Edit: CoMaps is like Organic Maps but better, regardless of the development practices, neato.
This is a good place to start reading :)
Wow, interesting stuff. Huge thanks for the tip off about CoMaps.
Are they CarPlay enabled?
Yes Organic Maps and CoMaps (its open community fork) both support Car Play
OsmAnd does have a CarPlay option. Dunno about Organic Maps and its forks.
Everything is shitty! 🎶
OrganicMaps isn’t.
OpenStreetMap for the win, my peoples.
Specifically OSMAnd.
Works perfectly as long as you already know where you’re going!
And the local community keeps locations up to date
Seen big cities that are great in mapping every flower pot, but have restaurants and shops that don’t exist for over half a decade
Even when they are up to date the search blows.
I tried to find something the other day and just because it’s funny here are the results. The business is called X’s Y but in osm it’s stored as Xs, no apostrophe.
- osmand: no results
- magic earth: finds Xs, fails X’s-- obviously humans recognize this as identical so the current search algo will never reliably find this store regardless of data entry
- comaps: no results, when I added the full real name (X’s Y, it showed me Ya terrace, Y with one letter swapped avenue, etc)
So you tell me, if it can’t find a restaurant for which it has existing data, why is it the users’ fault for not collecting more data?
For me it works perfectly. Try out Organic Maps or one of its forks then?
That’s comaps now that organic is persona non grata
I don’t really know what happened but when your app only works with community support and the community hates you enough to hard fork the app, it’s time to switch.
Might be worth looking deeper into it though, in why the forkers hate the dev.
The only difference between these maps and their data is the effort by the community to update it. Google doesn’t pay people to update places, they entice them with points and advertising. Google and Apple maps would be no different from OSM if no one updated them
sure. doesn’t change the problem, though
(if more people used Street Complete, it would make the problem a lot better)
Google maps only ever knew where you were going because Ingress players and Google “local guides” filled in all the data for them.
Update the out of date data. Its not hard and the more people use it the more accurate the places data will be.
You can complain about why google works better if you want to, but it still does.
Your response also ignores the fundamental problem: even when the data is in open street maps, the search still sucks. No, I didn’t mean any of 20 things in Italy, I meant the Italian restaurant a mile away.
I use OSMAnd and the search is a lot better, not sure what client you are using.
Oh I’m running osmand~ and comaps and magic earth.
And by running I mean I occasionally confirm its still not good enough yet
It is a trade off though.
I may not be able to see the “nearest restaurants with reviews of 4 stars that are open now with no wait times” BUT I have been so many places where google or apple had not updated the map yet and only OSM got me where I was going.
So maybe it is fine to open a commercial map or local review site, or blog, or web page, that is not tracking you for store discovery, then put the address in OSM to actually get there.
And take the time to use street complete when you can, it is really easy and fills in things like hours open, accessibility, etc.
StreetComplete to help fill in the gaps. GeoShare to translate google/apple maps locations to geocoordinates for OSM, and then adding the place in OSMAnd if you login with the OpenStreetMaps editor plugin. This is how those of us who adopted Google Maps early added so much of their data…
stupid because people literally pay alot of money for Apple tech,but maybe greed got into them.
People actually use Apple Maps?
Here in Cali I’ve noticed it’s actually better. Google Maps has been ass for the last 4 years for me. Wrong data, it takes me randomly off the freeway only to loop my back and put me right back where I got off. It has completely wrong traffic data, and it has road closures it thinks are still open. When I travel around the bay for work I mostly use Apple Maps.
I experienced the same glitches that everyone else did when it first launched but it’s been perfectly fine for years. My gf’s android Google Maps will routinely have us make several turns just to end up on the same road we were already traveling on so navigation is done on my phone and the playlist on hers.
Yeah, the first time it happened on Google Maps I thought it was just an issue with like that small section of bridge/overpass, but then it did it again and I was just stuck in the same traffic but now even further behind. It was incredibly odd. By like the 4th time I was like “ok, if I don’t stop using you then it’s on me for being so frustrated.”
Apple Maps had a rough few months at its start, but it’s never let me down since — I’ve used it to drive across country (many times, many directions) and across town. Combined with CarPlay, it’s the only digital screen I’d ever want in my car’s dashboard.
Ads would destroy the only thing I’ve enjoyed about newer cars in decades.
I do because it currently doesn’t have ads
Switch a while ago from Google Maps. It’s pretty damn great.
yes my ex does, why i dunno lol
On iOS you can install a system-wide DNS configuration profile for AdGuard without having to install any app.
It doesn’t deal with ads served up from the exact same API/domain as the content, but any source of ads that is drawn from a different domain can be blocked and usually is blocked.
About the only apps I still see ads in are YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook. All apps that use third-party advertising feeds have those ads blocked.
Treat the cause, not the symptom.
Treat the cause,
Right. Like obtaining a controlling interest in Apple is just so easy to achieve. Now, where did I leave my random trillions?…
cackles maniacally in GrapheneOS
if pixel phones weren’t so expensive id i get one just for graphene
Wow, so brave.
Courage.
Whotf even used Apple Maps lol
Honestly, I use it all the time now since I plug in my phone to my car and it’s right there.
It’s fine. Sometimes I use Google Maps. It’s also fine.
I actually like Apple’s approach to describing when to turn. It’ll say stuff like “go past this light and turn at the next” instead of vague shit like “in 1000 feet turn right.” Bitch, I don’t have a tape measure.
I think people who grip about Apple Maps as it is today probably just haven’t used it and want to gripe for griping sake.
I actually do when I am using my car that doesn’t have a smart system/android auto/carplay. The reason is that it will ping/vibrate my watch when I am getting close to a turn or action. That way I know something is coming up. Thats about the only time I use it.
LosersPeople deep in the apple ecosystem. There’s a surprising number these days.Apparently the Google maps app on ios is very terrible
Friend of mine showed it to me on a quite recent phone and it’s super stuttery and laggy when scrolling around
That’s kinda funny considering what garbage applemaps was when it launched. Google just had to not screw up and I guess they did.
when it launched
Yes. That right there. I switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps and I like it much better. Hell, even the GPS doesn’t play catch up nearly like what Google Maps does. Speed limits are posted for like every street so I know it before I see a sign. It’s more aesthetically pleasing to me than Google Maps as well.
I had the OG Droid, did all the rooting and ROMing on my phones, and went up to the Samsung S8 until I switched. I don’t miss Android, but I’m not a power user either.
A little strange that you think Samsung makes Android phones.
Ooh. Ok, so can you elaborate on this?
Samsung breaks so many things about android and makes them unequivocally worse that it’s hard to call it android
This isn’t my experience, and I had a iPhone 12 Pro up until a couple of weeks ago. Google Maps generally ran alright that I can remember.
On the newest phones it’s really smooth, but those phones also have enough horsepower to make pretty much any app run smoothly.
Honestly I wouldn’t care about the stuttering and sluggishness.
As much as I hate Google, I will have to admit that Google Maps is one of the best pieces of software ever to exist. I try to use Organic Maps and OSMand but Google Maps is just much upto date, has reviews, has real time traffic updates along with road closures. OSM based maps and Apple Maps is way way way way way behind — atleast in my country.
I don’t know if it’s my phone or wifi, when home, but Apple Maps will often be incredibly slow, or just refuse to display tiles when I zoom in or out. Particularly if I change the zoom by quite a bit in one action. It’s very frustrating.
