Map this, Nokia

I just saw where Nokia has pulled their Here maps app from the iOS app store.

When approached for a comment, a Nokia spokesperson sent The Indian Express an official statement. It read, "We have made the decision to remove our HERE Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of HERE Maps under m.here.com., offering them core location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge.

I tried it as an alternative to Telenav's GPS app that I was using, and it was missing a lot of information related to...maps, plus it didn't seem to work with my contacts.  It was requiring me to pull off the road each time, copy and paste the address, and wait and wait, and that just didn't work for me.

The app came at a time when Apple was replacing Google's backend with Tom Tom's data and their own data-economical interface.  Everyone knows how smoothly that transition went.  After years of Google holding back, waiting for Apple to use every Google mobile service, Apple said "No more!" and went their own way.

Tom Tom's data is still flawed, but with so much input, it's become better, although it's still confused in dense city driving, and my iPhone's compass sometimes calls "interference".  I was using Telenav's GPS app (Telenav switched from Navteq data to Tom Tom) in Fort Lee, NJ a bit off course, and it immediately told me to turn around.  That was its favorite command to anywhere I was going, even with the feature phone versions.  After two years of premium upgrades, I let it go.  I downloaded their Scout app recently, even though I never understood the difference between the applications.  They seemed to give you everything for free with Scout, whereas they wanted you to pay for voice-guided navigation with the GPS app.  After so many years of having their products with success, I'm not completely giving up, even though it's of minimal use.

Thanks to Yelp, I use Apple's Maps application much more and it's generally good, although it has been confused at times, like all the rest--the worst of the mess is far behind us.

I use Waze quite a lot, especially on long trips.  Going to California, it was my companion.  It still asks if I'm seeing a slowdown when I'm sitting at a red light, so I type "red light" in the comment and tap Send.  Whether they take note or not, I don't know.  Nothing seems to change, even after months.  I don't have access to add stoplights through their map editor at this point.  It's good to see where accidents are and when there are hazards on the road.  Scout apparently has the ability to report such problems also.

I'm less enamored of Google's Maps application--or maybe of their maps.  While they're mostly fine, they can be off a bit for whatever reason.  Again, a good reason to carry more than one app.  I didn't use their maps on the road except for the year that I had an Android-based phone.  I don't remember Telenav having an app for Android.  That was a very difficult year with a lot of misdirection.  I saw my review of Google's app the other day and it wasn't complimentary.  However, I've used the app on iOS a few times recently and it seems okay.

Update 2014.02.18: I tried to use Telenav's Scout the way I have used Waze--driving and reporting.  It doesn't seem to work that way.  I could report while navigation was engaged but not otherwise.  It's probably a new user problem, but knowing Telenav, I wonder.  I did a search for a business and it couldn't find it.  When I checked on arrival, it knew that it was there, and that I was there.

Apple's iOS Maps fixed?

In the last few weeks I've used Apple's maps a few times.  The only time they failed me was when they were given the incorrect address.

When I originally used Apple's Map app with Google maps, I was doubtful about Google's maps because the directions Google had given me previously often put me several blocks away of my destination.  So, when I switched to an iPhone, I went with a Telenav app because their apps on my various phones got me where I was going.

However, I was confused when I first used their app on the iPhone.  I was getting strange directions and a couple of roads were called "country road" instead of their names.  I realized something--the Navteq that I saw in my feature phone versions of the Telenav GPS app now said TomTom.

I was trying to get to a shopping center in New Jersey, just south of the George Washington Bridge but I hadn't been there for several years and I took a wrong exit in Fort Lee.  I started the Telenav app and it immediately told me to "turn around", which always seemed its favourite thing to say.  I worked out where I was and found the road, but the app wouldn't shut up, even after I closed it.

So, I tried other apps like Waze trying to find something that worked for me.  Waze was cute and was helpful in avoiding trouble but wasn't helpful in navigating.  It was better as a live map to view traffic backups.  However, it would ask me if I was in heavy traffic when I was at a red light.  Once I finished my trip, I removed it and have never used it again.  Here is an interesting tidbit: Google supposedly has bought Waze and Apple never bid too seriously on the company.

Telenav and my memory have worked pretty well, but I hesitated to subscribe again.  Since my new car and Bluetooth connection, the audio doesn't seem to work, which is most of the reason for the subscription.  Of course, Telenav doesn't have a problem...ever.

That brought me back to the Apple app.  It uses the same TomTom maps, which is both a blessing and a curse.  It has given me easy audio directions, plus an easy to understand display that doesn't shift with the orientation of the phone.  It has worked well and got me where I needed to go without trouble.  The roads now have the correct name.  The best thing about it is that it works well with a 2G data connection.

What's that mean?  Too many times, I've been between cities and I get slow map updates or none at all.  The GPS knows exactly where I am because that's independent of cellular data, but figuring out where I am (other than "here") is impossible.

I suppose Apple has forced TomTom to get their act together and that's a good thing for anyone using the TomTom maps.

Update 2013.06.17: Since I've been back in Philly and Jersey, I've been using navigation more.  I think TomTom's maps in Jersey are just not very good.  I can't blame them for not being able to handle jughandles, but they need to get me into the correct lane before the intersection, not when I'm unable to switch.  I had quite a bit of fun getting from Freehold Raceway Mall back to Northeast Philly via Trenton but it did save me the bridge toll.  If I'd been using gasoline, I'd probably have burned up the money I'd have spent on bridge toll looping around the bridge, though.

I used Waze on the trip from Ohio to Philly and into Jersey.  It finally knows about stop lights!!  I complained when I first used it last year that it would ask me why there was a slowdown but there was no red light button to tap.  Now, it shows the stop lights.  However, it still asks the same question about slowdowns where a stop light has not been added at an intersection and there is still no button to tap.  Recently, at a major intersection in Ohio, it asked if there was a slowdown while I was sitting at the red light.  I replied "stop light" in the comment.  I got an e-mail later that it was unresolved "The map problem you reported on Waze on Jul 7, (stop light) has been reviewed by benjaminmeyer2013 but wasn't resolved, most likely due to insufficient information or non-exact location."  They pointed me to the position on the map editor, but I have no way to add stop lights.  smh  Why lesser intersections show stop lights and that one doesn't--I'll never know.  I have somehow activated the voice recognition a number of times but I'm not sure how to do that.  It never seems to work when I want.  It must be me.

Update 2013.08.18: Having been 5702 miles to San Jose, California and back, I've had a chance to use Apple's Maps and Waze more extensively.  Both become confused and apparently, there is also a problem with compass interference with my iPhone 4S, as it regularly switches directions when I stop--or an app complains about compass interference.  This could be my substantial electro-magnetic field or just some typical flaw in circuitry.  Who knows?

For the most part, the apps worked well and either could get me where I wanted to go.  I thought that the Apple/TomTom data was somewhat more reliable and straightforward, especially in San Jose.  I tried using navigation for a few miles and a few hundred miles.  When there were more intricacies on city streets, Apple/TomTom got me there but with the compass interference, I had to ignore some of the instructions when stopped.  Waze was better at ignoring the compass interference, but maybe because it decided on odd routes.

I never did really get the hang of walking navigation until it was too late.  I really had trouble in San Francisco and I might as well have been using a paper map.  That said, I got to see a lot of the city that was interesting, but my feet got more action than they should have.

I still don't understand why Apple didn't purchase the company behind Waze.  They're apparently working on this crowd-sourced information anyway, so it would have been a quicker step, but as quickly as Google has integrated the information into Google Maps, I'd think that they were working with Waze for a year beforehand, and the purchase was just the formality of it all.

Update 2014.02.22: I was using Yelp, which uses Apple's Maps application.  The Maps application told me to turn a certain way onto the highway.  The only problem is that there was no entrance there.  I was in a shopping mall parking lot a few hundred feet from the road, and I had to go the opposite direction to exit the mall.

Since the last update, I bought an iPhone 5c.  Today, I noticed the same direction switching.  It doesn't happen nearly as often.  It happened twice, rather than at every intersection.

Apple has bought several transit mapping companies, including the people behind the Embark apps.  I was using one in California.  I still don't know if they've made any progress with their Maps application but it was amusing today. 

Update 2015.12.08: I just saw article-after-article about Apple Maps being the dominant maps on iOS.  Obviously, Google Maps are used more overall.   That shouldn't surprise anyone since Android is in many more places.  There are certainly quite a few US$50.00 and cheaper Android-based phones for prepaid service.

I don't use Apple Maps that often.  Usually, I'm using Waze, which is owned by Google.  Waze is somewhat problematic, thinking that I want to head into freeway traffic jams, rather than faster local roads.  Apple Maps has been particularly bad about not having shopping center entrances mapped and telling me to make a U-turn at the next street.

They're both a pain, in that they lag enough that they don't tell me in time, when I'm leaving a parking lot, to be on the opposite side of the road for a maneuver.

Waze is cutesy mapping and navigation

Crowdsourcing is something fairly new.  It requires everyday people to help supply information.  Waze, the maps and navigation utility app, uses crowdsourcing to get the job done.

Since I've been on a trip from Eastern Indiana to the Orlando, Florida area, I thought I'd try the app on iOS.  A lot of people raved about it before Apple brought their new maps to iOS, and since then, the suggestions have become a call to arms, virtually.

So, here I was on a trip I estimated at about 1000 miles one way.  I've driven it probably 12 times and lived in the Orlando area for 11 years, so there was hardly a chance of being truly lost, and that's a good time to try something new.

I was somewhat amused by the marshmallow like character with the teething device to show a newbie.  There are many different levels of users.

As I drove from my town to Hamilton, OH a couple of times, and then, to Cincinnati, it was somewhat helpful.  Of course, the maps will allow you to see the roads ahead, so you can make wiser decisions about lane changes before you try to cross 3 lanes full of traffic to make your turn on time.

I noticed a couple of problems:

• At an intersection, it will sometime ask you if you're in traffic, when you're stopped at a red light "We detected a slowdown.  Are you in traffic?"  They need a red light button to tap.
• It often changes the orientation 90 degrees and then, to 180 degrees from your actual orientation, showing you headed from whence you came.  Of course, it flips you back when you start to move.  It's rather dis-orienting.

Driving from Cincinnati, OH on the trip to Chattanooga, TN, I didn't notice much of a problem.  You can warn of objects on the road, on the side of the road, and also warn of police.  Considering shredded tires and cars slightly off to the side, this can be advantageous, especially in pouring rain and darkness.  I've noticed that the police are sometime not where it says that they are, so maybe the police are using the app too?

Most of my experience from Chattanooga to Orlando, FL was similar until I left I-75.  I had not lived in the area for four years, and I wasn't sure that the tolls hadn't increased a great deal.  Remembering that they didn't take bills over $20, I decided to go toll free, even at a longer ride.

When I tried the navigation, just outside Orlando near Ocoee, it gave me two options: use Florida's Turnpike or use Florida's Turnpike.  I didn't investigate further for the same reason.  It never gave me an option to take a local road, and I couldn't just tap "No tolls" or "Local roads only" because there was no such option.  You can go into settings and choose to not use toll roads.  That will work fine in Florida but getting across Pennsylvania is tough without the PA Turnpike.

I asked a question in the forums, especially after I ended up taking the toll road partway and it was directing me toward an exit that was marked electronic tolls only.  The first answer I got was rude, like "It's not an auto pilot.  You need to use your brain."  That's a great first impression.  (My second impression of him was worse.)  I've been using navigation apps for 6 years and someone (who was an area Waze manager), tells me I'm an idiot for expecting an app not to give me ridiculous information.  I guess because it's free, I should give it more latitude?  Telenav gave me bad advice and I had to ignore it also, since I was going in the correct direction.  (Why does Telenav always start by telling me to "turn around"?)  In any case, had I no clue about Florida's Turnpike, I might have trusted the app.  Instead, I took an exit I knew to be safe.

If this is all about the people, and there are so many smartasses using the app, I think there isn't much reason to expect real help.

I was interested but now, seeing that it's cute and amateur-ish, I'm inclined to just use Telenav again, regardless of their issues.  There are other alternatives also like Garmin, TomTom (suppliers of maps/map components to Telenav and Apple), and since yesterday, Nokia's Navteq mapping solution Here.  Eventually, Apple's data-conscious maps will work just fine.  Google's maps are still available through a browser, if I want to be at the wrong block on the wrong side of the road, wondering why the road name doesn't match.

I've tried Nokia's Here and it's not here yet.  I can't access my contacts and that makes it more difficult.  Obviously, nothing is great.

Update 2014.12.05: I've used Waze from coast to coast and it is good enough, especially after it was acquired by Google.  It has become better in searching for businesses, for navigation.  Reporting problems has become more useful.  I'm amused that it asks me if there is a slowdown when I'm at a stop light that is red.