July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The quality of online maps has been increased significantly in the past few years. So much, in fact, that the CEO of the popular Waze mapping app believes Apple’s maligned Maps app would have been well-liked if it had been released only two years ago.

“Two years ago, [Apple Maps] would have been an amazing product,” Waze CEO Noam Bardin said today on stage at the D: Dive into Mobile event in New York City. “There’s a certain quality bar, and that bar is only going up. You have to pour more and more money into it.”

Waze serves 44 million people in the U.S., South America, Europe, and other locations with apps for iOS and Android. Rumors whisper that Waze provide Apple Maps with data to improve it, but Bardin would not confirm that.

Waze’s biggest competitor for serving directors to drivers is Google. But instead of hiring employees to map the world like Google does, Waze uses volunteers.

“Google is out there creating a standard of quality,” Bardin said. “We feel like we’re the only real competition. Rumors say it is $1 billion to $2 billion spent by Google a year.”

When asked what Waze’s biggest strength is over Google, Bardin said the company does “real time much better.”

Bardin said the U.S. is the largest market for Waze, but it has the largest advantage over Google in South America, where he claims Waze’s maps are better.

The biggest challenge on Waze’s plate? Advertising, something that Google does very well. An audience member that uses Waze frequently complained that the ads Waze serves are actually “annoying” and often only show Taco Bell locations.

Bardin responded by saying the company could do better. “Our job is to make them less annoying or not annoying,” he said.

Noam Bardin photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

A California appellate court decision states that you shouldn’t use your hands to control a mapping app on your phone.

The decision is in response to an appeal that claimed the state’s recent “no texting while driving” law didn’t apply to using a maps app. But, in eight tightly-argued pages, Judge Brian Alvarez ruled that the intention and the wording of the law (California vehicle code section 23123) are meant to prohibit the distraction of using a phone with your hands, regardless of whether you’re writing an SMS message, composing an email, or even checking the time.

Our review of the statute’s plain language leads us to conclude that the primary evil sought to be avoided is the distraction thedriver faces when using his or her hands to operate the phone. That distraction would be present whether the wireless telephone was beingused as a telephone, a GPS navigator, a clock or a device for sending and receiving text messages and emails.

It’s the “hands-on” use of a phone that is the problem targeted by the law, not the specific activity of texting, according to Alvarez.

“This statute … is specifically designed to prevent a driver from using a wireless telephone while driving unless the device is being used in a hands-free manner,” Alvarez concludes.

The ruling doesn’t apply outside of Fresno County, according to the Sacramento Bee, which interviewed Steven Spriggs, the motorist who appealed his “mapping while driving” fine.

In other words, if you’ve got an iPhone, use Siri; if you’ve got an Android phone, use its voice commands. In both cases, rely on the audible turn-by-turn navigation cues — and don’t try to enter a new destination or reroute your trip with your fingertips while you’re driving.

The statute says violators are liable for a $20 fine on the first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses, although Spriggs got hit with a total of $160 in fines.

Via AllThingsD

Image source: Google

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple has been given a hard time about the accuracy of its Maps app in iOS, and yes, the company deserved it. But at least it looks like Apple is taking more serious steps to address issues by hiring “ground truth managers.”

Most of that Maps data is being improved on the server-side, and Apple recently released iOS 6.1.3 with several improvements to Maps.

The company has posted seven openings on its jobs website for “ground truth managers,” all in different parts of the world. These managers are basically assigned to oversee regional teams that collect and improve map data. The teams test new data in the real world to make sure it is accurate.

Here’s the job description for the U.S.-based “ground truth manager”:

The Maps team is searching for a manager for the team responsible for regional map quality and ground truth in the U.S. Each of our regional teams is responsible for the quality of our maps in their region. This team’s responsibilities include:

• Testing new releases of map code and data around the U.S.
• Collecting ground truth data to allow for analysis of the impact of potential map code or data changes relative to known truth.
• Utilizing local expertise to provide feedback about U.S.-specific mapping details.
• Evaluating competing products in-region relative to our maps.

As the manager of this team, you will be expected to drive all of this team’s work, determine where and how to allocate resources and clearly communicate test results and other feedback to teams in Cupertino. The U.S. regional team is also responsible for driving communication between engineering teams in Cupertino and our other regional teams as well as evaluating new regional testing initiatives in close coordination with the rest of the Maps quality team before those initiatives are rolled out to the other regional teams.

The job requires a “Bachelor’s degree in any field with CS or geography/GIS preferred” and a willingness to travel around the United States once or twice every few months.

Openings are available for the U.S., Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APAC, Americas, and the Mideast and Africa.

Photo illustration via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat
Original investigator photo via Shutterstock

As if Apple’s push to get all your data into the cloud weren’t enough, the company now wants to find out exactly where you are while indoors, according to its latest acquisition.

Apple has recently purchased indoor-GPS location service WifiSlam for a cool $20 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report today. While Apple did confirm the purchase of the company, it didn’t comment on the sale price, which WSJ learned from an anonymous source familiar with the deal.

Founded in 2010 by former Google engineering intern Joseph Huang and Jessica Tsoong, WifiSlam develops technology that allows mobile apps to find a person’s exact location inside a building by using Wi-Fi signals. Such tech has been alluring to brick-and-mortar retail organizations that want more location-based data on customers as they browse a store, not to mention museums, malls, and convention centers. VentureBeat first reported on WifiSlam way back in August when the company debuted its technology.

Apple’s purchase isn’t all that surprising, as the company’s location-based services are severely lacking. The company was widely ridiculed when it decided to ditch Google Maps last year in favor of its own native map application for the iPhone. The native app was so bad it caused Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a public apology as well as launch a marketing effort to push iPhone owners to better third-party mapping apps.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

No more unauthorized lock screen access for you!

Apple has released iOS 6.1.3, an update to its mobile operating system that squashes a nasty lock screen bug that could allow unauthorized access to your iPhone, and improves Apple’s much-maligned Maps app.

The lock screen, which is supposed to increase security, was hit with two recent bugs that could allow people in possession of your phone access to your contacts, voicemail, and photos. The first was fairly complicated and the second was simpler, but both involved initiating an emergency call and then canceling it.

In any case, both should be impossible now (I’m sure Apple engineers have their fingers crossed).

Apple also updated its Maps app via the system update, saying that the app would now be better in Japan. That’s a little strange, as most improvements to Maps recently have been server-side, not requiring an app update — and certainly not requiring an operating-system-level update.

In the past few months, Apple has been feverishly updating Maps with new flyovers in 30 global cities including Berlin, London, and Rome, new 3-D building imagery for Milan, Barcelona, Dublin, and nine other cities, and new Chinese maps.

Updating the iPhone’s mapping capability via a system software update, however, suggests that Apple is tying Maps deeper into the base operating system itself. Apple’s Map Kit Framework Reference already enables embedding maps directly into third-party apps, as well as supporting annotations, overlays, and reverse-geocoding lookups.

Perhaps this update will precipitate a few new capabilities for app developers.

The update is available immediately, and was only 18.2 MB for me.

Today, Microsoft announced that the Surface tablet is continuing its worldwide expansion, Yammer revealed its plans to add translation capabilities into conversations, and the Bing updated its Maps feature with a new collection of aerial satellite imagery. Also, European Union regulators announced today that it will fine Microsoft for antitrust violation in the coming months. Oh, and let’s not forget about Microsoft’s sale of Atlas Solutions to Facebook and the Bing Fund’s investment into Sonar. Whew.

Let’s start from the top.

Microsoft will roll out the Surface RT to Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and Taiwan, and the Surface Pro to Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the U.K. in the coming months. VentureBeat’s review found the RT to be a “disappointing compromise,” while the Pro is “full of possibility.” The Pros sold out online within hours of going on sale in early February. Now, these tablets-meet-PCs will be available in markets around the world.

Next is the Yammer news. Yammer is a social network for the enterprise that Microsoft purchased for $1.2 billion in July. The company is working on message translation capabilities that instantly translates Yammer conversations into a user’s native language to “ignite multilingual collaboration.”

“Removing language as a barrier to cross-company collaboration can be a competitive game changer for multinational organizations. It opens a world of possibilities,” said Yammer cofounder Adam Pisoni in a statement.

This feature is courtesy Microsoft’s Translator technology and is an example of Yammer’s “accelerated innovation” following the Microsoft acquisition. The Translator supports 39 languages. This translation is particularly useful for companies that work with international teams. Yammer said that 65 percent of its seven million users are located outside the United States, and this could drive greater international adoption of the service.     

On to lucky number three.

Bing Maps is released over 13 million square kilometers of updated satellite imagery today, which includes “bathymetry” data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Bathymetry is not the study of taking baths, as I initially thought. Rather, it is the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors. Updates also include new base satellite imagery provided by TerraColor, with a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, and “cloud coverage” that makes it easier to see areas such as the Amazon basin and Tierra de Fuego. These updates “change the viewer experience within Bing Maps and the Windows 8 Map App.”

Microsoft was also in the news today for various wheelings, dealings, and run-ins with European regulators.

A report in Reuters this morning said that the European Commission is planning to fine Microsoft $2.1 billion (1.6 billion euros) for not providing data at fair prices to rivals, forcing developers to work with its products, and preventing consumers from choosing between rival web browsers from within the Windows operating system. Microsoft has apparently been embroiled in an antitrust battle in Europe for more than a decade, and the charges just kept racking up.  

On a more positive note, New York City startup Sonar announced today that it received a strategic investment from Microsoft’s Bing Fund, which offers early-stage companies between $50,000 and $100,000 to get off the ground. Sonar’s technology taps into social networks to tell smartphone users how they are connected to people nearby and in locations they’ve check into. It is the fifth company to join the Bing Fund portfolio.

Finally (I hope), Microsoft finally sold its ad server Atlas Solutions to Facebook today. Microsoft acquired Atlas Solutions as part of its 2007 acquisition of aQuantive. Facebook will use Atlas Solutions to build its own independent ad network and data analytics system.

That ought to do it for one day, Microsoft. Save something for March.

Photo Credit: someToast/Flickr

Marcus Thielking is cofounder of Skobbler, a provider of mobile map-based solutions that use OpenStreetMap data.

Map lovers, 2012 was our year.

From Apple unveiling and then apologizing for Apple Maps, to the emergence of the collaborative and crowdsourced OpenStreetMap, for those fascinated by digital mapping technologies, 2012 was a critical point in time. And with location-based services powered by map data expected to reach 1.4 billion users by 2014, you can bet the innovation and competition we witnessed will continue in 2013.

So, what’s next? Here are the top five moments I expect we’ll see in the digital maps space in 2013:

1. OpenStreetMap gets better

With over one million contributors to date, a number that has doubled approximately every 14 months since 2005 and shows no signs of slowing, the OpenStreetMap — affectionately known as the “Wikipedia of maps”— is quickly becoming one of the most popular mapping platforms on the planet. And, the more users lend the project their location expertise, the better OpenStreetMap’s data will ultimately turn out to be. In fact, today, OpenStreetMap has already become the most detailed digital map available in countries like England and Germany. With its ever-increasing user base, the data can only continue to improve. This is hugely important for developers seeking to build their own location-based products and services.

Beyond just being cost effective, OpenStreetMap delivers levels of detail, accuracy (beyond just the street networks) and flexibility not possible with some of the more traditional map players. As the platform advances thanks to user growth, developers in need of mapping data will continue to abandon relationships with guys like Google Maps, TomTom and others, integrating OpenStreetMap data into their own offerings.

2. Apple Maps will get better, too

Apple Maps has been categorized by many as the company’s largest black eye (at least recently). Not only did the app suffer from a data issue, but it was clear the company didn’t have the right team in place building the product, as it couldn’t fully deliver on the fundamentals (like putting bridges in the right places). It was a colossal letdown that led to firings and public apologies, and I guess this should be the case, given this, this, or this. Here’s the thing, though, for all of the criticisms, Apple Maps will only get better.

Whether it will come internally (unlikely), or from the integration with an external mapping party of some sort (see Apple’s rumored acquisition of Waze, although, I think a company like TomTom makes more sense given their base technology and mapping talent), look for Apple to improve on its service. Google knows this and won’t stop updating its own map so as to take full advantage of its head start and ensure that its market position will remain solidified. Apple doubters remember, though – and there are quite a few doubters out there today – the company has long been a bastion of innovation in every arena, so expect the Maps product to slowly find its way back and be a very big player in 2013.

3. Google Maps will lose some of its luster

Apple Maps was the best thing ever to happen to Google Maps. Upon its release, people realized just how valuable Google’s service was through comparison. They also realized how important maps were more generally. For the end-user, the effort and skill required to produce a digital map was, for once, clear. The press for Google was unsurprisingly positive. It couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

However, a mere few months prior, the seemingly unflappable Google was the one on the receiving end, seeing negative press for Google Maps after deciding to charge high-volume users of its maps API. The moment positioned Google as the corporate entity that it is, rather than a driver of innovation. That’s when we started to see defections en masse from Google Maps to the OpenStreetMap, with Foursquare, Wikipedia, and even Apple, leading the charge. While Google has since reversed course, it’s an issue that will crop up again soon and perhaps shift the narrative – in a negative way – for Google.

4. Partnerships to differentiate

For end users interested in a great mapping experience, whether it’s for navigation, direction-finding, and the like, maps can begin to seem redundant. More competition means more mapping services, but it should also mean more originality, allowing one platform to differentiate itself from the next. Google Maps, for instance, has Street View as a feature and is rolling out 3D functionality to stand out from a flood of new challengers. However, in order to be truly unique in an increasingly cluttered space, there are more creative opportunities for map makers to take advantage of, namely through partnerships with other location-based services that are eager to benefit from the scale afforded through map services.

For instance, take Nooly, a startup that allows you to view the weather, in real-time, for any point of interest (it’s location-based via GPS and seems to use Google Maps, currently). Partnering with them and leveraging their API would provide a great end-user benefit and allow a map service to carve out a true point of differentiation relative to other players. I think we’ll see more partnerships like this throughout the year.

5. More maps to come

With mobile proliferation, maps are becoming more and more essential each day, therefore, it only makes sense that more services will pop up, and that more existing companies will want a piece of the pie (Apple entering the fray is really just the beginning). This was especially true in 2012 – think Amazon’s November announcement – and it will only continue in 2013. Could Facebook, for example, enter the mapping space? The recent debut of its Graph Search function could make that a possibility, given location’s centrality to any search platform (and, if Facebook ever does decide to move forward with its own smartphone, a map will be core to that service, as well).

Now, these are just a few possibilities I think we’ll see in the mapping space this year.

Did I miss anything? What do you think will be some of the key map moments in 2013?

photo credit: Carla216 via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple is in talks with with Foursquare to bring local data into Apple’s Maps application, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Apple has already integrated reviews and other local information from Yelp within its maps, and according to the WSJ it has also been in talks with other companies swimming with local data.

It makes sense for Apple to tap Foursquare next — the company emerged as the winner in the location check-in wars a few years ago, but now it’s positioning itself more as a local discovery service. Foursquare has a significant amount of data and more than 25 million users, but only eight million of those are active at least once a month. Foursquare desperately needs more partners and revenue, and a deal with Apple could give it room to breathe as it tries to entice users.

But while Foursquare integration would be intriguing, I’m hoping Apple is also working hard to improve the quality of its map app. Apple’s iOS 6 map app was widely criticized for the quality of its data (and it was a big reason why Google Maps for iPhone has been so popular). Ultimately, having accurate and bug-free map data is far more important than any whiz-bang social integration.

Photo: Nan Palmero/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Surprising no one, Google Maps for the iPhone is insanely popular — to the tune of more than 10 million downloads in under two days, Google’s senior vice president of commerce Jeff Huber just announced.

In just a few hours after launching last week, Google Maps became the top free app on the iTunes store. The news surely rubs some salt into Apple’s wounds from its troubled map app, which was widely criticized for bugs and inaccurate data (at one point, it mistakenly led people into the middle of the Australian outback).

“Creating a mapping application from the ground up is actually quite challenging from a technical point,” said Daniel Graf, Google’s mobile map lead, in a lengthy interview with VentureBeat last week. “It’s not just rendering some pictures and text. Rendering a map is similar to creating a 3D game, where you have a 3D rendering engine, which we created. To have the performance you see now, where you can zoom and pan at this speed is quite a challenge.”

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

What a shock: Google Maps is not going to be available on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. Instead, Skobbler is launching ForeverMap 2 on Kindle Fire — and Nook – to take its place.

The Berlin-based company builds mobile navigation products based on OpenStreetMap data. And it sees a major opportunity in the obvious mapping void on probably the most popular non-iPad tablet platform.

“Amazon’s devices do not include pre-installed maps, and Google Maps isn’t even available,” said Skobbler co-founder Marcus Thielking in a statement. “We offer Kindle Fire users a solution that’s second to none in the Amazon App Store.”

Amazon can hardly expect Google to provide a mapping solution for Kindle, of course.

The giant online retailer and service provider has legally and ethically hijacked Android, the mobile operating system created by Google, to create Kindle, neatly excising Android’s links and hooks to Google services and replacing them with Amazon’s own content ecosystem. Google can’t feel good about that and so far hasn’t deigned to offer its apps on Amazon’s app store.

So Skobbler has jumped into the void.

And the company is offering an extremely interesting product: an open-source map built by 900,000 volunteers that is free for online use, with over 1,000 in-app purchases available at $0.99 and up that buy offline map access for cities, states, and countries. Cities are $0.99, states are $1.99, countries are $2.99, and continents are $5.99. Alternatively, for $9.99, Kindle Fire users can purchase complete and unlimited offline accessibility to all global maps.

In other words, it’s a great option for travelers who don’t want to pay cellular fees for data and roaming.

OpenStreetMap is a crowdsourced mapping project — a Wikipedia for maps — which Apple used in iPhoto at one point, FourSquare and other location-based social networking and mapping apps use, and some, including Thielking, believe will eventually surpass both Google and Apple’s current mapping solutions.

Nokia also provides a mapping solution on Kindle Fire, but Thielking says it is “extremely limited,” with insufficient detail and coverage.

ForeverMap 2 will be available on Kindle Fire and Nook later today.

photo credit: Oscar_Shen via photopin cc

The company is Hover, and it creates advanced real-life 3-D imagery from just about any images: smartphone snaps, drone airplane photography, satellite images, and yes, home movies. Today it’s announcing new funding — $3.1 million — and a new CEO, Kevin Reilley, the former top exec at Pictometry, which provides “bird’s eye” photography for Microsoft’s Bing maps.

“We started by selling a product for the military,” Ed Lu, the company’s chief technology officer told me. “Our product was used by special forces to understand what they’re getting into.”

Lu is the former astronaut. He spent 206 days in space, most of it in the International Space Station, and went EVA for spacewalks from the Shuttle. After every geek’s dream job, he moved on to Google, where he ran the company’s advanced project group and worked on image systems for Google Street View, Google Maps, and Google Earth.

In other words, Hover has an executive dream team for a startup focused on imaging and 3-D.

“Hover’s building the next-generation 3-D mapping platform,” Reilley told me this morning. “We’re rendering an environment that reflects real-life behavior.”

“One of the things that’s really hard on maps is exploring,” Lu tag-teams. “Street View is not so satisfying … it’s amazing technology but it’s not the way people think. 2-D maps with search is very good when you know what you want … but when you’re trying to figure out what is out there to explore … that’s a tougher thing.”

Typically, creating 3-D imagery is a demanding process that requires significant technology and control of variables. Your software needs to know exactly where each image was taken, what lens was used, the angle the camera was at, and all the details of photography like f-stops that SLR buffs know and the rest of us don’t.

The magic of Hover’s technology is that none of that matters anymore.

“We can generate these 3-D models using arbitrary images,” Lu says. “We do a visual mapping of common features from video, handheld images, overhead images from aircraft or drones … and build a 3-D structured model in real-time.”

The first versions of the software ran on a laptop so U.S special forces could use it in the field: shoot pictures with drones, mix in satellite imagery, and add a few shots on the fly, and then build a 3-D space from that raw visual material in which they could check sight angles, pinpoint likely spots where snipers might be emplaced, and generally get the lay of the land before actually setting foot in the target zone.

With the $3.1 million in funding from Almaz Capital, de Anda Capital, McKenna Management, and a few angels, Hover is taking the technology to the cloud … and your iPhone or Android smartphone.

The goal is not to compete with Google or Apple or Bing. The goal is to sell advanced 3-D mapping capabilities to organizations that already use 2-D photography extensively.

“We’re going to take this technology that’s been deployed for situational awareness for our special forces and provide it for other industries: the Department of Defense, law enforcement agencies, infrastructure companies, utilities, and oil & gas companies,” Reilley told me today.

And the crowdsourced part?

“We won’t hoover up images from Flickr,” Lu said. “But in our app, we will allow users to update the images themselves.”

“What’s the first things consumer do in Google Maps, Google Earth, or any other satellite images?” Reilley asked, now tag-teaming Lu. “They go look at their own houses.”

So Hover plans to capitalize on that by having consumers — as well as corporate clients — add photography in select regions to its overall database. And that photography will then be available for everyone to see in the company’s mobile app — and online in web browser.

Hover is based in Los Altos, Calif.

photo credit: EraPhernalia Vintage . . . (playin’ hook-y ;o) via photopin cc

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple has updated the maps that Australian police warned about yesterday, moving the town of Mildura out of Murray Sunset National Park and back where it belongs. But there are still problems right here at home.

Aussie police had recommended that motorists not use Apple’s Maps app, noting that some travelers had been stranded for up to 24 hours in a very desolate and hot desert area with no water supply.

As the Guardian notes, and VentureBeat has confirmed, Apple has fixed that issue.

Which is great for Australians. But the middle of the Australian continent is not the only place where drivers are being put into danger.

I received this email yesterday from an American driver, Joey Newell, who had a Friday the 13th episode with Apple Maps:

This past Saturday night, my girlfriend and I were returning from a company Christmas Party in Yazoo City, Mississippi (an area we are unfamiliar with) headed home to Brandon, Mississippi just after midnight … it was raining.

iOS Maps suggested we take the Hwy 3 exit … which we did …

It then suggested we take a right onto Eagle Road … which we did … a near fatal mistake …

After traveling along the road for approx. 10 miles it suddenly turned into a gravel road … please keep in mind this is a desolate road … no homes, no lights, no businesses … just pitch black, muddy fields, and trees … we were in the middle of nowhere …

As we continued to inch down the muddy gravel road it became treacherous due to the rain and we noticed that we were sliding … if we slid off the side of the road we would be stuck for sure 10 miles from anywhere in the dark of night in the rain …

iOS Maps told us we had 6 miles to the Highway so we pushed forward … my girlfriend was terrified …

As we got closer to the Highway were were confronted by a strange man in the middle of the road trying to flag us down … Bizarre because this is the middle of nowhere … He was holding something in his hand which we couldn’t make out due to the darkness and rain … We both became terrified and had to make a decision … We knew it was dangerous because if we slid off the gravel road we would be stuck and then would be confronted with this individual whose intentions were unknown … this was a bad situation … One we never should have been placed in … we should never have been directed down a dangerous, isolated gravel road.

We took the chance and slid around him on the gravel road nearly getting stuck and pushed on … It was something straight out of a horror movie … Total fear … We will never use iOS Maps again and I strongly advise nobody else does either … It can get you killed.

I can’t confirm all those details, although I have asked Newell for more exact departure and arrival addresses (and will update when and if they arrive). But there are clearly significant issues in Apple’s Maps in various places.

A personal pet peeve: Maps is rather brain-dead about helping you when you give it limited information. I noticed two examples on a recent trip to pick up a sofa.

In both cases, I searched for a street name, assuming (or hoping, the second time) that Maps would find a street somewhat near me, around Vancouver, Canada. Instead, in the first case it found not the Hastings Street in Vancouver, just a few miles from where I was, but the Hastings Street in the UK, thousands of miles (including, by the way, an ocean) away.

In the second case, Apple’s Maps didn’t look in my nearby vicinity for a “Johnson Street,” choosing instead to find a Johnson Street 12,520 kilometers away (amazing but true, see below).

In either case, you would expect a user-friendly, intuitive mapping application from a company like Apple to default to nearer options, which are more likely to be the ones you are searching for. Particularly when oceans intervene, and there won’t be any driving directions possible between the users’s currently location, and the mapped one.

Apple is apparently hard at work on fixing Maps, which is a good thing. Because it desperately needs it.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Whatever problems you’ve had with Apple’s Maps application in iOS 6, it’s probably not nearly as bad as what some Australian motorists have experienced. Several drivers were led to the middle of a national park with scorching temperatures and no water.

A recent warning from Victoria, Australia police notes that people looking for the city of Mildura are actually getting sent into the middle of Murray Sunset National Park (above), which is around 70 kilometers away from the city.

“Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue,”  Victoria’s Acting Senior Sergeant Sharon Darcy noted in the warning. “Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.”

The news shows an extreme and dangerous example of how Apple fudged its mapping roll-out — something that reportedly led the company to boot former executive Scott Forstall. In addition to inaccurate directions, Apple Maps’ 3D rendering featured plenty of glitches at launch, including the absence of major landmarks like the Statue of Liberty.

Like many people, I’ve had plenty of issues with Apple Maps. Searching for Chinese restaurants has sent me to locations in China, and a recent search led me to an address several blocks away from my actual destination. But at least I wasn’t stuck in the middle of a desert.

Officer Darcy notes that police have been in touch with Apple about the issues, but for now they’re recommending alternative map applications.

Via MacRumors

In terms of sheer geekiness, Navteq’s True mapping cars blow away Google’s Street View vehicles. Mostly, that’s because Navteq (owned by Nokia) is devoting its cars to deadly accurate mapmaking, instead of just taking pictures.

The tower of equipment on Navteq’s True cars includes several cameras to capture a full 360-degree view of the street, and a Lidar (light detection and ranging) array that uses 64 lasers to accurately scan the environment around the car. Ultimately, this gives Nokia and Navteq unprecedented 3D renderings of every street the cars drive through.

“If we want to build a truly 3D world that has very different data layers, with different information so that you can turn things on and off for the best consumer experience, you need to build a map that way,” Navteq’s product management director Sara Rossio told me during a ride-along yesterday.

The cars are driven by locals, who can make sure that Navteq has all of their city’s streets covered, and keeps the company up to date on road changes. All of the data collected through Navteq’s cars gets stored in a 10 terabyte bank of hard drives in their trunks (see pics below). Those drives are removed and scanned for processing at the end of every day, and the data eventually make its way into Navteq’s maps.

Navteq powers map data for Bing, Yahoo, and the vast majority of in-car GPS systems. Nokia also just released its Here map app on the iPhone, taking advantage of the weaknesses in Apple’s own mapping solution to score new fans.

Rossio wouldn’t comment specifically on her experience with Apple’s maps, but she noted, “Map making is a hard thing, and it takes really a hybrid approach of making sure that you have the right data and the right consumer experience, and that’s what Nokia is dedicated to.”

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Navigation technology startup Skobbler rolled out a new maps service today called ForeverMap 2 that aims to give Google Maps a run for its money.

ForeverMap 2 uses something called OpenStreetMap, which is an open-source GPS navigation data project that’s also used by Apple in its iOS maps. The new app is available on Android, and allows users to view maps on or offline. Its online maps are freely available, but viewing offline maps (either by city or country) requires an in-app purchase. The maps also provide users with better routes based on their mode of transportation, and allows them to bookmark locations or access Wikipedia-based descriptions for popular spots.

“We believe that our great experience with OpenStreetMap puts us in a unique position to offer modern smartphone and tablet users a powerful alternative to rival map services,” Skobbler co-founder of skobbler Marcus Thielking said in a statement.

The new Forevermap 2 Android app is available today in the Google Play store for $0.99, while additional city and state maps are available for $0.99 and $1.99, respectively. Skobbler said a version of the app should be available for the iPhone 5 in the near future, which will be nice for people who still haven’t found a decent replacement for Apple’s native Maps app.

Two major, yet controversial, features from iOS could be making their way to Apple’s OS X desktop operating system.

The virtual assistant Siri and Apple’s Maps code have both appeared in early test builds of OS X 10.9, the next version of Apple’s desktop OS, which we expect to ship next year, sources tell 9to5Mac.

If true, the moves make sense for Apple: Siri is now one of the company’s most iconic features on the iPhone, even though it doesn’t work quite as well as advertised. And while Apple’s Maps application leaves much to be desired, such as ridiculous aerial views that somehow leave out things like the Statue of Liberty and the Hoover Dam, it can’t remain a mobile-only feature for long.

Apple already offers voice dictation, one of Siri’s big features, within OS X Mountain Lion. But desktop Mac users don’t have access to Siri’s voice-powered commands for looking up things on the web, checking your calendar, and the like. And even though Mac users aren’t exactly clamoring for Apple’s Maps, the company still needs to find a way to bring the service to the desktop.

The sources say that Apple is bringing Maps into OS X as a framework, not an app, which would allow developers to easily integrate it into their apps. But that could be the first step towards Apple releasing a full-fledged desktop Maps app (though that possibility is mostly conjecture at this point).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google Maps is coming to iOS — and soon.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is putting the final touches on its new maps app, which means that it shouldn’t be too long until the app is released. More interesting is that the app may come with turn-by-turn navigation, a feature missing in the older default iOS Maps app.

All of this is great news for Google, but one thing stands in its way: Apple. Once Google finishes and submits the app to the iTunes Store, Apple will have to decide whether to approve it. And who knows how long that process will take — if it happens at all.

Even Google thinks it’s unlikely. Sources within the company told the Guaradian earlier this month that they were not optimistic that the iOS Google Maps app, when finished, would ever see the light of day. The reason for the skepticism is fairly obvious: Google’s app would compete directly with Apple’s, and the iPhone maker doesn’t have a great track record with dealing with these sorts of situations.

But while Apple and Google bicker, a third, more unlikely competitor also threatens to enter the fray: Nokia, which recently launched its revamped Here map platform. Suddenly the iOS 6 map situation has gotten a lot more complicated  — as if that were even possible.

Google’s line in reaction to the new reports is the same as the one it’s given previously: ”We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system,” the company says (and has said verbatim multiple times before).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Will Apple say yes?

According to a report by the Guardian, Google is working on a version of Google Maps for iPhone. Apple’s Maps application replaced Google’s — to widespread displeasure — in iOS 6. That Google would attempt to reclaim its position in iOS was fairly predictable.

What is not predictable is how Apple will respond.

Apple has played hardball with Google in the past. It held up the Google Voice app for perhaps a year as both companies wrangled with how much functionality could be included. The issue from Apple’s perspective is that it doesn’t want apps that duplicate functionality already on the iPhone, such as an app with features similar to Airplay.

Another issue, of course, is competitive advantage, as access to all of iOS’s users is a huge boon to a company that feeds on data, as Google does.

Google’s new Maps app is supposed to be ready for app store submission before the end of this year. Only then — assuming we hear about it — will we know for sure how Apple intends to respond. Another app that Apple deleted from the default set of apps that ship with iOS 6 is YouTube.

The result? YouTube has consistently been at the list of the top free apps available in the Apple store throughout October and remains at the top today. That’s an indicator that Apple users aren’t necessarily as sold on Apple’s strategic direction as Apple itself.

You’d think Apple would want to avoid something similar happening with Maps.

VentureBeat has contacted both Apple and Google for comment. A Google spokesman responded with the following:

We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system.

We will update with any comments from Apple.

photo credit: Genista via photopin cc

Google built Amber alerts — the broadcasted warning system for abducted children — into its search and maps products today, in the hopes that its huge user base could bring a lot more attention to local kidnappings.

The Amber alerts show up on your search and on maps whenever you type in keywords and are currently in a certain radius of that child’s abduction.  The alert has an orange circle next to it and lists information like the child’s name, age, gender, and when and where he or she was last seen. It also explains what the child was wearing and what type of vehicle the police are looking for, if relevant. You can, of course, click through to get even more information about the missing child.

Given the millions of people who use Google every day, it’s obvious why this is a desirable feature. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have also been helpful in spreading the word about abducted individuals because of their “viral” nature.

This is a joint project between Google ‘s Public Affairs division and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Google is also working alongside organizations in other countries, such as the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and, on a larger scale, the Missing Children Europe organization.

Amber Alert image via Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple executive Scott Forstall refused to sign a public apology for the disastrous launch of Apple’s iOS Maps app.

A month later, he was forced out of his position of responsibility and into a year-long “consulting” gig that is most likely a way to keep him close, and prevent him from going to a competitor too quickly.

That’ll teach him to say no to the boss.

Apple announced Forstall’s departure earlier today, but as with most such announcements, details were not forthcoming.

Now, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both report that Forstall refused to sign an apology letter, citing “sources familiar with the matter.” That’s probably code for official sources within Apple who want to discredit Forstall while remaining off the record.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook did put his name on the apology to customers on September 28, after much public outcry over the new app’s many shortcomings. Those included images of melting cities, inexplicably distorted satellite views, and disappearing landmarks, along with many other hilariously bad aerial views. While the visual glitches were amusing, the app also frequently sent customers in the wrong direction — sometimes wildly so. Cartography expert and geography professor Mike Dobson figured that Apple wildly underestimated the difficulty of creating a complete map application.

Forstall, the Times reports, was “ambitious and divisive,” and was the Apple executive whose personality most resembled the late Steve Jobs. The difference: Jobs was the boss, and he could get away with it.

Gigwalk pairs businesses with short term workers for a wide range of jobs, including mystery shopping, photography, and flier distribution. Launched last year, the company has raised $7.7 million to date, underscoring investor interest in the approach.

Newly-minted CEO Bob Bahramipour says that with the funding Gigwalk plans to expand its marketplace and further the development of its underlying technology, much of which is becoming increasingly data-driven.

That’s key. For Gigwalk, better data means more effective pairing of workers and gigs. This means better experiences, which in turn increases the chances that users will return for more work.

“It’s a positive feedback loop,” Bahramipour said, arguing that it’s this feedback that’s going to be key to continuing and hopefully accelerating Gigwalk’s growth.

Another part of that feedback loop, of course, is cash. While Gigwalk doesn’t plan to announce its latest payout numbers until later this year, Bahramipour did say that the average numbers were increasing on the whole (some payments cap out as high as $600).

Also increasing is interest in the company from Microsoft, which is expanding the Bing Maps partnership it announced last year by hiring 100,000 new gigs in 35 cities. Using Gigwalk, Microsoft has enlisted workers to photograph 3D panoramas of businesses and restaurants, which are then integrated into Bing Maps data.

“We expect to be a major weapons supplier in the maps wars,” Bahramipour said.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Android has Field Trip, an app that connects you to interesting sights and information, wherever you are. Now iPhone has Wanderous.

The brand-new app, which launched yesterday on the app store, shows you highlights of what’s near, what’s interesting, and what you should explore. But where Field Trip pops up information as you go, Wanderous is more like a treasure map for a route you’ve already selected.

Here’s how Adam Wolf, the app’s creator, described it to me:

“Wanderous is a navigation app that creates routes optimized for adventure. Routes in Wanderous start and end where the user specifies, but here’s the twist: During the journey, the routes intentionally wander to one or more interesting, unique, or notable spots chosen by the user. Spots can include parks, landmarks, historical sites, busy city corridors, scenic vistas, and public attractions.”

Wanderous isn’t a clone of Field Trip. But it is in the same family.

While the data that drives Google’s exploration app comes from a variety of sources, such as the Food Network, the Atlas Obscura, and Cool Hunting, Wanderous has its own database of interesting places in addition to the main attractions that you’ll likely find in any travel app.

Another difference?

Wanderous tracks where you’ve been, dropping “virtual breadcrumbs” as you go. This allows you to save maps showing what places you’ve visited — and what remains unexplored.

The app is free for a limited time, Wolf told me. So if you’re interesting, you may want to download it now.

Wanderous works on iPhone 3GS through 5 and iPod Touch third generation and up. It requires iOS 6.

photo credit: Murky1 via photopin cc

Well, perhaps neither.

Often forgotten in the great Map war of 2012 is another challenger — a platform that is far more suited for the ever-evolving needs of developers and the services they’re building, or one day hope to build.

That platform, OpenStreetMap, is known as the “Wikipedia of maps.” It makes location data editable, more detailed, interactive and, importantly, open for everyone. Apple (hey now), Wikipedia (of course), and Foursquare have recently integrated OSM into their services, and it’s a trend that will only continue with Google charging high-volume users of its Maps APIs (Google has walked this back a bit, though, hoping to preclude defections). OpenStreetMap is, as they say, the future.

Of course, this is a very utopian view. Everyone touts open and collaborative data as a democratizing force, but if you’re a developer or startup considering incorporating OpenStreetMap into your offering, the perceptible benefits need to be clearer and much more explicit.

For that reason, here are three simple yet powerful reasons OpenStreetMap boasts over 750,000 users:

1. On-The-Ground Granularity. OpenStreetMap is the only globally crowdsourced map available today, making its potential for unrivalled quality a key differentiator. With hundreds of thousands of contributors, the data dynamically and constantly evolves — just as places do. Locations are rarely fixed or stable. They change and progress over time. No other service or platform can immediately provide developers with the real-time, on-the-ground granularity of OpenStreetMap.

Also important is firsthand influence. Mappers who edit the data have often had personal interactions with a place or locale. They know locations intimately, making their contributions detailed, rich, and hyperlocal. This means more accurate, “fresh” maps for users and an enhanced experience, which is critical for successful services. Plus, when you consider that more and more startups and services are focused on providing hyperlocal functionality and features, having hyperlocal data is a necessity. Only OpenStreetMap’s army of contributors can provide that. Traditional corporate map providers TeleAtlas (TomTom) and Navteq (Nokia) are painfully aware of this.

2. It’s Flexible & Customizable. Google owns Google Maps. Unsurprisingly, this has an impact on what you can and cannot do with Google Maps. Google can constrain the way you visually render and showcase its mapping technology. Needless to say, this is suffocating for those interested in building their own services. This is what makes OpenStreetMap such a significant development for developers interested in offering location-based/aware features. Do with OpenStreetMap what you will both visually and design-wise — there are absolutely no limitations. Every map can be unique and rendered differently. This also speaks to the flexibility of OpenStreetMap more generally.

Beyond design, OpenStreetMap’s map attributes are infinite, making it possible for an endless number of special interest maps. Users can channel the data to build completely new maps that cater to a specific theme or concept, creating “thematic” maps for different uses, such as walking, hiking, bicycling, routes for those with disabilities, and more.

3. Ownership & Affordability. This, of course, cannot be overstated. OpenStreetMap is not Apple’s or Google’s. This means they can’t tell you how to use their APIs. But, importantly, it also means you don’t have to pay for it at all — whether you’re a heavy user or not. From Sonar to Yelp, use of the map will cost you nothing. Money is not a barrier to entry. In the end, your service will create value from the map (and not the other way around). Everyone talks about democratizing data — well, to the dismay of Google and Apple, this is it.

Some in the mapping space say otherwise, though. TomTom, keeping its own commercial interests in mind, recently criticized OpenStreetMap, claiming that the open-sourced nature of the platform makes it “wide open” to vandalism that can corrupt the data. However, the community that supports OpenStreetMap quickly called TomTom out on the falsities of its claims (talk about real-time collaboration).

OpenStreetMap isn’t perfect, of course. No map is. But, when you consider its strengths and potential, Apple and Google need to be less worried about each other and more worried about the owners of OpenStreetMap — you and me.

Marcus Thielking is co-founder of Skobbler, a leading provider of mobile map-based solutions that uses OpenStreetMap. Prior to founding Skobbler in 2008, he worked for navigation systems specialist Navigon AG (recently acquired by Garmin), where he ultimately became head of corporate development. 

I guess those 3 percent are Silicon Valley tech blog writers.

ChangeWave Research just surveyed 4,300 consumers, and it turns out that they don’t care about Apple Maps versus Google Maps. In fact, one in three people surveyed said they’re likely to buy the iPhone 5, with 20 percent saying “very likely” and 13 percent saying “somewhat likely.”

“Despite the media attention surrounding both the Apple Maps issue and the Apple Lightning port issue, neither has had an impact on the massive numbers of buyers queuing up to buy the iPhone 5,” Paul Carton, a ChangeWave VP, said in a statement, adding that “both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road.”

Apple replacing Google maps with its own not-quite-as-solid version has dominated a lot of the media about the iPhone 5 launch, of course, with concerns about its lack of data and its sometimes-hilarious 3D flyover fails, causing Apple CEO Tim Cook to publicly apologize. But Consumer Reports gave Apple Maps a fairly positive review, and the app is, apparently, good enough to give Taiwan’s military a few hot flashes.

ChangeWave compared the current Maps issue with the iPhone4′s “Antennae-gate,” and Maps is not even in the same league. While 36 percent of consumers experienced an issue with iPhone 4 reception, only 10 percent have experience any sort of problem with the iOS 6′s new maps.

Additionally, when the research company asked consumers what was stopping them from buying an iPhone 5, Maps blocked precisely 0 percent of purchases. The biggest reason? People were satisfied with their current phone and saw no need.

photo credit: the past tends to disappear via photopin cc

Take a look at this map:

Kuleto’s is facing the wrong street. iOS Maps shows it on O’Farrell Street. It’s address and entrance are actually on Powell Street, around the corner. (Google Maps has it correct.)

Such errors are common on maps. They exist for a number of reasons:

• At its very best, GPS is accurate to about 7-9 feet. But in urban canyons, accuracy can drop off because satellites are obstructed by tall buildings.
• Some businesses use vanity addresses. In New York City, it’s fashionable to have an address on Park Avenue, but the actual building entrance may be on 48th Street.
• Map makers don’t record the actual entrance to every business on a street. Generally, in the U.S., they record the block numbers and which side is even and which side is odd. The intermediate addresses are approximated.

As a result, errors on a block are common.

There’s a simple fix: Let users pick up the business and move it to the right place and automatically publish the results. Apple does allow users to report errors. I moved Kuleto’s to its correct location, but Apple hasn’t processed the update yet.

User-generated content is fraught with problems and opportunities for mischief. If you let people delete businesses, some will delete their competitors or businesses they don’t like. If you let people add businesses, they will spam your results with dummy businesses. The trick is to balance the mischief with the potential for more accurate data. This is something that Google has a lot of experience at. It’s been fine-tuning how it handles user-generated content in Maps for years. In its core search business, it’s been dealing with spam for more than a decade.

Letting people move existing businesses within the margin of error of current mapping methods strikes me as an acceptable balance.

Otherwise, the only quick way for Apple to verify the change is correct is to use Google’s Street View to get visual confirmation. It might face some legal issues with that. (Disclosure: I have Apple stock.)

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

So there could be something to the recent Consumer Reports review that said Apple’s new Maps application doesn’t suck. While it’s met with widespread anger and certainly lacks some data, Apple Maps shows images that are too good for some.

Taiwan’s military has asked Apple to blur images of its Hsinchu airbase, which is the site for the country’s newest radar defense station, according to Phys.org. The radar station is from Raytheon and is designed to give the country early warning of missiles fired from China.

While legally the government cannot force Apple to change the satellite images of sensitive areas, Taiwan is asking Apple to lower the resolution as a gesture of goodwill. This type of government request is not uncommon: U.S. Senator Charles Shumer raised concerns about both Apple and Google’s mapping technologies just in June.

According to the Taiwanese government, Google Maps (and Google Earth) already blur sensitive areas and have done so since 1997 … including former veep Dick Cheney’s house and the royal stables in The Hague, Netherlands.

The reality, of course, is that sovereign governments such as China have access to as good and frequently much better satellite images than Apple or Google. The concern here is likely much more for smaller, dissident or even terrorist groups.

Apple has not yet commented on the request, but we’ll update the story with its statement.

Source: Apple Maps

Probably not the secret Taiwanese air force installations.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sometimes very small changes can make a big difference. That’s the case with the one change I’d love for Google to make to Google Calendar.

Over the years, Google Calendar has become my default calendaring tool. I use it on the Web and have the calendar on my Android phone. I set up my iPhone with Google as an Exchange server, so I also get Google’s calendar there.

But every time I add a new event, I am annoyed that the “Where” field doesn’t do a type-ahead drop-down with suggestions from Google’s extensive places database. In the absence of that feature, I usually do one of two things: I open Google Maps in a separate window, look up the place and then copy the address into the Where field. Or, I get lazy, and type in a name or some approximation of the place name. In that case, the recipient has to do the work of looking it up. Sometimes this imprecision results in confusion because there may be multiple venues nearby. (Who hasn’t showed up at the Starbucks across the street from the one you intended?)

If Google were to do auto-completion in the Where field, as it does when you search Google Maps, you would more easily be able to specify a precise location. There would be no confusion.

From a technology standpoint, it’s easily doable. And I bet it would be used much more frequently than the “Add a Google+ hangout” link below it.

The simple change would have an immediate benefit in terms of user experience. In addition to saving time on data entry and eliminating potential confusion, it would make navigation easier. When I’m headed off to a meeting, I’d have a GPS-ready destination already attached to my calendar entry. With Google’s new Now feature in the latest, “Jelly Bean” version of Android, my phone could automatically alert me when it’s time to leave for my meeting, based on traffic conditions.

Although Google Calendar usage is small compared with other Google products, it still reaches 8.6 million visitors a month, according to comScore. Those users are loyal, visiting the site 61 million times in September.

This small change could lead to a lot of other benefits that could be built in over time, both for consumers and for Google:

• Google could suggest venues based on the number of people invited. I’m having dinner with 6 people; here are a few places that can accommodate that.
• When I receive an invitation, Google could calculate whether it’s reachable based on the distance from my previous appointment. If I have a 2 p.m. meeting in Palo Alto, I can’t make a 3 p.m. in San Francisco.
• Google could validate locations against the times that a place is open. I’ve had people schedule meetings with me at restaurants that turned out to be closed on Sundays. With the data about venues in Google Places, Google could reduce this kind of error. If the user goes ahead and uses the location anyway, it could be an indication to Google that the business’s hours have changed.
• Likewise, if a place recently went out of business, Google could warn me ahead of time, when I’m trying to schedule an appointment there.
• Google could collect newly opened venues. If I enter a place that isn’t in the database, it could prompt me to add it. (There needs to be a provision for private venues, such as my home.)
• Google could use data from many users to learn about a venue. For example, this is a place for business meetings or friendly hangouts.
• The data could be used as an implicit rating. If I keep going back to a place, it probably doesn’t suck. Although it’s unlikely that I’ll write multiple reviews for a place, the fact that I keep going back there is an ongoing, implicit endorsement.
• It would serve as viral marketing for Google Maps. Each calendar invite could include the full address, as well as a link to the places page on Google.
• It would help to build a graph connecting people with places. With permission, a business could publish their regulars on their Google+ Local page.

This small change is an important point of integration that can drive a lot of value. Although this example is Google-centric, I frequently find such compelling integration opportunities in other products. Do you have any in yours?

photo credit: Mary-Lynn via photopin

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google’s Street View is back on iPhone, with the help of the Web.

Street View is a product that has puzzled me for a long time. It’s technologically an impressive feat, but why do people actually care about it? What are the use cases?

Generally the only time I use it with any regularity is when I’m looking for an apartment. It’s a quick and easy way to get a feel for the neighborhoods that I’m considering. It certainly beats driving around in San Francisco traffic. But looking for apartments is not something I do frequently.

I asked followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook how they use Street View. It turns out that house hunting is one of the more common use cases.

Here’s what people are using Street View for:

“I’ve used it to evaluate neighborhoods I’ve moved to. Result: signing a lease having never visited the place,” wrote Christopher Mims.

“When looking for hotels and when meeting people in unfamiliar settings. Mostly it’s not a daily utility,” wrote Greg Sterling.

“Not often — only to see my house. and I saw my mom standing in front of it – LOLd for a bit,” wrote @m_Keef.

Others used it to plan out their driving trips.

“Whenever I am driving to a new address, I like to “look” at the house or business so it’s easier for me to spot when I get there,” wrote Sriram Chatrathi.

“I use it mostly to confirm destinations,” wrote Jason Hart. “I also use it occasionally to “visit” places I used to live or places I’m planning to go. I use satellite view less but for the same purposes. Also, I’ll use it to figure out where parking lot entrances and exits are.”

“I use it to determine which way the metro station exit faces when mapping out directions. I hate getting off the escalator and not knowing which way to start walking,” wrote a friend on Facebook.

Despite being popularized by Google, other companies had Street View-like functionality earlier. Before Google existed as a company, I was working for a newspaper in Minneapolis. We discovered that a local company had driven every street in Minneapolis, taking pictures of every house. We incorporated that data into our real estate search product. Amazon’s A9 search engine had Block View in 2005. I was talking to a Google engineer at the time of the A9 launch, and he thought Block View was ridiculous because driving cars around cities to capture the imagery would never scale. Not only has Google driven cars around cities, it’s also taken to bicycles, trikes, and snowmobiles.

I also discovered some creative uses for Street View among my friends.

“I just used it to confirm my last US address for my election ballot request,” wrote a friend who moved to Canada. “I wasn’t sure of the address, but I punched in what I remembered and located my old house. Faster than digging up old documents.”

“It’s sometimes refreshing to judge old acquaintances (bullies, etc.) by their images on Street View,” wrote the same friend who was scoping Metro escalators. “(Don’t tell me you’ve never done this — I’ll call you a liar.)”

Interested in more on mapping? Tune in to NPR’s Science Friday today at 3 Eastern, noon Pacific to hear me talk about the state of online maps.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

By now you’ve either heard about how inadequate the native iOS 6 Maps app is compared to the old Google Maps app or experienced it yourself. Well, some good news is in the pipeline for those still suffering.

Google plans to add the Street View feature, which shows what an actual location looks like from the ground level,  to its iOS Maps web app. This is according to AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg, who mentioned the details within a review of the native Google Maps app on Android.

The old Google Maps app didn’t have the Street View feature, which means iOS device owners running the latest operating system may have one more reason to run back into the arms of Google. This isn’t even the first upgrade Google has made to remind people how awesome the service is by comparison. Last week, the search giant added high-res 45-degree imagery in 51 cities to Google Maps.

The new feature should be available on the web app Thursday, according to Mossberg. He added that the company still intends to create a native version of Google Maps for both the iPhone and iPad at some point in the future, which lines up with comments made last week by Google Chairman Erik Schmidt.

Apple Maps received almost immediately ridicule from iPhone owners when it debuted back in September, spawning its own Tumblr blog with examples of errors. It also resulted in a plethora of articles explaining why the app wasn’t on par with other Map services, including a good one by VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall. The bad press caused Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a public apology about the Maps app’s poor quality and even remove any mention that it was the best, ever.

That said, a Google Maps native iOS app would be ideal. But for now, the addition of Street View should keep everyone happy.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

I put iOS 6′s new turn-by-turn directions to the test over the weekend, often alongside Android’s turn-by-turn directions. I gave it some hard tests, such as routes involving ferries, obscure country roads, and out-of-the way destinations. (No, that image above isn’t an error in Apple’s iOS maps. That’s Apple correctly showing the ferry that I was on.)

I was in rural Washington state, but it’s important to note that commercial database providers, such as those that Apple uses, generally do a good job of covering the United States.

I tried to look for problems that likely fall into patterns as opposed to one-off data errors. No database as large as those used in mapping (including Google’s) will be error-free. There is just too much data that change too frequently. In addition to the weekend’s testing, this analysis is based on more than a decade working in the local space, including some time I spent working on in-car systems.

Neither Google nor iOS met my benchmarks for the ideal navigation app (I have very high standards), but Google was clearly better. There were a couple of ways in which I consider iOS to be better. I also found several ways in which Apple could significantly improve the iOS experience in the short term.

The best designed navigation systems gives you the right information at the right time, without distracting you with unnecessary information.

Problems generally fall into three categories: user interface, algorithm, and data. UI problems are generally the easiest ones to fix. The data is in the system, the system is finding it correctly, and the app just has to change the presentation. With algorithm problems, the data exist but are accessed in a way that the best data aren’t surfaced. Data problems are the hardest — they require either collecting or fixing the data. With mapping in particular, this can be a human-intensive task.

Points of Interest. Navigation systems generally have a hard time with non-commercial places and complex venues. For example, I searched for the Grand Ridge trailhead. iOS couldn’t find it. Google Maps gave me several results in Olympic National Park, but not the actual trailhead. A search for Olympic National Park Visitors Center on iOS brought me to the visitor’s center at the base of the mountain; the same search on Android brought me to another visitor’s center at the top of the mountain, a windy 17 miles away. I consider both wrong and incomplete; I would’ve preferred to see both options.

Coming down the mountain after our hike, we wanted pizza. A few miles out, Android showed several pizza places in Port Angeles. At roughly the same point, iOS only showed one. As we got closer, the search on iOS revealed the other pizza places. This was an algorithm problem — Apple had the right data, it just didn’t search out far enough. One approach to resolving this is to keep expanding the search until you have a certain number of results or reach a distance like 25 miles.

We also wanted to go to a cidery. We searched for Finnriver. iOS got us to the road leading up to the cidery. Android took us the additional 1/3 of a mile to the entrance of the cidery. The place was well signed, so iOS wasn’t a failure; but Google’s directions were better. This is a problem that can be solved with user-generated data. If you see that every one who searched for the cidery goes another 1/3 of a mile, you can then add that road segment.

I like that iOS provides names and locations of nearby points of interest as you drive. You can see that there’s a gas station, cafe, or hotel up ahead. Android doesn’t do that. (It’s my long-term hope that navigation systems will end the visual blight of highway billboards.)

Road names. The biggest category of problems I found with iOS’s app is the road names it chooses to speak. Many roads have multiple names. One of the roads I frequently drove was Washington State Route 20. But iOS kept calling it “Sims Way.” (The iOS visuals showed both Sims Way and Washington 20.) Android spoke it as “State Route 20″. Most of the signage along the route referred to State Route 20. In another case, the road was identified by iOS as “Natl Forest Develop Road 2600 RD” but the sign said “Country Meadow Road”. Google had that correct.

If you watch the visuals of the map closely on iOS, you’ll get to the right place. But the best navigation systems will match the audible and visual directions to what’s on the road signs. The best way to do this is to actually drive the roads. But Google also had its issues: In one place, I was told to turn right onto 101 West, but the road sign only offered North and South as options. (iOS just told me to turn right onto 101.)

Audio cues. I found iOS to be way too chatty. In one span of less than a mile, it generated at least five prompts that were all some variant of “take I-5 north.” Such verbosity is only necessary when there are a lot of tricky maneuvers, not following a standard ramp with a lot of signage. iOS would also generate cues that included directions on what to do 10 miles or more out. When you’re that far out, the purpose of the cue is to tell the driver “keep going, don’t worry about listening to me for a while.” Asking the driver to remember what to do that far out is unnecessarily increasing the driver’s cognitive load. (Especially because the system will give the cues closer in.) It makes sense to give the left or right heads up a mile or two out so the driver can change lanes, if necessary.

In other cases, iOS didn’t give any audio cues at confusing intersections. I generally followed the path that most closely resembled straight ahead. Android was much better at this.

I also found iOS pronunciation of “W A 20″ annoying. W A 20 should be expanded to “Washington 20″ when spoken. (Abbreviation expansion is relatively easy, although in one navigation system I used, all of Washington’s roads were pronounced as “Western Australia” when I changed it to the sexy Australian voice.)

One thing I preferred in iOS over Android: in relatively urban areas, iOS gave me the next maneuver at 1/2 mile out instead of the 1/4 mile heads up that Android gave me.

Airports. Complex venues like airports have long been a challenge for navigation systems. Relying on iOS cost me about 15 minutes on my way to drop off my rental car at Sea-Tac Airport. Apparently, iOS routed me to what it considers the center of the town of SeaTac, instead of the airport. (If I weren’t testing, I would have just followed the signs on the freeway once I got near the airport.) My ideal navigation system would identify any query that looked like it might be an airport and then display a prompt asking if I wanted to go to arrivals, departures, or rental car return. My Android device wasn’t working on the trip to the airport, so I can’t offer a direct comparison. But I know Google has invested a lot of effort in making sure its airport data are correct.

It’s important to get airports right because so many users search for them, and bad directions can cause a missed flight. It’s also a relatively easy data challenge because it is a constrained problem set.

Ferries. My trip involved taking a ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. Both iOS and Android knew the ferry route existed, saving me the effort of driving around the bay. Neither won the available extra credit by telling me when the next ferry was departing. My ideal system would know ferry departure times and would calculate the optimal route based on my distance to the ferry and expected wait time at each dock. Heck, even a link to the WSDOT ferry schedule within the directions would have been very helpful. In my route, there were two different ferries I could have used; I manually calculated that I would miss the closer ferry and drove to the next one instead of waiting.

Visuals. I generally preferred iOS’s visuals to Android’s. Apple puts a lot less unnecessary information on the screen. The skeuomorphic design shows street names on street signs and generally looks cleaner than Google’s. Apple also did a better job of visually indicating the next step when multiple maneuvers were close together.

A subtle but important touch: Apple uses icons that correspond to road signage. In Washington, state route numbers are superimposed on a profile of George Washington. Apple displayed that; Google used an oval.

Speech. Android seems to make much more extensive use of concatenated speech; iOS uses much more synthesized speech. With concatenated speech, many short recordings of a human speaker are strung together and played back. With synthesized speech, a computer generates the audio. Concatenated speech is typically easier for humans to understand and creates less cognitive load on the driver.

Night mode. iOS lacks a night mode, which has been common in navigation systems for years. In night mode, the background of the map is dark and the screen emits a lot less light. The result is a display that is less distracting when driving at night. Although iOS does automatically dim the display based on ambient light, it’s not as effective as a real night mode. Android has this. This should be a very easy fix.

Miscellaneous. iOS doesn’t let you pan the map while navigating. I prefer having the option to see what else might be along my route. (Android allows this.) I would also love it if iOS paused my podcast when it gave a navigation instruction; as chatty as it is, I missed a lot of Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Turn by turn directions are an important addition to iOS. It’s great that Apple has finally made free directions available as part of the OS. Unfortunately, they still need a lot of work. Maybe Apple can use this post as a roadmap.

For more on mapping apps, tune in to NPR Science Friday this week, where I’ll be discussing these issues.