> blares out a proud announcement that they broke maps because Google kissed another boy at recess
Sure, if by "broke", you mean "built a privacy-respecting competitor based on a well-trusted open map technology called OpenStreetMap", and if by "kissed another boy", you mean "withheld turn-by-turn navigation because Apple wouldn't let Google whore out end-users private information as part of the process"..,
Most of my friends still think Apple Maps is a complete failure of a product because of their badly received launch. I'm always able to get them admit that Apple Maps' satellite data is far superior when I show them the side by side (try the satellite + map tilt in a major city or try the 3d tours).
This is purely anecdotal, but I've used apple maps twice this year (accidentally - search for maps and hit the wrong icon) and it's taken me to the wrong place both times. I live just outside of a major metropolitan area; suburban but not rural by any stretch of the imagination.
I've never had Google Maps take me to the wrong place. At the end of the day, getting where I want to go is the primary concern. If they product doesn't work consistently then I'm just not going to use it. Hopefully my experience is not typical.
I've been so astounded by Apple Maps' consistently bad routing that I actually have a recurring todo item every three weeks that says "Try Apple Maps". It has fired 37 times so far, and out of those 37 times that I've tried it (each time I wait until I have a not-used-before destination to try with), Maps has routed me to the wrong place (and I only count it as wrong if it's more than, say, a mile away) 11 times.
"My days of not taking Apple Maps seriously are definitely coming to a middle."
Four years after its release, Apple Maps still puts my address in the wrong location.
Whenever I have a Lyft or Uber driver come to my house to pick me up, I always have to text them "please only use Google Maps, do not use Apple or Waze" (Waze has its own issues, which I've written about before).
Have you tried using the "Report a Problem" feature? The last few times I did so, I got pleasantly quick responses (well, quick by huge company standards, i.e. a week or so).
I don't own any Apple products. My problems with Apple Maps come from Uber and Lyft drivers using it.
What, do I go to the Apple Store just so I can report a problem with an iPhone there? Will it even work since I don't have an Apple account to do it with?
Apple Maps had completely missed a reworking of a major intersection in Kalamazoo, MI, which was fairly confusing. On the other hand, Google Maps drains my battery like mad unless I force it to quit, so I don't even open it anymore.
Mob opinion is generally not the best gauge of reality.
Look at all the shit people are posting about Apple removing an ancient analog audio port, vs how many people are posting about Samsung the phone that self combusts.
Note 7 blow rate: 0.01%
IPhone 7 jackless rate: 100%
If my calculations are correct, then about 10000x more people should write about Apple's jack crucifixion.
Also, technology is not "ancient" just because it's 50 years old. Electric motor is over 180 years old, and that's not ancient. It's not ancient if it's used everywhere. If it's used everywhere, it's called modern.
I'd defend apples move to remove the headphone jack if that coincided with a move to a standard jack. But they didn't do that, I don't personally like Bluetooth headphones (one more thing to charge), and so what, now I need headphones that work with only one thing?
And there is no equivalent port on their laptops, so I can't even use the same headphones with my laptop?!
This is annoying, and the new usb spec is fine as a replacement for lightening. I am a very frustrated Apple customer, and it has me for the first time considering not buying another of their phones.
If a phone blowing up is not something to be concerned with (ignoring all the Airlines and government departments telling people to turn them off while flying), then a removed audio port shouldn't even factor into your consciousness when you consider that they give you the adapter for free.
> Also, technology is not "ancient" just because it's 50 years old.
In the world of consumer electronics, 50 years is ancient.
At the end of the day the way the 3.5mm jack is used in 2016 is the ultimate hack-on-a-hack-on-a-hack. The plugs are all the same size, but they could have anywhere from 2 to 5 contact points, depending on device type/manufacturer.
It worked for a while, but at some point you have to move on, and someone has to be the first to move. As I said in another comment, Apple has always been ahead of the pack when it comes to adopting new technology and dropping legacy technology.
> Electric motor is over 180 years old, and that's not ancient. It's not ancient if it's used everywhere. If it's used everywhere, it's called modern
No, if its used everywhere its called "popular" or "ubiquitous".
An electric motor can be modern, if it's a new/recent design. That doesn't make all electric motors modern.
> It worked for a while, but at some point you have to move
> on, and someone has to be the first to move. As I said in
> another comment, Apple has always been ahead of the pack
> when it comes to adopting new technology and dropping
> legacy technology.
That'd be a great argument if what Apple was providing was objectively BETTER than the status quo. However, I'd wager that most people wouldn't call needing an adapter to utilize off the shelf headphones they already own or having to buy very expensive ones that will only work on SOME Apple products (not every Mac comes with a proprietary Lightning port) an improvement.
It's a pity too because I was seriously considering making the switch over to an iPhone next year, but then Apple goes and reminds how poorly they play with others.
EDIT: Oh and I almost forgot, want to charge your phone and use wired headphones at the same time? Better buy another adapter (not included).
Degree to which my life would be affected by losing my mobile's headphones jack - slightly above zero, courtesy of, well, owning Bluetooth headphones. To be fair, I'm sufficiently middle class that I can afford Bose QC35s, but still.
Degree to which my life would be affected if my apartment burnt down - uh, lots.
Now, there are plenty of other great reasons why I refuse to buy Apple products and stick with the platform that at least gives me some level of Software Freedom. Getting rid of the headphones jack? Doesn't rate particularly highly there.
Then you will be reassured that the number of appartment that burnt down due to Samsung Note 7 is zero.
You may also appreciate that Samgsung's fiasco was unintentional, while Apple's choice was deliberate. One is a PR and product disaster, while the other is a cash grab. Conflating issues just because they happened to rival company with loud fan base is dubious.
Apple does seem to create more buzz about things in general (it's their way of marketing, for good or evil) but as for me, the Samsung issue is "Li-ion cells are volatile, sometimes there are bad batches" is not a story. We knew that.. Meanwhile, "the death of analog, open standards" is worth discussing.
Right. A hand-held ticking time bomb is a non-story.
An ancient audio port being migrated to a $9 adapter is the end of days.
> Meanwhile, "the death of analog, open standards" is worth discussing.
Just like the death of the standard floppy disc. And the death of the standard optical disc. And the death of the standard parallel and serial ports. The death of the standard PS2 port.
Motorola released a phone earlier this year with no analog 3.5mm jack. Where was the overreaction, the ridiculous petitions and bullshit we see whenever Apple does something?
I could go through and refute all of your points with what I believe, but that's just proving my point - there are differing opinions on the matter so it's worth discussing.
Nobody is taking the stance that Samsung batteries exploding is a Good Thing. And it's not as if the story doesn't have traction - I'm seeing jokes all over the place about exploding Samsungs. Until someone unearths a story about wilfil negligence (such as when Capacitor Plague was being caused by failed industrial espionage), there's just not much to discuss. We already had the Chinese Batteries discussion recently with the hoverboards.
> Where was the overreaction, the ridiculous petitions and bullshit we see whenever Apple does something
I addressed this - Apple's marketing is to create massive buzz and expectations with marketing like "perfection" and "magical". Of course there's going to be backlash. They revel in it. They used to market themselves as "the crazy ones".
edit: also, Apple also has far bigger market mindshare than Motorola. They alone have the power to bifurcate a market into proprietary standards. With the Motorola phone, people just go "eh" and buy a Samsung. With the Apple, they're still breaking sales records.
Anyone who seriously works in networking still needs serial ports all pro grade networking gear uses it for console and OOB connectivity to the AUX ports (in ciscos case)
You also need serial ports today for low level kernel debugging, hardware bring up, and embedded systems. I have worked for 5 different companies over my career doing embedded systems. Serial ports were important in 5/5 companies.
The floppy drive died after a significant fraction of the users stopped relying on floppies. Similarly discs were made unpopular by streaming before the CD drive died. Most people I know still plug in their head phones and most new headphones sold still have a cable.
> The floppy drive died after a significant fraction of the users stopped relying on floppies. Similarly discs were made unpopular by streaming before the CD drive died.
My point was that Apple dropped all of those things while the "mainstream PC" industry was still shipping them as standard items.
> most new headphones sold still have a cable
cough
"Bluetooth headphones account for 54 percent of U.S. dollar sales in the category, according to NPD"
Seriously if it is by revenue that means there are at least a hundred times more people using $10 quite decent wired headphones.
Me included. I don't want blue tooth headphones. Ever!! Can I make it more clear?
There is no comparison possible between a bad battery problem in one particular phone and headphone jack removal.
The fact is Apple has a very long tradition of making every part of their ecosystem more proprietary over time and fucking their own customers over along the way.
Just consider the lightning port. As if it wasn't bad enough they refused to use the ancient industry standard micro USB in the first place, they then went on to screw over their own customers by changing their own connector
As far as the floppy drive, a lot of us had long since dropped it in the PC industry even if charitable vendors were courageous enough to offer long term to support to customers who may still have had a legacy requirement at the time.
>Just like the death of the standard floppy disc. And the death of the standard optical disc. And [...] //
I think in all those situations an alternative newer option was made and existed in parallel gradually gaining support until the other older tech wasn't needed.
Personally I don't think I've ever seen anyone using wireless earbuds despite Bluetooth having been around a long time. Bluetooth earpieces for phone calls were common for a while, but more recently I've seen more people use a wired mic on their earphone cable.
It does seem likely to me that we'll move wireless with ear-buds but this transition seems much more forced than the others you've cited.
That's because unless your Samsung actually blows you up there isn't a perceivable effect vs making me have to buy new headphones if I get the latest iPhone.
> That's because unless your Samsung actually blows you up there isn't a perceivable effect
There is a real risk of the Samsung causing a great deal of damage and/or injury. It's been fucking banned by most major airlines because of the risk, and after much typical Samsung fucking about, have issued a full recall.
> vs making me have to buy new headphones if I get the latest iPhone.
Why. Why do you need to buy new headphones?
Either you
a) genuinely aren't aware they include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter in the box, but somehow feel the need to comment about an aspect you've apparently spent 0 seconds researching; or
b) you know damn well they include an adapter and you're being disingenuous.
This type of thing is exactly what I'm talking about. You downplay a literal health and safety risk "eh, it won't happen to me" but trump up complaints about "i can't use my headphones" which are not even accurate.
Samsung's bad battery does not absolve Apple of sin. Yes, I know they include an adapter. This adapter is a kludge--meaning it adds size and yet another point of failure. More important, when that adapter is used I cannot charge the phone, which means I can't use an iPhone 7 to play music in my car on long road trips. (I have an excellent car audio system, and it has no bluetooth). Without buying yet another kludgy adapter which is manifestly not in the box.
More like, "We know you might need it." I plug audio in quite infrequently on my Note as I use bluetooth most of the time. Kill them for introducing a new, proprietary standard for wireless audio, but not for removing the jack which in my case is just a dust magnet which frequently requires a cleanout to solve the blocked proximity sensor problem.
You're right. I guess the way they pitched it, given their track record I was just assuming. That being said, I'm not sure what they did that was so world-changing with wireless connectivity since I never had the bluetooth connection problems that they say everybody has.
With the later versions of bluetooth I don't have a problem with that. Also, we haven't seen this in the wild yet so I'll reserve judgement and praise.
Yep. The 3.5mm audio jack comes in the box, so they didn't really remove it, they just moved it off-device. Maybe they could move the battery off-device too and make the iPhone 8 even thinner.
I sincerely doubt that someone would be anti-Apple on HN just because it's cool. What Apple is doing is a conscious choice of direction, which has a lot of potential for discussion.
What Samsung did is catastrophic, yes. However, it doesn't have any depth for discussion. Yes they messed up big time, and yes the situation has been down-played, but in the end, it affects Samsung market share and the health of the poor people who got affected. Discussing the market-share of Samsung and their policies doesn't have any meaning, and for the people, you can only hope that the authorities take enough precautions.
On the other hand, Apple has been making decisions, which, in the end, can affect far more many people, regardless of their usage of Apple products, in a good or bad way, for a far longer term. It is a statement, at the very least.
No, my complain is that they're removing a standard port in favour of their own propietary alternative while they know that a lot of users would be more comfortable with the standard one. I also think that using the lightinig port has no real advantage over the audio jack but I admittedly don't know much about lightning, so maybe somebody can prove me wrong.
(Removing a component from the phone isn't in my opinion an advantage because the audio jack uses a very tiny space and removing it gives you far less choices if you want to buy a new pair of headphones).
> a) genuinely aren't aware they include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter in the box, but somehow feel the need to comment about an aspect you've apparently spent 0 seconds researching; or
You've posted about the adapter multiple times now, but unless the adapter has the 3.5mm jack and a power connector allowing a person to use their head phones and charge the phone simultaneously it's not equivalent of the existing functionality.
Apple Maps for me is still broken. It seems to ignore every business and casino on the local reservations. It tells me the nearest gas station is in the next town over but the two on the reservation are not listed. It continues give me local weather for a different town with the GPS. I guess I should feel better that the seat of government for the reservation is once again listed as a town.
I still think Apple Maps is a failure because it still utterly blows here in Japan (either their POI data or the search engine is complete crap since it STILL sends me across the country for basic searches). Google Maps has its problems as well (I prefer using local apps if I'm doing car navigation) but Apple Maps is just a complete joke here.
Apple Maps is also garbage in Iceland. One example: Google Maps has walking paths in Reykjavík and Apple doesn't have them at all. For someone who doesn't have a car here (me) that's kind of important.
The car-centricness of Apple Maps is also a problem in Japan. The original release was absolutely ridiculous (it showed the biggest train station in Japan as a park!), and while they fixed the most embarrassing issues, it still deprioritises public transport so you often have to zoom in to ridiculous levels to see train stations, where here they're the main mode of transport so they should have priority over, say, shops.
Oh yeah, I forgot Apple Maps doesn't have bus stops here at all either. Google Maps only draws them when you're zoomed way in, but at least they're there.
Apple use data from both OSM and TomTom, amongst others.
It turns out they use OSM less than I thought they do (iPhone for iOS 5.x used OSM a more, when Maps.app used Google Maps still), but they definitely use it. The full list of attributions is at http://gspa21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.html
Sure, if by "broke", you mean "built a privacy-respecting competitor based on a well-trusted open map technology called OpenStreetMap", and if by "kissed another boy", you mean "withheld turn-by-turn navigation because Apple wouldn't let Google whore out end-users private information as part of the process"..,