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Apple Switches (Mostly) To OpenStreetMap
beelsebob writes "In the recent release of iPhoto for iOS it appears that Apple has started using OpenStreetMap's data. Unfortunately, there are still some problems. Apple is currently not applying the necessary attribution to OSM; they are using an old (from April 2010) dump of the data; and they are not using the data in the U.S. Fingers crossed that Apple works through these issues quickly! Apple is now one of a growing list (including geocaching, and foursquare) to Switch2OSM."
Apple not properly crediting others for their inventions! No way!
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
I didn't see any mention in the article about Apple switching to OSM in their maps app. If/when they do, I hope they implement a mechanism for submitting updates to OSM, since that is a big strength.
I'm ambivalent about Apple making this change; google maps has done pretty well, but sometimes it gets numeric addresses wrong on long beach ny and other areas.
One burning question: will we be able to get audible turn-by-turn directions if Apple moves to OSM?
OpenStreetMaps has generally good map data at this point, but their reverse geocoding (i.e. place data) is still very sparse compared to Google or Factual, etc. Would love to see a free, open database of comparable quality to the paid ones.
Having 60+ GB files of "open data" being shared seems like a perfect reason to use torrents. Anyone know a reason (technical or legal) for why they aren't?
Yeah. Because Apple never gives back to the digital community. Oh. Wait. http://www.apple.com/opensource/
So, yeah, I'll take that bet.
Took me a while to figure out 'U.S. Fingers crossed'.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Whilst OSM is very good for free data, there are still pockets of areas where the coverage is very poor indeed. I had to map out half of my uncle's town as it just wasn't there on OSM (about 9 months ago). At every stage, it's getting better, but the more 'big players' that start to switch to it, the more momentum it will get and the better the coverage will be as more contributors flow in.
This is especially the case as parts of the OSM dataset are about to be wiped out due to the forthcoming remapping.
Does OSM have traffic information as well?
Not that I know, but maybe there will be an app for that
Even if they have the major roads, does it have the arterial streets like Google does? I use that information extensively on my commute.
In general yes but YMMV. It depends on the region: main cities in Europe and US are pretty well mapped whereas little village may have only their main road drawn. It really depends on where the users/editors of OSM live or what their interest is.
BTW if your commute is not mapped, you can just map it yourself, it's like wikipedia, but for maps and without the deletionist plague.
They are using OpenStreetMap in one iOS photo editing application that costs $5. I would hardly call that "mostly switching." More like the first toe in the water.
Wait really? Germany? Poor maps on OSM? The german mappers go into insane level of detail –take a look at Berlin for example.
The problem with German GPS is it only gives you directions to Warsaw.
How is OpenStreetMap determining that Apple's using their data versus a similar data set from a different source? I haven't seen anything about their methodology for coming to the conclusion that it's OpenStreetMap data. How easy is it to pin down map data to a specific provider?
I'm unsure what that URL is meant to show because all it shows to me is that they include open-source software as part of OS X. We know that. It's what this article is about.
Your comment was related to whether Apple contribute code back. That page has no information about Apple returning code at all. Stop spreading misinformation.
Now, the facts.
Apple contribute code back. A fair bit of code has been accepted into FreeBSD from Apple. Do they contribute back as much as they should, ethically? That's debatable, personally I'd say no. Recently they're reducing their open-source efforts too (CUPS).
Why can't people just discuss things normally rather than having all this pro-Apple / anti-Apple garbage?
Strangely, that list doesn't have Webkit or LLVM on it. That's by far their two greatest contributions. Webkit, one might note was based off of exsiting project KHTML. The history there wasn't good. They essentially ignored the existing community around KHTML, took the code modified it with all sorts of OSX only hooks, released that to comply with the license (GPL or LGPL). Then a couple years later they did it the correct way and created the webkit open source project. Konqueror now defaults to the Webkit implimentation and all is well. Although, google isn't that much better at working with existing open source communities, if you look at chromium browser.
So, yeah, there is still an uneasy feeling when it comes to Apple and open source projects.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
In practice, OpenStreetMap is more up to date than Google for areas where locals know how to update it. That includes quite a lot of Europe (particularly Germany and England) and most metropolitan areas in the US. As more people learn about OpenStreetMap and begin using products that include OpenStreetMap data, that pool of up-to-date areas will grow. Basically, right now, there are areas where Google is better and areas where OpenStreetMap is better. (But where OSM is good, it's generally *very* good.) Also note that not only is Apple using really old OpenStreetMap data (the OSM database has more than doubled in size since April 2010), they're using US Census TIGER data in the US, which is often really, really bad.
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The past story with khtml webkit, and the recent story about apple-only planned features in CUPS, and the general attitude of big and small commercial entities towards free software, should make people just a little wary.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
The same is true of google maps though. Compare Vladivostok on Google Maps to on OpenStreetMap for example.
You misunderstood his comment. From his perspective as a German, the attention to detail in OSM is lacking. I mean, in that example, there is no mention of where the nearest trash can is or where the stop signs are located.
I wish I was kidding. Germans are a unique breed when it comes to detail and rules.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Google is up-to-date, but in some cases it's completely wrong. They've recently changed from buying in map data from one source to amalgamating it from many many sources. This provides a headache for google as they can't manually fix things that are wrong as the fixes will be overwritten by the automated amalgamation in a week's time or so.
Take for example Normansland. There is no place in the New Forest called Normansland. There is one up the road called Nomansland (without the 'r') but for some reason Google has this mythical 'Normansland' in its dataset (in a different place from Nomansland!) and can't easily get rid of it. Their mapping data will get better as the work on it, but in the last year or so it has actually gone downhill.
Every time I see a map rendered with different colors and a different style as Google Maps I immediately feel how much I prefer the Google Maps style. Is it only me or is the rendering really that refined that it's just so much easier to spot things and therefore feels better?
WebKit, LLVM/clang, and yes, they even did a lot for CUPS, and zillions of bugfixes across many products. And if you're an OS wonk, you can even look at the entire MacOS X kernel source code and borrow if you'd like, as well as many of the low-level processes that make MacOS interesting. It's true that many of these were not taken up by other products, but that's hardly Apple's fault.
E pluribus unum
parts of chrome may be OSS
True, but misleading. It's more like "small parts of chrome are proprietary". Almost all of it OSS and included in Chromium.
The V8 Javascript engine, for example, was all developed by Google and released under the BSD license.
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The past story with khtml webkit, and the recent story about apple-only planned features in CUPS, and the general attitude of big and small commercial entities towards free software, should make people just a little wary.
Simple roadmap for you: If it is within Apple's Patents they are stingy. When it is outside of Apple's Patents they can be very generous.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Did it not automatically reroute when you discovered the.... oh... nevermind.
The same is true of google maps though. Compare Vladivostok on Google Maps to on OpenStreetMap for example.
You think that's bad, check out North Korea: Google Maps vs. OSM.
Though I'm not sure how well to trust North Korean OSM. I can just picture some guy in a cubicle in NK building phantom roads and towns all over the place just because.
No, it looks like they took an April 2010 planet dump a while ago, and haven't updated since, which isn't great. This rather suggests that they don't know that they're using OSM data. Hence my bet being that one of the companies they bought used OSM data as a starting point, and then claimed to apple that it was theirs.
Simple roadmap for you: If it is within Apple's Patents they are stingy. When it is outside of Apple's Patents they can be very generous.
Simple translation for you: If it's theirs they are stingy. If it's yours they share freely.
It is what it is, don't put makeup on it.
The "apple-only CUPS" thing was about removing Linux-specific features out of the main distribution on OS X. Those features are still there and you can roll them back into CUPS if you need them, for example, on a Linux machine.
When will Apple sue OSM for using their data??
Sheesh. Some mod got caught in a surly mood, or doesn't know any Germans.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
The past story with khtml webkit
You mean the one where the KHTML devs complained that Apple was doing big changeset dumps making them hard to merge, so Apple switched to using a public svn repository? Or the one where committed sandboxing to WebKit in a way that (unlike Chrome's) is browser-agnostic and so can be used by other WebKit users?
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As funny as what you typed is, it's sad that it's true.
Slashdot's turned from a nerd haven into wanna-be gamers who think they're nerds but only have emotional disorders.
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Huh? I got great navigation from Berlin to Moscow. Well, *almost* to Moscow. The whole app did freeze up when I was about 20 miles out.
The problem with German GPS is it only gives you directions to Warsaw.
Not really. I needed to get from Berlin to Paris one time, and while the directions were a bit strange - I had no interest in visiting Belgium, after all - they got me there pretty quickly.
#DeleteChrome
Well, who posted that ....
Hmm... It appears that I did. Apparently, I care. I care that Apple doesn't play well with Open Communities. It will influence how well I play with Apple. If there are more that feel the same way as I do, then it becomes a problem for Apple. It would behoove them to work better with communities they don't control. Same goes for Google, Microsoft or any other company. Follow the license and follow the spirit of open collaberation.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
You misunderstood his comment. From his perspective as a German, the attention to detail in OSM is lacking. I mean, in that example, there is no mention of where the nearest trash can is or where the stop signs are located.
I'd like to point out that the Berlin map beelsebob picked as an example does include locations of trash cans. It's just that the default map style on openstreetmap.org omits trash cans to avoid cluttering the map. They are, however, available in the database for anyone who needs them.
There are also several groups of recycling containers such as this one nearby, which indeed appear in the default map style.
So even as a German, I don't see a reason to complain about the level of attention to detail displayed by Berlin's mappers. ;)
Uhhh, actually, you have that backwards.
Apple contributed their changes to gcc to support obj-c and a modern runtime back (along with a bunch to improve c/c++ support). The gcc team refused a good number of them. The gcc team then moved to a more restrictive license with the explicit goal of cock blocking companies like apple (it actually explicitly banned the kind of integration into IDE that apple need to do).
Apple then set up a new C, Objective-C and C++ compiler front end (clang). Apple then released said compiler front end under a more open license than gcc. Apple then continue to work to improve that complier and compiler front end until it works better than gcc in pretty much every respect. Apple then do the exact same for a debugger that's more open and faster than gdb. Apple then add a static analysis tool, again under a more open license than gcc.
Which part of this was Apple not being a good open source citizen?