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Apple Acquires GPS Start-Up
An anonymous reader writes: Apple is still sprinting to catch up with Google with its navigation software — the company just acquired Coherent Navigation, a startup focused on GPS tech. Its navigation services are reportedly more precise than most commercial-grade systems. Their system "combines signals from the traditional mid-earth orbit GPS satellites with those from the low-earth satellites of voice and data provider Iridium to offer greater accuracy and precision, higher signal integrity, and greater jam resistance." They've already worked with Boeing and the U.S. Department of Defense. Apple didn't disclose the terms of the deal or explain any specific plans for the GPS technology.
Why does Apple feel the compulsion to plow money into an inferior map service?
Because Google forced them too.
Google was not going to continue to allow the previous Apple developed, Google data backed iOS mapping software without Apple sharing user data with them. The two companies couldn't come to an agreement, so Apple had to develop their own maps.
And I'm glad they did. As a developer, the Apple maps are free to use. That is not true for Google maps.
Parent is actually a really good point. Apple Maps' problems have nothing to do with GPS accuracy and everything to do with terrible maps and entirely missing features.
Both the road I live on and the road where I work are misplaced in Apple Maps. This means attempting to use Apple Maps to navigate starting from either location doesn't really work, because it attempts to route you through roads that don't exist in reality. (At home, this includes a bike path that apparently Apple Maps has decided is really a road that you can drive cars down.)
Then there are the missing features. Apple Maps doesn't take traffic into account when generating routes. It doesn't offer an "avoid tolls" options for routes. It doesn't do biking and walking navigation (which might explain why it thinks a bike path is a real road) and it doesn't do public transportation. It doesn't do lanes like Google Maps does. It's just worse in every way.
And that's not counting the misplaced place marks. Even ignoring all the above, chances are, if you attempt to use Apple Maps to navigate to a specific location, while you're likely to end up geographically near it, you may not end up on the correct street and there's no chance the route ends where the place really is.
Improving GPS won't help with any of that. Apple desperately needs better maps and new features. As it stands, the advice remains "throw Apple Maps into your 'Apple shit I never use' folder and just download Google Maps so you can get to where you're trying to go."
On android google maps is pretty cool. You can say "ok google, take me home/work/xxxÂs house" without pressing anything. You can also say things like "take me to the nearest bar/pizza/ATM" etc. The navigation itself is pretty good and can use public transport if you want it to.
AppleÂs problem when competing with google is that their apps only work on Apple systems. Doing what google has done with street view is a huge undertaking if you are restricted to a smallish percent of the market.
I do understand that Apple wanted to get away from relying on Google for maps but I donÂt think they have succeeded.