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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Why hasn't Apple Maps made it to the desktop/web?

Why hasn't Apple Maps made it to the desktop/web?
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Hawkeye_a
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Apr 4, 2013, 01:09 PM
 
If Apple wants to improve the quality and accuracy of their maps via crowd sourcing information, why haven't they released a desktop/web version (even if it is only via an iCloud account?) to users?

When i find an anomaly using Apple Maps on my iPhone, i find it tedius to report the bug on such a small screen on the go. I would be more inclined to do it on my desktop. And it would also make the mapping service from Apple a lot more popular IMHO.

Thoughts?
     
subego
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Apr 4, 2013, 01:11 PM
 
Maps is too good for the desktop.
     
cgc
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Apr 4, 2013, 01:15 PM
 
Apple can't port their maps app to the desktop because 100% of their programming workforce is dedicated to iOS 7...that and Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
subego
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Apr 4, 2013, 01:27 PM
 
I hope they start again. I'm so close to jumping ship for my big iron.

They'd still have me though. Apart from iOS, my home server is going to be a Mac for the foreseeable future.
     
lpkmckenna
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Apr 4, 2013, 03:03 PM
 
Apple is foolish for not making Apple Maps available to everyone via the web.
     
pooka
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Apr 4, 2013, 03:06 PM
 
Apple doesn't do/get the web. See pretty much every other service they provide (yes, photostream, I'm looking at you).

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Hawkeye_a  (op)
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Apr 4, 2013, 08:48 PM
 
I would definitely try to give up using Google Maps and switch to Apple Maps were there a web/desktop application.

While I realize they are doing some cutting edge 3D rendering and 2D vector graphics in the app, which could be tying it to the OS (and the graphics libraries) which could mean they dont want to invest in doing it on the web platform (WebGL, etc). But they can at least release a MacOSX desktop Maps app?
     
imitchellg5
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Apr 4, 2013, 09:22 PM
 
I'm guessing Apple is more than capable of having Maps online if they want to, they probably just want to wait until it's a flawless experience.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 5, 2013, 01:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by cgc View Post
Apple can't port their maps app to the desktop because 100% of their programming workforce is dedicated to iOS 7...that and Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience.
Mountain Lion would beg to differ.
     
cgc
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Apr 5, 2013, 08:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Mountain Lion would beg to differ.
Still many bugs remain in OSX which reinforces my belief Apple don't give a crap about OSX or the desktop...the desktop and OSX have become the new AppleTV (e.g. a hobby for Apple).
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
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Apr 5, 2013, 09:21 AM
 
ML is not too bad - especially as iOS has its share of bugs (and my old iPhone 4 doesn't feel anywhere near as good as it did back with iOS 4) - but according to Gruber, Apple has pulled people away from 10.9 to work on iOS.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 5, 2013, 11:25 AM
 
Originally Posted by cgc View Post
Still many bugs remain in OSX which reinforces my belief Apple don't give a crap about OSX or the desktop...the desktop and OSX have become the new AppleTV (e.g. a hobby for Apple).
I don't see more bugs in 10.8 than I did in 10.6 and earlier, especially for a .x.3 version.

OS 9 and previous systems, now THOSE were buggy. Apple obviously didn't care about the Mac, then.

Or: bugs in software are a fact of life, and you either have terrible memory or are just really, really new to this stuff.
     
subego
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Apr 5, 2013, 11:49 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Mountain Lion would beg to differ.
You didn't hear this rumor?

iOS7 is supposed to be a huge reworking of the OS. Apple is tired of everyone saying their OS is stagnant.

The rumor is it's behind schedule, so they pulled almost everybody off the MacOS team and put them on iOS7.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 5, 2013, 12:21 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
You didn't hear this rumor?

iOS7 is supposed to be a huge reworking of the OS. Apple is tired of everyone saying their OS is stagnant.

The rumor is it's behind schedule, so they pulled almost everybody off the MacOS team and put them on iOS7.
Yes, I read that, and I consider it to be very likely (same thing happened in 2007 with Leopard, after all).

I was responding to "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience", which is hyperbolic horseshit.

If you consider that that the last time they diverted efforts to iOS people claimed the same thing, and that this was BEFORE the widely-accepted "pinnacle" of OS X development, 10.6...never mind that 10.8 is actually a nicer system in probably as many ways as 10.6 was nicer than 10.4.
     
subego
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Apr 5, 2013, 12:34 PM
 
Okay, I was only referring to the 100% of their workforce part.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 5, 2013, 12:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Okay, I was only referring to the 100% of their workforce part.
The following posts between cgc and me make it quite clear that we both knew what we were talking about.
     
imitchellg5
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Apr 5, 2013, 04:13 PM
 
What is so wrong with 10.8? I'm quite pleased with how well it runs on my late-2008 MacBook Pro.
     
John F. Smith
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Apr 6, 2013, 02:40 AM
 
Originally Posted by pooka View Post
Apple doesn't do/get the web. See pretty much every other service they provide (yes, photostream, I'm looking at you).


(For anyone who doesn't remember: eWorld, Apple's first web service flop)
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cgc
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Apr 6, 2013, 08:07 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I don't see more bugs in 10.8 than I did in 10.6 and earlier, especially for a .x.3 version.

OS 9 and previous systems, now THOSE were buggy. Apple obviously didn't care about the Mac, then.

Or: bugs in software are a fact of life, and you either have terrible memory or are just really, really new to this stuff.
My memory is pretty good and I've been a Mac user for 13 years...and an Amiga user for 5 or 6 years prior to that. I just think that OSX has been a hobby for Apple for a few years...maybe they're working hard on iOS to bring it up to a certain level before reallocating their programming staff to OSX but it's a little disconcerting.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 6, 2013, 09:32 AM
 
Originally Posted by cgc View Post
My memory is pretty good and I've been a Mac user for 13 years...and an Amiga user for 5 or 6 years prior to that. I just think that OSX has been a hobby for Apple for a few years...maybe they're working hard on iOS to bring it up to a certain level before reallocating their programming staff to OSX but it's a little disconcerting.
I've been a Mac user for almost twenty-five years, and I can say with some certainty that the state of the Macintosh operating system has never been better. I am very pleased with Mountain Lion on the whole.
OS X development did lose a lot of its urgency after Tiger was released, so I agree that the perception might be that they're not progressing leaps and bounds, but that's primarily because Tiger was the first OS X version that actually felt "done".

But to conclude that "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience" is just ridiculous, inflammatory nonsense. And it's insulting to the people working on the products.

As for non-OS software: there are a couple of bugs I've been fighting in Logic (though nothing major), but Logic 9 has been working better for me than any previous version (been on Logic since v4). And iMovie, by contrast, is incredibly buggy and crashes on me left and right.

My understanding is that since the fusion with NeXT, they've always had small teams and allocated them by urgency. Which is why it sometimes took ages for stuff to get fixed: the people (or person) in charge of that bit is currently busy on a different project, losing sleep over an upcoming deadline.
     
ctt1wbw
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Apr 6, 2013, 09:50 AM
 
I always thought Apple Maps was a navigation app. And since laptops don't have 3G, why put a navigation app on there if you can't use it?
     
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Apr 6, 2013, 10:23 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
You didn't hear this rumor?

iOS7 is supposed to be a huge reworking of the OS. Apple is tired of everyone saying their OS is stagnant.

The rumor is it's behind schedule, so they pulled almost everybody off the MacOS team and put them on iOS7.
It seems that they are at least reworking Springboard to something new and fancy. Do that and make a few more of the icons auto-update (i.e. make icons like Weather and Clock update like the Calendar icon does, to show the current status) and the first impression would be much more positive.

Also, I think they should include a few simple games by default, like a Solitaire app.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
subego
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Apr 6, 2013, 11:27 AM
 
My favorite line from Google Blue:

"How could we completely redesign this, but have everything stay exactly the same?"

Well, that and:

"We tried brown... that was a disaster."
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 6, 2013, 11:49 AM
 
Originally Posted by ctt1wbw View Post
I always thought Apple Maps was a navigation app. And since laptops don't have 3G, why put a navigation app on there if you can't use it?
I use Google Maps on the Mac all the time:

I use it to figure out distances, to plan departure times ahead, to check out routes, and to get an idea of where locations are when I'm talking to somebody on the phone.
     
cgc
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Apr 6, 2013, 02:49 PM
 
Google Pedometer is really good as well...use it all the time to calculate run/hike distances.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
mindwaves
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Apr 6, 2013, 04:50 PM
 
I am really disappointed in Apple Maps. I reported a bug for a park in a foreign country about 6 times for period of several months. Apple has not yet fixed the problem. Apparently, Apple does not consider the soccer fields (not in grass, but in pavement) as being part of the park and thus does not highlight that section of the park in green as in Google Maps.

Furthermore, many foreign countries have little to no map information, which is very disappointing. Still in beta form for me.
     
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Apr 6, 2013, 10:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
It seems that they are at least reworking Springboard to something new and fancy. Do that and make a few more of the icons auto-update (i.e. make icons like Weather and Clock update like the Calendar icon does, to show the current status) and the first impression would be much more positive.
You mean like live tiles in Windows Phone 8? Or home screen widgets in Android?

Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. In all seriousness, dynamically updating home screen icons are long, long, long overdue.
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Apr 7, 2013, 10:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
But to conclude that "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience" is just ridiculous, inflammatory nonsense. And it's insulting to the people working on the products.
Maybe it's a slight exaggeration, but aren't we still waiting on Quicktime Player to implement those missing features from QT7? Any day now.

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subego
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Apr 7, 2013, 11:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
But to conclude that "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience" is just ridiculous, inflammatory nonsense. And it's insulting to the people working on the products.
No one is working on that product right now, so insult away!
     
cgc
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Apr 7, 2013, 07:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
...
But to conclude that "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience" is just ridiculous, inflammatory nonsense. And it's insulting to the people working on the products.
...
I stand by my statement since Apple has dedicated ALL it's OS programmers to iOS. I doubt any other company would do such a thing so my original comment has some credibility.

You're modus operandi is to attack, insult, slander, or demean anyone who dares say something you don't agree with 100%. Isn't it obvious your beloved Apple loves it's handheld market much more than the desktop market? Should have seen the writing on the wall when they removed "Computer" from their name and became simply "Apple Inc." back in 2007.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 7, 2013, 08:31 PM
 
To reiterate: I am happier with my Mac and its Apple Pro software than I have been since about 1992, when I was still happily hacking away at System 7 with ResEdit, and *certainly* happier than I was in 2007.

That's certainly not bad for a company which ostensibly doesn't give a shit about what I do.


Are you seriously trying to claim that your statement that "Apple don't give a crap about OSX and the desktop experience" is not deliberately phrased in the most hyperbolic way in order to garner responses like mine?

Meh. My anecdote, 10%+ market share, and growing sales of "traditional computer" Macs vs. your claim that Apple doesn't care. Whatever they're (not) doing, it seems to be working remarkably well.
     
subego
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Apr 7, 2013, 10:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by cgc View Post
You're modus operandi is to attack, insult, slander, or demean anyone who dares say something you don't agree with 100%.
This is an extreme statement.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 8, 2013, 01:01 AM
 
     
P
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Apr 8, 2013, 03:46 AM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
You mean like live tiles in Windows Phone 8? Or home screen widgets in Android?

Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. In all seriousness, dynamically updating home screen icons are long, long, long overdue.
As a replacement for widgets, yes. The point about the widgets is that it's the obvious thing Android users drag up for how great their phone is, yet the one thing anyone has as a widget is a weather app. Instead of adding another interface element, just make the icons update on the fly.

Windows 8 has a lot of great ideas, but it isn't selling, so it's not the same pressure on Apple to add features from it to match up.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Apr 8, 2013, 04:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. In all seriousness, dynamically updating home screen icons are long, long, long overdue.
I think dynamically updating icons is in most cases a very bad idea (a calendar app updating to reflect today's date would be an exception), and something that will likely be abused by tasteless developers. I'd much rather have that functionality relegated to widgets or notifications.
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cgc
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Apr 8, 2013, 09:46 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
This is an extreme statement.
Spheric Harlot is someone who likes to argue so I take all his posts with a grain of salt...facts aren't as important as "winning the argument" is. The fact Apple's market share has risen isn't a measure of success, it's a combination of things (e.g. Windows losing marketshare, iPhone/iTunes/AppleTV/iPad/iPod bringing customers to Apple, OSX being as good as Windows). My argument is simply that Apple pulled it's development staff completely from OSX to work on iOS. There are numerous unresolved bugs in OSX, been there for a while, but fixing bugs doesn't boost stock sales so why would Apple work on that?
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Apr 8, 2013, 10:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
I think dynamically updating icons is in most cases a very bad idea (a calendar app updating to reflect today's date would be an exception), and something that will likely be abused by tasteless developers. I'd much rather have that functionality relegated to widgets or notifications.
If the feature is there, I'd be willing to trust Ive to use it with taste. Likely it will come with a setting to disable updates, like Notification Center does. Certainly will look prettier than those red badges.

The idea came from a "first impression" post when someone showed his iPhone to an elderly parent or grandparent - their first comment upon seeing the weather icon was that it must be showing the indoor temperature, because it certainly wasn't that warm outside, and quoted the fixed temperature. That made me think, because it quoted the temperature in F, and mine is in C. Sure enough - change the region settings, and the icon changes. Shouldn't be too hard to use that feature to make the weather icon update live whenever you open the Springboard.

If the Springboard has to update to put the badges on, it can't be very hard to make that notification system a little more live. Just give developers the option and users the option to turn it off. It is clearly a popular feature.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 8, 2013, 11:07 AM
 
Originally Posted by cgc View Post
My argument is simply that Apple pulled it's development staff completely from OSX to work on iOS. There are numerous unresolved bugs in OSX, been there for a while, but fixing bugs doesn't boost stock sales so why would Apple work on that?
Because Apple's sustained success is based entirely around their products living up to their promise. Sustaining growth for fifteen years only works if more people switch to the platform than away from it, so Apple must be doing okay at keeping people happy.

Again: I'm pretty okay with how they've been doing.
     
cgc
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Apr 8, 2013, 11:47 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Because Apple's sustained success is based entirely around their products living up to their promise. Sustaining growth for fifteen years only works if more people switch to the platform than away from it, so Apple must be doing okay at keeping people happy.

Again: I'm pretty okay with how they've been doing.
I too think Apple's HW is fantastic but their software on the desktop side has languished more than I like.

@P: I have a weather app on my iPod Touch that shows current temperature in the icon. Things like that are really handy but I agree that this could be a little invasive and distracting. Like the <blink> tag everyone despised...
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
Hawkeye_a  (op)
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Apr 9, 2013, 12:05 PM
 
Well this has certainly diverged from the original topic

Hardware specs have just improved exponentially over the past 5-10 years (maybe since the switch to Intel?)

Apple's system software has been fairly "fixed" with incremental improvements. Personally, i'm not a fan of the direction MacOSX has taken recently. I think Snow Leopard was the last time I was actually excited for an upgrade. Maybe it peeked? I'm finding it hard to imagine what more I want out of my desktop experience. So what's the point of higher spec'd hardware? have we plateaued?

MacOS 9 took up less than 400MB of disc space. MacOSX has been hovering around the 10GB mark.The main draw to OSX was an upgraded UI and better architecture (multitasking, protected memory, etc). I don't understand why the OS is so heavy from 0.4GB to 10GB. And the UI should have evolved faster IMHO (maybe to take better advantage of the hardware?).

As an average everyday user, I'm not really doing a whole lot of different things on OSX than I was on OS9.... check emails, browse the net, skype/AIM, word processing, some image/video editing, consume music/movies... the workflow and use cases are almost identical. (The only exception in my case, as a developer, is using XCode). This sudden focus on touch and to shoehorn a touch interface like the AppLauncher is ..meh.

The Classic MacOS lasted from 1984-2000ish... 16 years. MacOSX is now pushing 12-13 years. And the Classic MacoS saw a lot more radical changes in its lifetime IMHO. I'm not convinced that this convergence of MacOSX and iOS that Apple has been pushing is the right direction. If anything i'd like to see a bit more of OSX (in terms of powerful UI paradigms, etc) on iOS now that the hardware can handle it.

I think iOS needs a lot more attention at this point than MacOSX. With OSX it does everything well, and there is a lack of meaningful "new ideas" to put in, whereas with iOS..it's just gotten stale. And alternatives like WebOS present paradigms i wish iOS had. IMHO

I'm using a 2008 Mac, a 2009 iPhone and a 2010 iPad. I see no reason to upgrade with the current system software being offered.

/endrant
     
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Apr 9, 2013, 12:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
As a replacement for widgets, yes. The point about the widgets is that it's the obvious thing Android users drag up for how great their phone is, yet the one thing anyone has as a widget is a weather app. Instead of adding another interface element, just make the icons update on the fly.

Windows 8 has a lot of great ideas, but it isn't selling, so it's not the same pressure on Apple to add features from it to match up.
I would at least argue that widgets provide extra functionality beyond just a 1x1 area. Widgets for reading email, facebook feeds, RSS, etc. from the home screen are incredibly handy, especially on tablets where you have a lot more screen real estate to work with.

Also, by separating widgets from application icons, users aren't forced into one option. If you don't want dynamically-updating icons, just use the app icon. If you do, use a widget that's more than just an icon.

I do think Apple is behind the curve on dynamic home screen content that keeps you updated. The home screen on the iPad is a terrible waste of that device's resolution and screen space.
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Apr 9, 2013, 12:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I would at least argue that widgets provide extra functionality beyond just a 1x1 area. Widgets for reading email, facebook feeds, RSS, etc. from the home screen are incredibly handy, especially on tablets where you have a lot more screen real estate to work with.

Also, by separating widgets from application icons, users aren't forced into one option. If you don't want dynamically-updating icons, just use the app icon. If you do, use a widget that's more than just an icon.

I do think Apple is behind the curve on dynamic home screen content that keeps you updated. The home screen on the iPad is a terrible waste of that device's resolution and screen space.
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( Last edited by Hawkeye_a; Apr 9, 2013 at 12:31 PM. )
     
subego
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Apr 16, 2013, 03:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
No one is working on that product right now, so insult away!
     
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Apr 16, 2013, 04:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a View Post
If Apple wants to improve the quality and accuracy of their maps via crowd sourcing information, why haven't they released a desktop/web version (even if it is only via an iCloud account?) to users?

When i find an anomaly using Apple Maps on my iPhone, i find it tedius to report the bug on such a small screen on the go. I would be more inclined to do it on my desktop. And it would also make the mapping service from Apple a lot more popular IMHO.

Thoughts?
They actually had a roadmap to bring it to other devices, unfortunately they used the Apple Maps engine for that roadmap and it all got lost in the middle of australia.

Too soon?
     
OAW
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Apr 16, 2013, 04:40 PM
 
@Hawkeye_a,

The Roots Radio ...

OAW
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 16, 2013, 04:41 PM
 
     
Snow-i
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Apr 16, 2013, 04:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Well, had they used Google maps, they would have got stuck in oncoming traffic on a dirt road...
That was their backup roadmap.
     
shifuimam
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Apr 18, 2013, 02:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a View Post
Pending notification alert....


Quickview of pending notifications, music control....
Ah yes...WebOS. Incidentally I'm playing with my HP TouchPad right now.

I'll be bummed about the death of WebOS for awhile. It had some fantastic potential.
Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
     
cgc
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Apr 19, 2013, 12:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
...Incidentally I'm playing with my HP TouchPad right now.
...
Is that a euphamism?
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." Frank Drebin, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
     
shifuimam
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Apr 19, 2013, 12:59 PM
 
Trollololol!

No, really. WebOS is pretty rad. I have CyanogenMod 9 on my TP too, but I've been using WebOS exclusively on it, just to see if I can. I read recently that LG bought the OS and all associated rights, so we'll see what happens with it...
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