Does everyone use Safari

[Luvntravln]

For me as a retired lawyer, the more interesting question than has been pointed out on another site is that a significant number of Apple's hospital and other emergency locations are wrong.

You can say that only an idiot would rely on a map in a phone in a medical emergency; however, that is almost the standard.

What would an average reasonable person faced with an emergency do under emergency conditions?

Not, what would he do under normal conditions; what would he do under emergency conditions.

OMG, my son just seriously sliced is his arm with a knife. I have to get him to the nearest hospital before he bleeds to death. Grab the iPhone, find the closest hospital, and out the door.

Oops - that hospital is closed!


Apple has a pretty valid lawsuit on their hands for negligently advising the map user.

IMHO

 

[vansmith]

I should check some of the errors with google maps and post them just for Van! Grin

Like I said I don't pretend to think that Google Maps is perfect. I'm not that obtuse. However, that still doesn't address my point - Apple removed a product that is largely regarded as superior because of circumstances that they caused.

 

[dtravis7]

Like I said I don't pretend to think that Google Maps is perfect. I'm not that obtuse. However, that still doesn't address my point - Apple removed a product that is largely regarded as superior because of circumstances that they caused.

I agree both should have been left there at least for a while.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

What would an average reasonable person faced with an emergency do under emergency conditions?

Call 911?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I feel sorry for all the suckers who are having issues with Apple's maps. So far, it's looking rock solid here. Aside from the oddity where they were calling several unincorporated areas of the city here by names that don't officially exist outside the Census data, it's been quite accurate for me in my admittedly limited use so far. Heck, navigating home and it nailed my house the moment I reached the driveway, the most logical spot to declare that you've arrived. I don't think I've ever seen a map nail it quite like that for me.

One of the things that troubled me when I heard that they were mish-mashing data from multiple sources was just how accurate this could be, and what would happen if the sources contradict each other. Relying on open source data acquired by volunteers... that alone should be worrisome. In the comments to an article on Ars Technica about this, someone who had experience with map data had some insight that I think is worth sharing:
Transit app developers see iOS 6 Maps as a chance to shine | Ars Technica

I'm wondering if buying up those mapping startups was such a good idea. It obviously takes years to refine this and a lot of manpower just to make corrections and keep up with our constantly changing environment. I rather doubt these startups that Apple acquired had the manpower or skill for such a daunting task. Eh... whatever. It will get better. I think it will get a LOT better over the next few months and within a year or two it may well grow to be the best out there.

 

[vansmith]

One of the things that troubled me when I heard that they were mish-mashing data from multiple sources was just how accurate this could be, and what would happen if the sources contradict each other. Relying on open source data acquired by volunteers... that alone should be worrisome.

That's a good question and one worth knowing the answer to. I agree with you to on the notion of 'open data'. I may be a strong believer in open source paradigms but corporations who do development behind closed doors can do certain things better. I wonder if this is one of them.

I'm wondering if buying up those mapping startups was such a good idea. It obviously takes years to refine this and a lot of manpower just to make corrections and keep up with our constantly changing environment. I rather doubt these startups that Apple acquired had the manpower or skill for such a daunting task. Eh... whatever. It will get better. I think it will get a LOT better over the next few months and within a year or two it may well grow to be the best out there.

I figure that you can't start mapping the world from nothing so I think, at a minimum, the smaller companies provided two things: data and know how. The data may change but the know how is certainly invaluable because I imagine that cartography is a whole different beast than other projects.

I'm sure it will get better. No company in their right mind would create a product that has, at its best, lukewarm reception especially when such a project is central to the lives of many people (yes, it seems like mapping is now key to smartphones). I have no doubt in my mind that Apple will create something great out of it. The question that remains is, "how long will that take?"

EDIT: You know that the mapping application is a disaster when the company itself suggests using the application that was removed as a temporary replacement. To quote Cook:

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

That's a good question and one worth knowing the answer to. I agree with you to on the notion of 'open data'. I may be a strong believer in open source paradigms but corporations who do development behind closed doors can do certain things better. I wonder if this is one of them.

I was more wondering how accurate map data can be if just anyone can add to it or edit it. What's to stop a prankster from screwing with street names. or someone just getting something wrong due to ineptness? I tried one open source mapping solution a year or so ago and it was not only hideously ugly, but grossly inaccurate.

EDIT: You know that the mapping application is a disaster when the company itself suggests using the application that was removed as a temporary replacement. To quote Cook:

People are in an uproar. At least he's man enough to own up to it, while pointing out there are alternatives, as there always have been. Everyone's acting like they HAVE to use the built-in solution and acting like the transit directions not being there is a complete surprise. Geezus... if it's so bad, roll back to iOS 5.

 

[vansmith]

I was more wondering how accurate map data can be if just anyone can add to it or edit it. What's to stop a prankster from screwing with street names. or someone just getting something wrong due to ineptness? I tried one open source mapping solution a year or so ago and it was not only hideously ugly, but grossly inaccurate.

That's my point - being open to changes works wonders for some projects but not others. In this case, map data might be something better developed behind closed doors. At the same time however, openness expands your potential contribution pool and gets help from all over the world (which actually has relevance for something like this). It's a balancing act to say the least.

Ugly? Yeah, the open source community isn't known for its aesthetics.

People are in an uproar. At least he's man enough to own up to it, while pointing out there are alternatives, as there always have been. Everyone's acting like they HAVE to use the built-in solution and acting like the transit directions not being there is a complete surprise. Geezus... if it's so bad, roll back to iOS 5.

The uproar though is justified since a workable solution was removed in favour of one that isn't for many. Sure, people don't have to use the built in solution but that doesn't preclude one for criticizing it. If I buy a car and it has a terrible sound system, I have every right to criticize it even though there are thousands of alternatives.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

That's my point - being open to changes works wonders for some projects but not others. In this case, map data might be something better developed behind closed doors. At the same time however, openness expands your potential contribution pool and gets help from all over the world (which actually has relevance for something like this). It's a balancing act to say the least.

I was thinking about the problems some areas had with hospitals so I searched locally and I just found some HUGE problems with the hospital system here. There are two hospitals here. That's it. Two. Same hospital network. But they own a range of various types of outpatient centers. And a number of them are in Yelp (and thus Apple Maps) all with the same name as one of the hospitals. So it looks like the smaller hospital is located in half a dozen locations spread around the city. And the larger one is listed in a dozen different places around the city. It's INSANE! And in the meanwhile, although the correct location for the smaller hospital is currently showing up in Apple maps (along with the wrong ones), that real location is now missing if I search Yelp directly.

Now in all fairness, I found similar issues with the listings in Google's maps after comparing them, though not quite to the extent in Yelp. Still, this is bad. Really bad. I mean... who is adding all these entries? I'm actually guessing the hospital did because all the address and phone numbers are correct for the non-hospital sites that are listed as hospitals. Unless Yelp is using a bot to crawl the web to collect this data and is mis-categorizing it.

The uproar though is justified since a workable solution was removed in favour of one that isn't for many. Sure, people don't have to use the built in solution but that doesn't preclude one for criticizing it. If I buy a car and it has a terrible sound system, I have every right to criticize it even though there are thousands of alternatives.

LOL! Well if I bought a car without making sure the sound system was satisfactory beforehand, I'd deserve what I got. ;P

 

[Luvntravln]

Call 911?

Possilbly; however, we are talking about someone in a panic situation.

I know from experience that everyday people drive themselves to hospitals and do more damage than would have occurred had they called ambulance.

When you read in the papers about ambulance delays and ambulances being turned away from hospitals, a reasonable person in a panic emergency situation can be expected to grab his wonderful iPhone with its magic maps and s*** hits the fan.

 

[toMACsh]

Am I in the wrong thread?

I thought this started out on the topic of who uses Safari.

 

[Macmeister]

I thought this started out on the topic of who uses Safari.

Indeed! Back on topic:
I used Camino way back when, but now use Safari 95% of the time. (although I'll jump over to Firefox if I'm in need of all those swell plugins!)

 

[grokit]

I'm the opposite...

I use Safari mainly and keep Firefox as a second browser but rarely use it.

Yeah, I guess everyone uses Safari. I use it, and Firefox rarely.

I'm the opposite... I use Firefox and Safari is my backup. I like the Mozilla non-profit approach, browser extensions seem to work better in FF, plus there are many more available.

When I want to stream video however, I use Safari almost exclusively

 

[JUKE179r]

Back when I was using Leopard over a year ago, I used Firefox since it supported the use of my CAC card reader on DoD websites.
Now with Snow Leopard, I'm strictly on Safari. I have to use my CAC reader on my BootCamp partition of Win7 since i could never get it to work with SL.

 

[ShadowDan]

I use Open Office on my Mac Mini, Pages and Notes on my Ipad. Mercury Web browser on my ipad and Safari on my Mac.
I did have MS Office 2008 installed on my mac but got rid of it as soon as i opened up Word.

 

[dhmmjoph]

I use chrome because I used it for 3+ years on windows before I got a Mac, all I had to do was sign in and all my bookmarks and extensions synced.

I have iWork but have never used it productively as I use either OpenOffice or Office 2013 preview on y windows machine.

I don't use mail, I prefer browser-based email.

 

[Marillionaire]

I use Safari and I used before with windows despite the fact that windows doesn't like it that much.

 

[macuser1232]

I use Google Chrome, Firefox, and sometimes Safari. Unfortunately, Google Chrome floods my console with logs and it is also very inconsistent. I will have the same tabs on the browser for a week or more and then all of a sudden my CPU will be using 40% and my fans will run full blast.

 

[nbrowser]

All of my Windows 7 x64 machines, Waterfox, a Firefox variant, my XP Machine, Firefox of course and then you have my pair of Mac Minis.....Firefox on both, guess I'm a lil bit of a Firefox fan....eh it works well and Waterfox is simply amazing since it's a 64 bit Firefox variant.