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Apple Maps, all is forgiven!
Sep. 28th, 2012 01:50 pmI know some guy (Tim Cook) wrote an apology for the changes in the Maps app this morning. And in all honesty, it's deserved -- we've all seen or heard about the crazy results & deficiencies in the new program. But here's my story about living in the future.
Out & about running errands today, I was heading from my wife's office to a friend's place to feed her cats. I had planned on looking up the route in advance, just to confirm what I thought was the right path, but due to a combination of being illegally parked in a loading dock and blocked in by students & pizza, I got out of there as fast as I could and was on the road before I remembered to check the map.
On a lark, I pulled out my phone. I didn't unlock, swipe, search, navigate, or scroll -- after all, I was driving, and that would be both dumb and illegal (as of Sept. 1st). But I pressed the button to wake up the phone, held it up to my ear, and said, "how do I get to <friend>'s house?"
The best I was hoping for was a look-up in my address book followed by a map I could squint at and zoom in on. What I got was a map overview immediately followed with turn-by-turn navigation instructions. The phone was still locked! But it validated my route and started saying, "in a quarter mile, turn left on...". It was perfect. Absolutely what I wanted, but I never would've asked for it. I put the phone down and let it navigate my way there. It even brought me to the right apartment block entrance -- I always have to drive in and look for the landing with the bicycle or tomato plants. ;-)
And then I used Siri to dictate those FB/G+ posts.
Maybe I got lucky. Maybe there are advantages to living in the 15th largest city in the country, in terms of attention & coverage. I don't know, but I can tell you that this is a taste of what living in the future should be like.
(Is there anyone here who isn't on FB/G+?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jnala? Just curious.)
Out & about running errands today, I was heading from my wife's office to a friend's place to feed her cats. I had planned on looking up the route in advance, just to confirm what I thought was the right path, but due to a combination of being illegally parked in a loading dock and blocked in by students & pizza, I got out of there as fast as I could and was on the road before I remembered to check the map.
On a lark, I pulled out my phone. I didn't unlock, swipe, search, navigate, or scroll -- after all, I was driving, and that would be both dumb and illegal (as of Sept. 1st). But I pressed the button to wake up the phone, held it up to my ear, and said, "how do I get to <friend>'s house?"
The best I was hoping for was a look-up in my address book followed by a map I could squint at and zoom in on. What I got was a map overview immediately followed with turn-by-turn navigation instructions. The phone was still locked! But it validated my route and started saying, "in a quarter mile, turn left on...". It was perfect. Absolutely what I wanted, but I never would've asked for it. I put the phone down and let it navigate my way there. It even brought me to the right apartment block entrance -- I always have to drive in and look for the landing with the bicycle or tomato plants. ;-)
And then I used Siri to dictate those FB/G+ posts.
Maybe I got lucky. Maybe there are advantages to living in the 15th largest city in the country, in terms of attention & coverage. I don't know, but I can tell you that this is a taste of what living in the future should be like.
(Is there anyone here who isn't on FB/G+?
jnala? Just curious.)
