Apple : Nokia pulls Here Maps from App Store, claims iOS 7 changes makes it buggy

---

• Nokia pulls Here Maps from App Store, claims iOS 7 changes makes it buggy
• In Depth: Highs and lows for Apple in 2013
• Apple planning to power up Siri with photo tagging and searching skills

Nokia pulls Here Maps from App Store, claims iOS 7 changes makes it buggy Posted: Nokia has removed its Here Maps app from Apple's App Store, claiming changes made within iOS 7 have harmed the user experience. The free, cross-platform navigation tool has struggled to gain traction against Apple's own Maps app and Google Maps, but the Finns insist undefined changes to iOS 7 are to blame for the removal. A company spokesperson told Engadget: "We have made the decision to remove our Here Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. "iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of Here Maps under m.here.com, offering them location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge." Browser bonus As die hards can still access the service through their iPhone or iPad's web browser. However, they may miss the ability to cache data for offline usage. Nokia will still support Android, Firefox OS, Tizen and, of course, Windows Phone with its navigation services. Apple Maps: One year on! Has the much-maligned, baked-in iOS mapping solution dug itself out of the mire?

In Depth: Highs and lows for Apple in 2013 Posted: It's been an interesting couple of years for Apple. Its 2012 was largely lived in the shadow of Steve Jobs' death, the firm treading water, launching products that Jobs had approved. But by the turn of the year things were getting interesting. iOS chief Scott Forstall was fired, and as 2013 dawned Jonathan Ive was responsible not just for designing Apple's hardware, but for its software too. It's a big job. Was he up to it? Apple's highs in 2013 1. iPad Air Apple doesn't like to compromise, but with the last iPad it had to. There was no way to put a retina display into the iPad and maintain battery life without adding significant bulk and weight. That clearly annoyed Jonathan Ive, and this year's model is massively improved: the bezel is 43% thinner and the device is 28% lighter. The iPad Air is quite simply the best iPad that Apple has ever made. 2. iPad mini 2 with Retina display The mini is no longer the poor relation of the proper iPad: it's a little pricey, but it's also a little wonder. The iPad mini 2's innards and performance are almost identical to the iPad Air, and it's essentially an Air for people whose top priority is portability. 3. iOS 7 It's the best iOS ever, iOS 7 addresses lots of niggles and bringing the ageing iOS bang up to date. Apple's execution wasn't perfect - more of that in a moment - but the pros massively outweigh the cons. 4. Mac Pro "Can't innovate any more, my ass." That was Phil Schiller unveiling the long-awaited Mac Pro 2013, a little tower of power that looks like Darth Vader's dustbin and costs roughly the same as a Death Star. 5. Maps Maps may have been a laughing stock, but today more iOS users rely on it than on Google Maps - which was the whole point of launching it in the first place. One year on it's vastly improved, although the damage to Maps' reputation may take longer to fix. 6. Mavericks Remember when operating systems used to cost money? Mavericks is free, and while some elements are still "pig-ugly", it boasts lots of improvements, and it's free. Did we mention that it's free? 7. iPhone 5S The iPhone 5S doesn't look revolutionary, but there are two key bits of tech in it: the TouchID sensor and the M7 co-processor. The former replaces passwords and could well be part of an Apple digital wallet, while the latter is designed to record motion and activity data for the incoming wave of wearable tech - tech such as, say, an iWatch. Apple's lows in 2013 1. iOS 7 The iOS 7 roll-out may have broken records, but it broke hearts too. Many people absolutely hated it, its motion effects made some people genuinely ill, and it's attracted deserved criticism over some of its design choices. 2. Apple TV Still a hobby. 3. iPhone 5C "For the colourful," Apple said. "We're queuing for the 5S," said the planet. Various statistics show that the 5C is selling roughly one-third as many handsets as its slightly more expensive sibling. That doesn't mean it's a dud, but it's not a barnstorming success either. 4. iTunes It may be faster, smarter and easier to use, but that's compared to Captain Bloaty, aka iTunes 10. iTunes 11 may have been tweaked, but it's still iTunes. 5. iCloud iCloud could be brilliant, but isn't - and not just because 5GB of storage is rubbish if you have more than one Apple device. If you want to sync files, Dropbox is much better and more widely supported. 6. iWork Apple isn't always great at learning from its mistakes. Remember when it launched Final Cut Pro X and upset everybody because loads of important features were missing? It did it again this year with the latest iWork programs, which are pretty to some and pretty useless for power users. Some missing features will return, eventually. 7. Siri We want to love Siri, we really do, but the (UK) game show host voice leaves us cold, Siri often loves to do things slowly and its apparent inability to understand us more than half of the time means that Siri's probably learned a lot of swear words by now. Apple plans to bring Siri to our houses. How about getting it right on our phones first? 8. The Mac Pro's price Hahahahahahahahhahahahahaha! 9. iWatch Another year on, and there's still no sign of the iWatch. Our favourite tech conspiracy theory says the iWatch isn't real. Apple's leaked the idea so it can laugh as rivals rush to market with crappy smartwatches. 10. Dooooooooooooooooom Apple's enormous success means that there's an equally enormous amount of criticism surrounding it. Investors panic if its growth shows signs of slowing, every rival's product is called an iThing-killer, and anything Apple does is clear evidence that it's doomed. 2013 was the most doomsaying year since the mid-90s, and we're sure 2014 will be even worse. Check out the best TechRadar features of 2013

Apple planning to power up Siri with photo tagging and searching skills Posted: Apple is planning to widen the scope of its hit-and-miss personal voice assistant Siri, in order to include iPhone owners' photo libraries, judging by a newly published patent application. The filing, spotted by AppleInsider, speaks of "a method for tagging or searching images using a voice-based digital assistant." Users would be able to tag the photos as they take them, with one example quoting a user saying "This is me at the beach" with other photos in the same geographic location tagged accordingly. According to the application, the tech would also recognise faces, buildings and landscapes to apply tags to photos in the iOS Camera Roll. Call 'em up Naturally, users would then be able to call up those photos at will by using Siri to say "show pictures of me at the beach." The company is already grouping like minded photos together within the iOS 7 Photos app, so adding Siri to this wouldn't be too much of a stretch. The application itself was published in March 2013, so if Apple plans to follow through on the feature, it's somewhat surprising the functionality wasn't built into iOS 7. Siri hasn't reached its potential yet, but here are 10 ways Apple could make Siri brilliant.

You are subscribed to email updates from TechRadar: All latest Apple news feeds To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610