I am in China, but can't access Maps satellite imagery outside of China

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Level 1

9 points

I am in China, but can't access Maps satellite imagery outside of China

I thought Maps just had a few glitches that need to be ironed out, but then I realized I cannot access any satellite imagery, 3D, etc. outside of China, where I currently am. I mean, at all. Is this because I am simply currently in China? Or because I updated my iPhone 4S to iOS 6 (a mistake, as far as I can tell) from within China? I travel quite a bit and need my iPhone, especially maps, to work everywhere, and cover the world, so am quite miffed by this. Google Maps did, of course, include the rest of the world, and yes, I know I can use the web-based Google maps. Below is what see if I zoom out from my current location. Does this mean Maps will be completely useless for me when I return to the US?

I suspect that Apple, after wining and dining the Chinese authorities, agreed to black out satellite images for the rest of the world and call this a "feature" catering to the Chinese market. If so, shameful!

On a positive note, the map for my city is, as far as I can tell, much better than Google's, with much more building-level detail, etc. Of course, when I search for "Moscow" it takes me to "Moscow Restaurant" in Beijing (nowhere near me) rather than Moscow, Russia (ok, also nowhere near me). Oh, and it can't find San Franciso (yep, because I misspelled it), and can't even find San Francisco (spelled correctly), but instead finds a few specific locations within SF. The tip of the iceberg...

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 22, 2012 6:28 AM

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Answer 1

samamri

Level 1

0 points

Sep 25, 2012 1:43 AM in response to rhenish

It's really a terrible , I used to have a google latitude to allocate my friends and family but now with apple map I can't see them on satellite apple map if they are out of china .

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Answer 2

Sep 29, 2012 8:39 PM in response to rhenish

It's not because you installed while you were in China. I installed iOS 6 when on home leave in the USA, and everything works well in the USA. As long as iOS 6 is set to English, I even got China maps in English, and of course all of the USA maps worked perfectly in hybrid.

Now that I'm "home" back in China, I have the same issue as you describe. I only have access to the crappy AutoNavi maps, and no satellite imagery outside of China.

😠

EDIT: What's especially interesting is that if I turn off location services and connect to my VPN in the United States, I can't force the Maps app not to use the AutoNavi maps. I'm even waiting for the phone to restart having done all of this: closed all apps, airplane mode ON, Location Services OFF, restart, WIFI ON (to my whole house VPN with an endpoint in the 'States). Aha! That worked!

Now turning airplane mode OFF (so I have GPS/cell), quit maps, and see what happens: back to AutoNavi maps. So it doesn't matter if Location Services is ON of OFF. Maps isn't respecting Location Services; if the phone knows that it's in China, then it forces the phone to use AutoNavi.

Double 😠.

Message was edited by: James Derry

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Answer 3

fastfret

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2012 4:12 PM in response to rhenish

Maps uses different map service providers depending on your location. Your location for this is determined by your IP address (not by your GPS location), that's why a VPN connection will mess things up, because you'll get the "detailed" map for wherever your VPN connects to, but will get the rough map for where you actually are, as determined by GPS.

Our provider for China is Autonavi and we ain't getting anything else. It's the same for everyone else in the world: you only get the detailed maps that are linked to your current IP address. I don't know why it's done like this. Either to conserve bandwidth "you're here, so you don't need the map over there", or because of licensing "you're here, so we're not paying for over there".

In any case, it *****!

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