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james-bailey

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 17, 2010
165
4
I'm usually one for going with the flow when it comes to change but after using the Apple maps app for a day I seriously miss Googles version for these main reasons...

The UK road system was colour coded perfectly, blue for motorways, green for A roads etc which made it much easier to get an idea of which way to go manually.

Each main road had their number clearly visable, such as M6, A65, A660. This is invaluable for road navigation by car in the UK. Not on Apples.

For when im in London, I loved how the tube stations were clearly visible with the Underground logo even from a high level. Now there isnt any differentiation between a tube station and a railway station with a generic icon that doesn't even show up when zoomed out.

With Apple maps now some of the main car route roads are missing when zoomed out of an area showing about a 30 mile radius.

Also, is there an option to turn off the orientation thing when zooming in and out with Apple Maps? Id always prefer it to be facing north unless I have it on the compass setting. I cant think of a reason why anyone would want a map to be orientated a random way and done by accident whilst zooming in and out.

Oh and the public transportation finder worked very well indeed. :-(
James
 

Lukeyy19

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2010
771
3
England, UK
This is what I miss about Google Maps:

Apple Maps:
applemaps1.jpg


Google Earth:
googleearth1g.jpg


Lets zoom in a little shall we and see if the Apple Maps imagery improves...

Apple Maps:
applemaps2.jpg


Google Earth:
googleearth2.jpg


And don't think i've chosen some silly little place that nobody cares about. This is the imagery for the town of Colchester in England, home to well over 100,000 people, and one of, if not the oldest recorded town in Britain.
 

Jord5i

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2012
95
0
isn't maps still a beta?

Anyways I don't really need it, I have the TomTom app for driving (it downloads to your device, so it's not wasting my 250mb a month :p)
 

Andeavor

macrumors 6502
Aug 19, 2010
297
1
Apple is lucky to have its legions of excuse makers.

Google on the other hand, doesn't need a cadre of apologists. They just get the job done.

You do realize that Apple has to start from scratch and get their own satellite imagery after splitting with Google for good, hence we end up with some outdated, black-and-white or fuzzy images. Give it a few months and the maps will improve.

Google Earth was terrible when it first came out and it took them 7 years to get to the standard we're used to from them now.
 

Kurwenal

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2012
894
334
It is actually more robust than the tired, and old thin skinned application that used to be native on iOS. Yes it is in a browser, but still works great.

Yes, I'd never really used maps.google.com before, but on playing with it yesterday I was impressed. It does not have 100% of the old app's functionality, but at this point it is a better option for me than Apple Maps. Among other issues, Apple Maps is horribly scant on POIs. Apple Maps is first gen, and no doubt Apple will improve it, but maps.google.com is a great option in the meantime.
 
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