Apple Launches New 'Maps' App in iOS 6, Includes Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Real-Time Traffic, 3D Maps

[JHankwitz]

Which I found to be odd, considering the iPad 2 is only, what, a year and a half old?
I chose to wait for the 'next' iPad. I can no longer afford to upgrade my phone AND iPad every year they bring out a new one. haha...

Do people feel that the auto companies expect you to upgrade your car to get the new features every year? I don't think so, just as I don't think Apple expects users to upgrade more often than they can afford.

 

[surma884]

The fact that it uses a vector based engine sounds interesting. I wonder if that means that instead of using raster tiles they now send the raw data to the phone, which then draws the map perfectly for the scale being shown, rather than stretching or squeezing a raster tile to fit.

This sounds a much better approach that should mean crisp maps at whatever scale rather than clarity being dependent upon how close the screen scale is to the tile scale.

It also offers the possibility of doing all sorts of clever things. For example with text positioning you could ensure that text is never partially off-screen, or move it to avoid being obscured by an annotation.

It might take some getting used to for users if some text moves as they pan, but it could be very handy. There are probably a lot of things like this that become possible with a vector based approach.

So even if it doesn't seem brilliant at first the fact that it has been completely rewritten should provide the flexibility to allow for some pretty clever things in the future. Hopefully.

This is great. Another benefit of vector data is the smaller file size compared to raster images. Which means you can store the map on your device so you don't need to have a cell phone signal. The only downside is the rendering of vector data will use more power (battery).

 

[VinceBognot]

No Transit/ Walking Directions.

This is crazy. I use Google Maps for Transit directions, and now I hear that the new Apple Maps not have support for Transit nor Walking directions! Prediction for iOS7 in 2013: Transit and Walking Directions will be available on Apple Maps! lolwhatfail.

 

[vertigo235]

This is great. Another benefit of vector data is the smaller file size compared to raster images. Which means you can store the map on your device so you don't need to have a cell phone signal. The only downside is the rendering of vector data will use more power (battery).

Which I don't care about when I'm in the car (usually with a charger)

----------

This is crazy. I use Google Maps for Transit directions, and now I hear that the new Apple Maps not have support for Transit nor Walking directions! Prediction for iOS7 in 2013: Transit and Walking Directions will be available on Apple Maps! lolwhatfail.

I was worried about this, I also use the current maps app for this.

I guess I'll just have to use Google's inevitable stand alone app for that (I'm OK with this)

 

[wovel]

I'm more than a little annoyed that the iPhone 3GS gets this update, but my iPad1 doesn't.

3GS is still being made and sold...

 

[Xultar]

GPS uses satellites (basic huge clocks in space). It doesn't require an Internet connection itself. You can calculate your coordinates completely offline (but within sight of a couple of satellites).

Offline use has fewer and fewer real uses, and it takes lots of space (although vector maps should be much smaller). They can always cache an area of a few miles surrounding your route, which ought to be fine for wrong-turns (in fact, I'd expect them to do this). They can also cache if you're on roaming but connected to wifi, or use other such heuristics to provide a seamless experience.

Tomtom ought to be worried. As had navigon. This means that basically all smartphones out there now ship with high-quality TBT navigation for free, out-of-the-box. Consumers spoke: they wanted better quality experiences and weren't prepared to pay the exorbitant costs of dinosaur companies trying to protect satnav revenue, thereby forcing new entrants in to the market (in this case, those that had most to gain: the OS vendors themselves). Consumers win.

I have Navigon and they should be worried. Their revenue strategy sucks, Fresh Maps was the last straw for me. Real time rendering hopefully means that they won't be charging for fresh maps or frequently delivered fresh maps. I just hope Apple's offering is more stable

Thanks for the explanation. So, let's say I turn off my phone on the plane in ATL. 5 hrs later I land in SF with no signal. How is TomTom or Navigaon or any GPS app for that matter going to give me a route to the East Bay without a signal?

 

[Lailoken]

I think Google has addressed this last week on their map improvement announcement (being able to download sections of map).

That is definitely something Apple needs to do before I completely replace Navigon with their app.

It has been a feature of Labs for a while now... used it loads. Only downside is that a route cannot be recalculated if out of signal areas. I like this competition, for now I'll stick with Android, but kudus to Apple for upping the ante!

 

[vertigo235]

I have Navigon and they should be worried. Their revenue strategy sucks, Fresh Maps was the last straw for me. Real time rendering hopefully means that they won't be charging for fresh maps or frequently delivered fresh maps. I just hope Apple's offering is more stable

Thanks for the explanation. So, let's say I turn off my phone on the plane in ATL. 5 hrs later I land in SF with no signal. How is TomTom or Navigaon or any GPS app for that matter going to give me a route to the East Bay without a signal?

All Navigon/TomTom needs is a GPS signal.

 

[basesloaded190]

I have Navigon and they should be worried. Their revenue strategy sucks, Fresh Maps was the last straw for me. Real time rendering hopefully means that they won't be charging for fresh maps or frequently delivered fresh maps. I just hope Apple's offering is more stable

Thanks for the explanation. So, let's say I turn off my phone on the plane in ATL. 5 hrs later I land in SF with no signal. How is TomTom or Navigaon or any GPS app for that matter going to give me a route to the East Bay without a signal?

Why don't you have signal in SF? Either way GPS Signal is different than Cell signal. Once Navigon has established it's GPS connection and assuming you already have a SF map downloaded, it will just work.

 

[iMrNiceGuy0023]

no more google maps?

 

[calvz]

id rather have them work on usability instead of adding random apps, yep ...

its 2012 and you still cannot turn off wifi/bluetooth from the homescreen or notification center for example.
the notification center on the iPad literally SCREAMS improvements as there isnt even weather to show so it looks very "un-apple".

and siri is still a "toy" to show off, they need to add more usability related commands

and here i thought iOS6 would stop me from jailbreaking ...

WGAF about turning off wifi? Android has to have that because it's so inefficient and otherwise the battery won't last the day. iOS doesn't have that problem. Adding that feature would only add unnecessary complexity to the OS.

 

[Stella]

Seems a bit strange that iPhone 4 won't be getting turn by turn. After all, other navigation apps support iPhone 4 - why won't apple?

Navigon etc won't have to worry about this Apple maps, as long as
1. maps aren't stored on the iphone
2. traffic information is less accurate
3. Apple supporting iPhone 4S and better.
4. No support for turn off road types, i.e., exclude highways, toll roads etc
5. Navigation restricted to US Only
.. plus a whole load of other reasons.

If I'm out of cell phone signal, Apple Maps isn't going to be a lot of use if (1) is applicable.

There's still a place for TomTom and Navigon. Its their business, they will make sure they produce better mapping apps than Apple.

 

[vertigo235]

There's still a place for TomTom and Navigon. Its their business, they will make sure they produce better mapping apps than Apple.

People said the same thing about RIM when apple came out with the iPhone.

 

[nec207]

This is crazy. I use Google Maps for Transit directions, and now I hear that the new Apple Maps not have support for Transit nor Walking directions! Prediction for iOS7 in 2013: Transit and Walking Directions will be available on Apple Maps! lolwhatfail.

There no word from apple if they will support Transit directions or Walking directions is this map thing.

There also no word what city will be supported or any cities out side the US . I would think by next year more maps will be available.

 

[w00master]

Tomtom ought to be worried. As had navigon. This means that basically all smartphones out there now ship with high-quality TBT navigation for free, out-of-the-box. Consumers spoke: they wanted better quality experiences and weren't prepared to pay the exorbitant costs of dinosaur companies trying to protect satnav revenue, thereby forcing new entrants in to the market (in this case, those that had most to gain: the OS vendors themselves). Consumers win.

RIP Tom Tom app. I no longer have the need to purchase your app or the lousy traffic service.

TomTom's not worried:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/11/apple-tomtom-ios-6-maps/


w00master

 

[tigress666]

Navigon etc won't have to worry about this Apple maps, as long as
2. traffic information is less accurate

Your other points are good but I have to just laugh at this one.

I can't imagine anyone having worse traffic info than Navigon. I have yet to see them have any useful traffic info in the first place (seriously, the app seriously has no idea of traffic and yes i paid for the traffic thing. Even when using Navigon I go to Maps to see what traffic looks like and let me tell you, Navigon is hardly ever aware of any bad traffic).

I have had Navigon at least twice try to route me through construction that had closed off a road entirely (one of them was a major highway!). If it can't even predict construction, which is a planned event that people know of ahead of time (vs. an accident that is sudden and surprising), why would I trust that they have any up to date traffic info?

Apple only has to get reasonably close to Google's traffic info to be far far far better than Navigon's.

 

[bushido]

WGAF about turning off wifi? Android has to have that because it's so inefficient and otherwise the battery won't last the day. iOS doesn't have that problem. Adding that feature would only add unnecessary complexity to the OS.

so its harder to say "turn off wifi" than to use the settings app and look around. and its not just wifi but also bluetooth etc.

 

[ValerieDurden]

It is? My iPhone 4 is having problems being laggy with just the current OS. There are games I don't even bother trying to play with it cause it freaks out and has to pause way too much.

I really don't see it doing the 3D map, especially if it has to render as it goes (and it sounds like that is what they are having it do) very well at all. In this case I am actually wondering if this will be like back when they allowed iOS 4 on the 3G, where people whined the 3G could handle the features they weren't going to support on the 3G before it was out, and then you heard all the whining about how even with the handicapped iOS 4 they let on 3G how slow and laggy it was on iOS4 (so slow and laggy it was unusable. Of which I was totally not surprised cause my 3G was getting laggy even on iOS 3. Still usable but very noticeable. Kinda like my iPhone 4 is now on iOS 5). And then apple just did what they should have in the first place, stopped supporting the 3G cause it obviously couldn't handle it.

Anyways I plan on using my upgrade when the new iphone comes out. And I'll be hoping to see a good spec bump despite people sticking their nose up at it. The 3G and the 4 didn't get great processor speed upgrades and they seem to have gone irrelevant quicker (as I said, my 4 is acting like my 3G did before the new phone came out) and the 3GS and I am betting 4S seem to be staying relevant a lot longer and they got pretty good processor bumps.

My 4 is smooth as can be with games and general iOS performance.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Which I found to be odd, considering the iPad 2 is only, what, a year and a half old?
I chose to wait for the 'next' iPad. I can no longer afford to upgrade my phone AND iPad every year they bring out a new one. haha...

The ipad 2 and 3 use the same CPU. I think they will enable siri on ipad 2

----------

This is crazy. I use Google Maps for Transit directions, and now I hear that the new Apple Maps not have support for Transit nor Walking directions! Prediction for iOS7 in 2013: Transit and Walking Directions will be available on Apple Maps! lolwhatfail.

Google will make a nice stand alone map app for download. Problem solved.

 

[El Capitano]

Tom Tom won't be in the slightest bit worried. They're supplying the map data behind this.

Data coverage includes US, Canada, Europe at least. See credits.

 

[badNameErr]

Streetview?

So if it has been removed from maps is it now inaccessible from an iPad?

 

[tigress666]

My 4 is smooth as can be with games and general iOS performance.

Lucky you. Mine's been worse than my 3G was on teh later versions of iOS3 (where it would be slow to open up apps). My 4 is more annoying, it randomly pauses like it froze, but if I wait it eventually starts doing again. And I have to be even more careful about what is open cause it really can't handle many apps open at once at all (then again I think it's BS claim that iOS task manages well on its own from my experience).

And I know that it was a bit laggy on games even when new (different iphone 4, this is a refurb, the old one the home button died). Do you play the graphic intensive stuff or stuff like Angry Birds?

 

[Electric turd]

Google will make a nice stand alone map app for download. Problem solved.

Apple will block it. I just know they will, remember they tell us what we want to have.

 

[w00master]

Lucky you. Mine's been worse than my 3G was on teh later versions of iOS3 (where it would be slow to open up apps). My 4 is more annoying, it randomly pauses like it froze, but if I wait it eventually starts doing again. And I have to be even more careful about what is open cause it really can't handle many apps open at once at all (then again I think it's BS claim that iOS task manages well on its own from my experience).

And I know that it was a bit laggy on games even when new (different iphone 4, this is a refurb, the old one the home button died). Do you play the graphic intensive stuff or stuff like Angry Birds?

Hmmmm. Have you thought about takin' yours in? I actually don't have any of the lag problems you mention. Then again - just like any other tech device - YMMV!

w00master

 

[Cybbe]

There no word from apple if they will support Transit directions or Walking directions is this map thing.

There also no word what city will be supported or any cities out side the US . I would think by next year more maps will be available.

There was some talk of a Transit API for developers to integrate, colour me skeptic at this point.