Yes, it's not perfect, and yes, it doesn't have 3D imaging in every major city, but for basic turn-by-turn (without saying every direction six times like MapQuest) it's awesome. Recently used it for a trip from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne and it gave me the most direct route to an apartment complex, without ever having me guess or be confused as to what Siri was saying. A great experience overall.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I actually love Apple Maps
- Thread starter acw9293
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
So far, I haven't had any trouble with Maps finding locations. If it can't find a named place, it does find it by address. Navigation has been good. A huge addition over nothing before. Even compared to Google maps, navigation in one case in particular, was better. Google overly routes on back streets, which in this case was through a bad neighborhood. iOS maps navigation suggested staying on the expressway, which was faster and simpler.
I like how the navigation gives multiple route options you can choose from. I don't recall google navigation on android doing that.
I love the integration with Siri. I can just ask her to navigate me to where I want to go. I couldn't get anything like that to work anywhere near as well on my Android phones.
I like how the navigation gives multiple route options you can choose from. I don't recall google navigation on android doing that.
I love the integration with Siri. I can just ask her to navigate me to where I want to go. I couldn't get anything like that to work anywhere near as well on my Android phones.
I agree. The feature that I have noticed that I like is when you are driving, it auto-rotates the map to point the direction you are traveling. I may be wrong, but the previous google maps did not have that, which made last-minute turns difficult.
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
Here is my opinion. I think most people would be able to get on board with this.
Apple maps are amazing. The turn by turn is great, the flyover is beautiful and potentially useful. The scrolling is smooth. I love the little location "tags" that just automatically appear that I can tap on to see whats there. They are an overall improvement in many many ways. The only negative would be the lack of street view. And additionally the look of the maps is different and some people may not like it. That is definitely subjective.
The main PROBLEM is just in some locations the data is TERRIBLE! Sure there may be a few glitches here and there. People can complain about lack of flyover coverage or the clouds that cover over some satalite views. I think those are all very passable and very much expected on a gen 1 product. But some places just don't have the POI's or worse have them labeled miles off! If you haven't run into any issues with that yet, then great. But imagine if over 50% of the time when you searched for a business or a friends address, you were unable to find it. That's just not acceptable. But I know Apple is working overtime to get this information. And now that it's public I expect the process to be much faster
Apple maps are amazing. The turn by turn is great, the flyover is beautiful and potentially useful. The scrolling is smooth. I love the little location "tags" that just automatically appear that I can tap on to see whats there. They are an overall improvement in many many ways. The only negative would be the lack of street view. And additionally the look of the maps is different and some people may not like it. That is definitely subjective.
The main PROBLEM is just in some locations the data is TERRIBLE! Sure there may be a few glitches here and there. People can complain about lack of flyover coverage or the clouds that cover over some satalite views. I think those are all very passable and very much expected on a gen 1 product. But some places just don't have the POI's or worse have them labeled miles off! If you haven't run into any issues with that yet, then great. But imagine if over 50% of the time when you searched for a business or a friends address, you were unable to find it. That's just not acceptable. But I know Apple is working overtime to get this information. And now that it's public I expect the process to be much faster
Nice to hear something positive. I agree with the OP there is room for improvement, don't get me wrong. For example, given I live in Chicago, transit integration would be welcome. However, I put maps through a little test this weekend and found the following.
1. Integration with Siri is great. It found every location I cited, even a building within a large university campus. Google maps did not know where that chapel was. The only location it did not find was a grocery store that opened a week ago. (On a side note, I've found Siri's voice recognition to be much improved in iOS 6 on my iP4s.)
2. GPS is more accurate. Google Maps could not tell when I was in the ally behind my house, Apple maps can. The GPS is not only more accurate but faster as well. My wife even used find my friends to locate our son in a store yesterday, she could see her dot moving towards his, could never do this with Google Maps when it was integrated with find my friends.
3. Turn by turn is stripped down and does not have nearly the amount of information Navigon does, but I don't expect it to for free. However, in each of the more than a dozen routes I tried it gave me the best route and was accurate each time.
Again, these are some quick observations from my use in a major US city. I'm sure many others are experiencing legitimate issues/limitations with Apple Maps. Its feature set will grow over time but I'm also sure that is not much of a consolation to those experiencing issues. Rest assured though that Google Maps will be back on iOS, from what I've read it is in the Apple approval process now and given Apple has approved other map apps I'm sure they will approve Google's.
1. Integration with Siri is great. It found every location I cited, even a building within a large university campus. Google maps did not know where that chapel was. The only location it did not find was a grocery store that opened a week ago. (On a side note, I've found Siri's voice recognition to be much improved in iOS 6 on my iP4s.)
2. GPS is more accurate. Google Maps could not tell when I was in the ally behind my house, Apple maps can. The GPS is not only more accurate but faster as well. My wife even used find my friends to locate our son in a store yesterday, she could see her dot moving towards his, could never do this with Google Maps when it was integrated with find my friends.
3. Turn by turn is stripped down and does not have nearly the amount of information Navigon does, but I don't expect it to for free. However, in each of the more than a dozen routes I tried it gave me the best route and was accurate each time.
Again, these are some quick observations from my use in a major US city. I'm sure many others are experiencing legitimate issues/limitations with Apple Maps. Its feature set will grow over time but I'm also sure that is not much of a consolation to those experiencing issues. Rest assured though that Google Maps will be back on iOS, from what I've read it is in the Apple approval process now and given Apple has approved other map apps I'm sure they will approve Google's.
Easier to see traffic
I like the fact that the maps on Apple Maps are less cluttered than on Google Maps and that the traffic problems are clearer and leave room to read the name of streets (often covered up by the heavy red, orange and green overlays in Google). It's also good that Apple only shows the problems.
I like the fact that the maps on Apple Maps are less cluttered than on Google Maps and that the traffic problems are clearer and leave room to read the name of streets (often covered up by the heavy red, orange and green overlays in Google). It's also good that Apple only shows the problems.
It's nice that some people have positive things to say, but what countless people are experiencing is not just maps that are a little off but rather maps that don't work as maps any longer because of their near-total inaccurracy...
Enjoy what you've got!
Enjoy what you've got!
i had some simple stability issues on my 4S in the beta's but aside from that turn-by-turn and searching has been just as good if not better than google maps.
I also like traffic more and the icons for accidents, construction and closures are also great
I also like traffic more and the icons for accidents, construction and closures are also great
nav works good they just need to update the exit numbers, example.. the exit for union town in PA, they said it was like c59 on the maps app and there it ended up being 259A or something to that effect.. but the maps do seem to work great. i could careless bout 3D sat view, just get me there!
Visually, they are beautiful, minimal, and feature some truly great typography and texture.
Functionally, the turn-by-turn maps are downright awesome (I live in Montreal - urban area). I love the lock screen behaviour, and am looking to buy a holder for my iPhone to use it as a GPS when I'm driving.
Functionally, the turn-by-turn maps are downright awesome (I live in Montreal - urban area). I love the lock screen behaviour, and am looking to buy a holder for my iPhone to use it as a GPS when I'm driving.
Me and the wife spent about an 1hr last night looking at Rome in 3D on my iPad.
Its absolutely stunning.
Its absolutely stunning.
Sorry to hear about that. What area do you live in? You could be in one of the areas where Maps is having issues.
When testing it here in Chicago yesterday I purposely forced route recalculations and in each case it recalculated quickly; and by that I mean as fast or faster than my Navigon app.
I'm in Singapore. Definitely the map needs more improvements in my area. It was for testing purpose since the maps looks lighter than what i mainly using, sygic.
I used both GMaps on a GSM Galaxy Nexus (Jelly Bean) side by side with AMaps on a AT&T 4S all weekend.
AMaps has so much POTENTIAL, but like others have said, the problem is not with the UI (although, I would love to see a "estimated time to arrival"), but with the meta data.
Google and GMaps have GOBS of meta data for every location you can think of. For example, let's say I work at Lowes. On AMaps, I type Lowes and it comes up with a few listings, but none of which is the Lowes I work at... this Lowes has been here for 15+ years. Oddly enough, this Lowes also shows up on my ol 2004 TomTom, which is one of the sources of AMap data... On GMaps, I type "Lowes" and it routes me directly to the front door, complete with street view picture! The Google Now voice is much more human and natural sounding than robot Siri. Although, Siri ACTS more human
Like many (many, many) have said, it will get better. It's just a shame that they had to take away what they already had in place to give us a near-beta experience.
My advice for those not liking AMaps for whatever reason, give Waze a shot. It's free and comes with neat features, like cop alerts, weather alerts, traffic alerts. See an issue with Waze? Go to your computer and fix it! Fix it once and it fixes it for everyone.
AMaps has so much POTENTIAL, but like others have said, the problem is not with the UI (although, I would love to see a "estimated time to arrival"), but with the meta data.
Google and GMaps have GOBS of meta data for every location you can think of. For example, let's say I work at Lowes. On AMaps, I type Lowes and it comes up with a few listings, but none of which is the Lowes I work at... this Lowes has been here for 15+ years. Oddly enough, this Lowes also shows up on my ol 2004 TomTom, which is one of the sources of AMap data... On GMaps, I type "Lowes" and it routes me directly to the front door, complete with street view picture! The Google Now voice is much more human and natural sounding than robot Siri. Although, Siri ACTS more human
Like many (many, many) have said, it will get better. It's just a shame that they had to take away what they already had in place to give us a near-beta experience.
My advice for those not liking AMaps for whatever reason, give Waze a shot. It's free and comes with neat features, like cop alerts, weather alerts, traffic alerts. See an issue with Waze? Go to your computer and fix it! Fix it once and it fixes it for everyone.
This here is the problem....not all business's have those tags. So if you are traveling in what appears to be an abandoned area is really not. I live in Winston Salem NC. Around my work are about 20-30 food places and gas stations, been there for years. 3 of them show up on there. I can search for them and it shows the location and everything, but if I wasnt from around here how would I know?
What??? Surely you jest. The Maps app sucks because the French Eiffel Tower isn't shown in 3D!!!
Bloody french. The one in Vegas is done. They can view that
----------
I used both GMaps on a GSM Galaxy Nexus (Jelly Bean) side by side with AMaps on a AT&T 4S all weekend.
AMaps has so much POTENTIAL, but like others have said, the problem is not with the UI (although, I would love to see a "estimated time to arrival"), but with the meta data.
Google and GMaps have GOBS of meta data for every location you can think of. For example, let's say I work at Lowes. On AMaps, I type Lowes and it comes up with a few listings, but none of which is the Lowes I work at... this Lowes has been here for 15+ years. Oddly enough, this Lowes also shows up on my ol 2004 TomTom, which is one of the sources of AMap data... On GMaps, I type "Lowes" and it routes me directly to the front door, complete with street view picture! The Google Now voice is much more human and natural sounding than robot Siri. Although, Siri ACTS more human
Like many (many, many) have said, it will get better. It's just a shame that they had to take away what they already had in place to give us a near-beta experience.
My advice for those not liking AMaps for whatever reason, give Waze a shot. It's free and comes with neat features, like cop alerts, weather alerts, traffic alerts. See an issue with Waze? Go to your computer and fix it! Fix it once and it fixes it for everyone.
You can do that with Apple but I don't think its updated too quickly or at all. To be fair they are probably busy with other stuff at the moment. lol
Amazingly, Apple maps is the first system to actually get my house location right.
Seriously, all the Google map products and my Nuvi claim my address is a 1/2 mile away from its actual location. Apple found my house by address fine.
Seriously, all the Google map products and my Nuvi claim my address is a 1/2 mile away from its actual location. Apple found my house by address fine.
I used both GMaps on a GSM Galaxy Nexus (Jelly Bean) side by side with AMaps on a AT&T 4S all weekend.
AMaps has so much POTENTIAL, but like others have said, the problem is not with the UI (although, I would love to see a "estimated time to arrival"), but with the meta data.
Google and GMaps have GOBS of meta data for every location you can think of. For example, let's say I work at Lowes. On AMaps, I type Lowes and it comes up with a few listings, but none of which is the Lowes I work at... this Lowes has been here for 15+ years. Oddly enough, this Lowes also shows up on my ol 2004 TomTom, which is one of the sources of AMap data... On GMaps, I type "Lowes" and it routes me directly to the front door, complete with street view picture! The Google Now voice is much more human and natural sounding than robot Siri. Although, Siri ACTS more human
Like many (many, many) have said, it will get better. It's just a shame that they had to take away what they already had in place to give us a near-beta experience.
My advice for those not liking AMaps for whatever reason, give Waze a shot. It's free and comes with neat features, like cop alerts, weather alerts, traffic alerts. See an issue with Waze? Go to your computer and fix it! Fix it once and it fixes it for everyone.
I second Waze, i use it and MotionX on my 4. Waze is great, free and provides turn by turn voice.
If you really want to get crazy with Waze, they have mini games that can be played while you drive. For example, if Waze is looking for more data in Ohio, they will sprinkle virtual candy all over the map. The user interested in points will "drive over" the candy and it will give you "points". They have leaderboards overall and per state. You get points for other things, such as adding a cop alert, adding a weather alert, or editing the map back on your computer. As you get points, you will "level up" your Waze avatar and get things like a crown, sword, shield, etc. It's really cool!