I took a drive today of about 40 miles, from my house (point A) to a place in neighboring state (point B). Both places are in their respective areas of the sticks. I thought I'd use Apple Maps on my new iPhone5 to see how well it works. I've used Google Maps on my Droid X over this same route many times, just for kicks, really, since I know the route well enough to drive it with my eyes closed. But Google Maps always did very well.
One thing I noticed right away was that the voice Apple Maps used didn't sound like Siri. It sounded exactly like the voice used by Google Maps. It makes me wonder how much of Google Maps is under the covers inside Apple Maps, if any of it is.
There were a few quirks in Apples Maps. One was that when I entered the start and destination locations, I got them reversed. I realized that when I told Maps to give me directions, and it gave me 3 routes, but from point B to point A. It gave me one route on the major highways, which is longer but typically takes less time. It gave me another route, which was along the back roads that I normally take, but with just a few minor exceptions. And it gave me a route that was a hybrid of the other two.
Funny thing, when I asked it for directions from point A to point B instead, it gave me only 2 routes, leaving out the back roads way I was going to take. So, I chose the hybrid path, expecting Maps to eventually figure out that I was taking a different route and I actually knew where I was going.
Maps had a similar problem to Google Maps, in that it didn't like the route I was taking and kept on telling me to backtrack and take one of the routes it told me about. This wasn't true all the time, since at the beginning of the drive, I took a different turn, and it adjusted OK. But later on, it didn't adjust, and the lady who lives inside my phone pestered me to take every right turn coming up and go back, which of course, wasn't correct.
It took a very long time for Maps to figure out that I really did know where I was going, and to adjust its route to that. It finally did.
Other than this, I found Maps to be fast and responsive. It took no time at all to do recognize my current location. Google Maps sometimes takes time to find the GPS satellite, so I wonder if Apple Maps used the satellites or phone tower triangulation. But it generally seemed to work pretty quickly.
Over the one hour trip there (I took the back roads to enjoy the scenery, which was beautiful here in the Northeast with the leaves just starting to turn), the app used 14K bytes of data, and 33 percent of my battery, which was 100 percent charged when I started this. I think that's a little too much battery for this, though the data amount seemed OK. The phone was actually pretty hot after we got there, so maybe there's more onboard processing than downloading. I don't know how this compares to Google Maps. And this was for one way, not round trip, with the phone unplugged.
Given this one little tiny sample, I don't know if I prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps, or vice versa. Apple Maps didn't get my home location correct when I was in my house. It missed it by a few doors, but Google Maps gets it exact. I didn't try to manually adjust the routes in Apple Maps, and frankly, I don't know if that capability exists. But I'd like better route recalculation when I drive off one of the routes it supplies. I do have to say that, while Google Maps / Navigator wasn't 100 percent perfect, it was good enough that I trusted it, and it only led me astray a few times. I don't have enough experience with Apple Maps yet to have that same level of trust, but I'll keep trying it to see how well it continues to work.
I know Apple Maps has taken a lot of heat in the media, and evidently, that was well earned. But so far, it hasn't been too bad, especially for a free app. I think the maps themselves could be better, and not having a satellite view stinks, or not having Street View, or traffic conditions, and not having a search capability for local stores and such seems to be missing, too. I just think this app was shipped before it was entirely ready. There are too many Maps Gaps compared to Google Maps / Navigator right now, and those should have been fixed before the app shipped. This isn't the disaster that some Chicken Littles are saying it is, but still... this isn't beta any more, Toto. It could have, and should have, been better.
One thing I noticed right away was that the voice Apple Maps used didn't sound like Siri. It sounded exactly like the voice used by Google Maps. It makes me wonder how much of Google Maps is under the covers inside Apple Maps, if any of it is.
There were a few quirks in Apples Maps. One was that when I entered the start and destination locations, I got them reversed. I realized that when I told Maps to give me directions, and it gave me 3 routes, but from point B to point A. It gave me one route on the major highways, which is longer but typically takes less time. It gave me another route, which was along the back roads that I normally take, but with just a few minor exceptions. And it gave me a route that was a hybrid of the other two.
Funny thing, when I asked it for directions from point A to point B instead, it gave me only 2 routes, leaving out the back roads way I was going to take. So, I chose the hybrid path, expecting Maps to eventually figure out that I was taking a different route and I actually knew where I was going.
Maps had a similar problem to Google Maps, in that it didn't like the route I was taking and kept on telling me to backtrack and take one of the routes it told me about. This wasn't true all the time, since at the beginning of the drive, I took a different turn, and it adjusted OK. But later on, it didn't adjust, and the lady who lives inside my phone pestered me to take every right turn coming up and go back, which of course, wasn't correct.
It took a very long time for Maps to figure out that I really did know where I was going, and to adjust its route to that. It finally did.
Other than this, I found Maps to be fast and responsive. It took no time at all to do recognize my current location. Google Maps sometimes takes time to find the GPS satellite, so I wonder if Apple Maps used the satellites or phone tower triangulation. But it generally seemed to work pretty quickly.
Over the one hour trip there (I took the back roads to enjoy the scenery, which was beautiful here in the Northeast with the leaves just starting to turn), the app used 14K bytes of data, and 33 percent of my battery, which was 100 percent charged when I started this. I think that's a little too much battery for this, though the data amount seemed OK. The phone was actually pretty hot after we got there, so maybe there's more onboard processing than downloading. I don't know how this compares to Google Maps. And this was for one way, not round trip, with the phone unplugged.
Given this one little tiny sample, I don't know if I prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps, or vice versa. Apple Maps didn't get my home location correct when I was in my house. It missed it by a few doors, but Google Maps gets it exact. I didn't try to manually adjust the routes in Apple Maps, and frankly, I don't know if that capability exists. But I'd like better route recalculation when I drive off one of the routes it supplies. I do have to say that, while Google Maps / Navigator wasn't 100 percent perfect, it was good enough that I trusted it, and it only led me astray a few times. I don't have enough experience with Apple Maps yet to have that same level of trust, but I'll keep trying it to see how well it continues to work.
I know Apple Maps has taken a lot of heat in the media, and evidently, that was well earned. But so far, it hasn't been too bad, especially for a free app. I think the maps themselves could be better, and not having a satellite view stinks, or not having Street View, or traffic conditions, and not having a search capability for local stores and such seems to be missing, too. I just think this app was shipped before it was entirely ready. There are too many Maps Gaps compared to Google Maps / Navigator right now, and those should have been fixed before the app shipped. This isn't the disaster that some Chicken Littles are saying it is, but still... this isn't beta any more, Toto. It could have, and should have, been better.