Mapping our final destination

Even before iO6 was officially announced the Internet had inklings of a new maps application. When Scott Forstall took to the stage, in early June, at this years WWDC, it was confirmed. Apple had built from the ground up, a new native maps application using vectors for seamless navigation.

WWDC Maps Announcment

This was the first official look at the new maps app. The demo of course, is slick, very slick. The audience appear audibly impressed by the way the labels rotate along the maps rotation.
We were introduced to 3D maps, flyover and Siri guided free turn by turn directions.

Journey forward four months, to the official iOS6 released date and iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users get thier first chances to try maps, for real. On the Friday of that same week, I had my first destination maps, when I purchased my iPhone 5.

The inter-web has been awash with photos and comments, as you would expect. I have read many articles on people's take on Apple's maps. There's been a lot of wooha about missing places, wrongly titled cities, warped roads, blocky trees and bushes and Bonsai beaches extension.

Let's up this into perspective, Google maps launched in February of 2005 and as such has had 7 years of improvements. An application like maps, isn't the sort of thing that can be developed solely in a tech lab, it needs customer and developer feedback.

These crowd sourcing improvements are a feature of Tomtom's devices, users can make map improvements straight from their sat nav. With an app like Waze, which it totally community created, when it first came to the UK, it didn't even have motorways. When I joined a helped map parts of the A13 and its adjoining roads.

Maps will only get better, I promise. No sat nav is perfect and road networks are continually changing (15% of roads change every year suggests Tomtom)

Tonight I used turn by turn navigation on my 30 minute approximate commute home. I was a passenger so I could completely test the app safely. I found Siri's directions simple, timely and clear. I found the maps themselves clear to, the places of interest were a little scarce. When we strayed from the route Siri quickly recalculated, without fuss (much quicker than my Tomtom device) and gave new directions. What was great was not hearing "turn around when possible."

Traffic was light tonight, and I would like to see how well traffic problems were flagged on another run. Next time a think I would plug my iPhone into the in car charger, as like most sat nav units using GPS (and 3G data services on a phone) it does gulp down your battery. Although I am finding my battery does properly last the day now, yay!

On the overall I was impressed with maps on iOS 6. It's clear instructions and clean visual layout were smooth and easy to use.

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Waze - FREE

Launched in 2009, Waze is a user generated navigation app using turn by turn spoken word to guide you with a social twist. When it first became available in the UK you could earn points for mapping motorways, then A roads to improve your standings. Wazers, share info about traffic conditions to help improve the journey times of others. Users can message you if you allow, to alert you to cameras, potholes or traffic. The more you use it the higher your standing and the more achievements you gain. From a safety point of view it's not great to be fiddling while driving, so most features can be locked out or select passenger mode for full fun features.

Recently it appears Wazers and their crowd sourced data is being utilised by Apple for shall we call it "traffic improvements." Waze amongst others is credited, in Apples legal small print for the new native Maps app to be released soon.

WWDC 2012 - Maps

Apple Maps it out, or will be when iOS6 come out of beta, then it will have its turn by turn. So, on this the rumours were true. Scott Forstal
proudly announced that Apple has built from the ground up a new native
map app.


To be delivered as a free upgrade to all iPhone alliterations
(excluding the original iPhone.) Love the way Apple looks after the
older models phones still. This is great as my mum has a 3GS, although
she has a great sense of direction, which I do not, and so may not need it.


Turn by turn


Turn by turn navigation is a feature which has been a while in the
making, now it's been demoed we can be sure it will be stylish and
just work.


Turn by turn directions will, it has subsequently announced (quietly, in small print on the Apple website) be available to iphone4S and the new iPad (iPad3) only. Meaning if your device hasn't got the A5 chip you'll need to upgrade to enjoy these features, although I wouldn't upgrade yet, wait for the next iPhone.


So the all new map app, looks great, no surprise there, with the
intergration of Siri it should be outstanding. Currently it's not
clear weather Siri will be available to everyone or if it will remain
a premium feature of the iPhone 4S (Apple has announced Siri will be
available with iOS6 on the new iPad.)


Flyover


3D mapping of big cities looks beautiful and will no doubt look even
more amazing on Apples unannounced new iPhone. Again flyover will only be available officially to owners of the latest generation idevices. Will this mean the end of stand alone sat navs or will all this data usage kill our data
plans, on one has mentioned offline maps have they (only Google, in an childish, unprepared attempt to take the shine off iOS6.)

Find out a little more about Maps