While the masses are still gobbling up the iPhone 5 (and many are gaga over Apple’s new mini iPad), and reviews of iOS 6 have been generally positive, I find myself SO disappointed by one key feature of the latter that I have resolved NOT to upgrade from my iPhone 4S running iOS 5 until said feature gets a MAJOR overhaul. Can you guess which highly touted app flap I’ m fuming about?
Maps! In my opinion, an abomination. There, I said it. Had Apple released iOS 6 Maps as a beta (a partially finished product available only for sampling) but continued to allow use iOS 5 Maps, I could have tolerated the “imperfection.” Apple CEO Tim Cook’s explanation that Google’s refusal to allow Apple to license the vocal “turn by turn commands,” which so many GPS units offer, forced the Mothership to fly prematurely and his apology for the shoddy product (praised by some critics as bold and courageous) fail to mollify my misery; his suggestion that I download other apps (that work only in the US) doesn’t help.
Amazingly, plenty of folks insist that I’m over-reacting. Thrilled with iP5’s larger screen and quicker Internet connection speed, they also support Apple’s view that turn by turn directions trumps Maps’ other deficiencies. Choosing to use the app only in map view, they’re happy to have it dictate how to reach their destination….
My work entails a great deal of driving. The details my Google Maps app displays, together with experience and local knowledge, have taught me that routes suggested by an app are often not the best available. Turn by turn instructions, therefore, don’t help me much. Moreover, Street View helps me visualize my clients’ neighbourhood and often the exact address I’ll be visiting. In iOS 5, I have only to tap on a client’s address in my iPhone’s Contacts app to bring it up in Maps, then tap once more for Street View.
In iOS 6, Contacts is synced with a Maps app of clearly diminished quality, and Street View is gone, along with info about bus and Sky Train stops. Satellite views, compared with Google Maps, are dark and often of lower resolution. In some areas (Kelowna, for example), close-up satellite maps are black and white! The map view of my home in New Westminster shows that I live in a park, next to a provincial school that closed down years ago! More egregious flaws have been documented by hundreds of blogs and forums.
“Apple went out and partnered with the weakest players,” said Noam Bardin of Waze, a popular GPS traffic and navigation app. “[They’ve now come] out with the lowest, weakest data set ,and they’re competing against Google, which has the highest data set- with Apple maps, you’re literally not going to find things. And if you do have [accurate data], the route [shown] may not be optimal.” To protect himself from a lawsuit, we suspect, Bardin later backed off such strong language, “acknowledging” that he does not believe Apple’s maps will get you lost nor are they terrible…. But they are. And no one knows how long it may take Apple to get their app up to Google’s standard.
Yes, in the meantime, through Safari, we can still add Google Maps as a “pseudo app” to our iOS 6 ‘phones and ‘Pads, but clicking an address in Contacts will still bring up only Apple’s inferior product!
With press deadline too early for comment, please note that we’re keenly interested in Microsoft’s October launch of Windows 8 and its Surface tablet, as well as Apple’s mini iPad. More on them in December.