New Apple iOS 6 Maps

[HighwayMaster]

It's been a while, but I'm back. I got the new iOS 6 today and I wanted to see how you all rated the new maps.

[hbelkins]

I won't know until they come out with a jailbreak for it. 

[CentralCAroadgeek]

These new maps are AMAZING! The text kinda looks like Bing maps. Bit I've seen how each state's state route markers, and they're amazing! Each state with their own shields instead of the default shield similar to Google's. Shame it isn't as updated as Google (like how I-69 isn't listed in the 10-mile stretch near Corpus Christi and its segments in Kentucky). It's neat how lists a city's neighborhoods in the map (which helped me find out that there were more neighborhoods in Salinas than I knew of). Overall, it's great and another great project by Apple.

[bulldog1979]

There are errors in it. Part of M-553 south of Marquette has CR 553 pentagonal shields, even though CR 553 was "upgraded" to state highway status in 1998. (Marquette County, like most of Michigan's counties, does not use the pentagons for county roads; most counties don't use them for CRs that aren't part of the state-wide CDH system) In addition, M-554 is signed even though a) it was never signed and b) it's been decommissioned since 2005. I didn't see green and white BS I-75 markers in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan either.

That said, it's the debut of a new mapping product, and I'm sure they'll iron out the bugs.

[WNYroadgeek]

Speaking of errors, the map claims that NY 422, NY 358, and NY 239 all still exist. Also, there are NY 237 shields on NY 77.

[mukade]

It does not handle concurrencies/multiplexes. The following is one example.

One highway in Indiana is both US 35 and SR 22. Also, highways generally carry their county road name on street signs (not highway markers), so in Howard County it is "00 NS".

On iOS 6 on my iTouch, it is marked as "00" in a county highway pentagon. This is the absolutely poorest choice for many reasons. On iOS6 on my iPad, this same road is marked as US 35. If it can only show one designation, I suppose this is the best one. I guess I need to see what this road shows up as on the iPhone.

[Scott5114]

Where is the data from? Is it generally better/worse than Google Maps?

[Kacie Jane]

That said, it's the debut of a new mapping product, and I'm sure they'll iron out the bugs.

What makes you so sure?

[empirestate]

It still shows the Netherlands Antilles, but then again, it shows South Sudan.

It's obviously been given some human cartographic treatment, which is good and fitting with Apple's design principles. If they continually apply the same conscientious approach to maintaining the data as they certainly did in creating the app to begin with, it will grow into something very nice. But again I stress, keeping their data competitive, as Google and Mapquest have, will be a huge determining factor, because I can still go into Google Maps Mobile very easily via a home screen shortcut to my web browser, and I have the Mapquest app and the MotionX (Bing) app as well.

[NE2]

Is this still limited to Apple suckers?

[1995hoo]

Another error is that MD-200 (the Intercounty Connector in the Maryland suburbs of DC) is shown as I-370 for its entire length.

The "Show Traffic" option now brings up a little icon to show where roadwork is underway.

I never used the old one for navigation while driving and I doubt I'll use this version either. I prefer to use the car's built-in sat-nav because it's easier to operate and has a bigger screen that's better-placed for viewing at a glance.

Didn't vote in the poll because I'd have to give it a grade of "incomplete." Just haven't used it enough. I DID notice when I played with it yesterday that when I asked for a route to a relative's place in Florida it wanted me to go straight through Richmond on I-95 instead of going around on I-295, which struck me as odd. I'll have to play with some other routings that I know well to see what it suggests compared to Google Maps and Bing Maps.

[ctsignguy]

I'll stick to my Garmin, thanks.....

[realjd]

I started a discussion about this when I first got the beta a number of months ago:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6911.0

My opinion still stands. I like it visually, but the piss-poor map data makes it damn near unusable. I was in DC last weekend and showed my hotel as being a shell station, and the Walgreens that was supposedly around the corner was in actuality an insurance office. When I tried to find a particular restaurant, it showed it as being two blocks away on the wrong road. Google Maps had none of these issues.

The 3D flyovers are pretty, but I see no practical use for them.

There's practically no traffic data. I know that Apple is trying to use crowdsourced traffic info, but the fact that they don't also pull in the standard traffic from various government agencies make it absolutely useless.

Apple removed transit directions. That removes much of the usefulness for travelers.

Where is the data from? Is it generally better/worse than Google Maps?

A number of sources. TomTom is listed as the primary source, but they also list a multitude of other sources like OpenStreetMap and the US Census TIGER data.

[roadman]

You mean the images like this one:

http://www.universalhub.com/2012/forget-macarthur-park-according-apple-deck-melted

[myosh_tino]

Is this still limited to Apple suckers?

I implicitly disagree with any choir-preaching statement such as roads are good, NIMBYs bad. If I do not express this explicitly, it is because I prefer to discuss more interesting and constructive topics. Don't let my silence fool you into thinking yours is the only valid view.

I find your reply and the highlighted part of your signature to be quite humorous... 

[DTComposer]

I like the look...use of individual state shields, the fonts, the colors. It seems to load faster than Google maps. I like the rotating and 3D views.
The navigation feature worked great, voice commands were timely and accurate. On both trips so far the ETA was right on, and this was in the middle of L.A. traffic.

All that said...it's taken my home address in Long Beach and placed it at a similar street and number Huntington Beach. If I type the address in manually it gets it right, but from my contact info it's wrong. Tried clearing out that address, re-entering it, playing with abbreviations, Zip+4, etc., nothing helped.
It has deprecated route numbers still signed (all of CA-42, CA-72 on Harbor Boulevard), "extensions" of routes (CA-107 on Hawthorne south of PCH) - these are all also on the app version of Mapquest (though not on the regular version), so I assume they're pulling that data from the same place.

Not having "official" traffic is a mistake; as is the lack of transit information.

If I recall correctly, the "melted" bridges and such are similar to early versions of Google Earth? In any case, the bridges they do have in the 3D database (Golden Gate, for example) look great.

I'm surprised after antennagate that Apple would release something this buggy, but I agree with bulldog above that they'll make it better with updates, because it seems like, in terms of a productivity feature that's not communication-related, maps and navigation are such a key component of any smartphone, that it would only hurt Apple to have an app that's not at least on par with what the competition has.

[1995hoo]

You mean the images like this one:

http://www.universalhub.com/2012/forget-macarthur-park-according-apple-deck-melted

Funny, since I have an iPhone 4 I can't view that sort of thing–that particular feature is limited to later editions.

[formulanone]

Just saw this from one big chuckle-thread...

[Quillz]

Most of my local areas are okay, as are most of the big cities, but many bridges, buildings, etc. are clearly wrong. From what I've read, all of the Maps are being rendered on cloud servers, which means Apple can update them silently. And I do like that the maps are vectorized now, and have nice looking icons.

Coming from Google Maps, it's a downgrade right now, but I do think it has the potential to improve quickly. And if anyone is looking for a job, Apple is hiring mappers right now.

[wphiii]

I like Apple. I buy Apple products.

But these maps are a disaster.

In addition to the sheer factual errors, there's also a dearth of relevant information - i.e., college campuses are empty and parks have no trails.

The 3d effect is pretty, but exponentially less practically useful than actual street-view.

Google is hardly perfect, and even it has taken over a decade and a lot of money to get to this point with its maps. IMO, Apple really screwed the pooch by thinking they could just take a year or two and throw $50 million dollars at this thing and produce something that wouldn't be a significant drop-off from the current leader in the industry. Then, to force it on users with iOS-6 has just compounded the problem. They really should have waited until they had a genuinely competitive product before putting it out there. All Apple has done here is solidified my trust (and thus patronage) in Google when it comes to on-line maps (and I doubt I'm the only one), which is their loss.

[6a]

I really, really miss the traffic info.  That was by far the primary use of the maps function for me.  I don't give a shit that there is pothole repair going on in some alley.

Also, check out our new arena!

[agentsteel53]

the fuck, they took away the traffic reports?  how is the absence of this feature in any way a net gain for the user?

looks like I'll be keeping my i4 a bit longer.

[DTComposer]

I really, really miss the traffic info.  That was by far the primary use of the maps function for me.  I don't give a shit that there is pothole repair going on in some alley.

I used (and continue to use) the traffic info from the Sigalert app instead...generally more accurate, shows where and what the incidents are.

[StogieGuy7]

Personally, I just love the Hoover Dam highway-as-a-roller-coaster image!!   

It's apparent to me that they rushed this new mapping software out before all of the "bugs" were ironed out.  Probably because such an implementation is very time consuming and it wasn't *quite* ready at showtime.  So, they did what they could. 

It may look amusing now, but I see a lot of potential in what Apple is trying to do here.  The errors are simple enough to address with app updates.  As are some of the criticisms.  But the mapping itself looks pretty sharp.   

[realjd]

the fuck, they took away the traffic reports?  how is the absence of this feature in any way a net gain for the user?

looks like I'll be keeping my i4 a bit longer.

Technically, they didn't remove traffic reports; they switched to using crowd sourced traffic provided by Waze. So in places where someone happens to have Waze or the iOS 6 maps open, Apple will report traffic data. That works well on paper but there is just almost no data, and it's next to worthless in rural areas.