Same here for NavFree - tried it for a while and just thought it was shite.
Edit to above post
Still not a patch on the original Google maps app though. Closing Street View takes you back to a map of your current location, not a map of what you're 'Street viewing'
Always got on fine with Nav free
The issues with places being spelt incorrectly, roads missing and crap satellite views are far bigger issues IMHO.
This.
If it doesn't have the correct names, in the correct places then it isn't technically a [b]*map*[/b]. It is a kid's drawing. And is therefore useless.
I like Apple stuff, I have lots of Apple stuff. But this isn't a map, and they have completely screwed up.
Excellent summary Helios
Have to say I used the inbuilt maps/navigation the other day and didn't have any issues.
[quote=grum ]Have to say I used the inbuilt maps/navigation the other day and didn't have any issues.
The navigation seems to be fine for getting you where you need to be but the maps itself is pretty terrible
I'm sure/hopeful that some of the new Maps does work OK for some functions in some areas, but "some" is a backward step compared to "most" or indeed "all" which is what I had before. Adding turn by turn navigation - only available in iPhone 4S upwards - does not make up for the poor quality mapping data and removed functionality. I'm big and brave though, so will cope with my disappointment 😆
jfletch - Member
It is also pluasable that Google would withhold a decent maps implimentation from Apple to give Android a competive advantage, safe in the knowledge that Apple didn't have any option but to continue with the old crappy app and they wouldn't lose any seach traffic.
Apple wrote the previous Maps app, it just uses Googles map data.
it just uses Googles map data
...and therein lies the rub. A map is only as good as the data on which it is built and Apple have moved to their own - worse - data.
I dunno if its just my phone, but Navfree is awful. Really glitchy and just totally spazzes out half the time.
Odd. Seems okay on mine too. I use it fairly regularly.
What happens when it "spazzes"? Do you mean just bad map/routes or the actual app going wonky?
If it doesn't have the correct names, in the correct places then it isn't technically a *map*. It is a kid's drawing. And is therefore useless.
To be fair, Google Maps isn't 100% correct either (I doubt any map is). According to Google I have a forest near me called "hhh" and Exhibition park is in South Shields, rather than the middle of Newcastle.
But yeah.. the Apple Map does seem to have far more major mistakes!
What I don't understand is they had some excellent sources to work from: TomTom maps and OpenStreetMap for example, so how did they screw it up?
Re: StreetView: try the Live Street View app (free version) it goes from Apple Map to full screen Google Street View.
...and therein lies the rub. A map is only as good as the data on which it is built and Apple have moved to their own - worse - data.
No Apple use Tom Tom data which has never let me down, Tom Tom were keen to point out that everyone else managed to use it right and had no idea how apple had F****** it up.
Now where did I leave Stratford hospital or best of all the Apple shop in Sydney
try the Live Street View app
got that. Not quite as slick as the old Google app, but has a fair stab at it and is tHe reason i relented and upgraded to iOS 6.
Apple use Tom Tom data which has never let me down
It would let you down if you expected Street View data.
As i said pages back, it's clear we all use "maps" for different purposes and some aspects of the new Maps are (much) worse than others.
Apple seem to have used map data not just from TomTom but from [url= http://gspsa21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution.html ]a ton of different sources[/url]. They credit Ordnance Survey, OpenStreetMap, Waze, DigitalGlobe, InterMap and Royal Mail among many others.
Seems like they secured some really good sources and then arsed up the mashing them together bit.
Very odd.
stilltortoise - Member...and therein lies the rub. A map is only as good as the data on which it is built and Apple have moved to their own - worse - data.
Yes I agree but that's not the point I was making, I was just saying that Google didn't purposely make a limited iOS app in comparison to the Android one, it was Apple.
It looks to me like they also bought some really old data from the ordinance survery.
Apple have a post office shown just round the corner from me. And there was a post office there... 15 years ago. It was shown on the OS printed maps up until the latest revision.
Yes I agree but that's not the point I was making, I was just saying that Google didn't purposely make a limited iOS app in comparison to the Android one, it was Apple.
That's not true. Apple need two key pieces of data that they didn't have for the two key features it needed to compete. Vector based mapping and turn by turn directions. We will never know why Apple didn't have that data available from Google but it was probably a combination of
1. Google wanted to keep it to themselves to give Android a competitive advantage
2. Apple weren't willing to pay Google's asking price
3. Apple didn't want to surrender all of the very valuable user data generated from maps to Google for what they were willing to pay for it
It certainly wasn't Google or Apple's inability to code a decent app.
Of course google has had a lot of it's map day polished and optimised by savvy small businesses, web masters and users. It looks like checking and updating OSM is yet another task we'll be burdened with...
It looks to me like they also bought some really old data from the ordinance survery.Apple have a post office shown just round the corner from me. And there was a post office there... 15 years ago. It was shown on the OS printed maps up until the latest revision.
their satellite images are very new (locally to me anyway) compared to google maps. The google ones for here are at least 10 to 15 years old where as on the iOS maps one I can see something I was building in my yard this time last year.
Is there a way of browsing the iOS maps on a desktop? I use google satellite images for scouting out routes as there are a lot of older trails that have ceased to feature on the OS maps and new path networks that are too new for the OS too. But with there being a lot of open cast around here whole swathes of landscape have disappeared since the google images were taken, in fact theres a lot that has been mined and then reinstated again since the google images were taken
The combination of Live Street View (69p - bargain! Slightly better than the free version, which is good) and the ability to use maps.google.com and still have StreetView sorted it for us and we upgraded to iOS 6 - no regrets.
I was also amazed to find that where the PegMan appears on maps embedded in a web page he can still be dragged onto the map to show StreetView.
It looks like checking and updating OSM is yet another task we'll be burdened with...
Only if you want to. Personally I've added tons of local businesses to OSM over the years without any prompting from them or their webmasters.
(Not sure that is relevant to Apple btw. They use Yelp which savvy businesses should already be in).
their satellite images are very new (locally to me anyway) compared to google maps.
Have you compared to Bing Maps - they are usually quite good too. Especially at close zooms.
