A bold claim given the landscape of what other people have been saying recently in the wake of the iOS 6 maps replacement of Google maps.
But Hal Mueller reckons iOS 6 maps is taking flack for issues that are there, but not as prevalent as people make out.
The side-by-side screenshot provided notes that perhaps the Apple maps are easier to read. However others will definitely argue that the issue is that Apple maps is offering less information.
From my side, using it in the car has been a no-brainer. I benefit from Siri & turn-by-turn navigation with my 4S. When driving, telling the phone where I want to go and dropping the phone aside without worrying about it until I’ve to make a direction turn is a god send. The screen shuts off, and the phone appears silent. As soon as a lane change is required, a round-about is coming or anything else, the phone will light up and Siri will let me know what to do.
It looks good, intuitive and basic enough with the only bits of information I need.
However that’s for driving. Walking around Dublin it can be a problem. Street view provides a great way to properly see where you are and gauge distances in new places. Flyover doesn’t provide anything near what we need when walking in cities. In fact, I’m not sure what flyover is good for. It hardly shows traffic where to do or why to go there. It hardly shows pedestrians where they are and what’s around them, too. It’s a cool feature to have when showing off, but it’s not particularly useful right now.
iOS 6 maps has a way to go, but it’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. There’s a long way to go with bringing the information up to speed comparative to Google, but it’s streets ahead in terms of usability on a phone.
