>Wow. New GMaps totally annihilates Apple Maps in every which way
Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to be much better
When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be)
1 - In POI and searching. However in the limited searches i did (in the Bay area so i guess the Apple Maps critics immediately discount that) both did the same. Given the widely documented inaccuracies and just downright lack of data in the rest of the world, this is probably orders of magnitude better.
2 - Public transit - This is obviously a no-contest. Apple Maps just doesn't have it.
3 - map data - This is probably the same as POIs.
>Navigation is great, so much better than Siri's dreadful voice, easy to navigate from A>B with a tap of your destination.
Navigation isn't great on Apple maps because of Siri's "dreadful voice" ?
>Great release - welcome back
I agree but the whole annahilation bit a quite hyperbolic.
>Isn't the purpose of maps to find your destination?
True. Google has everyone beat in finding things. These advantages are apparent in the Google maps website itself.
Once found though Apple Maps is smoother, more responsive and, in general pleasing to look at (although the last part is subjective and personal preference and many people will find the Google Maps better maybe).
Map data deficiences in Apple maps are well documented at this point and map data is the single most important thing about a map. Google Maps is superior ( and i'm guessing outside of the bay area/the US, orders of magnitude better ).
I did miss out on another big advantage of Google Maps - Street view (which i guess is part of the data but it is still unique to Google Maps)
The original comment waxed lyrical about how it "annahilates" Apple Maps in "every which way" which didn't gel with my experience. it's better in the parts it is expected to be. I wonder if anybody, let alone Apple, will ever be able to come even close to Google Maps for sheer data.
I wonder where the variation in performance is coming from. I'm reading some anecdotes saying Google Maps is more responsive and some saying Apple Maps is. On the same hardware. Perhaps they are using different definitions of "responsive"? Can you elaborate on your experience?
Some people do not notice the difference between 20fps and 60fps. But there's more to that than responsiveness. In comparing the two apps: How quickly do searches happen? When clicking on a result, how quickly does the info card come out? How long does it take to draw the map when you pan to a distant part of the map?
One of my fellow Australians posted. Here's my review of Google Maps, using his post as a basis for my post ;)
My findings:
For searching. Google Maps has a much better autocomplete all round. Faster, more readable and elegant. Once you have selected an entry then Apple Maps jumps straight there. Google Maps does a handy move animation showing me the relative location, although it slows things down a litte. I LOVE this feature.
For panning. Apple Maps is equivalent to Google Maps. Apple Maps has a fade in transition for loaded tiles which is a nice touch.
For POIs. Apple Maps is showing me a few POIs - often in the wrong place. Google Maps is showing me all key POIs in exactly the right place. Google Maps is the first mapping product to get my home address correct (TomTom, Navigon, Garmin, Apple).
For UI. Google Maps has a nicer UI. Apple Maps requires you to click on a small button which goes to a separate screen with more options. I really like the sidebar that Google implemented.
Overall. Google Maps has much better street data and nicer UI. Apple Maps had a smooth UI, showed POIs in the wrong spot here in Australia.
I think the competition is great. Looking forward to seeing if Apple can lift their socks on the next incarnation of Maps - they have a LONG way to go.
For searching. Google Maps has a much better autocomplete all round. Faster, more readable and elegant. Once you have selected an entry then Apple Maps jumps straight there. Google Maps does this pointless move animation making it about 2-3x slower.
For panning. Apple Maps is definitely smoother and has a higher frame rate. Especially if you have traffic/hybrid mode enable in which case even on my iPhone 5 Google Maps is lagging really badly. The biggest difference is that Apple Maps shows you a checkerboard for missing tiles whilst Google Maps has a blurred image. Apple Maps also has a fade in transition for loaded tiles which is a nice touch.
For POIs. Apple Maps is showing me lots of restaurants, bars etc. Google Maps is showing me nothing. This is in both Sydney and Melbourne.
For UI. Google Maps has a much better UI with info card. Apple Maps requires you to click on a small button which goes to a separate screen with more options. I really hate the sidebar that Google implemented. It is far too difficult to click with the tiny button especially one handed. And it isn't that intuitive that the street view picture is actually a button.
Overall. Google Maps has much better street data. Apple Maps had a much smoother UI, actually showed POIs here in Australia and the inbuilt 3D view is better implemented. The 2.0 versions of both apps should be real nice.
I've found that in Melbourne that while Apples maps have a lot of data, its all very very stale. I live I'm the Eastern suburbs, a lot of the places of interest are very old. Shops that haven't been there for years are listed, and large points like Universities are completely absent. It makes finding a particular shop or business near impossible.
The road data is good buy very old. Roads that are listed have has buildings on them for years, dead ends aren't, just general mapping issues there. For some reason they've listed half the tram stops as train stations too, which doesn't really help.
I want to love them. The vector map tiles are silky smooth an very easy to navigate. The app is well thought out and easy to use. I just wish they'd used better sources for their data.
Googler here. I'm seeing POIs in Melbourne and Sydney - you're seeing nothing? Even zoomed all the way in? It sounds like a bug. Could you provide a link of where you're looking? If you tap and hold in the viewport, slide up the address page, and hit share you can copy a url.
> i'm guessing outside of the bay area/the US, orders of magnitude better
On the contrary, iOS 5 maps (Google bitmap tiles) and iOS 6 maps (Apple vectors), were generally comparable in Rome during the month of September. Neither was ideal, and cross referencing both helped.
For driving, Navigon Europe beat them both quite handily.
What's more, during my visit to Italy, the iOS 6 maps improved several times. As one example, in early September the areas between streets were a single background color, but by the time I left, they showed shaded buildings for every block.
By now, the historic center is rendered in astonishing "3D buildings" mode, making the hybrid view the easiest way to orient yourself among the maze of twisty streets and fantastic landmarks. Google Earth is cool, but doesn't look like the real city in miniature, and has severe memory problems showing Rome when zoomed close enough for rectangular instead of triangular buildings. I'm not going to say Apple's view "annihilates" Google Earth, but it feels like a completely new generation of technology by comparison.
Using the new Google Maps, asking for transit directions in Rome today says none are available for the region.
Doing the same in Apple maps offers to launch Navigon Europe on my phone which has "Urban Guidance" for Rome, but also gives me a list of local data specialist apps such as In Arrivo! HD (which claims to have real time bus positions).
All this said, when browsing Rome the new Google Maps app is significantly more speedy than the iOS 5 version, though it suffers from the early Apple Maps problem of having no data for roads (much less POIs) when zoomed out even a little, and when zoomed in a bit, is very challenging to read at a glance and still misses most points of interest.
> Google has everyone beat in finding things.
In the Trastevere restaurant neighborhood, Apple's data shows 10 restaurants for every 1 on Google Maps, any of which can be tapped to see a photo of the building and read reviews on Yelp. Google Maps, if zoomed in far enough, eventually shows you the POI, and can be tapped for a street view panorama rather than the actual storefront.
The wildly popular local seafood hangout "Fish Market"[1] shows up on Apple Maps with 3.5 stars and 5 reviews, but doesn't show up at all on Google Maps. Searching for it sends you to the other side of the Tiber, to an actual fish market.
My point isn't that Apple Maps data is better, but that to a local who is looking for differences, either product can be shown to come up short. This suggests neither is "orders of magnitude" (presumably meaning at least 100x) better than the other, even when comparing this new offering rather than the iOS 5 version.
For me, the missing piece in Google Maps is that it does not integrate with my contacts. Most of my searches are based on contacts. Probably coming in v2. Otherwise pretty solid.
The in-app search widget could allow you to type in names of contacts. It doesn't at the moment. Well. It does, but it doesn't actually search for the contacts address
Where I live, annihilation is actually an apt description. Apple Maps is completely unusable for me. I don't know how they managed to put the airport where _it used to be 25 years ago_, for instance. It can't find one of the biggest swimming halls outside of town, and last time I needed driving directions it put me on the wrong side of a roadblock, whereas Google Maps routed me the correct way (running on an old iOS device).
When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be)
How is it shoving a Google account down your throat? It took me a minute to find where to log into my Google account so that I could retrieve my saved Maps places.
How do you contrast this with Apple Maps, which transparently uses an iCloud account on the backend?
Do you lay the blame on Google? Or Apple, for not having system-wide account services for Google (as they do with Facebook and Twitter).
i don't want to log in to an account.
Everytime i tap search, three fourths of the screen is filled with how my life would better if logged in to my account. It's a big nag screen.
Try logging in. The results may surprise you. If you use Chrome signed-in on your computer it will remember your recent map searches from your computer and pop them up first on your phone. Pretty useful feature if you ask me, and it will get rid of "the big nag screen"
I'm absolutely certain it will be pretty nifty. However, once i have willingly decided not to do a login ( i don't use gmail or Chrome ) it should just not feel the need to shove that to my face everytime. A first time setup prompt is all that is needed and once you say no it should tell you " ok, you're missing out but in case you do feel like trying it out - it's in settings->log into account".
Since Apple Maps works perfectly fine for my area ( yes, i'm aware there's a world outside the Bay Area where Apple Maps is horrible), the constant nag for a login is enough to for me to stop using it. It is an awesome app though.
I find that rather annoying too. Every other click it seems to be asking me to login to my Google account. Kind of makes me wonder why they are so insistent.. Good way to get data for local ads?
Once you get past the onerous task of searching for your destination, i found Apple Maps to be much better
When it's not shoving down a Google account login down your throat, places where Google maps is better (exactly where you'd expect it be)
1 - In POI and searching. However in the limited searches i did (in the Bay area so i guess the Apple Maps critics immediately discount that) both did the same. Given the widely documented inaccuracies and just downright lack of data in the rest of the world, this is probably orders of magnitude better.
2 - Public transit - This is obviously a no-contest. Apple Maps just doesn't have it.
3 - map data - This is probably the same as POIs.
>Navigation is great, so much better than Siri's dreadful voice, easy to navigate from A>B with a tap of your destination.
Navigation isn't great on Apple maps because of Siri's "dreadful voice" ?
>Great release - welcome back
I agree but the whole annahilation bit a quite hyperbolic.