One of the apps commonly toted as a replacement for iOS 6’s Maps app after the latter was released (and proved to be something of a debacle for Cupertino) was Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic app.
Now, according to a new interview conducted on-stage at AllThingsD’s Dive Into Mobile Conference, even Waze CEO Noam Bardim was surprised by how many people hated Apple Maps, and said that two years previously, consumers would have thought is was amazing.
Disappointed with iOS 6 Maps but sick of waiting Google to finally get its act together and release a native Maps app on the App Store. Good news: another big name in maps, Nokia, have launched their own native maps app for iOS today. Called Nokia HERE, the app leverages Nokia’s decade-long expertise in mapping and brings it to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, while also offering cool new features like Facebook integration, turn-by-turn directions, the ability to save maps for later, transit directions, and more.
It won’t add transit directions, nor will it stiffen those melted roads which are draped, Dalí-esque, over the underlying terrain. But this simple, one-setting tweak will make iOS 6’s beleaguered maps app a whole lot more useful.
Not only has Apple apologized for the embarassing state of iOS 6 Maps today, and not only has Tim Cook personally advised users to try competing app products like Bing, Mapquest and Google Maps as they get iOS 6 Maps’ shit together, but Apple is now promoting Maps alternatives at the very top of the iOS App Store listings. This is an unprecedented admission of fault by Apple. It’s mea culpas all the way down.
iOS 6’s Maps is the biggest criticism of Apple’s new mobile operating system. In short, it’s clearly years behind Google Maps, which previously powered Maps in past versions of iOS. Most of the time, complaints about Apple’s new Maps accuse the latter of being under-developed and unreliable compared to Google Maps, but the Irish government has a different concern: they are worried that iOS 6 Maps will result in pilots crashing their airplanes directly into a park.
