[rogerchucker]

I freaking hate the Google maps app on iPhone - I don't have any need for a map app on a mobile device unless it has turn-by-turn voice navigation along with re-routing capabilities. It's only good for looking up locations/directions when I am stuck somewhere for traveling. If I'm home, my macbook's google map is good enough to serve that purpose. So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping app for a mobile device. Waze saved me.

[czhiddy]

> So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping app for a mobile device.

The terms of the license agreement with Google for maps data likely didn't include the ability to perform turn-by-turn navigation. Another reason why they moved to their own maps backend for iOS 6.

[kalleboo]

What I read was that Google would allow Apple to do turn-by-turn in exchange for ads. Apple don't want to sully iOS with ads so they refused those terms, and Google wouldn't agree to anything else.

[rogerchucker]

Does that mean by the time Google had decided to work on the iPhone-like Android interface, they had been planning to work on a turn-by-turn navigation system using Google Maps for Android as well?

[no_more_death]

Android has had turn-by-turn navigation at least since 2010. Having a GPS is irrelevant if you've got an Android.

[abruzzi]

Actually it depends on how you use GPSs. Its certainly possible to write a mapping/GPS app for a smart phone that is competitive with the more advanced features of handheld or dashmount GPSs, but I simply haven't seen one yet. None of the features I need are big ones, but rather a bunch features that add up to a much better user experience for a GPS geek. A couple of those hard to find features are: multi point routing (or some way to allow me to tell the GPS the route instead of the other way around), ability to build routes on PC/Mac and upload to the GPS, off-road routing, track to route conversion, etc..

[paganel]

> I freaking hate the Google maps app on iPhone - I don't have any need for a map app on a mobile device unless it has turn-by-turn voice navigation along with re-routing capabilities

Really now? As another anecdotal point, I freaking love it, and I'm saying this as a an almost-Apple-fanboy. I'm a pedestrian living in an Eastern European city of 2-million people, and I've used the maps app countless times.

Not that I wouldn't know my city (I've actually implemented 2 or 3 or map-related projects focused on the city I live in, just as a hobby), but because it is impossible to remember how exactly to locate the street bearing the name of an obscure 19-century music composer that just happens to be the address of a restaurant you're interested in. Or how when I got lost in the center of Athens, as a tourist, around Omonia Square ("I don't need a paper map, I can manage" I was saying to myself as I was leaving my hotel room), I heavily relied on the said map and on the kindness on strangers who had shared their home wifi networks to make my way around to Exarcheia.

[rogerchucker]

I don't live in a big city and my main mode of transportation is driving and especially the one where directions matter. Walking around inside the mall/plaza or my university campus don't require me to look up directions. It has been handy a few times when I visited cities but those add up to at max a week in a year. So yeah, it is pretty useless for me and thank goodness something like Waze exists on iPhone.

[spaghetti]

I forgot about the lack of turn-by-turn driving instructions. It's strange but I've actually never had any desire to use that feature on any product. When I use maps I just look once, memorize the major pieces of the trip (freeways, exits etc) and then just go and try to find my way.

[rogerchucker]

I came to iPhone from Android and have since severely missed turn-by-turn on the default map app. I depend on Waze and sometimes on Mapquest although the latter uses a stupidly outdated map.

[pbreit]

This is just a silly sentiment. The iPhone maps app may not be perfect but having no clue why it was created makes it sound like you are dumb or just being difficult.

[rogerchucker]

A mapping service with directions on a device that is supposed to be with you all the time is supposed to be mostly handy for driving purposes (at least from my perspective). That's a fundamental requirement. Lack of voice turn-by-turn makes it incomplete, not "may not be perfect".

I questioned why it was neutered the way it is now - not why it was created. I buy Apple products for wholesome user experience and the Google maps ain't one of them (neither is the mail app and so on). If you think this is a silly sentiment, then you must be pretty dumb about user experience issues in mobile situations.

[glenjamin]

Have you ever walked somewhere?

Driving is not the only mode of transport. And SatNav is not the only type of useful map.

Paper maps are useful - an equivalent to a paper map that holds data for the entire world, can put a pin in my exact global location, and can tell me where the nearest Starbucks is? Yeah, I can't see any use for that at all.

[rogerchucker]

I don't know where you live but where I do, driving is the main mode of transportation and especially the only one where directions matter.