By now we all have heard about the issues and problems with the new Apple iOS 6 Maps, however, my own experience with the iOS Maps have been all positive, especially the turn-by-turn navigation feature. Over the last three weeks I have taken the iOS Maps application to ringer, trying everything to confuse it, but was unable to do so.
To put my testing into perspective, let me outline what I did. Almost three weeks ago I spend two days with some of my ISO/TC 154 colleagues in Napa/Sonoma and Central Valley, visiting a number of wineries that were off the beaten path. For starters, I only had the Winery’s name, no address other then the valley location, such as Napa, Sonoma or Lodi. In each case it found the location and provided the correct route to each, some times even offering an alternate route. A number of times, I deliberately changed the directions provided to test the rerouting, which work flawless. All in all I found no issue with the turn-by-turn navigation.
Last week I went on a 7 day photo excursion tour that took me trough Yosemite, Bodie, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Grand Canyon (North Rim, East End and South Rim), Mojave Desert and Central Valley. Again the turn-by-turn navigation was flawless. However, this time there was a bit of an issue with finding the correct ending location, starting was not an issue since I started from home, and later the last ending location became the next starting location.
The issue had to do that for example trying to use “Grand Canyon North Rim” was not exact enough. I therefore tried Google maps, which also failed, but did offer a list of options, such as “Grand Canyon North Rim Visitor Center, AZ”. Entering that location into iOs Maps did the trick as well. The lesson learned was to enter a bit more information, such as “Grand Canyon South Rim Visitor Center, AZ”. BTW, I noticed that iOS maps fails to return a location if there is not enough exact data entered, whereas Goggle Maps will always return a result, even as I know from past usage the location maybe far away from the actual location thought.
From web articles I understand that for many early users the information provided has been sketchy, but I am confident Apple will work out these issues. Bottom line, for me Apple’s iOS Maps application got the job done in all cases, sometimes requiring a bit more exact location information. It has a great free turn-by-turn navigation feature that will help you reach your final destination, even if you plan a few detours. I highly recommend it.
