The tech community rarely agrees on much, but virtually everyone seems to know in their gut Apple's new Maps app is rotten. Since the release of Apple's iOS 6 on Sept. 19, Maps' failures, and recurring issues, have dominated the news cycle more than the operating systems' alleged improvements. Today, news breaks that Apple has known Maps is a clunker since all the way back in June, according to CNET.
The tech website spoke with six developers who came forward under the condition of anonymity that all expressed they had voiced their concerns with Apple back in June, but the company decided to ignore their warnings, and launched the mediocre Maps app anyway without making any significant improvements.
"During the beta period I filed bug reports with Apple's Radar system (notorious for being ignored), posted on the forums several times, and e-mailed multiple people within Apple's MapKit team to voice our concerns," one developer told CNET.
"I posted at least one doomsayer rant after each (developer) beta, and I wasn't alone," another developer said to the site. "The mood amongst the developers seemed to be that the maps were so shockingly bad that reporting individual problems was futile. What was needed wasn't so much an interface for reporting a single point as incorrect, but for selecting an entire region and saying 'all of this - it's wrong.' "
It's eerie how much of this news echoes what we've already heard from tech sites and consumers alike.
Likewise, Google Maps designer Fred Gilbert who worked with Apple on the original Google Maps app for the first iPhone voiced his incredible disappointment with Apple Maps over Google+, saying "as one of the original designers of Google Mobile Maps I remember how difficult it was working with Apple. But this just blows my mind," according to seroundtable.com.
The problem with Apple's Maps
T3: While the app is aesthetically pleasing , and has some nice features like voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation, the functionality of Apple's Maps' search was reportedly "hit and miss in terms of finding London locations." Apple's new app apparently displays more road names than place names, and does away with color-coded roads, so, navigating to a specific point using pinch and zoom is much trickier.
Engadget: The app is not nearly as comprehensive as Google's offerings on Android, but the biggest drawback is its lack of public transportation directions. And while asking for subway directions doesn't work well, the app actually does offer public transportation directions. But, if you choose that option it hyperlinks you to the App Store with a search for "Routing Apps" -- a search that has zero results.
Allthingsd: A step backward from Google Maps. While Apple's maps feature a 3-D "Flyover" view of some central cities, they lack Google's very useful ground-level photographic street views. And while the site thought Apple's maps were accurate, they reportedly tend to default to a more zoomed-in view than Google's, making them look emptier until you zoom out.
Many have mentioned that Apple Maps lacks the kind of detailed layering that you can apply in Google Maps and Google Navigation, and shows you whatever you want to see. Maps will list some important places of interest -- mostly gas stations and convenience shops -- but if you want to see all Italian restaurants on your route you'll have to dig deeper.
Maps also reportedly lacks key details on prominent cities, and in one instance, an entire town was in the wrong location. Users have also found duplicate islands and other bizarre quirks.