Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part.
FREMONT: Apple's new maps app came out
the day I started a 2,243-mile road trip
through four states. As complaints about it
trickled in and Apple's CEO apologized, I
was left wondering whether people were
using the same app I was.
Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part. I
know many people will disagree with me,
but I even find it an improvement over the
old app on iPhones because I now get voice
navigation and automatic re-routing.
I've used Google's Android app since it was
released three years ago. I don't own a car,
but I travel a lot. The app has proven
crucial in getting me to unfamiliar
territories in New England and various
Southern states from Arizona to South
Carolina.
Google brought to the phone the spoken-
aloud, turn-by-turn directions once limited
to GPS navigational devices from Garmin,
TomTom and others. Make a wrong turn,
and the app automatically updates with
new directions. Best of all, it's always been
free.
Until last month, Google was also behind
the free, main maps app on iPhones.
But that one didn't have voice navigation or
automatic re-routing. Driving with it meant
swiping through pages of on-screen
directions. A friend missed a train in May
as we overlooked a step and went the
wrong way on a highway, ending up back
where we came from. A drive from Ann
Arbor to Lansing, Mich., took 17 steps, each
with its own page. After Step 9, I had to
pull into a rest stop to memorize
subsequent steps and avoid an accident.
Apple wanted voice directions, too, and
figured the only way to get it was to build
its own maps app and bump Google from
its perch as the default offering. It
partnered with TomTom and shipped the
iPhone 5 with the new app. A software
update out September 19 made it available
on the iPhone 4S and the cellular versions
of the latest two iPad models.
I updated an iPhone 4S in a hotel room in
Grand Rapids, Mich., that night and was
immediately impressed. It was a nice touch
to have turn-by-turn directions narrated by
Siri, the familiar female voice from Apple's
virtual-assistant feature.
Then I started hearing the complaints.
I agree with many of them. The Apple app
didn't show as many businesses and
landmarks as Google's. Some appeared in
the wrong location or were mislabeled. The
Apple app didn't offer public transit
directions, something crucial for New
Yorkers like me. A friend I was visiting
toward the end of the two-week trip
immediately complained that the app
looked different as she pulled it out for the
first time.
Head to head, the Google app for Android,
which I used on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus
and a Galaxy S III, outperformed Apple's
version in many respects:
- Google's app typically told me about turns
a second or two quicker. Sometimes, I
didn't hear from Siri until I got to the
intersection, two lanes away from where I
needed to be to make a right turn.
- I got better navigation on private roads
with Google. At a shopping mall, Google
guided me along the right driveways to get
to JC Penney, while Apple got me to the
general vicinity. Google also got me to the
front door of my hotel in Ann Arbor, while
Apple got me to the entrance of a complex
that included other hotels, a gas station
and retail stores.
- In Akron, Ohio, Siri had me turn left to get
on a highway, while Google's app properly
instructed me to take a ramp on the left. In
Indianapolis, Google knew about a service
road alongside Michigan Road, while Siri
assumed I was on the main road and would
have had me crash into a Chinese
restaurant. In Charleston, W.Va., Siri told
me to head northeast, as if I had a
compass, while Google just told me to turn
left.
- Besides public transit directions, Google
offered options for avoiding tolls or
highways while driving. It allowed me to
choose continuous satellite images instead
of animated maps, while Apple's app
offered them only for route overviews, not
for live navigation.
- While Siri's voice sounds much more
human than the one Google used in its
early mapping apps, Google now has a
voice that makes Siri sound robotic by
comparison. Google also was more sparing
with words, which was good as long as I
didn't get lost for lack of detail.
That said, Apple's map offers 3-D views.
That may sound like a gimmick, but it
presents the map in a way that mirrors
what you're seeing through the windshield.
On Apple's map, the direction you're going
is on top in the regular view or toward the
back in 3-D. Outside of big cities, Google
often has north on top, which can be
confusing when driving east or south.
Apple's maps are also more pleasant to
view. Instructions such as "turn right onto
Pearl St." are in white against a green
background, similar to the signs you see on
highways. Street names at intersections are
in a green rectangle, similar to actual street
signs at corners. Unlike Google's, Apple's
app showed me the distance and time
remaining and an estimated time of arrival
all at once, though I would have
appreciated larger text.
Apple's app was mostly dead-on in getting
me to my destination. The one big miss was
when it had a winery I was looking for
about a half-mile east of its actual location.
I went to another instead.
But Google has made mistakes, too. It told
me to turn left to get to a lighthouse along
the Straits of Mackinac connecting two
Great Lakes, even as the road sign in front
of me pointed to the right. Then again,
Apple's app didn't even find that
lighthouse in a search.
Both apps gave me other questionable
directions, even though they got me there,
which was what mattered most. At one
point, Google had me on a curvy one-lane
residential street with little visibility, even
though a faster, safer road ran parallel to
it. Apple's directions to a roadside tourist
trap had me take an exit four miles to the
south, only to return four miles north on
smaller roads.
Bottom line is no app is perfect. After all
the complaints about Apple's app, I
downloaded a 99-cent iPhone app called
MotionX GPS Drive. It got good reviews and
offered more features than either Apple or
Google. But it tried to lead me off the
wrong exit in Ohio. Plus, all the extra
features diverted my eyes to the settings
menu when I should've been paying
attention to trucks and, ahem, police cars
around me.
One of my favorite scenes from "The
Office" television show is when clueless
boss Michael Scott drives into Lake
Scranton because he was blindly following
GPS directions.
There will be mistakes, but it beats driving
in a new place with nothing. You just need
to use your common sense.
Apple's app is far better than the one
Google had when it first came out in late
2009. In apologizing for an app he says
"fell short" of Apple's own expectations,
CEO Tim Cook says the company will keep
working to improve it.
It's true Apple's app falls short of what
Google now offers for Android, but if all
you have is an iPhone or an iPad, Apple's
new app will get you there just fine.
Clinging to the old, voiceless app is like
hanging on to your cassette tapes while the
world has moved on to CDs and digital
downloads. I can't imagine driving without
hearing voices.
(Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology and
media editor for The Associated Press)
