Apple Maps

There has been a fair amount of chatter on the web about Apple’s new map app. If you upgrade your Iphone to the new operating system, IOS6 as opposed to 5 then you find that the old Google Maps app has been replaced by Apple Maps.

There are a number of differences; motorways are yellow instead of blue, being an obvious one.

For me the biggest change is that the versions of the maps that show satellite pictures have such low resolution that they are useless. The following is an example.

I live in Worcester UK, a town that has been here for hundreds of years. The picture gives a little history; the city was the site of one of the last battles of the civil war.

Rather more recently a pedestrian bridge has been constructed across the river Severn. Today I took my car to the garage, on one side of the river and walked back home across the bridge. I tried out the map apps on the way. I have an Iphone 4s, not the latest one, so maybe the thing works better on the Iphone 5. On the 4s it is useless.

The bridge is not small, the picture on the left is taken from a little further up river.

Apple maps satelite view with me standing on the bridge comes out as some sort of abstract art. The black fuzzy line is the river Severn, one of the largest rivers in England, hard to miss. No bridge is discernable. 

 The map view is better, though there is no sign of the bridge.

On the bridge I opened the web browser and went to Google maps, their satellite picture is next. Although the structure of the bridge is not visible, they have drawn in the route, so if you were walking that way you might guess that there was a bridge available.

As it happens neither system is particularly up to date.

 The next picture on the right shows the satelite view of where I live, you might think it is an industrial wasteland or rubbish dump. the picture on the left shows what it actually looks like, both Apple and Google are about two years out of date.

Interestingly the various web reports I have read say that Google is about to produce a new app for IOS6. When I opened Google maps in Safari, it gave me the option to put an app on my desktop, i.e. on the phone. I did that and bingo, I have an app that opens Google maps. It may not be the version that Google are working on, but it will do for now.