“A lot has been said about the new Maps application on the iPhone 5 and the latest iPhone operating system,” David Thomas reports for Cars.com. “But the one function drivers covet the most about the app — turn-by-turn directions — worked exceptionally well for nearly two weeks of testing.”
“I tested my iPhone 5 for one full week of regular commutes and errand runs. I also pitted it against a GMC Terrain’s optional navigation system for a trip to an automaker event about 20 miles from my home,” Thomas reports. “Then, on a 15-mile round trip in Chicago, I tested the iPhone against the Google Maps Navigation app on a Samsung Galaxy Note running Android 4.0.”
“The iPhone 5 offers three route choices with every destination, much like Google Maps did on the old iPhone,” Thomas reports. “Plug the iPhone 5 into your car’s USB port, and not only will it use your car’s speakers to read you directions, it will also lower the volume of the stereo regardless if you’re listening to the car stereo or your iPhone-based tunes. This mimics car-based systems to a T. Unfortunately, I tested the Samsung in only one car with USB, and the phone was not compatible with the car’s multimedia system, so I couldn’t test if the Android device has the same level of integration. Voice prompts came from the Samsung’s speaker, and the voice was definitely more robotic-sounding than the iPhone’s.
Thomas reports, “During my tests over a few hundred miles and dozens of destinations, the iPhone 5 missed only one location. It happened to be a cow pasture in the far suburbs. The Terrain missed it, too, but the iPhone put me just 50 feet away from the farm’s highly visible road sign, while the GMC had me ‘arriving’ a half-mile earlier. The Samsung made a mistake, too. It kept getting confused about the location of my office in downtown Chicago. It had me going farther on a one-way street than I needed to go, and when I was feet from the door, it thought we were still blocks away… The iPhone 5 nailed the location… The iPhone’s maps certainly are far from perfect, but the turn-by-turn navigation functions are as good as any I’ve seen.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nicholas C.” for the heads up.]
“Unfortunately, I tested the Samsung in only one car with USB, and the phone was not compatible with the car’s multimedia system”
IOW, Apple Maps and the iPhone 5 trounced the Samsung Galaxy Note in that test.
This is my experience as well. It’s better than any other app I’ve used. One thing I really like is that it detects a change in route almost instantly, whereas other apps keep telling you to turn around and go the other way.
I have had that same experience. The detection of a change in route is almost instantaneous followed quickly by an alternate route. I also find that the positioning is much more accurate that Google Maps. This is of course purely subjective but on several walks, I have found that Apple’s mapping software is much better at showing where I am than Google’s offering.
‘roid users are always lost anyway
‘Roid road rage?
Think I’ll stick with the MotionX GPS app
Here here! Love this app as it humbles all other Nav apps out there today.
blah blah blah
Just don’t let your phone sleep. Due to an issue in a late iOS 5 release and ever since the app shuts down. I can’t tell you how many times I drove right past where I was supposed to be turning only to learn my phone had gone to sleep and then I have to wait for the app to load Ns recalculate the route. No I have had it with motion x drive. Until they fix it I am not using that anymore. I don’t care I’d it’s accurate to a grain of sand. If the app doesn’t stay up and running it doesn’t do much good.
I like MotionX GPS as well. It has a new feature I really appreciate – a speed limit indicator that shows you the current limit and warns you when you get close to it, and let’s you know when you go over.
But Apple’s product has a much much clearer display.
Considering the iPhone 5 nav is powered by Tom Tom who has been in the business longer then almost anyone there really shouldn’t be any downside to the iPhone navigation.
To me, that’s the only downside. I had a TomTom GPS, and I liked it better than my wife’s Garmin GPS… until TomTom issued a software update that permanently “bricked” my TomTom GPS, and then told me that, according to their terms of service, that they had no responsibility for what their software update (that I paid extra for) did to the GPS unit that I also paid them for.
For now, I’ll stick with my Garmin GPS.
I was in Chicago on business and had left my IPhone 5 at the Hotel. Was headed to Rush St. for a few drinks with a client who was touting his Droid. He pulled up directions on his Droid, the quickest route, thru Cabrini Green. I wasn’t paying attention and just before we turned into Cabrini Green I heard gunshots and stopped to check out his Droids route. Another 100 yards on the Droid route and we’d be dead. Thanks Droid!
Lololol hilarious, no one likes cabrini green
“The last of the buildings in Cabrini–Green was demolished in March 2011” Wikipedia.
Yea? Well you wouldn’t know it from walking around where it was. it is FUBAR.
The only down-side to the Apple Maps app is the lack of a night mode.
Yesterday we went fishing at a Lake we have never been to before.
For the heck of it, we used turn by turn on my iPad using iOS 6 Maps. and my brother in laws 4S with Verizon’s turn by turn maps app.
both got us there correctly, both got us back correctly using a different route. Both suggested the exact same route, with one exception.. iOS 6 got us to the lake quicker… by having us turn on a private drive (it was a locked gate) instead of driving the extra 40 feet to the actual road to the Boat launch.
on the way home, the night mode on the 4S Verizon maps.. DID have me jealous. Apple should do that, TomTom does so it shouldn’t be hard.
I am an amateur astronomer and use both my iPhone and iPad with astronomy apps that have “night” or “red” modes. The problem is that when there is an incoming message or phone call, the iOS device leaves the astro app and, with it, night mode. It would really be nice if Apple would put a global night mode into the OS like they do some of the functions for the handicapped.
I would like Apple’s voice navigation to pause Podcast rather than just lowering the volume when making driving announcements. Otherwise I miss what the program is saying. Not important for music, but because Podcasts now have their own program, this should be easy to do.
This is one of the two things I find annoying about the new Podcast app, the other being the tiny controls I have to use while I’m driving.
With the old iTunes podcast system at least I could use a 3rd-party app that allowed swipe controls of podcast playback.
I have tried running Navigon NA on an iPad and Apple maps on an iPhone 5 simultaneously and in general the Apple was better
Shhh. Your not supposed to like Apple Maps. The interwebs told me so.
I’ve been using Apple Maps for about a week and think theturn by turn is better than any dedicated GPS car system I’ve ever seen. The turn by turn navigation is impecable and with the phone placed on the dashboard, the screen pops and registers quickly due to clearly illustrated colorful elements and arrows .
Apple Maps’ esthetics graphical components and looks are cleaner, sharper and less cluttered therefore easier onthe eyes, than Google Maps.
Just in this one week of usage, it looks oike Apple has made many fixes and updates to update the lacking data and location services associated input.
Apple Maps will catch up very fast and surpass Google Maps, which was never really totally reliable, has it’s quirks and is way behind on Apple’s look, feel and esthetics.
The problem is all the so-called analysts, false claims and the Apple haters getting too much attention and believing their lies.
I call this Mapsgate issue CLOSED!
Gubmint Motors Corporation? Please!
How about a serious system like this
@Agent Provacateur (hyperbole much?), the whole “government motors” stuff gets old. Why is it so difficult for people–like you–to give Obama the credit he deserves for saving an entire industry?
By the way, when I use a GPS I only want the info relevant to getting me where I want to go, not a virtual encyclopedia entry.
@ScreenPhiles – because he didn’t save it. He simply spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars (yes, SPENT – as in, will never be paid back) to manipulate the GM bankruptcy to place the company under the control of the unions rather than let it go through a normal bankruptcy. It wasn’t a “save.” It was a takeover.
Obama didn’t save the US auto industry- he saved Gubmint Motors and Chrysler. Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, VW, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Subaru all make cars in the US. The difference is our roads are still polluted with Fugly Crapillacs, Crapolets and Fiats.
The payback is also fiction. GM was split in two and the liabilities taken off of the ‘new’ GMs books. GM was so appreciative of the taxpayer bailout that they promptly built 6 more plants in China.
One of the things I like about Apple Maps is that the animation is so incredibly smooth. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Those iHaters/Fandroids/Google made so much noise, now its backfiring on them! hahahaha
As a staunch critic of the Apple Maps feature of iOS 6, let me just say that the complaints about the serious problems with the app have been (to my knowledge) in two areas;
1) Total lack of transit directions
2) Many wrong place locations
I don’t think anyone’s had any criticism of the turn-by-turn navigation feature, and since it’s an actual NEW feature, I don’t suppose anyone will — it could be great (many have said so) or par-for-the-course (many have said so) or poor (not many have said so), but in any event, Apple hasn’t removed a working turn-by-turn feature and replaced it with a worse one.
The valid criticism of iOS 6 is in the removal of working features and replacement with poorer features (or in the case of transit, no replacement at all).
Good feature “C” doesn’t mean Bad features “A” and “B” aren’t real.
Some of the problems are with the back-end logic that tries to guess what you’re after, and doesn’t provide alternate options (“did you mean…”). It heavily favours local business names over locations with the same name
For example the old Google Maps would easily find the town for a local ski hill, about an hour out of the city. In iOS6, it found its marketing office–very useless info since it doesn’t do direct sales.
“Mount everest” and “Mount st helens” return businesses (the latter in the UK!), yet “Mount Kilimanjaro” finds the actual mountain.
My own rigorous testing came up with the same results.
Apple’s maps missed only one location, but Google maps did not find it either.
So I tried Waze, which enables you to search using their own data and Yelp and Google and 4Square and Bing and Yellow Pages.
4Square found the missing site, so I hit Report Problem in maps and added it.
You’re welcome.
I’d been using the apple map for turn by turn navigation , works great~
I wish it showed ETA and perhaps distance to go. TomTom does.
It does on my 4S; ETA in actual time, and time/distance remaining to destination.
They’re small-ish, but they’re there between the End and Overview buttons at the top. If you don’t see them tap the screen to exit full-screen mode.
Look deeply into my eyes… MULTIPLE-DESTINATION TRIPS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES, and, MUST BE ABLE TO EMAIL ROUTES TO OTHERS.
Oh, and please get the exit numbers back in there too.
Thanks.
What makes me mad is that everyone who is posting how crap maps is don’t even own an iphone, let alone ever used the app.
This is the biggest problem with the internet, everyone is an armchair expert even if they’ve never owned the product let alone used it.
The first thing I say anyone criticising apple maps is “So you have an iphone then and actually used apple maps?”
If they say no then I just say “Buy an iPhone, learn how to use it. Use Apple maps for a month and then decide if you think its not for you. If it isn’t, then send the feedback to apple”.
This normally shuts them up.
The other thing I say say is “Apple maps is version 1.0, did you ever use google maps 1.0”. They normally say no.
I then say “Ive used google maps 1.0 and it had half the roads missing, now compare that to apple maps”.
Bottom line to these FUD spreaders – Buy an iPhone, learn how to use it properly, use apple maps and then comment on the non-issue.
For the record, Ive used apple maps everyday since the IOS6 update and its work fine for me. It gets me where I want to go and I love it when you asl Siri “ETA” and it then tells you when you will get there.
Lovely stuff.
I’ve been testing the new Maps app on my 4S from day 1 of the iOS 6 update in the greater Sacramento, Ca. area and it has been flawless.
My experience with Maps on my iPhone 5 has been similar. I used the turn by turn navigation feature on a trip this (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend to travel from Toronto to two rural towns on the Ontario/Quebec border: Rigaud, Québec and Hawkesbury, Ontario. I got lost because I stupidly chose to follow some local yokel’s directions. Maps guided us out of maze of local county roads back to the main highway to our hotel without a single misstep.
Too bad I can’t say the same for Siri’s French pronunciation. With language set to ‘English (Canada)’ almost every French place name was butchered. What Siri’s programmers should have known is that with the exception of Montreal which is anglicized, English speaking Canadians generally pronounce French place names the way that French speaking Canadians do. Hence the town of Rigaud is ‘reego’ not ‘reegut’ and Langlois is ‘lanwah’ not ‘langloys’. Worse, because Quebec directions signs show Este (East) and Ouest (West), Siri told me to drive ‘O-est’ towards Ottawa.