The iOS 6 Review: Maps Thoroughly Investigated and More
by Brian Klug & Saumitra Bhagwat on September 19, 2012 2:21 PM ESTFinal Thoughts and Conclusions
Apple's iOS has now graduated into a fairly mature operating system. Features like Passbook and the new first party Maps application show that there still a lot of new tricks that we'll see despite where iOS is in its evolution curve.
The new Maps app and Passbook are easily the two biggest changes to iOS 6. The former is a bold move by Apple into controlling its own destiny, while the latter is a much needed feature that depends significantly on developers and third parties to make it useful.
The new first party Maps application does surprisingly well given Apple's relative inexperience in the field. Turn by turn navigation works incredibly well, and for cities with good 3D data the flyover experience is quite impressive. The problem is Apple's Maps application simply doesn't have the wealth of data that backed up the old Google driven Maps app. Public transit routing and a good amount of location data are simply missing. The burden is now entirely on Apple to ramp up its dataset in order to replace what has been lost. The question that remains is how long it will take Apple to get there.
3D Flyover and Turn by Turn Navigation
Both iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 represent fairly large steps for Apple in the direction of becoming even more vertically integrated. For Apple to continue to grow its business outside of adding new product categories, it will have to look to assimilating more users as well as increasing revenue per user. If average device prices don't go up, Apple simply has to take a larger portion of the revenue share per device. In iOS that manifests itself as replacing licensed Google services with its own, and we've already seen what that means for silicon in the iPhone. Apple is first and foremost a consumer company, so user experience must not suffer as it internalizes more of the world around it. In the case of Maps, the infrastructure is in place for user experience not to be an issue, but depending on what you used the app for in the past you may find yourself having taken a step backwards. Similarly, if you didn't rely on what's missing, you can just as easily find yourself in a better position in iOS 6. I suspect there's a roadmap to take Apple from here to feature parity with the old Maps across the board, but the public is never privy to such things.
Passbook is exciting if its power can truly be harnessed in the way Apple wants it to. The gap between where we are today and disappearing wallets is enormous. Being able to authenticate payments is a major step along the way to integrating wallet functionality, and Passbook isn't that. What the feature promises to do is slim down everything non-payment related in your wallet. Boarding passes, VIP/VIC cards for stores/restaurants, tickets to shows and games are all examples of things that don't directly interface with your credit card or bank account, but that can be relatively easily integrated into your smartphone today. The strength of the iOS ecosystem should really help push Passbook adoption along. Most major players in any service industry already have some sort of an iOS app presence. Extending support to Passbook should be a logical step. Once again we're left with a bit of a waiting game until everyone is on board but the point of these updates to iOS is really to enable functionality down the road.
Fullscreen browsing in MobileSafari
Although not as shiny of a feature, iCloud Tabs in Mobile Safari really addresses a fundamental issue with the current OS X/iOS divide - transporting an experience between devices. It's often said that the tablet is a great consumption device but not ideal for many types of content creation workloads because of the lack of a physical keyboard and trackpad. Apple somewhat responded to these complaints with the introduction of apps like iPhoto and Pages. Even then, there's still going to be a not-insignificant group of users who use a Mac for work and an iPad for casual web browsing, watching movies, etc...
The problem with that usage model is it's always been clunky to move state between these two very different devices. The iPad arguably delivers a better browsing experience than a MacBook Pro, but if you have to email yourself a dozen links to stop browsing on your notebook and start again on your tablet the experience becomes more of a burden. iCloud tabs in Mobile Safari works well to address this specific usage scenario. Furthermore, like most of the other iCloud enabled features, cloud tabs does a good job of encouraging customers to buy within the Apple ecosystem. It's a somewhat worrisome future that we're headed towards where everyone is building these fairly independent platforms that work best within an ecosystem rather than across boundaries. For now the sacrifice seems worth it as the payoff is something that works very well, but I worry about what happens down the road if you're forced to buy a device not because it's the best device for you, but because buying an alternative would hurt the experience on another, unrelated device.
The rest of iOS 6 is a mixture of polishing up existing features and adding new ones that were long overdue for Apple. Facebook integration is a classic example, and should have been implemented a long time ago, right alongside Twitter integration. Improvements to the dialer with its new Do Not Disturb feature are good to see as many still use their iOS devices to make calls. The remodeled stores and backend optimizations for better app discovery are all welcome additions.
There's still tons of room for improvement. Other than Windows 8, none of the new OSes have done a great job of dealing with the problem of displaying content from two applications at once. On a phone it's perhaps not the best idea, but on a tablet where screen size/real estate are more plentiful there's a definite need for a real, simultaneous multitasking solution. New notifications (and the notification center) from iOS 5 helped alleviate some of the pressure here, but there's still room for evolution.
The yearly iOS cadence continues to be a smart move on Apple's part. While updates may range in significance depending on your usage model, in building marketshare it's important to deliver regular updates that help keep the platform feeling new. With the latest version of iOS, Apple does just that. There are new features both big and small, and enough small improvements to keep it fresh.
What iOS 6, Android 4.1 or Windows 8/RT/Phone 8 fail to do however is establish a single dominant winner in the market. This war is far from over, which is a great thing for pushing innovation.
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Hyper72 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Mobile Safari reports as:Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A403 Safari/8536.25
iCab Mobile reports:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3
anandtech02148 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
gotta disagree with the author on the tablet web browsing.The convenience of web browsing on a tablet is one factor, instant access, easy finger gestures, it should be enhanced in the future so that we do away with the uneccessarry luggage like a keyboard and mouse. Even cutting and pasting have improved, i'm not sure what the author is talking about copying multiple links, mass email etc, the point of Ipad internet browsing is purely entertainment and should be improved upon. IOS does an amazing job on memory management, especially these websites that invades your browser with crazy advertising pop ups. Sinces Android foundation is from Java it might as well be the devil's advocate in crashing and freezing your device.
mikato - Thursday, September 27, 2012 - link
What if you are away from your tablet and are browsing the web, but then you have to stop or you want to save something for later. Then later you want to browse on your tablet instead, and you'd like to pick up where you left off or go back to what you'd saved. It seems like that's the point of the new Reading List syncing feature. How else would you do it besides emailing the links?Some typing is still required when using the web, right? Typing on a touchscreen has improved a lot but is still like a bit like using a keyboard with gloves on. I don't know what my WPM is on a tablet but it must be must be at least cut by 70% or something. I have still occasionally switched to using my desktop when I need to figure something out on the web since it is just much faster. Also, depending on what I'm doing, I may need to look at several web pages, my own notes, or something else why writing an email or a writing something. This is more than just web browsing and although a tablet screen is bigger than a phone and closer to a desktop/laptop, the functionality just isn't there for doing something like that with a tablet. If you're really just "browsing" then a tablet is comfortable for that.
JeremysBrain - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Only been using nav for 1 day, but the one annoyance that could likely drive me (no pun intended) back to Waze or Navigon is that when the voice guidance comes on, it talks on top of music and podcasts. Other navigation applications will stop playback from other applications, then resume when voice guidance is done.it's frustrating when I'm listening to Brian and Anand, then having to rewind every time new voice guidance comes on in then middle of one of Brian's tangents!
I would like this feature when I'm listening to music, but not when I'm listening to talking heads.
faizoff - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
Just upgraded my iphone 4 to iOS6. The maps app is nowhere close to what google offers so far. I knew there would be issues during the initial release due sheer volume I suppose.Even without turn by turn directions or 3D flyover, the larger direction signs that show up are pretty good for navigation.
The standard maps are very ill configured and barely show any info. I'd have thought that with Tom Tom being a GPS company would have a rather comprehensive database already. My scaling is wrong and many areas are missing. No streetview means by default means I have to wait for google to release their app.
I think I was very impressed with the updates going from iOS4 to iOS5. Going from 5 to 6 however hasn't impressed overall that much yet.
The autobrightness is weird and isn't the same as before for some reason. I had issues with home sharing when it worked flawlessly before, infact was a huge improvement between updates up till now.
I do love the options now present when getting a call.
PPalmgren - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
I'm dissapointed that this article completely glosses over the fact that the maps themselves look like absolute garbage. The way the roads are rendered and the colors used is god-awful compared to google maps, UI being Apple's main selling point. Its hard to tell road types apart close up and hard to read the map in general because of the way its rendered, with thin roads and all. I find it to be a piss-poor implementation and am dissapointed at the soft-white tinted glasses that appeared to be the filter this article went through.MykeM - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
I'm comparing what I'm seeing on iOS Map and Google Map- limiting to my milieu since I'm familiar with it- but what I'm seeing is quite comparable.There are a few things on the iOS6 map that seems incomplete. For example, rail track- yes it's much, much narrower than the street but missing the required lines that cut across the track.
But the street itself- the iOS6 version seems better at replicating and differentiating the various width of the main thoroughfares and side-streets. When toggling between the layers of Standard and the Satellite maps, I can clearly see that Google map does a poorer job- it seems to replicate the traffic flow rather than the road itself (resulting in curvier turns when it's actually right-angled). Expectedly, it does a better job at marking various businesses around the neighbourhood. One area where the iOS version will improve over time.
Colour choice and preference are completely subjective but again except for a few choices of colours, both maps seems to me more similar than they're different (Skeuomorphism aside).
robinthakur - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
I disagree completely I'm afraid. I was quite worried updating to iOS 6 that the maps would be awful as many early previews of the dev version said, but on my device it runs really fast, we have brilliant 3D flyovers and the maps are accurate and scale nicely. I especially like the rotation and elevation two finger controls like on Android Google maps. Since using G Maps on Android I always though the iOS implementation was a poor cousin, so I think it is good that Apple have finally come up with something comparable and slick which will hopefully grow swiftly. Navigation is much less confusing and busy than the Android version from what I have seen so far. The Siri integration is the icing on the cake.I do miss street view, buit rarely used the public transport navigation bit as Transport for London has a superior service available. At least now when Google release a mapping app it can be as Google want it to be and it will be up to the user whether they want Google tracking their every move and making money off of their browsing/map use.
bunga28 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link
I really enjoy reading the article. It is very informative. Thank you.1. There are 2 authors listed for this piece. I just wanted to know who is the "I," "me," "mine," ... in this. That is very confusing.
2. "at present [Google] literally is the 9000 pound gorilla for maps." Literally? Literally? That is like a friend of mine said to me "I literally haven't seen you for a million years."
ciparis - Sunday, September 23, 2012 - link
Well, considering:1) they do weigh 9000 pounds (or more)
2) at least a few of them strongly resemble a gorilla, so who can say that they aren't?
I don't see the problem. Plus, your friend might just be a time traveller.