IOS 6 - Apple Maps replacement Apps in App Store

Best Map apps in the App Store for all the iOS devices:

Many of you might have updated your iDevices from iOS 5.x to iOS 6. The one major feature which everyone would have lost after upgrading is the Google Maps app, the market leader in maps. Google and Nokia do have the most accurate maps for mobile devices as they are in the navigation market for more than 4 years now. Apple discontinued the Google Maps feature for various reasons and planned to provide the Apple Maps as the stock maps for all the iOS devices which runs iOS 6 or later. Since Apple is just at the entry level in the maps market, it cannot provide maps as accurate as its competitors in a day. So we will have to wait for few more days for Apple to fix the maps and provide route planning for non-supported countries in iOS 6.

People even downgraded their iOS devices to iOS 5 just for the getting back the Google maps(You need to have your device's SHSH blobs saved). So you might be wondering if there is a way for you to get Google maps in your iOS 6 devices.

Answer: Yes. You can still get Google maps from few vendors but with a slightly different UI which we had in iOS 5.x.

I reviewed quite a lot of paid and free map apps ever since I lost my pretty good Google maps. I even tried the maps.google.com and maps.nokia.com bookmarks but was not quite satisfied with the interface. After a thorough review I found two best map apps which can be a replacement for Google maps in iOS 6.

1) Sparkling Maps : Paid App (0.99$ or INR 55)

The Sparkling maps apps (Powered by Google) provides an almost native iOS 5.x Google maps user interface. It is pretty user friendly to Search for a location and plan routes.

 

It also offers a street view (Long press on any location in the map), which is pretty quick and responsive. If your location does not have a street view, the nearest street view could also be found.

The most amazing feature of this application is the Turn-by-Turn voice navigation. Very crisp, clear and accurate. We feel that this application is a paid app just because of this cool feature which even Google did not offer in the iOS 5.x maps.

Few other features of this app includes POI(Point of Interest) search like nearby Restaurants, ATM, Banks, etc.., Satellite and Hybrid map views.

Cons and Required bug fixes / Required Feature updates: 

The version 1.1 of the sparkling maps was considered for a review and the following were observed.

1)The font size is very minute even at the maximum Zoom-In levels and it decreases the readability while driving (Can't purely mock on Turn-By-Turn Voice guidance)

2)After planning a route, the user cannot scroll and check the route completely. The map automatically repositions to the user's current location. (The customer support team reported that this fix is already made in the next version and the app is submitted for Apple review).

3)When a search is made and though multiple locations are available for the search made, only one location is displayed in this app. (This could be overcome by the auto suggest feature which will be available in the next version of the app).

4)A location bookmarking feature is missing.

5)A Direction from location and To location features are missing.(The same will be available in the next version as per the support team).

Also, in the upcoming version of the app, the development team had made this a universal app so that it will fit the iPad larger display.

The team also has plans of redesigning the Turn-By-Turn route guidance so that it looks more like an Apple Maps Turn by turn feature.

 Since this is the most closest app that one can get to the Native iOS 5.x Google maps with a Turn by turn voice guidance, the price of the app might be hiked up soon. This is just our prediction. Hence the suggestion is before the app price hikes up, download and install the app and wait for the new features and bug fixes.

Download URL : Click here

 

2) Fine Maps : Free App

Fine maps is one of the finest map apps in the app store with the detailed map information from Google. 

This app has basic user friendly controls to search a location, add a book mark, plan a route, view the Street view etc..

The way one can plan a route is pretty different, compared to the other map applications in the store. The user is expected to touch the from (source point) and the to (destination point) in the map. This is quite good if both the source and destination are available in the same screen. Else, the user has to scroll, find out the places and touch the source and destination. We felt this is messy.

The best thing about this app is, you can toggle between the Google maps / the stock iOS 6 Apple maps in the settings menu.

The user can also get a Satellite view, Hybrid view or a Terrain view in this application. If your city/country supports traffic, you can enable the same in the settings menu(Have not tried it as it does not support in my country).

There is a "Scale feature" which measures the distance between the two points the user selects in the map. The user can also use a pencil feature to mark the required points in the map.

If you wish to remove the advertisements which comes as a banner in the top of the window, you would have to pay for the app. (1.99$ or INR 110)

The search is pretty fast and accurate with an auto suggest feature and this app really offers more than what you can expect.

Cons:

1) Does not support Turn-By-Turn voice guidance. (yeah, you cannot expect the same in a free app).

2) Difficult to plan a route since you have to touch the source and destination points.

Download URL : Click here

 

There are no updates about the Google maps for App Store from Google and rumors state that Apple might not approve even though Google had already submitted the maps to app store due to market reasons.

 

Though there are rumors that there are Cydia repos to install Google maps on a iOS 6 device after Jail-breaking it, it is wise for us all to wait for apple to create a robust Apple maps application since it will be the only app which will be tightly coupled with the other applications like SIRI, Facebook etc..

Thanks,

Your comments are most welcomed.

-Swami