Saying that third party apps already do a better job is... kinda sketchy as a reason not to include it in Maps. Apple generally chooses to take on a feature (or an entire product category) when they think they can do it better than what has been done before. I can't fully swallow the explanation that Apple didn't think they could bring transit information into a single unified presentation that's integrated with Maps. I think they could do that, if they decided to go there, and I'm sure it would be awesome, or at the very least, competitive. But they didn't. I don't want to have to hunt down the right transit app if I'm visiting a city and trying to use their transit system, or googling it and trying to find the information on their website. It's much easier to use iOS 5 maps to find my location and see bus routes and bus stops all in the same application, and that's exactly what I did when I visited Hawaii last year.

Apple's iOS 6 maps application doesn't know about many popular London Underground stations, let alone provide the instantly recognisable London Underground symbol in the right place.

I never ever used the transit directions from Google. And I don't even think that getting transit directions from a mapping applications is the right way to start. I don't need a map that shows me the route, I need a timetable that shows me possible connections including the total time and how often I have to change the line.

In Switzerland, the app from the national railways includes all public transport providers within Switzerland, this is similar in Germany. I open the app, ask it for connections from either a station/city name or just a physical address or just from where I am at the moment to again station/city name or a physical address or my current location and it gives me a list of connections plus optionally if the starting point wasn't a railway station or bus stop but a physical address or just my current location via a single tap the walking directions to the bus stop/railway station in official iOS mapping app.

As I said, I don't need a map showing me the route, I need the departure time, the travel time, the number of connections. All this best provided in list not on a map. And one usually selects a destination not with a finger on a map but with an address. And did I mention that these apps also search through your address book just like the maps app when trying to auto-complete a destination or starting point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichL 

Apple's iOS 6 maps application doesn't know about many popular London Underground stations, let alone provide the instantly recognisable London Underground symbol in the right place.

This was noted in the article. Google plots the locations of metro stations in Paris, too, but doesn't provide any information about how to use them: lines, routes, directions, arrival times, etc. Same to various extents in SF, in Berlin and London (which was just added last summer).

Google's half-assed support for transit means that you get just enough information to think you have useful data, when you really don't in most cases. Ask for help getting from London Gatwick airport to Victoria station, and you get a recommendation to take 1.5 hour bus ride, rather than the 30 min Gatwick Express train.

http://www.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=gatwick+airport&daddr=victoria+Station,+Westminster,+London+SW1V,+United+Kingdom&sll=51.2,-0.098877&sspn=2.316491,3.817749&ie=UTF8&z=10&om=1&start=0&dirflg=r

Please stop saying Google Transit is wonderful. It sucks 80% of the time. Local apps are vastly better.

Man what a long useless article, took forever to scroll to the end. I didn't read all of it simply because I don't have all day.

It doesn't really matter though because the current Maps is a huge improvement over the old. Voice navigation is just the nuts. Further uncluttered maps are far more useful and much quicker that the crap Google serves up. As someone that has actually used Maps in travel I really don't understand the whining.

Really all this noise about maps sounds like the whimpering of a dog that has wrapped his chain around a tree. Like wise the complaints sound as if they come from people with the intelligence of a dog that doesn't know enough to reverse direction around that tree. Maps is a tool people and tools require people to be evolved enough to learn to use them and adapt if needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wizard69 

Man what a long useless article, took forever to scroll to the end. I didn't read all of it simply because I don't have all day.
It doesn't really matter though because the current Maps is a huge improvement over the old. Voice navigation is just the nuts. Further uncluttered maps are far more useful and much quicker that the crap Google serves up. As someone that has actually used Maps in travel I really don't understand the whining.
Really all this noise about maps sounds like the whimpering of a dog that has wrapped his chain around a tree. Like wise the complaints sound as if they come from people with the intelligence of a dog that doesn't know enough to reverse direction around that tree. Maps is a tool people and tools require people to be evolved enough to learn to use them and adapt if needed.

Yes, black and white maps, no street view, wrong and missing data for most parts of the world, and a score of other problems is obviously a far superior mapping solution. Sure apple maps may end up being awesome in a couple of years and far superior to all other offerings, that just does not help now.  Yeah I also hate it when articles have content, reading is such a bitch. You sound like the moron that suggested the best way to test a mapping app is to see if it can find an location unknown to the person doing the testing. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corrections 

Google's half-assed support for transit means that you get just enough information to think you have useful data, when you really don't in most cases. 

 

I hope you're referring to "don't in most of MY cases" because I never had a problem with it here in Chicago, and the removal of the functionality means I have to find a competent mapping application, some of which cost money, most of which are crap, and once I've guessed my way through them, i have to load that application from iOS6 maps, which means an entirely new map setup needs to connect and load. Why is this a pain in the ass you might say? Well, I'll tell you, not every city has fast or even relatively functional data connectivity from certain providers *cough*AT&T*cough* and sitting there waiting for the right connection might take you 10-15 minutes just to get that stupid map to load, when google would have had it preloaded from your first map load. 

This is a step back in functionality. AI can write as many pages as it wants to try and spin this another way, but this is a pain in the ass they need to address through a real integrated solution.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wizard69 

Man what a long useless article, took forever to scroll to the end. I didn't read all of it simply because I don't have all day.
It doesn't really matter though because the current Maps is a huge improvement over the old. Voice navigation is just the nuts.

Only works on iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. iPhone 4 users have no such functionality.

Further uncluttered maps are far more useful and much quicker that the crap Google serves up.

Definitely untrue for me. I haven't noticed any speed boost over google maps. The only thing I found novel was the ability to turn the maps by pressing two fingers on the screen and turning it, but this is a pain because when i do two finger gestures, i'm trying to zoom, not spin the maps. 

As someone that has actually used Maps in travel I really don't understand the whining.
Really all this noise about maps sounds like the whimpering of a dog that has wrapped his chain around a tree. Like wise the complaints sound as if they come from people with the intelligence of a dog that doesn't know enough to reverse direction around that tree. Maps is a tool people and tools require people to be evolved enough to learn to use them and adapt if needed.

The new maps are a step backwards in functionality for many many users. There's no need to be insulting just because you're feeling extra gushy over your Apple device.

FWIW I found this article to be really informative, and comprehensive; to be honest, I skipped to the last 3rd. It's interesting to find out the directions that Apple could go with maps. As a young product, it's of course easy to find flaws, but for me in a large urban US city, it's been a breeze to use. Unlike iOS 5 maps (I can't speak for the android version), when I search for something on my iPhone 5, whatever I'm looking for pops up as one of the first two options after typing only a few letters. I also like the unobstructive traffic data (which I've noticed has significantly improved over the past couple weeks as iOS 6 adoption has grown).

I can't get enough of this maps stuff, and I think it's because it provides such a creative opportunity for Apple to do what it does best, while competing with a company (google) that actually has a really neat product. I'm hoping Apple puts a lot of effort into it.

iOS6 maps have many cool features but we all are missing the data google provided. It also has opened up a venue for many developers for transit apps. I don't see a transit app with voice directions. It will be cool to have a voice guided transit app.