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Leave Well Enough Alone: The iOS6 Maps App
By Ken Getz | September 20, 2012
Personally, I love many of the new desktop features in Windows 8, but I'm not loving the new start screen UI. It just seems to get in my way. But that's just my opinion.
On the other hand, one has to consider why software companies hoist changes like this on unsuspecting users. We could go on for hours about the Windows 8 start screen, but one "change for change's sake" popped up this morning: I installed iOS 6 on my iPad and iPhone, and tried out the new Maps app. Apple created their own app to replace the Google Maps app that has been in iOS since the first version. Ugh. Seriously ugh.
Yes, you gain the verbal turn-by-turn directions (which Android users have had from the beginning, withheld on purpose from iOS), but it's ugly, it's inaccurate, and you lose the street view that Google perfected. I have to ask: Apple, what do WE gain for this change?
Sure, you can remove one more Google app from the device, and sure, you can stop paying Google licensing fees, but what do WE get? If the data isn't accurate (I looked up local rural streets to check for through streets, and found a few errors, which Google has, over the years, corrected), how can you use the app?
Like the Windows 8 Start screen, I'm sure there's some reason that was good for Apple, but I remain unconvinced of what it gains the average user.
