Dr. Drang published his thoughts on the mapping situation between Apple and Google. I agree for the most part, but think this has been far more painful for Apple than they were prepared for. It has also harmed their reputation. How bad the harm was will be revealed over time.
Google has released Google Maps for iOS. The app is available now in the App Store and I'd suggest downloading it. I'm fortunate that I live where I do because Apple's maps have caused me almost no troubles at all except their search results have not always been as good as Googles. This manifested itself mainly when doing a vague 'category' type search.
Fortunately, I'll be spending a bit of time on the road over the next three days so I'll have plenty of opportunity to test the app and share my opinion of how it stacks up against Apple's maps running on my iPhone 5.
John Gruber links to a story in The Atlantic today about the wealth of mapping data accumulated by UPS & Fedex and then posits a thought. I love when Gruber throws a crazy idea against the wall.
Jean-Louis Gassée has a really intelligent post about the trouble with Apple's new iOS 6 maps. It's not the end of the world and it's widely overblown, but Apple is partly responsible for this mess.
Hat tip to The Loop
With the release of iOS 6, Google's fantastic mapping data is no longer available in a native application. Apple has taken the bold move of creating their own mapping solution. It's in an infant stage of development and will get better with time as user data is assimilated.
I thinks it's safe to say this story will be very popular in the press and in real life it will frustrate users. But the sky isn't falling. This isn't a death blow to Apple. It seems very likely that Google will submit an iOS native mapping application to the App Store. There's no way Apple doesn't approve it.
In the interim, if Apple's map application isn't getting the job done for you, there's a temporary solution available. Head to www.maps.google.com on your iOS device and then bookmark the link to your home screen.
The Wall Street Journal has a story today talking about the strained relationship between Apple and Google. Most of the story is a rehash of events that have taken place over the last couple years. The context of the story is to talk about the future effects of a Google free experience on Apple devices. It's perhaps the worst kept secret in the world that Apple will be introducing their own Maps app for iOS 6, so this little blurb made me think about the future possibilities.
Apple's goal is to develop a "holistic" technology that integrates maps with other Apple software, says a person briefed on the strategy. For instance, if Apple's iCalendar program knows that a person has a meeting across town soon, and traffic is backing up, it might alert the person about road conditions.
Even though it seems like we're reaching a mature market in the smartphone space, we're actually still in the toddler phase. The future will be full of ideas that will make us think new features were always inevitable.