Today I’ve had my first chance to try the iOS 6 Maps app for directions in a journey from Eastbourne to Southampton, and then on from there to Bournemouth. I was quite impressed. Here’s why.
Route Selection - not a difficult task in this case. It gave me three alternatives but Route 1 was the one I’d have worked out for myself. Turn-by-turn Directions - these are very clear and I didn’t notice any lag such that we didn’t get any late directions after a turning had been passed by. Audio - Standard British male voice. As Maps is using text-to-speech translation you do get odd place name pronunciation, such as ‘Pollygate’ for Polegate and ‘Burr - ne- muth’ for Bournemouth. But these were the only two oddities I noticed all day. Graphics - surprisingly clear, especially for complex junctions and roundabouts. Using an iPad these were very easy to read (so my wife said and she has trouble with paper maps) with no ambiguity. Accuracy - It got me to within 4 houses at my destinations ( for example, announcing arrival at 30-36 Lowther Road when I was actually going to number 38). Places seemed to be where they actually are - a frequent adverse comment that’s been amplified loudly. Journey Time - For me the estimated journey times worked out to be close to what we achieved given that the roads were not particularly busy and being Sunday there was little commercial traffic. I will need to give the Maps app more of an airing as a route planner and satnav app. But on today’s journey it was as good as the satnav app I’ve been using since the iPhone 3 came out, and that has been updated countless times. Satellite imagery needs a lot of work for the UK, as does the accuracy of places of interest. The basics seem to work fine for me and today gave me confidence to use it regularly. Your mileage may vary, of course! Regards, Tony -- Tony Crooks ---------------------------------- 53 Mendip Avenue • Eastbourne • BN23 8HP Mob: 07428706227 > Tel: 01323-460789 <mailto: [email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
