I have to believe that “iOS Maps” is now a running joke in the tech world. I heard from a friend in Tokyo that up until recently, her iPhone 5 was showing a subway stop in the middle of the Tokyo Imperial Palace! I didn’t really believe that it was that terrible until I got iOS 6 and tried it out myself.
Here’s just one simple example. I searched for “gates building” from my apartment in Mountain View, CA. Since Mountain View is very near Stanford University, I assumed that it would give me the Gates Computer Science building on the Stanford campus.
Unfortunately, iOS 6 (left) gave me a random building in San Juan Capistrano. When I loaded up Google Maps in Safari (middle), the same query gave me the correct result.
Back in Apple Maps, you can get the correct result (right) if you add an extra word to the query: gates building stanford. Notice that Google Maps also has nice building outlines for you. (I don’t really like the ugly white bar at the bottom, though.)
If iOS Maps is this flaky in the Bay Area, I am sure the experience is much worse elsewhere in the world. As an Apple fan, I really hope they shape up soon. For now, I’m looking forward to the Google Maps iOS app!