Apple iOS6 shedding Google Maps

[JReazor]

Does the iPhone not utilize the google navigation app? I do exactly that with my android based phone. Start up the nav program and toss the phone in my tank bag. With it synced to my com system I get audio turn by turn while streaming music from it as well.

The iOS version of Google Maps doesn't do turn by turn. They save that for Android customers.

[atadaskew]

I thought Tom Tom signed the deal w/ Apple to provide them mapping software.

Heard it on the radio a few days ago.

[sfalexi]

FYI, since the topic gravitated there for  a second, there are many offline maps you can get.  I downloaded navigon for my ipad (navigon was reviewed by the pace podcast a while back).  Under 3 gigabytes for all 50 us states and has many POIs and a good map.  No service needed unless you wanted to pay for live traffic updated/rerouting due to traffic.

As for iOS 6, I agree, it's ABOUT time they put voice nav in there.

And personally, I see the independant GPS business getting VERY small since all these phones can now do it and are so handy being with us all the time.  Garmin and them will still last, but will certainly need to be putting their focus on apps and deals with contracts/manufacturers to get their software out there.

Alexi

[miles]

Slightly derailing the subject, I experimented with using my Android phone as a bike GPS last week on my five day WCRM ride. In some ways it worked really well. The big negative was the inability to create routes in advance. Other than that, I the app "NavFree" was superb for offline turn by turn routing.

[2DFlyer]

Slightly derailing the subject, I experimented with using my Android phone as a bike GPS last week on my five day WCRM ride. In some ways it worked really well. The big negative was the inability to create routes in advance. Other than that, I the app "NavFree" was superb for offline turn by turn routing.

This is where I remain confused.  The Google Nav website advertises:

"Offline reliability - Get continuous guidance and automatic rerouting, even if you lose your network connection after you’ve begun a route. "

What does this mean if you don't have a route loaded in the phone?

[miles]

This is where I remain confused.  The Google Nav website advertises:

"Offline reliability - Get continuous guidance and automatic rerouting, even if you lose your network connection after you’ve begun a route. "

What does this mean if you don't have a route loaded in the phone?

It means very little.  There is a setting "Cache map tiles in advance" or something like that, but it only caches the tiles (which are a lot smaller than Garmin map chunks) that it thinks you're going to need, based upon where it thinks you're going to go.  Since you can't use a pre-generated route, it simply does the direct route, and preloads those necessary tiles.
Going in, I hadn't realized there was no way to use googlemaps routes.  I could see them, but not get the Navigation app to recognize them or follow them in any way- so for that reason the basic google navigation was less than completely helpful.
It worked fine for a "get me to this address the quickest way" use, but that was it.

The app I wound up using more was "NavFree".  It couldn't accept generated routes, and I don't believe the app itself has the functionality to generate them, but you can preload all the maps you want in a state by state fashion.  In my case, I loaded California, Nevada and Arizona.  For the typical "Get me to this address" or POI, it was phenomenally good.  If I could figure out how to do routing, I would be 100% happy with this app.

[2DFlyer]

It means very little.

  Well that's disappointing.  Thanks for saving me the grief.  So the only real alternative is a Garmin like app where you can download the maps?  It will be interesting to see if Apple goes one better.

[Rincewind]

It looks like Google Maps is not going down without a fight.  Even though they will likely no longer be included in the iOS6 native software, they are planning on offering an upgraded iOS app to compete against the native Apple Map (iMap?) on its own turf.  "We look forward to providing an amazing Google Maps experience on iOS," says the CEO.  

http://www.redmondpie.com/an-amazing-maps-experience-is-coming-to-ios-confirms-google-svp/