Google Maps return to iPhone
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Maps have found their way back to the iPhone.
The world's most popular online mapping system returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps' iPhone app. The release comes nearly three months after Apple Inc. replaced Google Maps as the device's built-in navigation system and inserted its own maps into the latest version of its mobile operating system.
Apple's maps proved to be far inferior to Google's. The product's shoddiness prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a rare public apology and recommend that iPhone owners consider using Google maps through a mobile Web browser or seek other alternatives until his company could fix the problems. Cook also replaced the executive in charge of Apple's mobile operating system after the company's maps became a subject of widespread ridicule.
Among other things, Apple's maps misplaced landmarks, overlooked towns and sometimes got people horribly lost. In a particularly egregious example flagged this week, Australian police derided Apple's maps as "life-threatening" because the system was steering people looking for the city of Mildura into a sweltering, remote desert 44 miles from the desired destination.
Google Inc., in contrast, is hailing its new iPhone app as a major improvement from the one evicted by Apple.
"We started from scratch," said Daniel Graf, mobile director of Google Maps. Google engineers started working on the new app before Apple's Sept. 19 ouster, Graf said, though he declined to be more specific.
The additional tools in the free iPhone mapping app include turn-by-turn directions. Google's previous refusal to include that popular feature on the iPhone app while making it available for smartphones running on its own Android software is believed to be one of the reasons Apple decided to develop its own technology. The friction that has developed between Google and Apple as they jostle for leadership in the increasingly important smartphone market also played a role in the mapping switch.
Google's new iPhone mapping app also will offer its street-level photography of local neighborhoods for the first time on Apple's mobile operating system, as well as three-dimensional views, public transit directions and listings for more than 80 million businesses. The iPhone app still lacks some of the mapping features available on Android-powered phones, such as directions in malls and other buildings.
There still isn't a Google mapping app for Apple's top-selling tablet computer, the iPad, but the company plans to make one eventually. Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., declined to say when it hopes to release an iPad mapping app. For now, iPad owners can use the maps in an iPhone mode. That won't be the best experience, but it still may be better than Apple's maps on the iPad.
Google's free mapping solution is likely to become one of the hottest commodities in Apple's app store, if for no other reason because of pent-up demand among iPhone owners fed up with Apple's alternative. Some iPhone owners even refused to upgrade to Apple's newest software, iOS 6, because they didn't want to lose access to the old Google mapping application built into iOS 5 and earlier versions.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment about Google's new apps late Wednesday, but it approved the technology before its release.
Graf said Google isn't hoping to make Apple look bad with its new mapping app. "On maps, we have a friendly relationship," he said.
The world's most popular online mapping system returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps' iPhone app. The release comes nearly three months after Apple Inc. replaced Google Maps as the device's built-in navigation system and inserted its own maps into the latest version of its mobile operating system.
Apple's maps proved to be far inferior to Google's. The product's shoddiness prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a rare public apology and recommend that iPhone owners consider using Google maps through a mobile Web browser or seek other alternatives until his company could fix the problems. Cook also replaced the executive in charge of Apple's mobile operating system after the company's maps became a subject of widespread ridicule.
Among other things, Apple's maps misplaced landmarks, overlooked towns and sometimes got people horribly lost. In a particularly egregious example flagged this week, Australian police derided Apple's maps as "life-threatening" because the system was steering people looking for the city of Mildura into a sweltering, remote desert 44 miles from the desired destination.
Google Inc., in contrast, is hailing its new iPhone app as a major improvement from the one evicted by Apple.
"We started from scratch," said Daniel Graf, mobile director of Google Maps. Google engineers started working on the new app before Apple's Sept. 19 ouster, Graf said, though he declined to be more specific.
The additional tools in the free iPhone mapping app include turn-by-turn directions. Google's previous refusal to include that popular feature on the iPhone app while making it available for smartphones running on its own Android software is believed to be one of the reasons Apple decided to develop its own technology. The friction that has developed between Google and Apple as they jostle for leadership in the increasingly important smartphone market also played a role in the mapping switch.
Google's new iPhone mapping app also will offer its street-level photography of local neighborhoods for the first time on Apple's mobile operating system, as well as three-dimensional views, public transit directions and listings for more than 80 million businesses. The iPhone app still lacks some of the mapping features available on Android-powered phones, such as directions in malls and other buildings.
There still isn't a Google mapping app for Apple's top-selling tablet computer, the iPad, but the company plans to make one eventually. Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., declined to say when it hopes to release an iPad mapping app. For now, iPad owners can use the maps in an iPhone mode. That won't be the best experience, but it still may be better than Apple's maps on the iPad.
Google's free mapping solution is likely to become one of the hottest commodities in Apple's app store, if for no other reason because of pent-up demand among iPhone owners fed up with Apple's alternative. Some iPhone owners even refused to upgrade to Apple's newest software, iOS 6, because they didn't want to lose access to the old Google mapping application built into iOS 5 and earlier versions.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment about Google's new apps late Wednesday, but it approved the technology before its release.
Graf said Google isn't hoping to make Apple look bad with its new mapping app. "On maps, we have a friendly relationship," he said.
Looks like Apple got powned! ... great job Apple... at least no one ended up dying because of this terrible mapping error ... I could have seen the lawsuits flying over this... though I wonder if the people who got stuck can in fact sue Apple for the costs of the rescues...wouldn't' that be poetic....
 @Freespeech Hello?  Is anybody home?  You are ignoring the story about the jogger using Google maps and followed the directions and ran along side the highway.  She was hit be a car and killed...Yes Google maps has actually killed someone. Â
 @cyclops  @Freespeech Your applefanboydom is bordering on insanity.Â
 @cyclops  @NorthwestEconomist It must really burn you that people despise apple's crappy maps and would rather use google despite that death, it seems all you can focus on. Life must be tough for an apple fanboy when they get knocked out of the market in just 2 years and are still being outpaced every successive year. Keep crying into technology irrelevance.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist   Ignoring the fact that Google kills people is insanity.
When HP removed Google Maps from my Palm Pre (don't laugh) I pretty much knew it was over for Palm. And it was.
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I'll stick with my Onstar.
 @mstipton For US and Canadian navigation I have to admit, I really love OnStar and the integration. No keyboard to deal with, nothing to distract or take my eyes off the road. Given turn by turn directions, and get the next direction information displayed on my DIC center mounted in my instrument cluster. It is distraction free and it has never gotten me lost.
There's no need for google to hope for google maps to make Apple look bad. Apple took care of that all by themselves.
Get over it people. There are so many good alternatives including Waze, MapQuest, and Google that whining about it like this just makes you look like, well, whiners. Â Good God-- this, of all things, is what you spend energy complaining about? Â Ugh.Â
I own three iDevices but I can't stand the Apple zombies. I'm sure they will be here soon posting how Apple maps wasn't "that bad," and people just didn't know how to use them right.
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Thank God a map solution that works is available again. I wish Apple would just use Google or Bing maps and forget the dogma.
 @Howard Beale It's always funny to hear the Apple Zombies justify their stance. This is a good example of Apple Zombie reasoning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
 @NorthwestEconomist Really? still beating that old horse...That is what, like 4 years old now? You need some new material if you want anyone to take you seriously.
 @cyclops Wrong again. What's funny is that Apple's crappy lawsuit has already been partially thrown out. If it isn't fully thrown out then google will start offering all android companies indemnity and then pull out their #1 weapon: all their Motorola patents and you will see Apple die in about 3 years after their entire corporate fund gets drained by lawsuits. You'll probably see Apple die sooner, notice their stock take a huge plunge recently? Don't cry on your ipad, I hear they aren't water resistant.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist LOL  When the iPhone came out you still thought your little flip phone was the neatest thing on the planet.  Samsung's great contribution was to put a hinge on a phone until they saw what could really be done.
 @cyclops Like I said, it's an example. I suppose I could link to the one with the s3 compared to the newest iphone and how all the hardware and software from the s3 is superior, but you get the point. Apple is always one step behind the curve.Â
Just more proof that Apple products are trash when Apple's own customers don't want to use them. Apple dominated the mobile market for many years, and in less than 24 months they became 2nd place to Android. Get with the program, open source is the way to go.
 @NorthwestEconomist Only the ignorant think Android is open source.
 @cyclops You mean the ignorant engineers that are expanding the already-largest mobile platform and accelerating its distance between it and Apple?
 @cyclops Wrong, there's this option to check that says accept apps not approved by google play and unlike the crappy iphone doesn't take jailbreaking to enable.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist No I mean ignorant people who know nothing of the inner workings and quote cartoons to try and make a point.  Have you ever tried to add some code to Android.  You submit it to Google for approval...if they don't want it....bye bye.  The same thing Apple does that you like to complain about so much...Get it?
 @NorthwestEconomist Open source software is not automatically good. Clear design goals, disciplined project management and skilled developers do (among other things).
 @nodozr  @NorthwestEconomist Open Source software is the best way to incentivise engineers to want to work with your platform and get others to trust their products, also, it means the licensing costs and overhead are lower which means more productivity, cheaper prices and more units moved. Basic economics.Â
 @cyclops You are aptly named cyclops since your narrow vision seems to miss the fact that Android beat Apple's marketshare in 2 years and is still pulling away in terms of stats and trends. And Google hasn't even begun to use its Morotola patents against Apple yet, believe me those are coming since Apple has proven it wants to be stupid with their frivolous suit against Samsung.
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Get yourself to the Optometrist, your one eye doesn't seem to be working.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist Oh, you mean something that is free is more popular that something that cost money? Duh.  Samsung would not have a device had they not gotten a free OS, nor would HTC or Motorola.  Google makes $0 on Android....Apple makes billions.  Losing market share? My iPhone app outsells my Android version 3 to 1 even today.  Losing market share? I work with both platforms and I profit from both. And yes I get the stupidest questions from Android users.  I have hard facts....you have cartoons.  You need to take the economist part out of your name since you know nothing about economics because your comments are quite hilarious.Â
 @cyclops It's still funny to see you grasping onto your ever-shrinking market-share. Sure there are fools born every minute but you cannot deny that Android keeps out-pacing Apple. In a few more years Apple's mobile market-share will match it's computer OS market-share. Care to tell everyone what that is? Or shall I spare you the embarrassment and post it myself?
 @NorthwestEconomist My iPhone app outsells my Android version 3 to 1 yet there are at least double the Android devices out there.  How do you explain that?  I'll tell you based on the support questions I get is that Android users as a whole just aren't that smart and are too cheap to fork over $2.99 for an app.  They are quite laughable.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @MPS To say that working with signed,  closed code is easier than open source would be a gross oversimplification. So would the reverse statement.
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 @MPS  @NorthwestEconomist  @nodozr You do realize that a business that wants to sell as much as possible spends it's time marketing to the largest demographic right? Android is the largest mobile platform by far. Also, it happens to be cheaper and easier to work with. Until you learn coding and software development don't make comments like that, and if you happen to be an engineer, I dare you to try and state that working with signed, closed code is easier than open source, because any tech worth their salt knows its not.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist  @nodozr It's not that simple.  Open Source, like anything else, has upsides and downsides.  For some people and organizations it is the way to go, for others it's a horrible mistake.  To say, even for a minute, that one model is natively superior to another is disingenuous and unrealistic.  It depends on the situation and the user(s). Â
THANK YOU!!!!!!!! Â Apple Maps is HORRIBLE and a complete waste. Â Last directions I put in placed me 1 mile away from where I was supposed to end up. Â POS app.
Finally!! Â I can now feel comfortable upgrading to IOS 6. Â There was absolutely NO WAY I was going to upgrade if I knew that my Google Maps was going to be taken away and replaced with a crappy alternative. Â
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3 cheers for Google!
 @JoeKing2 Same here.
"The iPhone app still lacks some of the mapping features available on Android-powered phones, such as directions in malls"
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Directions in malls? really? is it that difficult to ask someone in a mall and start a dialogue?
Finally! Apple Maps is literally the worst major company's app I've ever used!
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Sorry to yell this early.