Google will be bringing Street View to its mobile web app within two weeks, according to The New York Times’ David Pogue. The note was plucked from a report in which Pogue spoke of Apple's problematic new Maps offering, and although the mobile web app hasn't been such a hot topic in the past (mainly because the two main mobile ecosystems had native apps), Apple's poor first attempt in the Maps game has left Apple scrambling to remedy the problem.
It shouldn't really come as a great shock to anyone by now that any device running iOS 6 no longer comes with Google Maps installed as the default mapping platform. In fact, it doesn't come as part of iOS 6 in any shape or form. The removal of the tried and tested Maps app as well as Apple's decision to roll their own vector-based mapping solution has been the discussion of the week so far due to the fact that users have managed to find some rather large inadequacies with Apple's own creation.
It has, by and large, been a pretty good past week or two for Apple, and with stocks rising thanks to high sales forecasts of the iPhone 5, Tim Cook and his team have plenty to feel positive about. Having said that, iOS 6 hasn't released to such critical acclaim, and although it offers quite a few minor improvements in many key areas, one of the most anticipated changes - the new Maps app - looks to have been a marked fail.
Yesterday, Apple seeded iOS 6 Beta 4 to developers. It features a bunch of tweaks throughout the OS and its included apps, removes YouTube* as a stock app, and now, we’ve learned that Apple has added new cities from North America and Europe to its Maps app’s 3D feature. Check out the details after the jump.
It really isn’t a big secret that the smartphone and tablet industry is an extremely competitive marketplace to be in. The iOS and Android operating systems are undoubtedly the two major players in this space, with Apple having sold more than 250 million iPhones in the last five years following the original launch and Google currently activating 1 million Android devices every day. The competition between the two platforms has always been a fierce one, but with Apple announcing their own mapping system in iOS 6 to rival the tried and tested Google Maps, the competition has ramped up another notch.
When Apple announced iOS 6 - the next installment to its famous mobile operating system - at WWDC earlier this month, the centerpiece feature turned out to be the hotly-rumored Maps app, which, in displacing Google's omni-present Maps offering, will include 3D aesthetics and turn-by-turn navigation.
One of the expected outcomes of WWDC's opening keynote event was the removal of Google Maps from iOS, with it being replaced by Apple's own in-house solution that not only gives the Cupertino firm more control over the maps experience, but also knocks Google out of its stride on one of the world's most popular smartphones and, let's not forget, tablets.
As anticipated, Apple has announced its very own, completely rethought Maps app to replace the long-serving Google offering, and as equally foreseen, it's got the hallmarks of a truly great new feature. The days of relying on a city's A-Z are long gone in this digital age, and although it has taken a few more years than Apple would perhaps have liked in order to develop, iOS Maps is now well and truly in the pipeline.
Although this week was meant to be all about Samsung with the release of the long-awaited Galaxy S III powerhouse, Apple - as it does - has unwittingly spoiled the party as the tech world becomes engrossed by leaks of the upcoming iPhone device.
Like most iOS users, I rely heavily on Google Maps to spring to my aid whenever I become lost. The days of preparing a journey turn-by-turn in advanced are long gone, in my opinion, and I usually aim for the vicinity of my goal destination and type in the postal/zip code again to check the exact spot once I'm there.
