Google Releases its Maps App for the iPhone

Google has released its Maps application for the iPhone.

Back in June, Apple unveiled iOS 6 with much fan fair: the release included great long-expected additions, which included the big surprise of ditching Google Maps for Apple’s own system. While great additions were brought to the table, Maps in sixth generation iOS has had its own share of post-launch issues and inaccuracies (for London users, as an example, all of the Underground stations magically disappeared from an iOS version to another). Google has seized this opportunity to bring back its Maps to the iPhone, this time as a standalone map. Overall, we think you should give it a look.

Description
Navigate your world with Google Maps, now available for iPhone. Get comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps with built-in Google local search, voice guided turn-by-turn navigation, public transit directions, Street View and more. Use Google Maps to discover great places to eat, drink, shop and play, with ratings and reviews from people you trust. Sign in to save your favorite places and quickly access all your past searches and directions from your computer, right on your phone.


Search
* Find addresses, places and businesses around the world with Google local search.
* Discover places to eat, drink, shop and play, with ratings and local reviews.
* Sign in to sync your searches, directions, and favorite places between your computer and your phone.

Directions
* Get voice guided, turn-by-turn driving directions.
* Find your way by train, bus, subway or walking directions.
* Access live traffic information in cities across the world.

Street View and imagery
* View 360-degree panoramas of places around the globe with Street View.
* See inside more than 100,000 businesses worldwide.
* View high resolution satellite imagery of locations around the world.

Simple and easy to use
* An entirely new Google Maps experience on your iPhone.
* Newly designed and streamlined interface for even easier navigation of your world.
* Use gestures to explore the map and browse results.

You can download Google Maps from the App Store for free.

Google’s Native iOS Maps App In Alpha Stages. (Leaked Screenshots)

iOS 6 users will be more than aware by now that Google’s powerful Maps app is no longer part of Apple’s plans, with the latest iteration of the company’s mobile operating system shipping with their own mapping solution in place of it. It doesn’t really matter what your personal opinions are on the subject and whether you love or hate the Apple’s very own Maps app, the fact remains that competition always breeds innovation and having an official Google Maps app on the App Store can only be a good thing for iOS users.

There’s been a lot of will they won’t they speculation in recent weeks about whether or not Google is actually working on bringing an official solution of their own to the App Store, and if the latest leaks and speculation are true then the answer is that they definitely are about to launch something. Designer and developer Ben Guilds has posted some blurry but recognizable images on his personal blog that he claims to show Google’s iOS Maps app and insists that it is currently in an alpha stage of development.

In addition to the pictures being posted of the app; Guilds is also going out on a limb and attaching some purported features of the app to the images. One of the great benefits of the new Apple Maps app in iOS 6 is that it is entirely vector-based which allows Apple to cache a larger area for offline viewing as well as using significantly less data to render mapping tiles. According to the reports; the Google Maps app will also be vector-based and will support a similar two-finger rotation facility that can also be found in the native iOS 6 Maps app.

It is also being reported that the alpha version of the app provides a lightning fast user-experience and comes with an interface that has been specifically crafted to work perfectly with the larger display on the iPhone 5 and the new fifth-gen iPod touch. This is obviously all unofficial and readers will more than likely draw their own conclusions from the attached images, but it is extremely exciting news for iOS users if it is indeed true. It does however leave a few questions unanswered about whether or not the app will boast 3D maps and imagery, and whether or not it will come with an iPad variant, or be universal? Time will tell.

Source

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