Those of us who are eager enough to have already downloaded iOS6 would have noticed that the current new Apple Maps app is not yet fully featured in SA. In fact, before the weekend we were pretty sure SA would not get turn by turn navigation. But its not all bad news – routing works, so a person can ask how to get from point A to point B, and right now there are traffic updates already, as you can see from this screenshot. Take note of roadworks and accidents.
These traffic reports will become even better over time, because iOS6 actively monitors iPhone for traffic patterns and slowdowns, just like Waze (which Apple actually also uses as a data source).
But the best part of the new Apple Maps is not quite live yet: turn by turn navigation. Until now iPhone users had to shell out for dedicated navigation apps to get full turn by turn navigation (as in “turn left in 200m” type prompts). This is one of the most significant features of iOS6, because the entire OS’s location features integrate with Apple Maps. But as of today, Apple has put a notice up on its location features page that it will reach South Africa in October:
We have not had a crack at the new turn by turn features, but so far iOS6 looks like a great update for the Apple faithful. One negative is that turn by turn navigation will only come to the iPhone 4S and up, so users of iPhone 3GS and 4 will not receive this great new feature.
So far we have been very impressed by Apple Maps – the mapset is accurate, and aerial photography for SA is in many cases much better than Google Maps. Still, many people will miss Street View, so we are hoping for Google to release a Google Maps app soon, please.
iOS6 should be here by September 19th 2012. We have been using it since Beta 1, and its a great update.
