Apple maps is terrible.

[famousringo]

superchunk said:

famousringo said:

As for Google's map integration with Android, it may be deletable or replaceable, but it has numerous features which have never been present on any other platform, including the web. Would Android's voice commands, APIs and other features really plug into a third-party maps app on an Android device as well as they do with Google's own?

Yes. Google's voice integration works with any app. Its effectively voice text entry. Its the reason why if I say "play Micheal Jackson", I'll get prompted to use Google's Music, Youtube, CM10 Music player, GrooveShark, or Pandora. Then I can set one of these as a default if I wanted.

Anytime you open anything that uses text entry, you have a voice option. Additionally, you can launch anything via voice as well.

Of course this really becomes useful with Android 4 (ICS) and 4.1 (JB). Pre-these it was only text-entry for the most part and no real 3rd party integration. JB really makes it on par with Siri in functionality along with a better sounding voice.

I'll admit, I'm quite surprised. I've always been told that tight Google Everything integration was a big feature of Android, but it seems they missed out on Maps.

So if you have an app that (for example) points to a location on a map inside the app, is there no Android API for that and the app dev is on his/her own? Or does the API somehow pass the request to whichever map you have set as default?

Edit: Oh yeah, and now Google is saying they are making a maps app for iOS:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/google-may-have-an-ios-mapping-app-in-the-works-after-all/

I guess we'll see whether they plan on developing features on par with the Android version or if they're just going to put a graceful UI around their web app.