The biggest new iPhone feature announced at Apple's WWDC keynote this week was a brand-new Maps application, which Apple has built with TomTom, discarding Google Maps like a kebab box hurled from a taxi.
Thanks to screenshots sent to us by an anonymous tipster, we've been able to take a closer look at these new navigation features and see what it will be like to use when iOS 6 comes out in a few months' time.
To start navigation, you tap the navigation button in the top-left corner of the screen while in the Maps app, and put in a destination. The default starting point will always be your current location.
Like the previous version of Maps, you can then choose from multiple routes and select Start to begin navigating. This works worldwide.
Thanks to TomTom integration and crowd-sourced traffic updates, your ETA will be fairly accurate as you progress through your journey. The app can also suggest alternate routes you could take to avoid any heavy traffic that may be ahead.
While navigating, you can toggle 3D mode on and off to take in some virtual sites -- but there are currently very few (if any) in the UK, with obvious contenders like Big Ben as flat as pancakes. While this Flyover feature looks very impressive in US cities, in the UK it's currently useless, although that may change by the time iOS 6 launches properly.
You can also see an overview of your route, or a list view of all the turns that you have to make.
The iPhone 4S and new iPad will have Siri talking you through each turn you have to make, just like a standard sat-nav, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road to glance at your phone screen on the dashboard. As Siri isn't available on older models, those with an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 or iPad 2 will need the help of a backseat driver to navigate to their destination.
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anonymous 14 June, 2012 13:02
What?! My iPhone 4 requires another person to act as a Siri narrator so I don't read the turn by turn by myself and crash the car while doing it? I didn't know the iPhone 4 was incapable of not reading back turn by turn. This is no different than the previous map and is still very dangerous as it takes my eyes off the road. I guess I'll still be keeping my gps after all :(
anonymous 14 June, 2012 14:02
This is disgraceful that this will not becoming to the iPhone 3gs/4 considering there are 3rd party apps for free that can already provide turn by turn voice navigation! They just want you to upgrade to the pitiful 4s!
anonymous 14 June, 2012 14:26
I just wait till the iPhone 5 to use these features cause I'm not going to waste an upgrade on the 4S.
Matteo Paparoni 14 June, 2012 16:57
This is not at all anything like Google Maps at all............................................(sarcasm in case you didn't get it)
anonymous 14 June, 2012 20:32
I find it funny that TomTom have done this deal with Apple and their UK & Ireland app is in the store for nearly £60. Either people haven't been buying and the'll just take the rev from Apple or they will have to up their game with their app proposition coz no one will buy it if it's native on the OS. ;-)
anonymous 15 June, 2012 09:30
I don't think that statement about voice prompts and iPad 2s is correct. I just tested on my iPad2 and an electronic lady started giving me instructions. Obviously it wasn't Siri, but there were voice prompts nonetheless.
anonymous 15 June, 2012 09:54
It took Google years to get maps to be a reliable, useful app. They've had free voice guided turn by turn navigation for two years or more.
I find it amazing that I haven't seen a single journalist ask the question of why Apple is 2 or more years behind Android and even Blackberry for some of these fantastic new features, which still won't be as functional or polished or useful as their counterparts... Apple can essentially do as they please as no one seems to ask them any awkward questions, and that is a poor state of affairs.
Funny thing, I've been lately considering buying an iPad, and with the problems I keep having with my Android phone, been considering picking up a second hand iPhone 4. Then I saw the great features of iOS 6 and realised I'm better off sticking with Android for phone and tablet, and Windows for my laptop of choice. Apple just are not doing anything that other manufacturers aren't, meanwhile seemingly never being criticised for not offering basic services that other manufacturers offer, and still charging so much more. Funny that, if it hadn't been for the iOS 6 launch, I'd probably have ended up switching to Apple for all of my computing needs, phone, tablet, and laptop.
anonymous 15 June, 2012 13:42
At anonymous 15th June 09:54 you couldn't be more wrong. Yes, GPS on mobile devices has been out for a very long time now but is it as refined as this? I am no Apple fan boy, however credit is due when credit is due and to be honest I think they have truely outdone Google and Microsoft here. With Google and Mircosoft based devices the maps are from a birds eye perspective no where near as good as this. The voice commands are far more refined than that of Google! The apps on either Google or Microsoft are shoddy, not vetted out properly and generally on the iPhone you get better quality ones.
Basically, can you honestly say that Google / Bing maps is better than this? If you do, you are truely dillusional!
I have used both Android and Windows devices and I am disappointed everytime. Most annoying thing on both Google and MS products are the updates! You have to wait months unless you get a Nexus!
billfred 15 June, 2012 13:51
@ anonymous 15 June, 2012 13:42
You don't seem to have ever used Google maps or navigation, have you?
anonymous 15 June, 2012 22:46
Mapquest does a pretty good job of giving spoken directions who needs siri.
anonymous 16 June, 2012 09:37
You can often tell when someone is criticising Android without ever having used it for a significant period of time.
You don't wait months to get app updates though, do you? So talking about the OS is both irrelevant and not entirely correct.
But anyway. What are you actually talking about? What is shoddy about the Google apps? What is so much better about Apple Maps? Bearing in mind please that Google pretty much started this maps/navigation on mobile devices and computers and changed the industry with Google Maps, so, yeah, as I said, it took them years to refine it.
Google Maps and Navigation is just fine in it's current form. I'd love to hear what your grounds are for calling them shoddy, and how the voice commands are so much better on them (but I suspect you're talking about Siri vs. Voice Search).
I can't honestly say which is better, and I never claimed anything like that. I simply expressed a concern that it took Google years to refine Maps so I don't expect Apple to get it right on their first effort. I also expressed disappointment at journalists and consumers that are not asking the important question here, why has it taken the biggest computer company in the world (and supposedly best) so long to do things Android and Blackberry and even the newcomer Windows Phone 7 have been doing for 3/4 years. Why is there nothing but excitement and praise. Where is the balance?
anonymous 7 September, 2012 16:30
I'm looking forward to this new feature in my 4S when iOS6 rolls out. Having had 2 Android phones before my 4S, I missed having google navigation. Even though I found it a bit robotic, I couldn't fault the fact that it got me where I needed to be. The only thing that let down Google Nav was the fact my HTC Desire HD found it incredibly hard to lock onto a satellite - it was almost certainly the phones fault and not Android, but I think thats a price to pay when the OS is open for any phone manufacturers to use in their phones.
Currently I am using "SatNav 2" which cost me only a couple of quid, but it is useless - if you don't take the turn it suggests it will make you turn around or reroute you to go the route it wants to take you on. I am almost certain there are better Nav apps on the Apple Apps store, but if were getting this for free - why would I waste my money.
The only thing that bothers me still is that Siri still can't search for businesses in the UK, now that would really help make this navigation app work to its fullest potential.
anonymous 20 September, 2012 16:52
Just use nav free from itunes (various versions for different countries) its free and all maps are downloaded, spoken turn by turn navigation on your iphone/ipad so you dont need an internet connection when you leave the house!!
anonymous 2 December, 2012 03:29
SECOND BY SECOND BUS ARRIVALS on London Bus Transport FREE app: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/london-bus-transport/id574307404?ls=1&mt=8