The new Maps app in iOS 6 received a lot of flack from the media and blogosphere. Users are complaining that information is incorrect, and points of interest (POIs) are missing. In iOS 6 Apple moves away from Google data and uses Yelp for business listings and reviews. While Yelp is nice for restaurants in the US, other categories and other regions such as Europe aren’t covered well. Since Google provides much more results all over the world in many different categories, we’re relying – amongst others – on proven Google search results.

Let’s say I’m searching for bank branches: Why should I care about a result in 22 km if I’m stumbling upon dozens of not-shown bank branches while driving there? To illustrate my point we’ve compared various search requests in “Maps” and Where To?. In almost all cases “Maps” shows fewer, more far away results:


Launch from “Maps”

Last mile navigationThere are great improvements in iOS 6, too: The new always-crisp vector-based maps are a step forward in my opinion (although I personally dislike the low-contrast color scheme). And the Maps app learned to launch specialized apps from the App Store (“last mile navigation”). Where To? is now one of them. It allows a local Where To? search at the chosen destination, displays reviews and speaks the direction and distance using VoiceOver for the visually impaired. Please note, the last mile navigation feature in “Maps” is available in routing mode under the (somewhat misleading) bus icon.

iPhone 5 and iOS 6 support

The Where To? 5.2 update also fully supports iOS 6 and the new iPhone 5 without letter boxing. The bigger screen is quite handy to display a larger part of the map or in Augmented Reality mode.

Turkish

Turkey flag mapNo matter if you’re living in Turkey or going on a trip to Istanbul: Where To? (Nereye?) now speaks Turkish and offers optimized search results for Turkey. My huge thanks go to Ozan Basaran and Kilichan Kaynak of AppBull, who did a great job with the Turkish localization. AppBull provides all the necessary help in marketing international apps mainly in Turkey, Caucasia, Middle East and Eastern Europe. For our German users, we added support for public transport routing using the free “FahrInfo” series of apps: In Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Dresden and Constance the fastest connections including the walk to and from the station can be displayed. If needed, the suitable FahrInfo app can be installed right from within the app. Go download the update from the App Store now. And, if you don’t mind, renew or post your rating – thanks!

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