The Maps App: Can You Find Scam On The Map?
November 15, 2012
People continue to attempt to cash-in on Apple's less-than-perfect iOS 6 Maps introduction. Unfortunately, some of these entrepreneurs are offering alternatives that aren't exactly what they are claiming them to be. Consider the case of The Maps app, which recently arrived in the App Store.
Available for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad, the universal app claims that it puts Google Maps back on iOS devices. Unfortunately, this claim misses the mark. What The Maps actually does is put an inferior copy of Google's free Web-based map program in an app that costs money. In this case, the app is priced at $1.99.
For this, in addition to getting a version of Google Maps that doesn't have Street View capabilities, The Maps offers Web versions of OpenStreetMap, Yahoo, MapBox, Bing, and 2GIS. Again, each of these is already available for free.
Our advice: Save your money. Like the equally suspect iMaps, The Maps isn't worth the price of admission.
You can access current versions of each of these Map services by clicking on the following links on your iOS device: Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Yahoo, Bing, and 2GIS.
Note: MapBox is actually powered by OpenStreetMap.
