ajGoes

The Android version doesn't flip 180 degrees either. I'm not sure Android even supports that mode. You could consider one of these for use in rental cars.

jeffcarp

Maps supports both 90 and 180 rotation on Android. In my car mount my power connector is on the left. In a rental it is on the right. The Map is the correct orientation in both scenarios.

HDQDD

+1 on loving the updates...However, Waze is by far the best app for navigating in traffic.

jeffcarp

Waze is a great concept. It was what Dash Navigation tried to be years ago. However, I live in a community of +500,000 and the granularity of the traffic in Waze is very weak compared to Google.

JMN57

+1

JMN57

Haven't had the chance to figure out the new Google Maps. Landed in BCN last week, fired up Maps and found a disaster on my hands - no way I could figure out how to get NAV working. Managed to drive to the hotel and once there removed update which has been just fine driving around all of BCN and about 500 miles in Italy.

It may be a better product but having it sprung on you at the beginning of a trip without recourse is inexcusable. Google needs to rethink its approach to updates and how that impact customers.

jeffcarp

Huh? How can Google update your phone without your permission? To my knowledge the only two ways to update Maps is: 1) you either downloaded the update through the Play Store yourself or 2) you checked the box in the Play Store settings that permitted automatic updates. I don't know of a scenario where Google can update Maps against your will.

FliesCasually

I'm planning a trip to Hong Kong and am cranky about the base map accuracy. Victoria Peak is on a street downtown. Mt Davis is in the bay. In Macau, the first listing for Ruin's of St Paul's is about 800 meters off. And a bunch of roads from the mainland are shown in the water of Macau's inner harbor.

I suspect they've been importing cool new info and reviews from new sources, but I wish they'd checked their work more carefully .... I'm puzzled and amused that "Report a problem" is disabled for Hong Kong.

jeffcarp

I don't think Google owns the Hong Kong maps. I think the maps in that area are licensed from AutoNavi and MapKing. You can look at the copyright notice in the lower right corner when you zoom into a place and get a pretty good handle on whether you are looking at 3rd party licensed data or Google's own data.

Coolers

#1 problem with the new Maps IMO. What kind of idiot designs a maps program without a scale? Map making 101, no?

FliesCasually

Hmmm. Thanks. I was only slightly aware of that.

Still inaccurate Points of Interest like "Ruins of St Paul's" with a pop up pointing to 38 google plus reviews make me suspect the item wasn't inserted by Map King.

It's totally unverifiable. But seems to me the maps were more accurate when I used them 15 months ago and earlier. Maybe I just never noticed.

jeffcarp

They could have been more accurate 15 months ago. The same thing happened a few years ago in the US when Google converted from TeleAtlas (TomTom) to their own map. They essentially "backtracked" to a public domain source of map data then began their "ground truth" campaign. They owned the content and map from that point, which led to their MapMaker program to improve it. Since MapMaker is not available in Hong Kong yet it leads me to believe that Google has not taken ownership of the data in that area yet. As such, there is nothing for them to change or ask users for input on, as it isn't their data to edit. It could make sense that a POI would have a Google+ profile as the place certainly exists, reviews would be valid, etc., it could just be in the wrong place at this time due to the location data being from others. The Google+ POI profiles could be a "stepping stone" towards Ground Truth.

I think we shouldn't lose site of the fact that Google offers Maps for free. Sometimes, in my opinion, people comment about Maps as if they just paid Google $250 for a GPS.

gooselee

That just sounds like 90/270 compatibility (i.e., turn 90-degrees to either the right or left). What it can't do IME is orient it self correctly if you spin your phone/tablet completely upside down, so that if your charger port is normally on the bottom of the phone, it's now on the top.

This is also frustrating for me, as that's the orientation I need to leave my phone in my cupholder and also have access to the charging port.

BTW, as frustrating as the new GMaps is on a mobile device, I somehow despise it EVEN MORE on a computer. I have no idea how to find the old menus, how to get the boxes in the top left out of the way so I can actually see that quarter of the map, and while I just figured out how to show traffic, I miss the ability to look at "usual" traffic for different times of day.

These updates are akin to the new Hangouts app losing the basic IM function of seeing whether or not your contacts are online. Luckily for that, I was able to just sideload Talk back in. ^

Boraxo

I think my complaints are more with apple than google. What I find most annoying is that contact addresses default to apple maps. Ditto for google search results, i.e. you look up a business in google app, tap on street address. Is there a way to switch the default map program?

As for google maps I like that I don't have to turn on Traffic every time I load the program (which is most often the reason I am using it). However it would be nice if I could adjust the default to a 30 miles radius (for traffic) instead of the closeup street view which is largely useless. Also I get annoyed when switching from the voice directions back to the traffic map. When I have voice directions I don't need to see the written version but I do like to monitor traffic on the route. Finally it is annoyingly easy to accidentally rotate off true north.

These are all minor quibbles, I still find it amazing that I can get free realtime traffic and mapping on my phone. How does Garmin stay in business?

jeffcarp

You are correct. I've never tried that. But, I tried it on many apps and none of them do it. I am wondering if Android itself doesn't support "upside down" rotation?