Hacker News Reader

Comment by denniedarko | Hacker News Reader

The easy workaround for the moment would be to place a shortcut to maps.google.com on your iPhone home screen. Then you don't need to use the default maps if you feel they aren't up to scratch.

View on HN

People keep saying this, but it isn't anywhere close. The web interface is buggy (it doesn't respond to all the clicks) and much more importantly, if you click on an address in any other app, it will take you to Apple maps.

A good chunk of my navigating is looking up addresses in other apps (like Yelp) and then clicking on them.

This is now horribly broken and there is no workaround.

I'm guessing the only short term solution (if Google doesn't release an app) will be jailbreaking the phone and replacing Apple Maps with the old iOS 5 Google Maps app. Someone will probably come up with a way to do that soon.

Even if Google releases a standalone maps app, isn't his Yelp address example still a non-starter? It has been a long time since I was a daily iOS user (iPhone 3G), but unless things have changed drastically it doesn't have an Android-like Intent system and I doubt Apple will make the default action for clicking addresses in other apps be to start Google Maps now.

> isn't his Yelp address example still a non-starter?

Yes, without jailbreaking it won't be possible.

I'm not sure how it is done but the app AroundMe has, since 2009, shown me the location on the maps app but has also always given a "Route Using" option which has all the GPS apps on my phone including the maps app. Selecting the navigon feom there starts the navigation to that address using navigon.

That presumably won't be a good option in the short term. It often takes several months for a good untethered jailbreak to be released, and they're usually one iOS minor release behind (since Apple always tries to plug the jailbreak holes).

The easy workaround for the moment would be to place a shortcut to maps.google.com on your iPhone home screen.

Not owning an iPhone at present, how well does Google Map's website work on the iPhone? Any integration with current location, direction I'm facing and all that kind of stuff?

The website works terribly. You can use it, but it's far slower to pan than the old Maps app and you seem to have to tap a few times for half the interface to function properly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com