Apple Maps has come a long way since it was first released in 2012 as a replacement for Google Maps. The latter was still made available to iPhone users in the App Store (along with YouTube, which was also dropped as a native app with iOS 6). Initially, Apple Maps was a complete disaster. Some streets in cities and even countries were misnamed and some were not named at all. Wrong directions sent users to dangerous areas like the Australian Outback full of venomous snakes, very little water, three-digit temperatures and sparse cell phone reception.
As a result of the Apple Maps fiasco, iOS chief Scott Forstall left Apple after failing to sign an official apology for the position. As a result, the company’s chief designer, Jony Ive, was tasked with redesigning iOS 7 the following year. Forstall’s days on Anyway, Apple could have been numbered when Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. Forstall and Ive reportedly did not work together and had differing opinions about the continued use of skeuomorphic designs for iOS.
Skeuomorphic designs are the well-known designs used in the first generation of Apple’s native apps, so users knew right away what a particular app was about. For example, using an old black and white television console for the YouTube app would be an example, as would a notepad for the Notes app. Forstall (and Steve Jobs) both liked Skeuomorphic design, while I preferred a more modern approach.
Code in Apple Maps discovered by developer Steve Moser mentions e-bikes
It’s not clear what the difference will be in the directions for non-electric and electric bikes, although one possibility is that the latter will have steeper trails that are unlikely to be an obstacle for a motorized vehicle. If it turns out that Apple Maps will include navigation for e-bikes, that would be an advantage over Google Maps, which doesn’t optimize routes for e-bikes compared to regular bicycles that require pedaling. But Google Maps shows users where to rent an e-bike, the expected time of their e-bike trip and the ETA.