14 
Nokia Maps (officially titled “Here“) is a potential godsend for anyone fed up with Apple’s subpar offering. It’s blazingly fast, routes via public transportation with ease, and doesn’t mix up Manhattan with Siberia. Unfortunately, it’s bogglingly hard on the eyes.
Nokia Maps is equal to or better than Apple Maps is virtually every way. It is:
- - More accurate — fewer confused business and residential listings.
- - Includes public transport directions natively — no need to switch to (and purchase) a separate app just for taking the bus.
- - Free
- - Allows you to save a large chunk of any geographical area so that you can access it later online (this is huge for anyone who travels and wants to avoid international roaming).
- - Very, very speedy to load.
This is all lovely, until you look down at your screen and wonder if you need glasses. The good news is that you don’t. The bad news is that Nokia Here, an app released in 2012, isn’t optimised to fill out the iPhone’s retina display, a technology released in 2010. As a result, everything is blurry and pixelated. Not grossly so, but enough to be annoying at every pinch. It’s not as if this makes the app unusable by any means. It will still get you around very, very well. But it’s just ugly. And maps shouldn’t be ugly. Maps are a thing you’ll look at carefully, and things you look at carefully shouldn’t be ugly.
I also encountered a fair number of buttons that resisted tapping, and a few confusing menu decisions. In some places, the app feels too mushed together. Luckily, Nokia says it’s “aware” of the fact that its app already needs a makeover, on day one:
We are aware that HERE Maps for iOS doesn’t use vector graphics and doesn’t fully support retina display yet, but we are committed to updating the application on a regular basis.
I guess that means Nokia will update Here at some point. When is that? I don’t know. What is a regular basis? I don’t know. Does it need to happen soon if Nokia wants anyone to take advantage of the fantastic job they’ve done making an app that, looks aside, is more functional and easier to navigate than Apple’s stab? Yes. [iTunes]
There Is Something So Scary About This Pixelated Hood Mask
This Touchscreen iMac Concept Is So Fake, Yet So, So Good
Oh Good, Another Something-Point-Something Tablet From Samsung
True beauty is on the inside. Always remember
Guess the issues are due to them rushing it out to help solve a problem that apple are reluctant to fix? No doubt it will get better and probably far more quickly than apple’s own pathetic mapping app.
Hey if rushing out a Maps application before it’s ready is good enough for Apple, why shouldn’t it be good enough for Nokia
. Lets not forget that Nokia are a) trying to capitalise on the misfortune of Apple and b) aware that Google Maps is coming soon to iOS. They have to get in there and grab as many users as they can while the window of opportunity is open.
The thing is, like Google, Nokia have been working on maps for a while now.
Apple have a very long way to go. It isn’t like a bug in iOS that can be fixed by the next .0.1 update. It will be a while before maps are up there with Nokia and Google, and you probably won’t even notice. The updates are at Apple’s end. Not your device.
When they say that they are “aware” of it, isn’t that basically saying “we know, but we released it anyway”.
I deleted it. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had many issues with Apple Maps, and in fact it saved my arse one time that Google Maps could not (the hotel was not in the correct place on the map!) I travel a lot though so maybe I’ll download it again when I’m travelling and cache some maps.
Of course I cannot wait for Google Maps to come out, it’s still the premier mapping solution.
also: A lack of vector based maps is forgivable. non-retina graphics when the retina display has been standard for over 2 years is not.
looking at the video it doesn’t look ugly to me
not sure what points are so ugly, can anyone who has used this clarify?
Another article in 2 days? Are these sponsored posts not meant to be tagged as such?
As there is no-one who has used both who would come to the same conclusions unless paid to say so.
The graphics are terrible and non-vector based, and it doesn’t load anywhere near as fast as the Apple maps
And the public transport directions are pointless, I have just directed it to Liverpool Street in London, and it says no public transport is available….
Bigger problem for me is the traffic status, I can’t trust Apple maps to tell em the traffic (because the road might not actually be there) but in Here I found that as you change zoom level the traffic status changes! On the M4 and A4 at Reading I managed in 3 zoom levels to be told that there was traffic London bound, no traffic and traffic Newbury bound! Not great for trip planing!
Vector vs. Bitmap graphics… Apple definitely had the right idea with Vector graphics.
To be fair Google were there first, but yes I agree, if Apple went with bitmap based maps it would be silly, vectors are far better in terms of image quality and data size.
calm down…isnt this the first version…give them a chance…..
Ovi maps have been around a fair while.
yeah but this app hasnt