Guide to iPhone Maps

The iPhone Maps Application is allows you to view and search Google Maps. It also lets you see traffic reports in some cities, satellite views, and will give you directions from one location to another.

The main screen for Maps has a search field at the top and a few buttons at the bottom. Press the search field to bring up the keyboard. Then enter a location. You can enter a specific address, a zip code, the name of a city and state, or any search term to allow Google Maps to take its best guess.

You can also enter phrases like “restaurants near Denver, CO” to get a selection of map points representing restaurants. You can click on these points to see their names, and view Web information about them.

Moving around the maps is done by pressing and dragging on your screen. You can zoom in by pinching the screen, and zoom out with the opposite gesture.

To get directions, press the Directions button at the bottom of the screen. You will now have two search fields at the top. Enter something in each field. You can use the squiggly button at the left to swap the fields.

You can then press the Edit button to change the start or end locations, or use the Start button to see the first step in following the directions. Arrows will then replace the Start button and allow you to go through the directions step-by-step.

The iPhone can also find your current location with varying degrees of accuracy. Press the bulls-eye button at the lower left.

The iPhone uses two techniques to find your location. The first is to look up the location of nearby wireless internet routers and compare them to a database gathered by vehicles that roam the streets picking up wireless signals and matching their unique signature to the GPS location. The iPhone can also use mobile phone towers with less accuracy if no wifi signal can be found.

You can enable more Maps features by pressing the eye button at the bottom right. This brings up more options, such at the ability to drop a pin in the map at the current location, and to turn on traffic reports. You can also switch from map view to Satellite image view, or use a hybrid of map and imagery. The List view can be used when you are getting directions and simply wish to see a list of all the of the steps on one screen.

The traffic reports show up as green, red and yellow lines, usually on interstate highways in major cities. You may have to zoom out quite a distance to see them.

The Satellite and Hybrid views will show satellite pictures of the area. Different areas may have different quality and levels of depth.

Both the maps and satellite images for iPhone Google Maps can vary from the Web version of Google Maps. We’ve found that several areas with new houses show up fine on the iPhone, but the Web version is out-of-date.