Chapter 6
In This Chapter
Finding out where you’re at
Searching
Navigating around by viewing, zooming, and panning
Bookmarking favorites
Getting to where you want to go fast: routes and real-time traffic
With Maps on the iPad, you can quickly and easily discover exactly where you are, find nearby restaurants and businesses, get turn-by-turn driving instructions from any address to any other address, and see real-time traffic information and a photographic street view of many locations as well.
The Maps app has improved a lot since Apple replaced Google Maps with its own homegrown version in iOS 6. Apple says it’s “beautifully designed from the ground up (and the sky down),” and we have to agree — it’s more beautiful than ever. But beyond its good looks, zooming in and out is faster than ever, and the spoken turn-by-turn navigation with real-time traffic updates actually works in most places. Plus it has a cool 3D flyover view.
We start with something supremely simple yet extremely useful — determining your current location. At the risk of sounding like self-help gurus, here’s how to find yourself:
Tap the Location Services switch to on (green) if necessary,
A check mark appears on the right to show you that While Using the App is selected. The other option, Never, essentially cripples the Maps app, so if you select it the rest of the steps aren’t going to work.
The icon’s background turns blue, as shown in the margin, which assures you that Location Services is doing its thing. You’ll soon see a blue circle on the map (see Figure 6-1), which indicates your approximate location.
The Maps app wouldn’t be very useful if you couldn’t use it to find things. In the following sections, we show you how to search for places you want to go and people you want to see — including people stored as contacts.
To find a person, place, or thing with Maps, follow these steps:
You can search for addresses, zip codes, intersections, towns, landmarks, and businesses by category and by name, or in combinations such as New York, NY 10022; pizza 60645; or even BBQ Lockhart TX.
Maps is smart about it, too; it displays only the names of contacts that have a street address. See the section “Connecting maps and contacts,” later in this chapter, for details.
After a few seconds, a map appears. If you searched for a single location, it’s marked with a pushpin. If you searched for a category (BBQ Lockhart TX, for example), you see multiple pushpins, one for each matching location, as shown in Figure 6-2.
Maps and contacts go together like peanut butter and jelly. In this section, you discover two helpful tasks that illustrate maps and contacts at work.
To see a map of a contact’s street address, follow these steps:
Alternatively, type the first few letters of a contact’s name in the search field, and then tap the contact’s name in the Suggestions list that appears below the search field.
If you find a location by typing an address in the search field, you can add that location to one of your contacts or create a contact with a location you’ve found. To do either one, follow these steps:
That contact’s info overlay appears, as shown in Figure 6-3.
Don’t forget that you can swipe across your iPad screen with four or five fingers to switch apps. So if you’re in Contacts, a four- or five-finger swipe from right to left should bring you back to the Maps app. If you have a lot of open apps, you might need more than one swipe to find the Maps app.
And don’t forget that you can also use a four-finger swipe upward or double-press the Home button to reveal the multitasking screen and switch between Contacts and Maps (or any open apps, for that matter).
You can also get driving or walking directions from most locations, including a contact’s address, to any other location, including another contact’s address. You see how to do that task in the “Smart Map Tricks” section, later in this chapter.
The preceding section talks about how to find just about anything with Maps. Now here’s a look at some ways that you can use what you find. First, you need to know how to work with what you see on the screen. Three views are available at any time: standard, hybrid, and satellite. Select a view by tapping the little i-in-a-circle in the lower-right corner of the screen; an overlay appears with the view buttons and several other options, as shown in Figure 6-4.
In standard, hybrid, or satellite view, you can zoom to see either more or less of the map — or scroll (pan) to see what’s above, below, or to the left or right of the current screen, as follows:
The two-finger tap may be new to you. Simply tap with two fingers touching the screen simultaneously (rather than the usual one finger).
You can unpinch also with two hands (using two fingers or two thumbs), but you’ll probably find that a single-handed pinch and unpinch are handier.
Tap the little i-in-a-circle in the lower-right corner and then tap Show 3D Map to see the map from a three-dimensional bird’s-eye view.
In Maps, three tools can save you from typing the same locations repeatedly: favorites, recents, and contacts. You see them on the overlay displayed when you tap in the search field at the top of the screen. The following sections give you the lowdown on these tools.
Favorites in the Maps app work like bookmarks in Safari. When you have a location you want to save as a favorite so that you can reuse it later without typing a single character, follow these steps:
The info overlay for that location appears. (Refer to Figure 6-3.)
After you add a favorite, you can recall it at any time. To do so, tap the text-entry field as though you were going to search for a location, and then tap Favorites at the top of the overlay that appears. You can then tap the favorite’s name to see it on the map.
To manage your favorites, tap the Edit button in the upper-left corner of the favorites overlay. Then:
When you’ve finished using Favorites, tap anywhere outside the overlay to return to the map.
By the way, you can drop a pushpin anywhere on a map even if you don’t know an exact address or zip code. Think of a pushpin as a temporary favorite.
Dropping a pushpin is simple: Press the location where you want the pin to appear, and hold down for two or three seconds until the pin appears with either Dropped Pin or the street address and a little right arrow. Tap the right arrow to see the info overlay, or press and drag the pin to a new location.
To save a dropped pin as a favorite, tap the share icon at the top-right of the info overlay or tap the Share button at the top-right of the screen. To remove a dropped pin, tap the little right arrow and then tap Remove Pin.
The Maps app automatically remembers locations you’ve searched for and directions you’ve viewed in its recents list. To see this list, tap in the search field and then tap the Recents button at the bottom of the overlay. To see a recent item on the map, tap the item’s name.
To clear the recents list, tap the Clear button in the upper-left corner of the overlay, and then tap the big red Clear All Recents button at the bottom of the overlay, or tap Cancel if you change your mind.
When you’re finished using the recents list, tap anywhere outside the overlay to return to the map.
To see a list of your contacts, tap in the search field and then tap the Contacts button at the bottom of the overlay. To see a map of a contact’s location, tap the contact’s name in the list.
To limit the contacts list to specific groups (assuming that you have some groups in your contacts list), tap the Groups button in the upper-left corner of the overlay and then tap the name of the group. Now only contacts in this group are displayed in the list.
When you’ve finished using the contacts list, tap the Done button in the upper-right corner of the overlay to return to the map.
The Maps app has more tricks up its sleeve. Here are a few nifty features that you may find useful.
You can get route maps and driving directions to any location from any location (within reason; a former tech editor tried to get driving directions from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC, to 10 Downing Street in London, but that didn’t work). Just follow these steps:
You can do so in a few ways:
You can either type the start or end point or choose it from a list of your favorites, recent maps, or contacts.
Public transportation directions require a third-party app. If you haven’t installed one, Maps so informs you and offers to whisk you to the App Store with an automated search for public transit apps.
Suggested routes appear on the map, as shown in Figure 6-5.
If multiple routes exist, Maps shows you up to three, as in Figure 6-5. To switch routes, just tap the route you want to switch to. Note that the text at the bottom of the screen updates to tell you the time and distance of the selected route (42 minutes; 29.6 miles via US Highway 183 S in Figure 6-5).
In Figure 6-5, one of the two 42-minute routes is selected.
Tap the little i-in-a-circle in the lower-right corner of the map you’re viewing and then tap the Show Traffic button to help you decide which route will be most expedient.
When you tap the Start button, a series of stark white road signs appear across the top of the map, one for each step in the directions, as shown in Figure 6-6.
The List icon appears on the route screen (refer to Figure 6-5) but disappears when you tap Start (refer to Figure 6-6). Remember to tap the Overview button to make the list of steps appear.
Tap any step in the list to see that leg of the trip displayed on the map.
If you want to return to the road sign directions and map again, tap the Resume button in the upper-right corner of the screen or tap any step in the list overlay. The list disappears, and the road signs and map reappear.
You can find out the traffic conditions for the map you’re viewing by tapping the little i-in-a-circle in the lower-right corner of the map and then tapping Show Traffic. If it says Hide Traffic, don’t tap — the option is already on.
Major roadways are color-coded to inform you of the current traffic speed, as shown in Figure 6-8. Here’s the key: Orange dots show slowdowns, and red dashes show stop-and-go traffic.
To report an incident, tap the little i-in-a-circle, then tap Report a Problem. To see an incident report, tap a marker on the map (none appear in Figure 6-8).
If a location has a little right arrow to the right of its name or description (refer to Figure 6-2), you can tap it to see additional information about that location.
As we explain earlier in this chapter, you can get directions to or from that location, add the location to your favorites or contacts, or create a contact from it. With some locations, you can do two more things from the location’s info screen: