Chapter 20

Maps

Mapping on your iPod touch is very convenient and pretty amazing. As we explore the power of the Maps app in this chapter, you'll see how to find your location on a map and get directions to just about anywhere. You'll also learn how to switch between the Standard, Satellite, and Hybrid views. You'll also see how, if you need to find the best route to somewhere, you can check out the traffic using the Show Traffic button in Maps options. If you want to find the closest pizza restaurant, golf course, or hotel to your destination, that's easy, too. And you can use Google's Street View right from your iPod touch to help you get to your destination. It is easy to add an address you have mapped to your contacts.

Getting Started with Maps

The beauty of the iPod touch is that its apps are designed to work with one another. You've already seen how your contacts are linked to the Maps app; just look back at Chapter 17: “Contacts and Notes.”

The Maps app is powered by Google Maps, the leader in mobile mapping technology. Maps lets you locate your position, get directions, search for things nearby, see traffic, and much more.

Simply touch the Maps icon to get started.

Determining Your Location (the Blue Dot)

When you start the Maps app, you can have it begin at your current location. Follow these steps to use your current location as the default starting location:

1. Tap the small blue Arrow icon at the lower-left corner.

   

2. Maps will ask to use your current location—touch OK or Don't Allow.

   We suggest choosing OK, which makes it much easier to find directions from or to your current

   

Changing Your Map Views

The default view for Maps is the Standard view, a basic map that shows a generic background overlaid with street names. Maps can also show you a Satellite view or a combination of the Satellite and Standard views called Hybrid. Finally, the List view is handy if you've searched for something that provided multiple results, like local coffee shops. It is also handy if you've asked for directions to a location. You can switch among all the views by following these steps:

1. Tap the turned-up edge of the map in the lower-right corner.
2. The corner of the map turns up to reveal buttons for views, traffic, pins, and more.
3. Tap the view you'd like to switch to (see Figure 20-1):
   • Standard is a regular map with street names.
   • Satellite is a satellite picture with no street names.
   • Hybrid is a combination of the Satellite and Standard views; that is, a Satellite view with street names.
   • List is available only when your search produces multiple results (like “Starbucks”) or you've asked for directions.

Figure 20-1. Various views available in the Maps app: From upper left: Standard, Satellite, Hybrid and List.

Checking Traffic

Not only does your Maps app tell you how to get somewhere, but it can also check traffic along the way. This feature is supported only in the United States for now. Follow these steps to check the traffic for a given route:

1. Tap the lower-right corner of the map to see the options.
2. Tap Show Traffic.

On a highway, if there is a traffic situation, you usually see yellow lights instead of green ones. Sometimes, the yellow lights might be flashing to alert you to traffic delays.

You may even see Construction Worker icons to indicate construction zones.

Maps uses color on major streets and highways to indicate the speed that traffic is moving at:

• Green = 50 MPH or more
• Yellow = 25–50 MPH
• Red = Less than 25 MPH
• Gray (or no color) = No traffic data currently available

Searching for Anything

Because Maps is tied to Google Maps, you can search for and find just about anything: a specific address, type of business, city, or other point of interest, as shown in Figure 20-2. Follow these steps to search for a specific location:

1. Touch the Search bar in the top-right corner of the screen.
2. Type in the address, point of interest, or town and state you would like to map on your iPod touch.

Google Maps Search Tips

You can enter just about anything in the Search bar, including the following:

• First name, last name, or company name (to match your Contacts list)
• 123 Main Street, City (some or all of a street address)
• Orlando Airport (to find an airport)
• Plumber, painter, or roofer (any part of a business name or trade)
• Golf courses + city (to find local golf courses)
• Movies + city or ZIP/postal code (to find local movie theaters)
• Pizza 32174 (to search for local pizza restaurants in ZIP code 32174)
• 95014 (the ZIP code for Apple Computer's headquarters in California, United States)
• Apress

Figure 20-2. Searching in the Maps app

To use numbers, tap the 123 key on the keyboard. For letters, tap the ABC key to switch back to a letter keyboard.

Mapping Options

Now that your address is on the Maps screen, follow these steps to access the available options:

1. Touch the blue Arrow icon next to the address to see some of these options.
2. If you have mapped one of your contacts, you'll see the contact details, as shown in Figure 20-3. Maps will also pull up contact information for specific searches. You can also get directions, share a location, or add a location as a bookmark.

Figure 20-3. Touching the Information button to see the mapped contact details

Working with Bookmarks

Bookmarks in Maps work much as they do in Safari. A bookmark simply creates a record of places you've visited or mapped and want to remember in the future. It is always easier to look at a bookmark than to perform a new search.

Adding a New Bookmark

Bookmarking a location is a great way to simplify finding a place again:

1. Map a location, as shown in Figure 20-4.
2. Touch the blue Information icon next to the address.
3. Touch Add to Bookmarks.
   

   Figure 20-4. Adding a bookmark

4. Edit the bookmark name to make is short and recognizable—in this case, we edited the address to simply say Gloria's Store.
5. When you are done, just touch Save in the top-right corner.

Accessing and Editing Your Bookmarks

To view your bookmarks, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Bookmarks icon next to the Search window in the top row.
2. Tap any bookmark to immediately jump to it.
3. Tap the Edit button at the top of the bookmarks to edit or delete your bookmarks.
   1. To reorder the bookmarks, touch and drag the right edge of each bookmark up or down.
   2. To edit the name of a bookmark, touch it and retype the name. After editing the name, touch the Bookmarks button in the top left to get back to your list of bookmarks.
   3. To delete a bookmark, swipe to the left or right on the bookmark, and then tap the Delete button.
4. Tap the Done button when you are finished editing your bookmarks.

Adding a Mapped Location to Contacts

It is easy to add a location you mapped to your Contacts list:

1. Map an address.
2. Tap the Arrow/Information icon.
3. Tap Add to Contacts.
4. Tap either Create a New Contact or Add to Existing Contact.
5. If you choose Add to Existing Contact, you can then scroll through or search your contacts and select a name. The address will automatically be added to that contact.

Searching for Establishments Near You

Follow these steps to search for establishments around your current location:

1. Map a location on the map or use the blue dot for your current location.
2. Tap the Search window. Let's say you want to search for the closest pizza restaurants, so you type “pizza.” This will map all local pizza restaurants.
3. Notice that each mapped location may have a Street View icon on the left and an Information icon on the right.
4. You can double-tap to zoom in, or pinch the screen open or closed to zoom in or out.
5. Just as with any mapped location, touching the blue Information icon brings up all the details, including the pizza restaurant's phone number, address, and web site as shown in Figure 20-5.
6. If you want directions to the restaurant, just touch Directions to Here, and a route is instantly calculated.

Figure 20-5. Using the Info screen to do more things with mapped locations.

Zooming In and Out

You can zoom in and out in the usual way by double-tapping and pinching. To zoom in by double-tapping, just double-tap the screen as you would on a web page or picture.

Dropping a Pin

Let's say you're looking at the map, and you find something you'd like to set either as a bookmark or as a destination.

In this example, we are zooming in and looking around the greater Boston area. We stumble upon Fenway Park and decide it would be great to add it to our bookmarks, so we drop a pin on it. Follow these steps to drop a pin on a map:

1. Map a location or move the map to a location where you'd like to drop the pin.

   

2. Tap the lower-right corner of the map.

   

3. Tap Drop Pin. You can also simply touch and hold a location on the map to drop the pin.
4. Now, drag the pin around the map by touching and holding it.
5. To remove a dropped pin or do other things, tap the blue Arrow icon next to the pop-up above the pin. If the pop-up went away, tap the pin to bring It back.

   

6. From the Info screen, you can get directions, Remove Pin, Add to Contacts, Share Location, or Add to Bookmarks.

   

Using Street View

Google Street View (see Figure 20–6) is a really fun feature in Maps on the iPod touch. Google has been hard at work photographing just about every address across the United States and elsewhere. The pictures are then fed into its database, and that's what shows up when you want to see a picture of your destination or waypoint.

If there is a Street View available, you will see a small orange Person icon to the left of the address or bookmark on the map.

In this example, we wanted to check the Street View of the store of Gloria, Gary's wife, on Cape Cod:

1. To map the address, we tapped the work address under Gloria's name on our Contacts list. We could have mapped it by typing an address into the Search window, by searching for a type of business, or by touching the address in the Contacts app.
2. The Street View icon is shown to the left of Gloria's name.
3. We tapped the icon to immediately shift to a Street View of the address. What is very cool is that we can navigate around the screen in a 360-degree rotation by swiping left, right, or even up or down, looking at the places next to and across the street from our destination.
4. To return to the map, we just touched the lower-right corner of the screen.

Figure 20-6. Using Google Street View

Getting Directions

One of the most useful functions of the Maps app is that you can easily find directions to or from any location. Let's say we want to get directions from our current location (Gloria's store) to Fenway Park in Boston.

Tap the Current Location Button First

To find directions to or from your current location, you don't have to waste time typing your current address—the iPod touch will assume you want directions from where you are unless you specify otherwise. You may need to tap the Location button a few times until you see the blue dot on the screen.

Now you can do one of two things:

• Tap the Directions button at the bottom.
• Touch the blue Arrow as we did previously, and then select Directions from Here (see Figure20–7).

Figure 20-7. Choosing Directions From Here and then Bookmarks

Choosing Start or End Location

Follow these steps to select a Start or End location and then choose a suggested route:

1. Touch the blue Arrow icon above the pin.
2. Tap Directions From Here.
3. Tap the Bookmarks button
4. Tap Bookmarks, Recents, or Contacts to find your destination. In this case, we tapped Bookmarks and then Fenway Park.

   

   NOTE: As soon as you touch the Directions From Here button, your recent searches will be automatically displayed (see Figure 20-5). You can also touch the Destination box and type in a destination.

   

5. After you select your destination, the routing screen takes you to an overview screen. In our case, we see the routing screen to get from Apple's 1 Infinite Loop headquarters to the Palo Alto Apple Store.
6. A green pushpin is dropped at the start location, and a red one is dropped at the end location—Fenway Park, in our example.
7. A bright blue line will connect the two pins, showing you the route. If there is more than one route, others will be indicated in light blue.
8. Tap a gray route to select it. Once it's selected, it will turn bright blue, and any other routes will fade to light blue.

Looking at the Route

Before you start the trip, you will see a Start button in the upper-right corner of the screen. Tap the Start button, and the routing directions begin. The Start button changes to Arrow buttons that allow you to move between the steps in the trip.

As Figure 20-8 shows, you can look at the route either as a path on the map or as a list.

Figure 20-8. Two ways of viewing directions

You can move the screen with your finger to look at the route, or just touch the Arrow buttons at the bottom to show the route in step-by-step snapshots.

You can also tap the Page Curl button on the bottom-right, then the List button, which will show detailed step-by-step directions.

Switching Between Routes

As noted in Steps 6 and 7 of the preceding example, if more than one route is available, the Maps app will mark its best recommendation with a bright blue line and flag it as Route 1. If other routes are also available, Maps will mark them with a light blue line. Tapping a gray line will turn it bright blue and flag it with its corresponding number—Route 2, for example.

If you know from recent experience that construction or something else is making Route 1 less than desirable, or you need to stop somewhere on the way that's off the recommended Route 1, then switching to a different route is a great option.

Switching Between Driving, Transit, and Walking Directions

Before you start your directions, you can choose whether you are driving, using public transportation, or walking by tapping the icons on the left side of the blue bar at the top of the directions screen, as shown in Figure 21–9.

Figure 20-9. Choosing your mode of transportation

Reversing the Route

To reverse the route, touch the Reverse button, which is at the top, between the Start and End fields. This can be useful if you're not great about reversing directions on your own or if your route uses lots of one-way streets.

Maps Options

Currently, the only setting that affects your Maps app is Location Services, which is critical for determining your current location. Follow these steps to adjust the settings for the Maps app:

1. Touch the Settings icon.
2. Tap Location Services.
3. Make surethe Location Services switch to the ON position, so that Maps can approximate your location.