iOS 6 Hack Restores Google Maps

Canny developers have coaxed Google Maps into running on iOS 6 devices, bypassing the little-loved Apple Maps app, though the hack is said to be not yet ready for primetime. Apple replaced Google Maps on the iPhone 5 and other devices running iOS 6 with its own, homegrown Maps app, and promptly encountered criticism over the quality of the service's location data. Now, iOS jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has apparently managed to get the old Google Maps back on his iOS 6 phone.

According to Petrich, the hacked install is "still crashy and cannot be distributed to the public yet, but it mostly works." It obviously requires a device that has been jailbreaked, since Apple is unlikely to allow a hacked app of this sort through into the App Store.

Google, too, is unlike to be too keen at that prospect, though there's still the potential for the search giant to release its own iOS version as a standalone app. That would re-enable features like Street View, which Apple does not yet have alternatives to.

Still, even without Google Maps, iOS 6 users aren't limited to Apple's Maps. Third-party developers like Garmin and Telenav have stepped in with alternatives of their own, while online mapping tools such as Nokia Maps (available at m.maps.nokia.com) can also be used.

[via Cult of Mac]