In iOS 6, Apple decided to replace the Google Maps app in iOS with its own in-house solution. This decision of Apple’s brought a lot of criticism and Apple even made an apology to its customers. Since then, it has been rumored that Google has been working on releasing their own standalone version of Google Maps.
Today, App Map [iTunes Link] developer Ben Guild has posted some early details and partial screenshots from Google’s upcoming Maps application for iOS.
Guild reports that the standalone version of Google Maps for iOS is reportedly in alpha testing, but will offer some promising improvements over the old Google Maps. The report also says that the new Google Maps is vector based, has two-finger rotation to any angle, is “super fast” and supports the taller iPhone 5 screen. No word on availability has been made yet, but an early report claimed that Google may be targeting release by Christmas of this year. Meanwhile, Apple has been making improvements to their own Maps over time.