How to unlock the full iOS 6 Maps app on older devices

iOS 6 Maps is stepped in controversy, but not everyone hates it, including yours truly. I’ve never personally experienced any navigation issues with the iOS 6 Maps app, and for me, it’s a huge upgrade over the stock Google Maps app of yesteryear.

One problem that I do have with iOS 6’s Maps, however, is how dumbed down the feature is on older devices. Devices like the iPhone 4 get left out when it comes to true turn-by-turn navigation and Flyover (3D) support.

As usual, the jailbreak community comes to the rescue with a new tweak that unlocks iOS 6 Maps on older devices. It’s appropriately titled: Unlock iOS 6 Maps, and it’s a free download on Cydia’s Big Boss repo. Take a look inside for a video walkthrough…

Unlock iOS 6 Maps is the creation of popular jailbreak developer, Ryan Petrich. His creation allows you to use all of the iOS 6 Maps features on older jailbroken hardware running iOS 6.

While some people may bash Apple for limiting the Maps app on older devices, there are reasons why this is so, as Petrich alludes to in the description of the tweak. He notes that enabling all of the features of iOS 6 Maps can potentially slow your device down.

Contrary to popular belief, Apple didn’t limit Maps on older devices simply because they wanted everyone to ditch their current hardware and upgrade to the latest and greatest. If that was the case, they would have just dropped iOS 6 support for the iPhone 3GS. Instead, Apple cares more about the usability of these new features, and if the hardware isn’t powerful enough to handle them in a proper way, then they’ll omit a feature for the sake of usability.

Of course, some may argue that Apple’s Maps aren’t usable on any piece of hardware, including the just released iPhone 5, but that’s an argument for another post.

If you want to try out turn-by-turn, and 3D maps on your older hardware, simply head over to Cydia’s BigBoss repo, and download Unlock iOS 6 Maps for free. Be sure to let me know how you fare in the comments section below.