Despite its shaky startup, Apple’s Maps app has quickly become a solid competitor with Googleâs own mapping platform. But if thereâs one way Apple could improve its Maps app, it would be making it easier to discern distance by adding a traditional map scale to the interface.
Fortunately, iOS developer Julio Verne was thinking along similar lines when he created a free jailbreak tweak called MPScale. Just as the name implies, MPScale adds a tiny scale indicator to the Maps app that can help users estimate distances.
The scale, depicted in the screenshot examples above, is pinned at the top left of the Maps app and displays distance in kilometers.
You might’ve noticed already that the scale automatically adjusts itself depending on how much youâve zoomed in or out of the map. For example, when viewing the entire United States, the scale shows 0-500 kilometers, while zooming into a smaller portion of Canada displays 0-20 kilometers; one might go as far as to say that the distances are officially âto scale.â
On the other hand, MPScale doesnât come with any options to configure, and I have a couple of gripes with that because: 1) you canât switch the scale between kilometers and miles; and 2) you canât move the scale elsewhere on the map, so itâs fundamentally glued where it is at the top left of the interface.
Despite these somewhat insignificant shortcomings, the tweak is a solid improvement over the stock Maps app, and itâs sure to be useful in several scenarios if youâre trying to discern the distance between two points.
If youâre interested in trying MPScale, then you can download it for free from Julio Verneâs repository in Cydia. The tweak works with all jailbroken iOS 5-11 devices.
What are your thoughts about having a functional scale in the iPhoneâs official Maps app? Let us know in the comments section below.
