When assigning stories, Will Park asked us “Who likes the iPad and malls?” My hand immediately shot up and I’ve been toying around with the Micello Maps HD app for the Apple iPad and this brings in-door mapping to your “magical” tablet.
We’ve covered the Micello app before when it launched on the Apple iPhone and it bridges that last mile of mapping. We all know Google Maps is an excellent way to navigate around and discover things but it’s essentially a black hole for things like a mall or college campus. Micello is trying to plug that last gap.
The Micello Maps HD for the Apple iPad brings those in-door maps to the large screen and it looks pretty nice. It integrates with Google Maps to find malls near you and then you can click on the locations near you for a detailed in-door map.
Once you’re in the in-door map mode, you get the mall’s layout and you can click on each individual store for more information like phone number, store hours, directions to the store and more. It works well for what it is but I’m still unsure about the real usefulness of this program.
The mobile version makes a lot of sense, as when you’re in a gigantic mall it can be tough to navigate to the store you want. Sure, you can go to the public maps but those are often crowded with ham and eggers and the layout’s not as dynamic as we’d like.
Using the Micello Apple iPhone app gives you an easy mall navigation tool in your pocket but I don’t really sit around my house and plan out my mall routes. Sure, you can bring the Apple iPad 3G to use this app in the mall but that seems a bit much to me.
Regardless, the Micello Maps HD Apple iPad app works well and it’s a free download, so go ahead and check it out.
– Download Micello Maps HD for iPad (free) [iTunes Link]