The directions themselves are a mixed bag. I live outside of Boston, which is a notoriously hard city to map; it's the rare intersection that has more than one ninety degree angle in it. It's also a city with a high degree of odd and perplexing streets, plenty of one-ways, and crazy intersections. If London cabbies are required to prove that they have "" before becoming officially licensed, let's just say that many Boston residents have something we could dub "the know-how." Maps does reasonably well in my city, with logically straightforward routes--but many of them are ones I wouldn't take.

That said, the primary use of a navigation device--for me and, I'm sure, many of you--is to direct you when you don't know which way you should go. In that sense, iOS 6's turn-by-turn directions are generally sufficient--but it probably wouldn't hurt to have some other maps on hand, just in case.

For what it's worth, you can still get the old-fashioned step-by-step style of directions, with this handy little trick: When you ask for directions, enter something other than your current location in the starting location field. (It can even be your current address--just don't use the current location.) You'll get the same street-sign-style directions, but you can swipe through them, and Maps will show you were your turns are.

Walking directions use that same step-by-step style rather than turn-by-turn; other than the styling, you won't find much difference from iOS 5 Maps.

Transit directions, however, are a whole new ballgame, as Google apparently got the public transportation database in the divorce. Instead of including built-in transit directions, Apple has added an API to let third-party developers accept transit direction start and end points.