At last it's arrived, just had update.

thanks for the tip - will get it when I get home tonight!

It's a vast improvement over the upscaled phone version.

That's nice to know.

Does it have StreetView? Or at least a better SV than you can sometimes get if you go to Google Maps as a webpage?

Yes, StreetView's images now look perfect on the iPad.

Needs IOS 6
(I'm still running a 1st gen)

How do you get street view on it? Can't seem to find it.

on the iPhone version, touch the screen to drop an pin, then swipe up the address bar from the bottom

I have ipad2 is the google map automatically downloaded from system or do you have to dowload yourself?

You get it (free) from the App Store. It should be in the "new and noteworthy" apps listed on the front page when you open the store.

Thank you so much for you help.

Thanks. That works on ipad too. Not very intuitive!