Apple on Tuesday added a handful of new locations to the 3D Flyover feature in its iOS and OS X Maps apps. The new locations include San Juan, Puerto Rico and other cities around the world.
First introduced in Apple Maps when the app launched in 2012, the Flyover feature allows users to take close-up, 3-dimensional looks at buildings, landmarks and various other areas of interest.
Following Monday's announcement that Maps will gain Transit directions and other new features when iOS 9 launches this fall, some folks are reporting that the feature actually works in even more cities than Apple has said, as discovered by MacRumors.
Not only that but navigating with Maps provides en route traffic and construction warnings, including voice turn-by-turn suggestions for alternate routes, according to information shared with AppleInsider.
Remember those secretive vans that were spotted driving around the country for quite a few months now?
It's been previously confirmed that the vehicles were registered to a third-party commissioned by Apple, prompting all kinds of speculative remarks.
Wednesday, Apple put an end to speculation by publishing a new section on its webpage dedicated to Apple Maps which confirms that the vehicles are collecting data for future Apple Maps updates.
Not only would collected data improve the accuracy of Apple's mapping service, but the wording clearly implies that a Google Street View-like feature is in tow for Apple Maps.
It's transit time! Apple just announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco's Moscone West that its mapping and navigation service will soon provide transit lines, bus stations, ferry lines and more.
Available across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod devices, the improved Apple Maps app will sport departure times, multi-modal routing with step-by-step directions, estimated times for walking directions and much more.
According to a new Apple job listing first spotted by Benedict Evans, Apple is about to make its mapping service available to everyone via a cross-platform web application. The full-time position seeks a web engineer with JavaScript expertise “to help make maps work seamlessly on the web.”
Currently, Apple Maps are accessible on the desktop via Mac, on mobile iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices and through your wrist via Maps for Apple Watch.
Providing an HTML-based Maps web app should support any standards-compliant web browser while putting pressure on Google Maps. In addition, Maps as a web service would make it comparable to Microsoft's Bing Maps, Nokia HERE and other mapping service accessible through the desktop web interface.
No, the mysterious vans that were spotted in different parts of the country this year aren't part of Project Titan, Apple's secret self-driving car project. Instead, they are used to gather data that will most likely be used to power future versions of the company's Maps app, reducing reliance on third-party data providers, as Mark Gurman reported Friday.
Apple is reportedly reading a Siri Application Programming Interface (API), according to a new report. Called Breadcrumbs, it should let developers enhance iPhone and iPad applications by implementing Siri intelligence in a limited fashion. Another new initiative seeks to create a Google Now experience for iOS devices.
In addition, the Cupertino firm is reportedly adding augmented reality features to Apple Maps, including one dubbed Browse Around Me.
The way it's supposed to work, you'd point your iPhone's camera toward a particular business or an area and Maps would put up relevant information such as a virtual view of menu items or daily specials, 9to5Mac said Wednesday.
Transit directions, along with a trip-planning feature and indoor maps, is rumored to be a cornerstone feature of Apple Maps in iOS 9. According to 9to5Mac on Tuesday, transit directions in Apple Maps are set to launch in approximately a half-dozen cities across the United States, Canada and Europe, with more to be added at a later stage.
In fact, as AppleInsider first reported three days ago, Apple's mapping service in China is better than Apple Maps in Europe or the United States.
Apple on Friday updated the Acknowledgements page for its mapping software, adding a handful of new data partners. The page gives credit to TomTom, Yelp and other companies that provide Apple Maps with imagery and information.
Among the new partnerships added this week are E-WEGO, a business listing firm, navigational ad expert NavAds, and Yellow Pages. TripAdvisor and Booking.com are also now listed as official partners, following a report earlier this year.
One important piece of the Apple Maps puzzle is about to fall in place at next month's WWDC as Apple readies to announce the Transit feature within Apple Maps in iOS 9, 9to5Mac reported this morning.
The same publication ran a scoop last year reporting that the Transit feature would launch as part of the iOS 8 software update, but the rumor didn't pan out.
“Having originally planned to add a new transit directions feature to Maps last year, only to pull the feature before WWDC 2014, Apple now hopes to launch its Transit service with iOS 9,” the report, based on “sources,” reads.
TomTom, an Apple Maps data provider, announced Tuesday renewing its partnership with the iPhone maker “for maps and related information.”
“TomTom has renewed and extended its global agreement with Apple for maps and related information,” wrote the Amsterdam-based company in a short notice on its website. “No further details of the agreement will be provided,” they added.
Apple appears to have quietly acquired San Francisco-based GPS firm Coherent Navigation, MacRumors reported on Sunday. Several of the company's employees, including the CEO and co-founders, all started working for the iPhone-maker in recent months, and its domain servers were recently updated to point to Apple.
Among Coherent's technology is something called High Integrity GPS, which offers greater accuracy and precision and higher signal integrity versus standard GPS. It accomplishes this by combining signals from both mid-earth orbiting GPS satellites low-earth satellites used by data provider Iridium for voice and data.