Apple's 3D Maps and Imagery See Incremental Improvements
Following last week's open letter from Tim Cook in which he promised that Apple "will keep working non-stop" until the iOS 6 Maps app meets customers' standards for quality, Apple has indeed been making improvements to the service. While there is certainly a ways to go, it is clear that the company is indeed moving quickly to address issues and improve coverage for the flagship 3D mapping and imagery features in the app.
While improvements have been ongoing, MacRumors forum members yesterday began noticing what appears to be a larger set of additions to the 3D content in the Maps app, including both the satellite/aerial imagery and the standard maps. One region that was among the first to be noticed was the New York City area, with a number of improvements including new 3D imagery of the Statue of Liberty being seen.
Old (left) and new (right) Flyover images of the Statue of LibertyWe've also heard from users who have experienced new Flyover imagery showing up in Honolulu, Hawaii and in the
San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles area. The changes are also affecting the standard vector-based maps as well, with users reporting new 3D buildings showing up in New York City and London.
Interestingly, not all users are seeing the new imagery, with some even doing side-by-side comparisons between devices with different results. The difference is presumably due to aggressive caching of maps and imagery, and users who are not yet seeing the new imagery should see updates in the relatively near future.
Popular Stories
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are...
With the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch approaching, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at an interesting bit of Apple Watch history. After the Apple Watch was announced in 2014, and before it became available in 2015, Apple sent out custom Apple Watch iPad demo kiosks to retail stores. The Apple Watch and iPad units used for these devices were specially designed, had custom ...
Apple is holding at least five announcements for later in the year that will not arrive at the company's "Let loose" special event next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report detailing his expectations for Apple's upcoming event, Gurman noted that there are a total of five things that the company is holding for later in the year: AI features: While Apple may tease new...
During today's earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook again spoke about Apple's work on generative AI. He said that Apple has "advantages" that will "differentiate" the company in the era of AI, and some "very exciting things" will be shared with customers in the near future. We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI. We are ...
While Apple's upcoming iPad Pro models have been expected to feature the M3 chip for over a year, recent reports have unexpectedly suggested that the new devices will instead feature the as-yet-unannounced M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that he now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro ...
Top Rated Comments
This is just bells and whistles, Apple needs to fix the incorrect locations and missing POIs first.
This is not an improvement, this is fiddling while Rome burns.
It's an inconvenience if I were to search for a store and it didn't show up, but I could still open Safari, do a web search, and find out it's physical address.
It's a serious problem when that address takes me to the wrong spot.
If only Apple had an entire year left in which they could use Google map tiles while developing their own solution... :rolleyes: