Apple has added two new locations to its Maps Flyover feature in iOS, including Tokyo, Japan and Zion National Park in Utah. The new additions to Flyover allow users to take a close 3D look at the areas, zooming in on buildings and landmarks.
First introduced with iOS 6 and based on technology acquired from the purchase of C3 Technologies, Flyover is now available in 88 different locations across the world.
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The new additions to Flyover come as Apple works to continue to improve its Maps app. Recently, users have reported significant improvements in Apple Maps data, with errors being fixed with quick turnaround and additional POI locations added in many places. Apple also made notable updates to Maps in China, Japan, and several other countries back in March.
iOS 8 is expected to bring new features to Maps, though not at release. Transit directions and other Maps improvements are in the works, but may not be available to customers until the first significant iOS 8 update, possibly iOS 8.1, in 2015. iOS 8 also includes a new "City Tours" Flyover feature hidden within the code that lets users view a city's major points of interest via Flyover, but it is not yet unlocked.
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There's no ideal outcome possible from that scenario, but I do like what we've got! A great Apple Maps app (thankfully, in my region) plus a Google app if you need it (but I never do).
That was exactly my thought.... at first.
I though Street View was terrfic for figuring out super-local details like which driveway goes with which building, or which doorway goes into which business. And I thought Flyover was a super-cool gimmick that I'd play with and forget.
In reality--since my city DOES have flyover (and I know that doesn't help everyone) I use it all the time, and it does what street view used to do, only MUCH BETTER.
Street view: your view is directly at the familiar street level perspective, and will look just the way you expect when you're there in person. Nice!
But...
- Your view is often in the wrong lane, taking the "familiar" advantage away.
- It's often blurred and smeared beyond recognition, noisy, poor contrast, and obscured by lens flares, so you can't read most of the signs you need anyway.
And...
Flyover view is WAY FASTER and WAY EASIER TO NAVIGATE.
Street View is such an awful experience (including terrible desktop navigation controls). Turn... turn some more... adjust... click to move forward... wait for loading... look around... oops, went down the wrong way... turn around again... turn some more... tap back where you came from... loading delay... turn again... click again... loading delay... can't quite see what I want... try a little farther ahead... loading delay... wish I could back up just a little... but I can't, I'm stuck with nodes 40 feet apart... give up.
Compare to Flyover: you can navigate instantly and smoothly using the SAME panning/zooming controls as 2D maps. It's not a separatre, awkward mode. It just works.
And you can easlly see the lay of the land, the driveways, etc. that Street View could show you. Not perfectly, but not worse either--just different. It turns out that the human brain actually has no trouble recognizing a place from an angle 50 feet in the air.
Try this experiment: find a square block of your city, and pretend you know a restaurant is in that area, and you know what it looks like but you don't remember the name. Now take a "walk" around that block, all the way around and back, four turns, in Street View. Now try it in Flyover.
No contest. You can spot the place in a few seconds in Flyover. With Street View you will spend minutes, and that's not counting the time you need to go get a shot of whisky to survive the hassle.
So let's hope Apple KEEPS expanding flyover like this. It doesn't help nearly enough people yet.
Agreed. My city (Copenhagen) has had flyover from the beginning. I have used it a TON. It is by far the best way to show people a place. It is the easiest way to understand and recognize an area.
Tokyo does look pretty cool, though.
And who knows how old that Street View photo is - the price has likely changed since it was taken.
And am I seeing things, or did Google blur the Colonel's face on the sign on the building? :P
For the people complaining that Apple is working on this, seriously don't worry about it. This is a very different talent set from traditional mapping/navigation. Nobody is being pulled from other areas of the mapping team to work on these. Apple is a huge company and has really built an impressive mapping solution in a short time. Sure they have some ways to go still, but let's be honest, the relationship with Google was preventing iOS maps for progressing. Apple had to dump Google maps if they wanted to get turn by turn directions. The upside is we quickly went from no good free navigation app (sorry Waze, but you were young back then), to having several quality options to choose from.
I'm still awestruck every time I see one of the 3D Maps