“Maps in iOS 7 will gain a full screen mode that emphasizes how Apple’s 3D Flyover imagery is much easier to navigate, more detailed and significantly more up-to-date than even the desktop 3D offerings of leading map vendors Google and Nokia, let alone their mobile app offerings,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for AppleInsider.
“At Apple’s introduction of iOS 6 last fall, iOS 5 Maps had been serving up bitmapped tiles from Google, which supplied only a flat, 2D representation of the massing of modeled buildings,” Dilger writes. “The technology behind Apple’s high performance photorealistic, interactive 3D Flyover map images originated at C3 Technologies, which Apple acquired in late 2011. ”
Read more, and see the numerous screenshot comparisons, in the full article here.
What? No “Apple is Doomed because it’s mapping App was not labelled Beta”, commentary from MDN?
Actually, Apple isn’t doomed, but its map app is. Almost a year after introducing the Apple map app and trying to kill the undeniably brilliant Google maps app, Apple is still lost in the woods. The maps are still filled with mistakes, holes, gaps and wrong placements. Meanwhile, Google’s app has become even better. Can’t deny that Apple is still playing catch-up here. They should admit defeat on this and move on to making the next iPhone more than a bump to the long in the tooth iPhone 4 (which is really all wer’e carrying around, no matter that they tell us it’s an Phone 5 – it’s a 4 with some modest changes. I’m hoping the iPhone 6 that comes out three months from now is a major rethink. Wait? What? You mean the next phone is only the iPhone 5s and it’s based on the 3 year old design of the iPhone 4? Oh brother. But, yeah, keep spending time trying to make the DOA maps app work right.
Good stuff you’re smoking there.
Modest changes? LOL
5s based on 4? LOL
iPhone 6 a few months from now? LOL
I’m high just reading what you wrote.
Yep.
More Dilger hyperbole? I read the article, saw the pictures and cannot see that much of a significant difference in the presentation of 3-D flyover between Apple and Google. I’m a partisan Apple supporter, but ‘making Google & Nokia look old fashioned’? Am I going blind?
I have to agree. The differences seem minute, at best, to me.
Your looking at it wrong.
You’re holding it wrong…
Thanks.
Blind???? Actually I was thinking more senile!! LOL
The key focus in the article is not that one is a 100 and the other is a 60.. but rather that Apple continues to move ahead. Its improving data, improving images, improving search all while leaving Google in the dust. OH and for those that must have street view…. Google has an app for that. So an iPhone / iPad is the best of both worlds as Apple has applemaps and google streetview/maps. Android only has android google maps.
Just a thought.
not blind, you just have no taste…
Yep, nothing worse than a blind, tasteless, and senile troll.
yes there is,
there are clueless, righteous, arrogant, unfair, closed minded, troll stomping lemmings – without respect for other commenters opinions within a free and open board
a troll is a member who evokes emotional responses – you are negative and so you get back what you give
Crazy yes…
And Apple is updating iOS6 to iOS7 which looks dated to Android. Yet, iOS7 looks to be playing catch up in most parts. Apple should have rode out the look and feel of iOS6 well into iOS8. AND at some time offer a PRO LEVEL iOS that is a complete QUANTUM LEAP forward on easy of use and understanding… far beyond any other company– instead Apple is following the Jones.
Maps, again is catchup. Not innovating beyond the limits. As said here, its hard to see any dramatic mind blowing advantage over Apples Maps… other than its they own solution included in the OS. Yet since it is not on the Desktop; where I use Googles, it is not yet a grand solution. A near failure one might say.
How many think Streetview is more useful that Flyover? Seems that way to me.
You nailed it. Street View is hugely and permanently more useful than the entertaining but purely gimmicky 3D presentations. Street View, for people who actually know how to use a traditional map, is even far more useful than GPS for reaching a destination by driving. Street View allows the user to see road-level images of important landmarks — exits, turns, buildings, etc. — and make a trip through new territory with an “I’ve been here before” feeling. It is by no means comprehensive, but where it exists Street View is stunning. It kills me to laud a Google product, but it was a brilliant idea. My iPad — which is my third — will never be updated to iOS 6 because the current version of Street View, at least as available for iPhone, is of poorer quality, I’ll buy the next iPad, but keep my current one just for Street View.
And road level images never change… Had I relied on street view on a few occasions I would have missed key turns as whole buildings had been demolished. In other cases businesses go out of business, change signs or move.
I’ll say no map is perfect. The world changes everyday. All these services have a place but no one should assume they are 100% accurate all the time. I’ve learned my lesson and will often uses multiple map sources to confirm a location.
No comparison. Until I can afford a flyover jet, Streetview is far more useful for the overwhelming majority of users. Flyover looks cool. Got it. Useful, maybe if I sprout wings or become an airlines pilot.
Street view is only more useful when it is up to date. What is needed is low level flyover along a chosen route.
Yeah, I have to admit I love Street View. Most times before I go anywhere in NYC, I look at Street View. It makes it so easy for me to find places since I don’t really have that good a sense of direction but I can usually recognize landmarks and such. I take tours using Street View even though some of the data is old.
It’s really a lot of fun seeing things around the world from the comfort of my home. How else can someone like me take a stroll around the Gangnam District in South Korea or the side-streets around Ikebukuro Station in Japan without spending a penny? It’s just so much fun. It’s about the closest I’ll ever get to being in those places. I wish I could have had that opportunity when I was a child to see the world in that way.
Apple’s maps are very nice indeed, but no replacement for Google’s Street View for me. I wish Apple would take some of that reserve cash and send out a fleet of vehicles and get their own Street View.
You might like Geoguesser. You are placed somewhere in the world and only have streetview to figure out your location. You are awarded points based on how close you guess your location. FYI- sometimes you are in the middle of nowhere and have to move miles to find a street sign.
http://www.geoguessr.com/
@1Racer, sounds like a game… I dont think laughing boy wishes to play games.. his comment is honest and real.
I am so happy to use StreetView also… and mores so – as it was based on Quicktime VR, virtual reality. StreetView has been a great success and its roots come from Apple.
To the commentors above, “OH and for those that must have street view…. Google has an app for that. So an iPhone / iPad is the best of both worlds as Apple has apple maps and google streetview/maps. Android only has android google maps/ street view. ”
Google maps for Apple are not dead, only an option. Least we forget.
Far more important is the accuracy and completeness of the map information.
Dilger worships at the altar of Apple daily. The high priest of fantacism. He is the fanboy’s fanboy. A truly deluded sycophant unimpeded by objectivity and rationality. The perfecter of circular reasoning and an artist of hyperbole.
Your malapropistic criticism is weak at best. Trying a little too hard to sound like you are intelligent.
Wow. I at least understood MacFreek’s post. I’m digging out the ol’ Dictionary(.com) for “malapropistic”…
Okay, after having done so, I think your use of “malapropistic” is … well, I don’t need a big word to say you were wrong. I don’t see a single instance there of him using a wrong (but close and similar sounding to what he meant) word.
Sorry to disagree with you Mac FREAK. I have met Daniel and read his articles with enjoyment. He takes the time to present a fair and balanced (my opinion) view. He puts Apple down when they deserve it, but since Apple is trying harder to do a GREAT job vs trying to make the most money from its customers, they seldom deserve negative comments.
I do see many people that say that if you enjoy Apple efforts, you are a “fanboi”. Cause we all know one should bitch and moan about everything in the world to show that they are not bias……
PS, I did notice you did not just say you disliked Daniel but went on to use every word in your vocabulary to put him down. Would that make you an Anti-fanboi / hater???
Just wondering.
Daniel is off the mark on this. When I am in London, looking for a particular road and the easiest way to walk there from my location, the easiest way to do that is with a well-drawn 2d map.
The google maps present 2d maps much better than Apple. I am sorry to have to use google, but their maps properly look like maps. The 2d images that DED shows this.
The use of the 3d buildings looks nice – but its real-world use and practicality for working out a route from A to B is not so much.