Apple has rolled out its “Look Around” feature of Apple Maps into three more U.S. cities, giving users the ability to see street level views of Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. on their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Introduced in iOS 13, Look Around is an interactive way to visually explore a city with 3D street-level imagery, similar to Google Street View. The feature is also available in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas, Houston, and the Hawaiian island of Oahu, with many more places to come.
In an area where Look Around is available, a binoculars icon will appear in the top-right corner of Apple Maps. Tapping that icon opens a street-level view in a card overlay at the top of the screen. Look Around also appears in the search results for a supported city, below the Flyover and Directions buttons.
When you’re in Look Around mode, tapping on the display lets you move through the area, while tapping in a far off spot in the distance zooms in quickly in a smoother and more immersive way than Google Street View.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Maps’ smooth, crystal clear Look Around puts Google Maps’ choppy, antiquated Street View to shame!
Made a quick side-by-side comparison video driving the same road in Hawaii with 'Look Around' in Apple Maps on #iOS13 vs Google Street View. It really is "smoothly move down the street"! Impressive 🤩 #WWDC19 #iOS13Beta #AppleMaps #GoogleMaps #Apple #maps pic.twitter.com/nIA3kklhJe
— Reüel (@rvdsteege) June 13, 2019
That’s all very nice but I’d like to see all Greenway paths clearly marked on Apple Maps (as Google Maps has). NYC is filled with Greenway paths. Apple’s boasting about being green and not having any bike paths on Apple Maps makes little sense. Also, how about Apple bringing the MacOS version of Apple Maps up to the iOS version. Why should MacOS Apple Maps be kept inferior to iOS Apple Maps when Apple’s desktop and laptop hardware is more expensive? That just seems unfair.
Does Apple have a grievance or suggestion site to address these oversights?
I just noticed this feature on maps yesterday. It was a surprise to me and I thought it was pretty cool and useful. Haven’t played with it enough to comment on possible weaknesses but it seemed quite simple and fluid.