Apple iOS 6 GM brings improvements to Maps app, adds Flyover for New York and others
With less than one week to go before Apple unleashes iOS 6 to the public, the company seeded the mobile operating system's golden master to developers, showing slight tweaks and performance enhancements to its first-party Maps app.
Flyover of New York City. | Source: Apple
According to people familiar with the progression of Maps in iOS 6, the recently-seeded GM has brought a number of changes to Apple's first in-house mapping app including Flyover support for new cities like New York and Rome. The most recent version of Maps introduced Flyover data for a number of major international metropolitan cities, however New York was omitted for unknown reasons.
A major feature that sets Maps apart from rival products is its use of custom algorithms to fill in Flyover details like shrubbery and trees. The iOS 6 GM brings further improvements in this area, as zoomed images reveal smoother borders around foliage and advanced rendering that gives the appearance of "leaf-level" detail.
Shrubbery and tree rendering.
Unlike Google Maps' StreetView, which blurs out license plates and faces, Apple looks to be employing an automated masking system that will leave only a "ghost image" of vehicles behind.
Automated car removal.
Finally, a small tweak to the UI comes in the "cityscape" icon, which takes the place of the "3D" asset when viewing areas that have Flyover data. The app also said to feel more sprightly than previous builds and more detail is apparent on certain rendered structures.
Apple's Maps app will roll out as part of iOS 6 on Sept. 19.
Flyover of New York City. | Source: Apple
According to people familiar with the progression of Maps in iOS 6, the recently-seeded GM has brought a number of changes to Apple's first in-house mapping app including Flyover support for new cities like New York and Rome. The most recent version of Maps introduced Flyover data for a number of major international metropolitan cities, however New York was omitted for unknown reasons.
A major feature that sets Maps apart from rival products is its use of custom algorithms to fill in Flyover details like shrubbery and trees. The iOS 6 GM brings further improvements in this area, as zoomed images reveal smoother borders around foliage and advanced rendering that gives the appearance of "leaf-level" detail.
Shrubbery and tree rendering.
Unlike Google Maps' StreetView, which blurs out license plates and faces, Apple looks to be employing an automated masking system that will leave only a "ghost image" of vehicles behind.
Automated car removal.
Finally, a small tweak to the UI comes in the "cityscape" icon, which takes the place of the "3D" asset when viewing areas that have Flyover data. The app also said to feel more sprightly than previous builds and more detail is apparent on certain rendered structures.
Apple's Maps app will roll out as part of iOS 6 on Sept. 19.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by APG1959
I think it's more interesting that the remaining battery drops 3 percentage points in the space of 4-minutes.
and there's a place on the map called Battery Park!
Quote:
Originally Posted by akf2000
and there's a place on the map called Battery Park!
Nice catch!
Yeah, 3 percentage points in, what, five minuets? It's not an iPhone 5, of course, which should have stronger battery. Still it sounds like we should be plugging these babies in when we're using these super-rendered, 3D modeled-on-the-fly, automated, voice directed directions from our post-pc, hand-held devices which only a few years ago would could classify as supercomputers...
But perhaps that goes without saying.
The new maps are still awful compared the old Google maps.
It also doesn't distinguish very well between footpaths and roads.
I was hoping for better from the GM.
Let's hope for a good traffic data. That's all I care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichL
The new maps are still awful compared the old Google maps.
It also doesn't distinguish very well between footpaths and roads.
I was hoping for better from the GM.
Not sure why that's a problem? If there's an icon you know the station is there... You can count the number of stops, you can watch on your phone as you move through the city. I do see it could be more convenient...
This seems cool, except it will probably be years before it is mature enough to be of any use to me. The good thing about Streetview is that Google has it almost everywhere by now,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shogun
Not sure why that's a problem? If there's an icon you know the station is there... You can count the number of stops, you can watch on your phone as you move through the city. I do see it could be more convenient...
You can see a station is there but you don't know which one it is. You don't know if it's the one you want or whether it's on the right line that you need to get home.
If you're in central London, there's likely to be multiple stations on the same map. You have to click on each icon in turn to find the one you want. It's a major usability failure.
Privacy Mode? I assume this is sarcasm but I must be missing something.
Whoever captured the images was doing performance testing and downloading new apps.
Except for the 99% of the Earth's surface which isn't captured.
I actually agree to some extent; however, the user can click on an individual station which will then provide a location label. I hope that developers will provide a map layer with such information. I will also say that considering the location and unusual entrances to transit stations, I find Street View would be helpful as well.
At any rate, iOS 6 GM Maps is significantly better than iOS 5 Maps.
#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Me want.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichL
The new maps are still awful compared the old Google maps.
It also doesn't distinguish very well between footpaths and roads.
I was hoping for better from the GM.
Agree.
I also wonder if they layout the subway (Tube) plans in top of the basic map like Google did. I've said it before, but in large cities that have highly developed Subway systems (NY, Tokyo, London, Paris, Beijing) sometimes the exits are very far from the actual station. The way Google lays out Beijing (for example) is really helpful when navigating the city, since some of the exits there can be more than 100m from the station and sometimes exit on side streets from the intersection. I'm really hoping for subway and station maps overlaid on the main map.
If not, I guess Google better get on the ball and create an app for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooch
This seems cool, except it will probably be years before it is mature enough to be of any use to me. The good thing about Streetview is that Google has it almost everywhere by now,
Agree.
the lack of street view is really going to be a problem for many. There was a thread a couple weeks ago on AI that discusses the points. The article itself was a very Apple-biased article, stating street view is "Creepy" (which is totally NOT the case at all). I think the conclusion of that thread was that in general, everyone prefers street view over fly over. If apple even think they want to make the maps app available for OSX, they better get a small army of cars out with 360 cameras.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shogun
Nice catch!
Yeah, 3 percentage points in, what, five minuets? It's not an iPhone 5, of course, which should have stronger battery. Still it sounds like we should be plugging these babies in when we're using these super-rendered, 3D modeled-on-the-fly, automated, voice directed directions from our post-pc, hand-held devices which only a few years ago would could classify as supercomputers...
But perhaps that goes without saying.
GPS radio is a battery killer