Apple adds Maps Flyover support for 7 cities in Spain, Germany, UK and Puerto Rico
As part of a feature buildout to its in-house mapping service, Apple on Tuesday added seven international locales to its list of cities supporting Maps 3D Flyover.
Flyover view of San Juan, Puerto Rico
The change in Flyover support is reflected on Apple's iOS 8 feature availability webpage under Maps, but also applies to the Maps app in OS X, as seen in the screenshot above.
New Flyover locations include:
Aside from platform-exclusive features, Apple is looking to catch up to more mature mapping services by introducing transit directions in iOS 9 and potential image-based navigation assets similar to Google Street View. Earlier this month, the company officially announced that so-called "mystery vans" spotted driving around the U.S. and Europe are indeed part of an initiative "to improve Apple Maps."
Apple last updated its rolling list of Flyover-capable cities in February with additions from Europe and the Americas.
Flyover view of San Juan, Puerto Rico
The change in Flyover support is reflected on Apple's iOS 8 feature availability webpage under Maps, but also applies to the Maps app in OS X, as seen in the screenshot above.
New Flyover locations include:
- Almer?a, Spain
- Braga, Portugal
- Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
- Karlsruhe, Germany
- Kiel, Germany
- Kingston upon Hull, Englad
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
Aside from platform-exclusive features, Apple is looking to catch up to more mature mapping services by introducing transit directions in iOS 9 and potential image-based navigation assets similar to Google Street View. Earlier this month, the company officially announced that so-called "mystery vans" spotted driving around the U.S. and Europe are indeed part of an initiative "to improve Apple Maps."
Apple last updated its rolling list of Flyover-capable cities in February with additions from Europe and the Americas.
Comments
[And I don't care much for the fact that it would make for a 4-line title on mobile browsers, sorry… I am pretty sure you had longer ones before]
Why do you people insist on lumping Portugal with Spain? They are not the same country, and haven't been for most of their existence, except for a few decades during the late XVI to early XVII century… Your title is inaccurate/incomplete and misleading, so please update it accordingly.
[And I don't care much for the fact that it would make for a 4-line title on mobile browsers, sorry… I am pretty sure you had longer ones before]
Yeah, Portugal and Spain are different countries. Portugal is smaller. That's why it was dropped from the title. Why do you think it was 'lumped'? It was actually separated! /half joking
Why should I care about this feature.
It would be much more useful if they added the 'lane' navigation for Germany. So that when you drive you could also see the recommendation on which lane (e.g. second from the right) lane to drive to take the right direction.
Google Maps has it. That's the main reason why I use Google. Though from design I like Apple more.
Google Maps is just more functional and useful than Apple Maps.
Englad? Where is that?
It's in the United Kingdo
Englad? Where is that?
'Englad' is a synonym to 'unhappy' LOL
Hull?? What about Bristol and Cardiff that've got 430,000 and 350,000 people living there vs Hull's 250k!?
Hull is a very odd choice.
It's great for me who lives there
I did notice a couple of days ago Google had 'Flyover' data for Hull, so they must be getting it from the same company.
what nonsense. i use FO (not FO Tours or whatever) all the time to familiarize myself with areas. the bird's eye vantage point is a useful one and certainly delivers value to me as a paying customer.
streetview is useful for certain tasks, too, but that doesnt negate the value of FO.
once apple introduces their "Walk-Through" feature they'll have the best of both worlds.
Exactly! Posted this on another thread:
I mean, I had to deal with this kind of stuff before when doing *graphic design* (specifically, with gripes on the relative sizes of photos on a book cover for an academic study on two portuguese-speaking countries – yes, two former african colonies; the publisher unwittingly suggested that I reduced the size of the photo on the back cover – to this day, I am still amazed as to how they even let me get away with putting them each on its own cover instead of both in the front one, something I adamantly objected to as it drastically reduced its visual impact –, and an absolute sh*tstorm from the both the editor and the author ensued as one country couldn't be under-represented), so why should online journalists, writing for an international audience, be given a pass?
For the record, everytime a VIP/politician/corporation does the all-too-common blunder of confusing Portugal with Spain (or any other country/region, for that matter, as Joe Biden did with Poland and Easy Jet with a greek island very recently), well, the aftermath usually isn't very pretty to watch. It is even worse than when people get confused the various people from the UK or the Commonwealth, as, apart from Galician (which is, for all intents and purposes and along with Portuguese, a not-too-distant spin-off from a shared ancestor), we do not even share a common language (and I do know that there are other languages in the former British Empire, but still).
Portugal, along with Spain and the British, actually had an independent empire of its own; none of them should brag, really, as all three were responsible for huge atrocities and are also effectively dismantled now, but their languages and cultural influence (not all of it bad, it has to be said) remained, so… Common sense dictates that some degree of equality in acknowledgement (let alone respect, but I'm not even expecting that as the current political and economic scene in my country, as of late, is the biggest disappointment in my life and our degree of influence in the international theater is now jack sh*t) should, thus, be warranted.
You can joke all you want, but though we are very nice to tourists and foreigners in general, and even self-deprecating more often than not (trust me; if you lived here for a while you'd immediately understand this strange self-love/hate dichotomy), we don't usually take this kind of oversight very lightly. /rant
Agreed, I look forward to the best of both worlds too. I'm off to several places in Europe in a few weeks and I was checking out restaurants I used to frequent in the Plaka district in Athens. Without Street View I would not so easily have found out they were all obviously long closed, several in a state of ruin with vines growing all over them and graffiti scrawled all over the walls now. Very sad to see indeed. Barcelona and Venice on the other hand look vibrant and as good as ever despite their economic problems.. Nothing beats being on the ground and looking if you are going to be walking around a place. I just want Street view to be live next
Mmm ...
Greece ... What a disaster, from everything I read. Economy in ruins ... becoming a welfare state.
It's a pity, that a tourist destination like Greece doesn't take a more proactive part in promoting tourism.
It would seem that they could pay someone $millions to create Street View and Flyover maps and easily recoup that with increased tourist trade and the supporting jobs.
I can envision someone with an iPad (travel agent or tourist) running an app [using Apple Maps APIs] that plans an itinerary using 3D Flyover, Flythrough, Street View, Indoor Maps/video, Crowdies, POIs, Routes, Distances, Directions ... *
Then, just book'em, Dan'l.
Seriously, Google Maps has good Street View -- and still has better search than Apple maps ... but the rest is just crap -- especially Google Earth, and the transition to/from Google Maps! Navteq Here and OSM are not any better.
* For my own amazement, I am trying to create such an app -- and it looks pretty good, so far -- I am able to create custom 3D Satellite or Hybrid Flyover tours totally within my app. These use pre-created .gpx files. the next step is to make them interactive. The Apple Maps APIs are quite good -- it's all there for the taking. Once Apple provides Street View and Indoor View -- the race is on!
Was that amazement or amusement? LOL ... Both maybe? Don't you just hate auto correct at times?
Greece seems to be just digging its own hole by letting tourism go to the dogs. All that heritage. What a gold mine they inherited and wasted. I almost wonder if some third party private funding for Greek tourism's rebirth isn't called for. Disney style quality at the Acropolis instead of years of crappy looking cranes and tarpaulins everywhere.
I agree, tourism seems to be way behind the curve in using this sort of tech. I am using street view to work out every last detail of what we will do on the trip and the great thing is we will already be visually familiar with the areas when we get there. But these could be already made and prepared for 'off the shelf' self guided tours with built in tips and suggestions heck even commentaries like museums have of places such as Venice. The GPS would know where you are! Your idea sounds awesome! I'd love to see that when it is ready.