Apple Maps debuts Nearby in 4 countries, expands Flyover and Traffic support

Apple on Tuesday strengthened its in-house mapping service with the rollout of five new Flyover locales, additional Traffic support and the activation of Nearby search in four countries.

As noted on Apple's Maps Feature Availability webpage, users living in Austria, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland can now access proximity-based Nearby search results on iPhone and iPad. The feature went live in Austria and Japan last week, though Apple did not release an official announcement at the time.

Nearby as part of iOS 9 to grant users quick access to proximity-based point-of-interest search results. Pulling data from multiple third-party sources, Nearby aggregates close by POI locations into categories, including food, drinks, shopping, travel, services, entertainment, health and transportation, each of which contains subcategories for further filtering.

Maps also expanded Flyover support with 3D imagery covering Augsburg, Braunshweif and Hanover in Germany, Newcastle upon Tyne in England and the Japanese prefecture of Niigata. Flyover is a tentpole Maps feature that offers a photorealistic bird's-eye view of popular and well-trafficked destinations.

Finally, Apple flipped the switch on real-time road traffic data in areas of Turkey.

The latest Maps changes come just over one week after Apple released iOS 9.3, which itself introduced a host of features like Night Shift and secure Notes.

25 Comments

entropys 4302 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

Yawn. Let me know when Apple actually, seriously commits resources to this. It didn't take Google this long to roll out street view, world wide, and this isn't as expensive as street view. I use Apple maps for basic stuff, but it isn't at the point you can delete the google maps app. That should be the benchmark apple is aiming for. When thousands of people can confidently delete google maps from their phones, they will know they have a good product. This sclerotic, periodic updating is just lame.

bkerkay 138 comments · 17 Years

About 8 years ago

entropys said:

It didn't take Google this long to roll out street view, world wide, and this isn't as expensive as street view.

Actually, Google has been working on StreetView for 9 years now and they are still not done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverage_of_Google_Street_View

chasm 3592 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

I travel all over North America, city and rural (to be fair, not much outside of that continent though). Deleted Google Maps on day one, got lost once eight years ago. It's been rock solid ever since as far as I can tell. Also, as bkerkay points out, Google Maps still not "complete" (as if that could ever be a thing) and much too commerce-oriented rather than "best route" oriented. So frankly, entropys, you're talking out of your GPS hole.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

About 8 years ago

entropys said:

Yawn. Let me know when Apple actually, seriously commits resources to this. It didn't take Google this long to roll out street view, world wide, and this isn't as expensive as street view. I use Apple maps for basic stuff, but it isn't at the point you can delete the google maps app. That should be the benchmark apple is aiming for. When thousands of people can confidently delete google maps from their phones, they will know they have a good product. This sclerotic, periodic updating is just lame.

1) How do you know the cost differences of these street-level views? Why is LiDAR technology less expensive than a simple digital photo?

2) What was the timeframe for Google's StreetView going "world wide"? I'm seeing it was started in 2001 and didn't launch until mid-2007, and even then it was only in the US. I think it's only been a little over a year since I first heard about an Apple Maps van on the road, and I don't think it was until last June that Apple officially acknowledged the unmarked vans. Is there word from Apple when they first started to collect this data?

3) If I consider the privacy concerns with StreetView, the many changes Google has made over the last decade, and Apple's long history and deep concern for privacy, I have to wonder if you're being both too harsh and shortsighted about what this sort of effort entails.

4) I'm certain thousands of people have confidently deleted Google maps. I don't even use Google Maps or Earth on my Mac, as Maps works great for my needs. I especially like that I can look up a business or address on Maps, and then on my iPhone it's the most recent item. Very convenient for me.

5) Personally, I expect we'll see a major update to Maps this year when they demo iOS X. This is very unlikely, but I'd love to see their OverPass(?) service intelligently remove vehicles and people from the roads. Using the different angles for which it records 3D images, as well known objects, this is certainly possible, although probably very time and processing prohibitive within the next decade. Perhaps more likely, although atypical for Apple, I'd like to see modern-browser portal for Apple Maps.