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Apple Maps adds ancient Stonehenge monument to 3D Flyover

stonehenge

Nobody is quite sure why or how Stongehenge was constructed, but the stone circle constructed sometime between four and five thousand years ago has long fascinated visitors.

As a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the closest most visitors can get to it these days is a pathway around the outside. (I probably shouldn’t admit this, but as a young child who lived nearby before all the restrictions were put in place, I used to climb on the stones …)

But thanks to Apple adding the site to its 3D Flyover library of Apple Maps, you can now take a tour around the site from the comfort of your sofa. Just enter Stonehenge into the search box.

Apple added 3D Flyover coverage of Perth, Saint-Tropez and Cordoba last month. This followed Cape Town, Helsinki and Marseille back in January. After a less than stellar start, Apple is working hard on an upgraded version of the Maps app ready for iOS 8.

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Comments

  1. applewerbung - 10 years ago

    Street View – featured in an old iPad ad – still was better… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONkfayanuTA

  2. aeronperyton - 10 years ago

    I died laughing when I found the flyover of the tour bus parking lot nearby. I don’t think anybody made it.

  3. Hunter Rudd - 10 years ago

    Does anyone care about 3D flyover when Apple Maps is useless at looking up locations and navigating even on main highways that were built more than 2 years ago (anyone ever have Apple Maps use the NC 147 toll road – 5 lanes wide and nowhere to be found, “proceed to the route…”)

    • hawkeyemo - 10 years ago

      Funny works fine for me when getting directions via the ‘new’ NC 147 toll road. In fact just got directions that utilized the new road. Apple did just update the the routing information to include the toll road not too long ago.

    • likearabbit - 10 years ago

      Yep, completely useless.

      I mean, hell, I’ve been using Maps pretty frequently from the iOS 6 beta days. It immediately replaced my TomTom app, which weighed in around 1.5GB, as my primary means of navigation as I drove to remote parts of Kentucky for work repairing Macs and for longer vacation trips. I can’t begin to count the number of times it mis-guided me.

      Wait, actually, I can… 3. Each time it got me to the destination, but the business was either out of business or a corporate office. i.e. Pizza Hut corporate offices vs a place to grab a pizza. The exact same errors that I ran into with Google Maps for years, but without the turn by turn directions. Heck, criticizing this is like criticizing the yellow pages because a business you called shutdown a few months ago.

      I get that it’s not perfect but really, I’ve used it heavily in both populated and rural areas of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, New Mexico, etc. I’ve also used it in NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC. Again, with no problems aside from what I mentioned above. Maps problems are, in my opinion, almost as overhyped as the Antennagate issue.

    • John Blink (@kuzbad) - 10 years ago

      Durhamite here, and yes, same exact problem. It’s awful. (Of course I have to admit I hate getting on the toll road, so I tend to avoid it anyway!)

      The absolute worst thing about Apple Maps and Siri (perhaps more Siri than apple maps) is that with Google maps I can pretty much type anything and Google will find what I want. I can type (or say) half a store or restaurant name and a street, Google will find it. I can misspell the store name, google will find it. Meanwhile no matter how hard I try, I can’t get Siri to find a Verizon store that isn’t 35 miles away, the restaurant named “Pad Thai” — no, not any Thai restaurant in 25 miles — and just try getting Siri to understand “Barbecue” / “BBQ.”

  4. Keeton Feavel (@Kfeavel_) - 10 years ago

    I think the first line should read “Nobody knows why or how the stonehenge was constructed,” not “Nobody is quite sure why or Stongehenge was constructed,” :)

  5. Certainly will be interesting to see how much better it gets. I tried to use Maps yesterday to find a local restaurant that’s been in business for years now. Didn’t show up. The weird part is it’ll show up in Yelp. One of the biggest sources of Data for Maps. I really like maps but… Here’s to improvement…

  6. Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

    Still needs streetview.
    Google is mapping all the streets in the world in 3D at eye level. It’s time Apple does the same.

    • Honestly, I prefer the flyover better. You see more than just a clunky, blurry bit at a time. I mean, think about it, you can get a snapshot of the area, you can still understand where you are going and it’s easier to tell where you are geographically. Also you can get more than well, just streets. And it’s way smother than Google’s Street View. In the coming years it’s going to be pretty awesome. I just wish they’d build it out faster.

  7. dirpdiddlydirp - 10 years ago

    Take it from someone who has visited stonehenge: this is better than the real thing.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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