Apple Maps

Two companies have announced plans to adopt new Apple technologies coming this fall with iOS 11. Jibestream says it will work with clients to provide indoor mapping data to Apple Maps which is new to iOS 11, and Branding Brand says it plans to use ARKit to build augmented reality experiences for retail apps.

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Apple is advancing its data accuracy efforts with Apple Maps, according to a new report from iGeneration. The report details a new website app program where freelancers can sign up and get paid a small fee each time they correct/verify a Point-of-Interest or placemark in Apple Maps.

Similar to a Mechanical Turk system, people in the program can get paid about 54 cents per task, with a maximum of 600 tasks per week …

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Apple Maps now shows 3D images of the Apple Park campus, with detailed representations of buildings, walkways and other landscape features. The detail extends as far as the sun-shade slats and solar panels on the main building.

The app added 3D satellite imagery back in March, though this was rather out of date. At that time, the map view was still rather sparse, something Apple has now fixed, though another issue remains unresolved …

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For the past two years, Apple has been using vehicles around the United States and other countries to collect data for Apple Maps. Now, the company has further expanded those efforts, deploying a fleet of vans in Connecticut for the first time…

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It’s well known that Apple is working hard to bring innovation to augmented reality and self-driving cars (in some capacity). However, new hires recently made by the company are making a satellite  project seem likely.

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Apple Maps started listing electric vehicle charge points as points-of-interest late last year, and now Apple is expanding that functionality to Europe. The new feature rollout will include listings for bike rental hubs in three cities around the world as well.

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As navigation apps such as Apple Maps become a more integral part of society, a variety of effects are starting to become apparent. A new report from The New York Times details how Google Maps played a role in a fatal accident in 2015 on railroad tracks in California:

Following directions from Google Maps on a smartphone last year, Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez turned a Ford truck, hauling a trailer, where he thought the app was telling him to go. But he ended up stuck on the railroad tracks at a poorly marked California crossing.

Soon after Mr. Sanchez-Ramirez abandoned the truck, a commuter train barreled into it, killing the engineer and injuring 32 others.

Following a nearly two-year long investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board is calling on companies such as Apple and Google to add the exact location of 200,000 grade crossings to their mapping data…

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LinkedIn updates suggest that Apple is beefing up its mapping efforts by poaching senior staff from Here – the map technology company which Nokia once hoped to sell to Apple.

Now co-owned by German automotive companies Audi, BMW, and Daimler, Business Insider spotted half a dozen hires over the last few months from Here. Interestingly, the roles appear to be based in Berlin, where Apple does not officially have a base but was once the site of Apple Car rumors …

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Transit directions in Apple Maps for users in Japan are expected to go live to the public when iOS 10.1 is released, and Apple today has flipped the switch for iOS users running the latest iOS 10.1 beta build. According to local blog Ata Distance, Apple Maps in Japan supports transit data information with the latest iOS 10.1 beta, offering information such as transit times and fares.

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Apple is now publishing public web pages for landmarks and POI in its Apple Maps database: here’s one such place. The website link shows details about the place such as location, name, telephone number and reviews. The design is identical to the cards in the iOS 10 Maps app.

When on an Apple platform, these URLs appear to act as deep links into the native Maps app. If viewing in Chrome or on a non-Apple device like Android, the fallback webpage is loaded. The purpose for these URLs is unclear, but it may possibly foreshadow a larger move by Apple to offer its own online mapping service to compete with Google Maps on the web.

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Apple Maps is getting enhanced data for parking spots as Parkopedia today announces a deal to provide Apple with its database of parking services worldwide. That means that Apple Maps is now gaining enhanced data for the 40 million parking spots currently tracked by Parkopedia across 75 countries in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

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New user-interface seen on the left

While Apple Maps got off to a rocky start, with many of us opting to use Google Maps instead, it did manage to gradually win back our confidence – with three times as many users as its Google rival by the end of last year. But Google is working hard to tempt back iOS users with an improved user-interface and a new way to highlight where the action is when visiting a new city.

The most visible difference is that many road outlines have been replaced with solid color. This small change makes a surprisingly big difference to the clarity of the maps, as seen above. But it’s the new ‘areas of interest’ feature that may provide the greatest temptation to switch apps …

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In a press release, Apple has announced it is opening a new development office in Hyderabad, India. The team located here will apparently focus on improving Apple Maps, which is deeply integrated across Apple’s hardware and software as dedicated apps and embedded in other services, like Siri. The new center will create up to 4000 new jobs in the local economy. It is currently unclear as to the nature of the workforce, as Apple has preferred to keep its core software engineering team in California with most working solely in Cupertino.

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Apple today has expanded its popular Apple Maps Flyover feature to a pair of new cities, while it has also rolled out Spotlight Suggestions to new countries and its traffic data to a single new location. Last month, the company expanded Maps Nearby, Flyover, and traffic data to a handful of new locations, following a more significant Flyover expansion that occurred in February of this year.

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Apple has today updated its list of iOS 9 feature availability to note the addition of its Maps ‘Nearby’ feature for more countries.

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Alongside iOS 9.3 today, Apple has released watchOS 2.2, the latest software update for all Apple Watch owners. Starting with watchOS 2.2, iPhones running iOS 9.3 or later can pair and swap between multiple Apple Watch models; changing between Apple Watch models previously required a lengthy unpairing and re-pairing process. Apple Watch users will also notice an enhanced Maps app and more starting with the watchOS 2.2 update.

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Apple today has released the fourth watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch developers. In terms of new features, the watchOS 2.2 so far has added a totally revamped Apple Maps app and glance, and it’s required to use iOS 9.3 beta’s new multi-watch feature. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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Apple has today listed 20 new Flyover locations on its iOS 9 feature availability page, five of them in the USA, the rest overseas. The latest U.S. locations are:

• Columbus, Ohio
• Louisville, Kentucky
• South Bend, Indiana
• Springfield, Missouri
• Tucson, Arizona …

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It’s no secret that when Apple Maps launched back in 2012 it had more than its fair share of issues. The issues included things like incorrect turn-by-turn directions, mislabeled landmarks, and much more. Three years later, however, Apple has been working to remedy the issues its had and according to a new report out of The Boston Globe, the improvements aren’t going unnoticed by users.

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