Navigating with Maps and Apple Watch can be very useful with distinctive taps for upcoming turns, but the feature can be distracting if you have a better solution with CarPlay. Starting with iOS 12 and watchOS 5, Apple now lets you choose when you want to receive navigation alerts on Apple Watch.
TechCrunch has published a new piece detailing Apple’s massive effort to rebuild Apple Maps from the ground up — specifically the mapping data — with a combination of iPhones and those Apple Maps vans we’ve seen on the road for years.
The results of this effort will show up first in the next iOS 12 beta for new mapping data for San Francisco and the Bay Area before expanding to Northern California later in the year. Ultimately, the end goal for the new Apple Maps is to be based entirely on Apple-collected data and not a combination of external data providers.
Following reports that the Uber app appears to be tracking customer locations days or even weeks after their last ride, the company has issued an explanation. That statement also explains who some users were seeing the behavior while others weren’t.
The company says that it is not the app which is accessing location data, but rather the iOS Maps extension that some have chosen to activate …
There’s a new feature in the iOS 10 update with Maps called Parked Car. It automatically tells your iPhone where you left your car and sends you a notification. This may or may not be useful depending on your needs. Luckily the Parked Car notifications are easy to disable or re-enable if you know where to look, and you can even disable the alerts without losing the feature.
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.
Apple seems to be preparing to announce a web version of its MapKit framework, allowing anyone to embed an Apple Map view into a web page. On the WWDC microsite, Apple has embedded its own map object in the page to show attendees how to get between Moscone West and the Bill Civic auditorium, where the Monday keynote will be held. Looking at the code, it appears Apple wants to make this embeddable map a public API in the (near?) future so anyone could add an Apple Map to their website.
The map allows user interaction like you might expect with panning, zooming and such. Behind the scenes, the Apple map uses a HTML5 <canvas> element to render the custom cartography. Right now, MapKit is exclusive to iOS and Mac apps, ostensibly funded by the revenue Apple brings in from the sale of App Store apps.
From a business perspective, it is unclear why Apple would want to open up its API to web developers. Today, most developers use embedded Google Maps to display maps on their websites due to its ubiquity. Although other mapping options exist, a high-profile entrance of Apple into the space would provide strong competition to Google’s offering.
The Waze maps app— the one Google acquired a few years back to improve its own mapping services—today announced a new features that will warn drivers when they are driving over the speed limit.
Now when you’re using the Waze app to navigate, you’ll automatically see a visual warning (pictured above) if you go over the speed limit, and you can also manually set audio warnings for reaching the limit or hitting 5, 10 or 15% over.
Apple has today updated its list of iOS 9 feature availability to note the addition of its Maps ‘Nearby’ feature for more countries.
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.
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.
After earlier reports claiming that Apple was planning to open a new office of sorts in Hyderabad, India, today the company has confirmed to local publications that it will indeed expand in the area with a new development office planned for later this year. Apple’s statement via a report from The Economic Times is below:
Apple has released the second watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch testers today. Pairing multiple Apple Watches to a single iPhone is a feature of the iOS 9.3 beta and requires the watchOS 2.2 beta on each Apple Watch. The latest software update in testing also includes a revamped Maps app with the Nearby feature first introduced in iOS 9.0. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.
Apple has quietly confirmed that it’s adding business listing information from Foursquare to Apple Maps. The addition was spotted on Apple’s acknowledgements page for Maps listing the various contributors of data for Apple’s mapping service (via Apple Maps Marketing).
It’s unclear exactly how Apple is using Foursquare data, but it’s likely users will begin to notice points of interest related data from the service appearing soon. Apple already partners with various companies for the data and other features it uses in Maps including TomTom, booking.com, TripAdvisor, Yelp and others.
Apple uses Yelp and booking.com, for example, to show reviews for local points of interest like restaurants and hotels, and it’s possible Apple will be tapping into Foursquare for similar features.
Foursquare claims to have over 2 million businesses using the service and over 70 million tips, which are essentially reviews and comments for local businesses, submitted by users.
Apple delivered a major upgrade to Maps in iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, and watchOS 2 with the addition of transit directions in select cities, and now its rolling out additional cities and transportation methods to bolster that feature. In addition to expanding transit, Apple has found a new partner in Canada to provide rich local business data for use in Maps.
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The iOS Waze app has been given a major redesign intended to make it easier to use for navigating, reporting problems and sharing your ETA with others.
Steps to navigate have been minimized. The Waze map, menus and road reporting system are redesigned for higher visibility and clarity, including less clutter on the map, brighter buttons, and color-coded pins per report type. From head to toe, Waze has been revamped with a stronger focus on the driver and the social driving experience.
Interestingly, although Waze is now owned by Google, the iOS app has been updated ahead of the Android version …
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Google has updated its official search app for iOS to version 9.0, adding three new features.
• Add a photo or review for your favorite local places
• Get map results right in the app when you search for an address
• Tap and play animated GIFs in image search results
The app supports Siri-like spoken search queries, speaking the answer to questions. You can also get Google Now cards through the app, which aim to proactively offer you information you might want based on your location and other clues in a similar way to iOS 9’s proactive assistant feature. The company added always-on “Ok, Google” functionality in August.
Google is a free download from iTunes.
Reports surfaced last fall that Apple was opening a new research and development office in Lund, Sweden, continuing a wave of new satellite locations outside of headquarters in Cupertino, California. Rapidus (via tech.eu) has followed up with a new details now claiming that Apple’s been building out operations in Lund over the last several months to develop ‘advanced mapping technology’ for Apple Maps. The ramp up of hiring at the Swedish offices focused on mapping comes four years after Apple bought C3 Technologies, which translated to Apple’s Flyover and 3D features in Maps.
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UI concept for VR iPhone case Pinć from Cordon Labs
Apple has recently hired a lead engineer from Microsoft’s HoloLens team, leading to more speculation that it could be working on its own augmented reality project behind the scenes.
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster first spotted the change of positions for Nick Thompson, who was reportedly previously leading audio hardware engineering efforts for Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality project:
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Apple Watch comes with Apple Maps, which allows you to find your current location, pan and zoom around on the area, search the map, get information about a location, call a location, get directions, and more. One of the benefits of having Maps on the watch is that it allows you to get directions without needing to pull out your iPhone, especially if you happen to be lost or in a sketchy neighborhood. In this how-to article, we will discuss how to use Apple Maps on the Apple Watch.
With iOS 9, Apple revealed that its Maps service would begin to support transit directions. The service supports buses, trains, subways, and ferries and will be available in 10 cities at launch later this year. One big question, however, centered around where Apple was obtaining its transit data from. Now, Apple has updated its Apple Maps Acknowledgements webpage with a breakdown of where transit data from each city is coming (via Apple Maps Marketing).
The webpage reveals that Apple’s transit data from twenty different sources, with each source providing data for a single city in most cases. For instance, three different sources are contributing transit data for Berlin and three other sources are contributing to San Francisco transit data. Some sources include Flixbus, Metrolinx, and MiWay. The full list of sources can be seen on the Acknowledgements webpage here.
Apple’s Maps webpage also now lists that both Positron Technologies and DAC Group are supplying business listings to Apple Maps. Previously, the data was being supplied only by Yext, so with the addition of two new sources, there should now be both more information and more businesses listed in Apple Maps.
When Apple Maps transit launches later this year, the feature will be supported in Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington DC, with expansion occurring as time progresses.
Flight tracking apps have been popular on iOS for as long as the platform had the App Store, and this fall Apple is baking a key function of those apps right into the operating system. A little known feature called ‘flights data detector’ is included in both iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan but was not highlighted on stage during Apple’s WWDC keynote. As one Reddit user highlighted, the feature lets iOS automatically detect when text is referencing a flight and allows users to actually check on the flight’s status and progress with an attractive interface. Here’s how it works on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac…
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Apple today has updated its feature availability webpage to add 20 new locations to its 3D Flyover feature in Maps. Flyover, for those unfamiliar offers high resolution 3D imagery of locations via the Apple Maps app. Earlier this summer, Apple expanded Flyover to seven new locations and with today’s 20 new additions, the feature is now supported at more than 160 locations. Today’s new additions include cities in Austria, Denmark, Puerto Rico, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, and more. The full list of additions can be seen below:
Apple offers a list of all Flyover cities on its feature availability page. You can view that list here. Earlier this year, Apple also began adding animated 3D imagery of places like the London Eye and Big Ben in the UK to Apple Maps.
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Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference is about to kick off. On Monday, June 8th, company executives will take the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to provide their annual roadmap for Apple’s software, services, and devices.
Traditionally, Apple has used the conference to introduce major upgrades to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system iOS, as well as the Mac operating system OS X, along with new services. Of course, 2015 will be no different. Apple has been preparing a new version of iOS 9 codenamed “Monarch,” a release of OS X 10.11 codenamed “Gala,” a new streaming Apple Music service based on Beats Music, and updates for the Apple Watch.
Over the last several years, we have provided advance reports on the lion’s share of announcements that will be made at WWDC, as well as a comprehensive roundup ahead of the event. Read on for our roundup of what’s coming, along with fresh new details not found in our earlier reports.
Twitter’s live video streaming app Periscope is out with a big update today adding a key promised feature. Periscope for iPhone version 1.1 now lets you find live streams around the world based on location using a new map view from the global tab. This lets you jump into streams going on around you or watch something interesting happening on the other side of the world. In addition to adding the new maps view, Periscope has been localized in 29 more languages:
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