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Apple Maps Vehicles to Survey France, Italy and Sweden in August
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I'm fairly certain I saw an Apple survey van in Toronto. A friend said: "hey look, a Google Maps car" and I dismissed it because I had seen Google's cars and they're heavily branded with a full car vinyl wrap. At the time, I didn't know that Apple might be surveying for their own maps so I thought nothing of it.
Think of it as an improvement on Flyover. Instead of dropping a little man on a map and switching to a second form of UI, you'll zoom in like you already do in Flyover but now you'll a much higher zoom capacity, enabling you to fly from space right into a store front window.
Apple is mapping street front textures on to their existing 3D building models.
Hey, if you quit whining and play your cards right you might even get to become a state someday.
No place for Australia, here just yet..
But it'll come..... I don't use Maps that much )if at all) to even care what Apple does with this anyway.
This is Apple playing catch up with street view.. while Google was already there. Apple has a long road ahead.
But it'll come..... I don't use Maps that much )if at all) to even care what Apple does with this anyway.
This is Apple playing catch up with street view.. while Google was already there. Apple has a long road ahead.
OK, fair enough. But what exactly is it about Apple Maps that you don't trust? It works just fine, albeit a little bit less featured than Google Maps. Once Street View comes out though, I really won't have a reason to use Google Maps.
The location of things in my area are way off. My street isn't even on the map. But with Google maps I get accurately directions to places. With Apple maps it is 50/50.
Saw one today. Apart from all the cameras and sensors on top, it had a long antenna on driver side from bottom, kind of weird.
They should have better decals, one small white decal on side doesn't give much promotion particularly with silver Dodge Caravan. I wonder why they choose soccer mom minivan. May be equipment is too big. At least they should use hybrids.
They should have better decals, one small white decal on side doesn't give much promotion particularly with silver Dodge Caravan. I wonder why they choose soccer mom minivan. May be equipment is too big. At least they should use hybrids.
Uhh, I don't think you realize just how large this country actually is...especially when you are driving on every street.
That is probably the point; they want to blend in. Even the bing car I saw a couple months ago in my neighborhood just had a simple decal on the door. Nothing like the vinyl overlay on the Google Maps cars and their towering camera.
You're correct about the seemingly wasteful duplication, but no business wants to be dependent on another company for an important part of their offerings, and in light of the strained relationship between Google and Apple (not to mention the extremely competitive nature of CE in general), that is even more applicable in this case.
Iow, Apple will do what it takes to make their Maps at least as good as Google Maps, or who knows perhaps better. It's probably a thorn in their eye knowing many iPhone owners currently use Google Maps.
This all-out effort by Apple is welcome, and probably overdue.
For me it's not just about features, Google In my experience is far more accurate, I think it has a better UI, oh and a load of more information and features.
For a start they still need to build on there transport information, it still can't for instance give me bus tables from my home to my college.
In what way does a 3d map serve a purpose apart form the "OMG how cool" factor?
Apple need to get the mapping information correct as well as transport information and routes correct, first and Formost. Anything else is a bonus.
Mapping has cost and benefits. Cost depends on the size of the country, benefits depends on the population. Mapping the UK serves three times as many people than mapping Canada, at a much lower cost. The ratio is even higher if you look at England, but I'm sure they'll include Wales and Scotland eventually.
Why use the website and not the app?
And never tried it before apart form just then to check it out. Not sure what's wrong with it? Sure it lacks features but it's very simple to use and provided me with a route very quickly with all the information I needed
A 3D map allows you to see the street view from just about any position, rather than just arbitrary positions (where the camera took its picture). If you're looking for a business in StreetView and the business name is obscured in one view, you can jump to the next photo bubble (20 feet down the road) and check it from there. If it's obscured there also, you're basically out of luck. The next bubble could be too far to get a good view. But, if you could smoothly move a few feet, or duck your head to see past the no-parking sign that was blocking your view, then you're no longer dependent on the arbitrary locations of the bubbles.
This will make a big difference in indoor mapping, also.
As for getting the mapping information correct, I agree. That needs to be done concurrently, and by different people with different skill sets than the ones who are diligently working on their version of street view.
There are starving children in Africa who need to be fed, but that doesn't mean we all have to stop what we're doing and only continue when we've solved that (and any other task deemed more important than our current pursuits).
If you're lucky, your face will be blurred. However, they could also have an algorithm that removes you from the picture altogether. You might show up in the image as a bit of a smudge on the pavement/sidewalk.
I've been putting together an unofficial list for months with pins/photos: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zlDi3460W1Zk.kWxpYycIPlUM&usp=sharing
Only other option is: http://maps.apple.com/vehicles