3D Maps: What's the point?

[Frankied22]

At least street view works pretty much everywhere. 3D is a joke unless you live in one of the handful of cities it works in, which most of the world does not.

 

[stickybuns]

Lol, what!? To get from "Point A" to "Point B", why wouldn't you simply route the address in your phone? How could you possibly find the best route by parking on the top of a parking garage, what with the building obstructions and the small chance that you'll be able to see every road leading to your destination?

I have to be getting trolled here...that's hilarious!

I'm thrilled to have amused you so much. But, no, having an opinion that differs from yours is not "trolling."

Of course, I route things on my phone, but I don't want to be walking through a major city with my head buried in my phone; getting from Point A to Point B often means cutting through L.A.'s skid row. Taking steps to memorize the route in advance is the safer/faster bet.

Some people orient themselves using street signs. Other people--such as myself--need to see visual landmarks. When I'm walking/driving around downtown Los Angeles, the best landmarks for me are the skyscrapers since they point out the route from a significant distance away. Nine times out of ten, the street signs are facing the wrong direction and are useless to me as a driver.

 

[donrsd]

Before you start calling me just another hater, I've been a major Apple fan for 20 years+.

That said, I just don't get it. What's the real-world use for 3D maps? Why spend (hundreds of?) millions of dollars developing 3D maps instead of competing with Google's street view (which is WAY quicker to load and much more useful)? I always used street view when I was driving to a new location so I knew exactly what the place looked like before I even got in my car. I could see the storefront and other stores around it making it very easy to find.

3D maps on the other hand are slow to load (even on my i5), from a bird's eye view (instead of a straight-on shot), and are available in what... .02% of the US?

While this new feature "looks cool", I fail to see its usefulness over something like street view.

+1
get some cars on the road and do a street view!

 

[cotak]

This is where I'm lost. By "get to know it", what does that mean? How are you using 3D maps in your trip-planning? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to simply route an address than to look at buildings that have no actual data?

The only thing I see are buildings in the 3D maps...nothing I could use in the actual planning of a trip.

I'm starting to understand what people are saying about Apple adding eye-candy at the expense of functionality and usefulness.

He's clark kent ok? 3D maps is useful for his trip. How else are you going to know you aren't going to land in a pile of manure if you leap tall buildings in one bound?

 

[Foxdog175]

At least street view works pretty much everywhere. 3D is a joke unless you live in one of the handful of cities it works in, which most of the world does not.

That's a very fair point, but at the same time, Google has been mapping with Street View since 2007 (likely earlier if you include their initial testing). I view 3D maps in their infancy.

That said, I agree 100% with you that the current coverage isn't anywhere near enough to start with. Apple should have rode out their last year with Google Maps while they continued to refine their own maps and add 3D coverage across the states. Apple Maps rolled out far too early -- and the proof is in the pudding based on Tim Cook's "I'm sorry our maps suck" letter today.

In the end, I stand by the fact that 3D maps, while pretty, are an inferior solution to Street View.

I get why Google is trying it. They've conquered satellite, turn-by-turn, and street view, and now they're trying something new. Apple, however, doesn't even have the basics down yet. They're biting off more than they chew.

 

[matrix07]

He's clark kent ok? 3D maps is useful for his trip. How else are you going to know you aren't going to land in a pile of manure if you leap tall buildings in one bound?

And the ones who use normal map and satellite image are aliens? Some people is so narrow-minded I fear for mankind future. Lol

 

[mnemonix]

How far behind do you want Apple to be? Yes, maps is so terrible right now that 3D should be the last of their worries, but the 3D implementation, while sparse, is almost decent. Without 3D maps is nothing but a jumbled mess. Now it's a jumbled mess with 3D.

For a tiny minority of people.

For most of us it's a jumbled mess without even satellite imagery, let alone 3d. I literally have low rez, black and white clouds over my city of Nottingham.

LOW REZ - BLACK & WHITE - CLOUDS. Do you hear me?

 

[cynics]

Should we flame google for their use of 3D maps too?

Google markets it as eye candy though. With Google you can get a guided tour with facts about whatever the tour is. For example, the Statue of Liberty has an automatic fly over where the camera view buzzes around the sight and information about the Statue of Liberty pops up on the screen. There are hundreds of places you can get these.

This is what I thought apples "fly over" was going to be. Not just me scrolling around looking at the top of buildings.

I do think Apples 3D looks better in most areas (Googles renders water) but I just can't think of a use for it besides showing someone for a "oh that's neat" moment.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

.... from a bird's eye view (instead of a straight-on shot)....

While this new feature "looks cool", I fail to see its usefulness over something like street view.

That's it in a nutshell.

They'd be better forgetting completely about 3D and focusing on accuracy of the Core Data, POIs, Search and possibly Satellite View.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

Once you get past the "ooos and ahhhs", I can see it being useful to get a full view of the layout of a city. For instance, getting a better understanding of the distance between Copley Square and Boston Common here in Boston. Things like that.

It's a lot of eye candy, but if I were visiting a new city, I'd want to get a 3D aerial view of key landmarks I plan and see the relationship of locations to other key sections of the city.

PS - Apple is not the only one investing in 3D mapping. Google already has it in Google Earth.

 

[Aridia]

I think it's more important to develop a Street View version than the 3D maps.

We don't fly, we walk.

 

[virginblue4]

Lol, what!? To get from "Point A" to "Point B", why wouldn't you simply route the address in your phone? How could you possibly find the best route by parking on the top of a parking garage, what with the building obstructions and the small chance that you'll be able to see every road leading to your destination?

I have to be getting trolled here...that's hilarious!

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This is a dreadful argument. Top-down views will always, always, always be the best and most efficient way to find routes. No other view can compare.

Why do you think road maps were designed with top down views? What other possible view could be more beneficial than a top-down view when routing an address? You can see the streets of an entire city all at once.

Sorry but flyover where you can see top down and see down streets is not efficient? If the entire world supported flyover, I don't see why it's any less efficient than top down maps, also it has added functionality.

You would be surprised that a lot of people like to just look at places around the world. Not everyone uses it just as a tool as you seem to think.

Like I said flyover is both a very useful tool and also a bit of fun.

You can't seem to accept other people's opinions though, looking at your posts.

 

[xraydoc]

I think it's more important to develop a Street View version than the 3D maps.

We don't fly, we walk.

Problem is, Google is the only one with worthwhile street-view data, and they wanted Apple to increase the Google branding on it and build in their Latitude product just to continue to have access to it and turn-by-turn navigation. Apple did not want to agree to these terms (do you think Google would want Apple branding all over one of their apps?), so Apple had little choice. They can't possibly reproduce all of Google's street view data in anything less than 4 years, so this was the next best option.

 

[i-John]

Street view is a great tool for looking at your destination. For instance, I use the feature to see what the hotel looks like before booking.

Totally agree with this. Street View is much more useful to see the "real world" view of where you're going.
Only real use for flyover is if you plan to arrive by helicopter.

Much rather practical uses than eye-candy

 

[DaffyDuck]

Once you get past the "ooos and ahhhs", I can see it being useful to get a full view of the layout of a city. For instance, getting a better understanding of the distance between Copley Square and Boston Common here in Boston. Things like that.

I think satellite view is even better for that. It's hard to gauge distances when the view is obstructed by buildings.

 

[quietstormSD]

I'm sure the 3D view in Apple's Maps are solely for helicopter pilots in big cities.