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Apple Adds New Flyover Locations to Maps, Siri Movie Showtimes in More Countries

Seriously? Flyover is far more useful than Street View! Street View is pointless because its set on 2 axis with the focus of barely a 2MP camera. What are you gonna do with a fuzzy picture of a storefront? Flyover is far more versatile since you have a free axis 360 view of the building and "street view" can simply be incorporated into it once the tech improves.

Why people hate on such an amazing concept is beyond me. Pick an area you frequent that feature flyover and street view and compare it pound for pound.
 
I believe Apple is doing the best they can with mapping. The problem is their refusal to accept that they are not experts on everything. They seem to be convinced that they can do everything better than anyone else. They can't.
 
iososx said:
I believe Apple is doing the best they can with mapping. The problem is their refusal to accept that they are not experts on everything. They seem to be convinced that they can do everything better than anyone else. They can't.
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Really it's about the fact that they are in the "war" with google. If they could make a deal for google's data points and use apple's UI that would be my ideal world. Unfortunately, that ship sailed long ago.
 
newagemac said:
Oh look another person comparing apples and oranges. Flyover and Street View do entirely different things. Street View can't give you a detailed overview of a city like Flyover is designed to do. Not unless you want to spend a year of your life tapping your way down miles and miles of road.... and don't venture too far off.

Street View is ridiculously bad at what Flyover is designed for.
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What does Fly over give you? Bugger all - unless your flying.

Its a *gimmick* - nothing more and nothing less. Apple couldn't do street view so they gave users fly over. Worthless.

What exactly is the point of fly over?
In Street View I can see the location around which is extremely helpful.
 
Judging by many of the posts on here it looks like lots of people still don't know what Flyover is, and are confusing it with 3D buildings view instead. Flyover is just the automated "guided tour" function of Apple Maps where it flies you along a set route, pausing at various waypoints to take a closer look at 3D landmarks.
 
NightFox said:
Judging by many of the posts on here it looks like lots of people still don't know what Flyover is, and are confusing it with 3D buildings view instead. Flyover is just the automated "guided tour" function of Apple Maps where it flies you along a set route, pausing at various waypoints to take a closer look at 3D landmarks.
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Not according to Apple:
Flyover
See select major metro areas from the air with photo-realistic, interactive[emphasis mine] 3D views. Explore cities in high resolution as you zoom, pan, tilt, and rotate around the city and its landmarks.
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You said that with such authority, I had to go check.

The feature you're describing is called City Tour. Flyover is the 3D interactive photorealistic view.
 
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ChipOatley said:
Hey Apple, how about taking 5 seconds to read any of dozens of requests to correct the name of my street? Thank goodness for Google Maps.
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If they didn't take the time to read your requests, even though they came from you, what makes you think they are scouring the MacRumors comments looking for your comments? Even if they did, they'd then have to match your comment up with your requests, which would take a bit longer than five seconds. They could use that time a lot more productively, adding flyover views of my suburban area and the small town where I was born. You have Google Maps anyway, so there's no real urgency.

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Stella said:
What does Fly over give you? Bugger all - unless your flying.

Its a *gimmick* - nothing more and nothing less. Apple couldn't do street view so they gave users fly over. Worthless.

What exactly is the point of fly over?
In Street View I can see the location around which is extremely helpful.
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When I'm flying my drone, Street View doesn't give me squat. It's a useless feature for drone piloting. Google didn't take drones into consideration when they designed the bubble system in Street View. They're hopelessly stuck in the past.
 
doelcm82 said:
The feature you're describing is called City Tour. Flyover is the 3D interactive photorealistic view.
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Quite right and thanks for pointing this out. To find City Tours zoom out in the Maps App and look for the 3D icon. Some of them disappear at small scales though so you might have to zoom back in to see all of them. This is different than the areas with only 3D map views (no tours), which are not marked on the maps. Apple is turning finding these places into an Easter egg hunt for some reason.

The 3D maps and tours are a lot of fun. I wonder how most of the cars and people are eliminated from these aerial views. That's a great trick all by itself.
 
doelcm82 said:
When I'm flying my drone, Street View doesn't give me squat. It's a useless feature for drone piloting. Google didn't take drones into consideration when they designed the bubble system in Street View. They're hopelessly stuck in the past.
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Yep, because Google doesn't have the flyover equivalent with Google Earth
 
Nicksd84 said:
Really it's about the fact that they are in the "war" with google.
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The "war" died with its instigator Steve Jobs.

Tim Cook is a mature professional doing a terrific job of growing Apple. He’s in control of his emotions and doesn't need to "go nuclear" to satisfy his ego. Nor is he a radical narcissist with anger issues. Cook is the right guy to be leading Apple and it shows in the bottom line.
 
I'm glad they are finally putting more emphasis on things that are useful for Flyover, like National Parks and Monuments, instead of useless places like big cities. I never understood the purpose of a 3D view flying over a bunch of big buildings that all look the same, but 3D views of the Grand Canyon and Devil's Tower are awesome! I'm hoping for more in the future.
 
Jayhorn said:
I'm glad they are finally putting more emphasis on things that are useful for Flyover, like National Parks and Monuments, instead of useless places like big cities. I never understood the purpose of a 3D view flying over a bunch of big buildings that all look the same, but 3D views of the Grand Canyon and Devil's Tower are awesome! I'm hoping for more in the future.
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To each his own, but I don't think the Eiffel Tower looks the same as the Chrysler Building. Many buildings have unique features that make them useful as landmarks (both in the sense of being interesting and as a way to orient yourself when you are in a city).
 
newagemac said:
Oh look another person comparing apples and oranges. Flyover and Street View do entirely different things. Street View can't give you a detailed overview of a city like Flyover is designed to do. Not unless you want to spend a year of your life tapping your way down miles and miles of road.... and don't venture too far off.

Street View is ridiculously bad at what Flyover is designed for.
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Agreed; they are totally different. Personally, I find Street View useful in planning to help me recognize driving landmarks indicating a key turn. I live in an area where some of the intersections are quite complicated and voice directions can be confusing. Street View helps for that. But flyover is better for planning a route in an unfamiliar city when I'm on foot-- typical tourist stuff.

I agree with whoever challenged the priority of doing National Parks in flyover-- seems pure eye candy. Maybe hikers could weigh in here.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Can only guess why they chose the cities they did, but the Avignon flyover is awesome. Try a tour of the city walls.
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My guess is they have a long list of places they want to do and these were:

A: The next ones on the list.

B: The next ones they were able to get permission to actually fly over. You can't fly just anywhere these days. You might risk getting arrested or even getting shot down.

C: They've got lots of fly over footage being processed and these are the latest ones they were able to finish processing.
 
TheWatchfulOne said:
My guess is they have a long list of places they want to do and these were:

A: The next ones on the list.

B: The next ones they were able to get permission to actually fly over. You can't fly just anywhere these days. You might risk getting arrested or even getting shot down.

C: They've got lots of fly over footage being processed and these are the latest ones they were able to finish processing.
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I believe these are all compiled from high-res satellite imagery.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I believe these are all compiled from high-res satellite imagery.
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They are done using airplanes (and/or helicopters?). The images (or footage?) are then analysed by a computer which generates the 3D model.

There were articles about the company that developed this technology. It was one of the companies Apple acquired while developing their maps. I forgot the name of that company.
 
TheWatchfulOne said:
They are done using airplanes (and/or helicopters?). The images (or footage?) are then analysed by a computer which generates the 3D model.

There were articles about the company that developed this technology. It was one of the companies Apple acquired while developing their maps. I forgot the name of that company.
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Right you are! C3 Technologies is the company, and low-flying airplanes is supposedly what they use (though the details are a secret).

http://www.applegazette.com/apple-inc/how-apple-creates-3d-flyover-maps/
 
godrifle said:
And no flyover in Cincinnati either. Between the Columbus and Cincinnati MSAs, that's a *lot* of people (4.5 million).
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The 3D flyovers seem to be clustered around Apple corporate headquarters, which explains why they've been created for San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and Modesto (!) but not Los Angeles or Chicago. Another large cluster in southern France and Spain.
 
Apple has shown no evidence of that at all. The UI is still garbage, the POIs still need work, maps are still wrong.....

brueck said:
Heres a radical notion. Apple is working on all aspects of mapping at the same time, and working on flyover doesn't mean they're not also working on transit/improving accuracy.
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