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Hidden 'City Tours' Flyover Feature for iOS 8 Maps Discovered in Beta 2

JaySoul said:
This is like that "Friends" episode when Joey wants to climb Everest but its $60,000 so he wants to rent a film about Everest and then they end up renting Die Hard.
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Exactly! If you have exactly $500, you can fly one way to Paris and potentially starve to death, or you can buy a nice iPad and enjoy the city from the comfort of your own couch!

Let's be honest: there's no substitute for going to the actual place. However, this is a great way to get a visual orientation of major cities before visiting. Agree that cities will likely promote this in their apps.
 
Why do people feel the need to comment on every feature that is uncovered? You have the choice to use it or not. You aren't going to influence Apple. Switch to Android and go away.
 
If you can set the start point (location/address) and points in-between with an end point I can see how this might be useful otherwise I think it's kind of gimmicky.

Also if this makes it in iOS 8, shouldn't we see this in Yosemite as well?
 
na1577 said:
Seems like a silly thing for Apple to be using its resources on.
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You're one of those, huh? Just because they have someone who is skilled at creating 3D imagery, and can invest time into making maps prettier, doesn't mean they also have a skill set that could be applied elsewhere, like database work, for example.

Yes, it's frustrating as an end-user to see "pointless" features like this getting attention when their backend data is still abysmal. But you can't usually shuffle people between different types of jobs, so adding more of one thing doesn't necessarily mean that another thing isn't getting done because of it. It just doesn't work that way.
 
JaySoul said:
This is like that "Friends" episode when Joey wants to climb Everest but its $60,000 so he wants to rent a film about Everest and then they end up renting Die Hard.
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Or the time my wife and I went on a Google Maps Street View tour of Compton and Tokyo :D
 
na1577 said:
Seems like a silly thing for Apple to be using its resources on.
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Agreed. I'm usually an ardent defender of Apple, but i'm starting to get a bit fed up with their wasting of labor resources. They never seem to fix the things that need fixing, like a lack of transit routing, or the glitchiness of iTunes Match, or the lack of a streaming music subscription service.
 
I could see it being used as a fancy way of orienting yourself in a new city. When we visited Paris a few years back it wasn't until day 2 that we really started to enjoy ourselves because we had a much better sense of where we were and where we needed to go. Getting familiarized with a new city before arriving makes your vacation that much easier.

Sure most people won't use it more than a couple times but with millions of iPhones that's still a lot of uses.
 
Mugambo said:
very 'magical' feature alright.

what is the use of this feature again?
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Yeah, because nobody uses street view or any other type of "virtual city" map feature, right? :rolleyes:

unobtainium said:
Agreed. I'm usually an ardent defender of Apple, but i'm starting to get a bit fed up with their wasting of labor resources. They never seem to fix the things that need fixing, like a lack of transit routing, or the glitchiness of iTunes Match, or the lack of a streaming music subscription service.
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You do realise that different departments and different developers do different things, right?
 
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Looks great, I love it, though, even I must admit, in reality if this is just really pre-programmed landmarks, it's just really something to show off to people with.

Nice, but it is, what it is.

You could almost just make it into an App. Great flyovers of the world
 
But, but I want a map of the ocean floor. Come on Apple, stop being lazy and work on what I want or I will force your hand by threatening to change to android.








/sarcasm
 
Not a google provided app. The original maps app was built by apple and used google data. It wasn't a google app.
 
unclevername said:
You do realise that different departments and different developers do different things, right?
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You do realize that there is someone at Apple who manages hiring and determines each department's direction and focus, right? Why is it that Apple can't seem to hire enough back-end people to fix basic functionality problems? Could it be a lack of direction and focus at higher levels of management?

Something is wrong when a company keeps pushing inconsequential stuff like this but can't direct resources toward actual usability problems people have been complaining about for years.
 
SuperRob said:
You're one of those, huh? Just because they have someone who is skilled at creating 3D imagery, and can invest time into making maps prettier, doesn't mean they also have a skill set that could be applied elsewhere, like database work, for example.

Yes, it's frustrating as an end-user to see "pointless" features like this getting attention when their backend data is still abysmal. But you can't usually shuffle people between different types of jobs, so adding more of one thing doesn't necessarily mean that another thing isn't getting done because of it. It just doesn't work that way.
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This point makes sense in theory, but after two years, Apple Maps still doesn't have public transportation data, or even most station locations. The priorities are messed up somewhere.
 
unobtainium said:
You do realize that there is someone at Apple who manages hiring and determines each department's direction and focus, right? Why is it that Apple can't seem to hire enough back-end people to fix basic functionality problems? Could it be a lack of direction and focus at higher levels of management?

Something is wrong when a company keeps pushing inconsequential stuff like this but can't direct resources toward actual usability problems people have been complaining about for years.
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I was unaware of your extensive knowledge of Apple's every day hiring practices. Do enlighten us some more.
 
unclevername said:
I was unaware of your extensive knowledge of Apple's every day hiring practices. Do enlighten us some more.
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It's not like I was saying anything specific. Companies have managers who set the direction of projects and oversee hiring. Or did you think Apple was just some anarchic free-for-all where anything can happen? :rolleyes:
 
Otis Bagotis said:
I could see it being used as a fancy way of orienting yourself in a new city. When we visited Paris a few years back it wasn't until day 2 that we really started to enjoy ourselves because we had a much better sense of where we were and where we needed to go. Getting familiarized with a new city before arriving makes your vacation that much easier.

Sure most people won't use it more than a couple times but with millions of iPhones that's still a lot of uses.
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I keep reliving my Paris visits in flyover; the imagery really is fantastic and VERY accurate. Tres magnifique! And also for planning the next visit...

Must go back to the Pantheon to pay my respects at the tomb of Zola!
 
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