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The major cities will be benchmarked by people and reviewers. They started on the small cities to see if they can get them right. When they have, then they'll do the big complicated ones that get outdated quick (NYC, London, etc)

And then make them only available on "The New iPhone" :p
 
I wouldn't say Apples maps should have been like this - I agree it's fun, and when you're zoomed out its very impressive. When your zoomed in it looks like your playing sim city, famous places aside, it's mostly generic buildings (I see miles of flat roofs modelled that are actually pitched).

Well, yes, obviously Recce is more toy than tool at this point. And yes, most buildings are made up of generic models - their footprints are genuine and based on OSS data, but the heights, shapes of the roofs, etc, are not.

But I think it does provide a hint at what 3D maps *could* be like. Trying to skin aerial imagery onto a "melted looking" radar model as Apple have done is certainly impressive for 3D flyovers and the like, but not actually that useful as a real world map at street level.

Somewhere in between the classic 2D map and photo-realistic 3D there's an ideal medium that would better than either of them for real-world navigation.

The only reason it's smoother is the model's stored locally, Apple should add the option to cache more map tiles to make theirs smoother.

Apple's Map is slower even when its fully loaded (I'm talking about frame rate here, not loading time for tiles). It's not too bad in regular map mode, or in fact in 3D mode, but still noticeably a lot less smooth than something like Recce or the old Google Maps. Hopefully they'll be able to speed it up more before the GM, though.
 
I found a list of available 3D cities, in case someone wants to see all of them, it's funny how even cars are 3D modeled

Australia
Melbourne
Sydney

Canada
Montreal
Toronto

Denmark
Copenhagen

Spain
Madrid

US
Alhambra
Atlanta
Austin
Beverly Hills
Boston
Century City
Chicago
Cupertino
Dallas
Denver
Fort Worth
Hollywood
Houston
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Mountain View
New Orleans
Oakland
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Gabriel
San Jose
San Marino
Santa Monica
Seattle
South Pasadena

UK
Birmingham
Manchester

Funny... Im in the UK i expected London since it is the main city in the UK -_- How dissapointing
 
Funny... Im in the UK i expected London since it is the main city in the UK -_- How dissapointing

And how dissapointing that Berlin, Germany is not yet supported. :(

You're both disappointed about 2 cities when it's in beta?!?! Wait until its officially released. We know that London will definitely be in 3D as it was one of the cities demoed couple years back by C3. Obviously apple have refrained from putting them in a developers beta. Have patience....
 
You're both disappointed about 2 cities when it's in beta?!?! Wait until its officially released. We know that London will definitely be in 3D as it was one of the cities demoed couple years back by C3. Obviously apple have refrained from putting them in a developers beta. Have patience....

Lets all freak out about beta software in a developers release!!!
 
Let's hope we see more on Wednesday. I'm a bit worried they may not have any more ready.

I'm pretty sure they will have lots more cities in place for the release.

I'm more worried about the Map app being generally crap otherwise, and 3D flyovers being a poor substitute for Google's better quality maps, better quality satellite imagery, street view, etc.
 
I'm pretty sure they will have lots more cities in place for the release.

I'm more worried about the Map app being generally crap otherwise, and 3D flyovers being a poor substitute for Google's better quality maps, better quality satellite imagery, street view, etc.

People still commenting on the quality of the satellite imagery?! It said these were not included in the beta... Also I find the 3D better and more useful than the limited, linear street view.

As for the 3D cities, we know apple started off with over 100 from C3 so there will be at least this amount to start, which includes London and New York, which haven't been enabled in the beta.
 
When talking about flyover on Wednesday Mr. Forstall demos London and NY. You heard it here first ;)
 
I'm more worried about the Map app being generally crap otherwise, and 3D flyovers being a poor substitute for Google's better quality maps, better quality satellite imagery, street view, etc.

I too was concerned about the loss of Street View until an official Google app is approved, as I use it regularly. Another forum member has helped with a temporary fix to the problem.


I've been using ifindview for Street view while running the beta. it isn't perfect but it does what I need...
 
new Flyover button
 

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