Skip to main content

Apple Maps adds Street View-style imagery, but with a neat trick

Apple

Apple Maps has well and truly moved on from its nightmare start in 2012 and is now aiming to navigate its way to even greater heights with the launch of iOS 13 later this year.

The overhauled app is bringing with it a slew of new features, including a new Street View-style tool called Look Around that lets you explore a place as if you were there.

Related Videos

It’s pretty neat, too. In an on-stage demo at Apple’s iOS 13 event on Monday, Meg Frost, the company’s director of product design, accessed the imagery by tapping on a new “binoculars” button that appears when you select on an area of interest on the map.

With the 360-degree imagery filling the screen, you can explore the surrounding area by sliding your finger around the display. OK, that’s not so different from Street View, but where Apple appears to have improved on Google’s tool is when you move along the street.

When you tap on an arrow in Street View, you hurtle to the next spot pretty darn quickly, with the picture blurring as you go. But with Apple’s Look Around, you proceed far more smoothly, with no deterioration in the picture. It’s like you’re right there, in the car, and ensures you don’t miss anything of interest as you go.

Even better, tap on any of the labels that appear in the imagery — say, for a store — and the picture will swing around to give you a better view and at the same time surface a card offering more information about the place you’re looking at.

It’s not yet clear how much coverage Look Around will offer at launch, though we’d like to think that most major U.S. cities — at the very least — will be in there from the start.

The map

Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said that to create the new Apple Maps, the company kitted out hundreds of cars and planes with cameras and sensors, and covered more than 4 million miles to rebuild the content “from the ground up.”

A comparison shown on stage by Federighi revealed how the new map has tons of extra detail compared to the current offering. The new, vastly improved content will arrive on Apple Maps for the whole of the U.S. by the end of 2019, and select other countries sometime next year.

A Favorites feature has also been added to the upcoming version of Apple Maps, as well as a Collections menu to help you sort out your saved content and organize trips.

The early signs are that this is a major overhaul of Apple Maps, though whether it can persuade iDevice users of Google Maps to give it another shot remains to be seen.

To learn more about all of the goodies coming to the iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch via iOS 13, be sure to check out Digital Trends’ overview.

Editors' Recommendations

9 Apple products we’re expecting in 2023: iPhone 15, M2 Mac Pro, and more
An iPhone 14 sitting on a wood desk.

Apple is one of the most secretive companies in the world of big tech. Rumors of future products seem to develop years ahead of their time, and while we can all speculate as much as we want, we don’t really know what new products Apple has coming until they're announced. For existing products, though, it’s a little easier since most of those tend to be on an annual upgrade cycle, with a few exceptions.

But the rumor mill for new products, like Apple’s mixed reality headset, has been reaching peak levels of hype recently, which leads us to believe its release is imminent. We could also have the first iPhone with USB-C charging, eliminating the need for proprietary Lightning cables, and even a 15-inch MacBook Air.

Read more
Could this be our first look at the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5?
Concept render of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.

As the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 has drawn closer, there's been plenty of speculation regarding what the new foldable will look like. Now, we may be one step closer to solving that mystery.

Recent concept images shared by Technizo Concept and YouTuber Super Roader aim to give fans an idea of what to expect when the Z Fold 5 is officially revealed, or when leaked renders inevitably start to surface. Before viewing the concept images, it's important to remember that they're just that: a concept. There's nothing official about what Technizo Concept has made; they're not leaked renders or official stills. Instead, the renders provide a look into what the Galaxy Z Fold 5 could look like based on information that's leaked so far, as well as recent trends in Samsung hardware.

Read more
You should pay attention to this cheap, colorful phone with a 200MP camera
A person holding the Redmi Note 12 Pro+.

Before it has really begun in earnest, the time of 200-megapixel cameras only being found on top-of-the-range smartphones has ended.

Proof of that is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+, which has a 200MP Samsung ISOCELL HPX sensor inside its camera module. On paper, it could challenge phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. We’ve taken an early look at the Note 12 Pro+ to see if there’s more to it than just the camera.
Camera clarification
Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Read more