Apple billed 3D Flyover as one of the headlining features of its Maps app, when it replaced Google Maps in iOS last fall with its own in-house software. Unfortunately, at the time, the feature was only available for a handful of cities.
But the Maps team has been awfully busy in recent months, adding Flyover support to a number of new areas. Earlier this month, it expanded Flyover coverage in Paris, France, and this week it’s bolstered support in greater California… Read More
3D Flyover, a headline feature of Apple’s in-house mapping service available on compatible iOS 6 devices, initially included only a handful of U.S. cities. The last major expansion was in March, when Apple added 3D Flyovers in twelve new cities – including such venues as Tokyo Station, Japan Imperial Palace and Tokyo Tower – and expanded Flyover coverage in more than a dozen U.S. cities.
Today, the company added 3D buildings for Paris, France and surrounding areas. I have a feeling iDB’s own Sebastien Page will have lots of fun playing with Maps on his iPad… Read More
Waze must be doing something right. Earlier this year, the popular crowdsourced GPS application was reportedly being courted by Apple for a possible buyout. And today comes a rumor that Facebook is also interested in an acquisition.
How interested? Well according to a new report this morning, the deal could be worth in upwards of $1 Billion. Apparently, the two companies have been in negotiations for the last six months, and are now in advanced due diligence… Read More
With Google Maps launching as a standalone app last fall, and Apple’s own Maps app getting progressively better, you probably aren’t in the market for an alternative GPS application. But we’re going to tell you about one anyway.
ForeverMap2, a maps app that uses OpenStreetMaps tech, has finally landed on iOS. Its claim to fame is its advanced compression technology, which allows it to serve up offline maps without taking up much space on your device… Read More
Hot on the heels of a pair of yesterday’s reports which asserted that Apple’s upcoming iOS 7 will have a “very flat” user interface akin to Windows Phone’s ‘Metro’ visual style – along with Mac OS X 10.9 borrowing core multitasking features from iOS 7 – 9to5Mac writer Mark Gurman is back at it again with another exclusive. Today’s story details an alleged integration of Apple’s Siri digital personal assistant and in-house built Maps service in iOS 7 with your car’s dashboard… Read More
Waze, a free social GPS application developed by the Israeli start-up Waze Mobile, at point was supposedly going to be acquired by Apple in order to improve iOS 6 Maps data, though later reports dismissed the rumor as wishful thinking.
Its CEO Noam Bardin was interviewed at AllThingsD’s Dive Into Mobile conference yesterday.
Among the topics discussed, Barding shared his observations concerning Apple’s Maps service which debuted as part of iOS 6 in September 2012, here’s what he said… Read More
Is Apple preparing to take another chunk out of Google’s mapping franchise? A patent filed in 2011 and entitled “3D Position Tracking for Panoramic Navigation,” discovered Thursday, suggests the iPhone maker is considering adding street level navigation to its own iOS 6 Maps technology.
By virtue of the description, the invention suggests using movement sensors built into the iPhone and iPad to make it easier for mobile users to move within virtual maps. Currently, Google’s Street View feature makes use of mouse movements and touchscreen input for navigation. A key difference between Apple Maps and Google Maps may also include the ability to navigate within structures… Read More
When Apple released iOS 6 last year, it replaced the long-running Google Maps app with its own in-house mapping software. And, as most of you know, it took a lot of criticism over the move due to its inaccurate map data, missing features and other issues.
It was so bad, in fact, that Tim Cook wrote an open letter to iOS users, promising Apple would work non-stop to make it better. And it has been. It’s already made several improvements to the app, and is in the middle of a big hiring push for its Maps team… Read More
Big news out of Cupertino this evening. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has acquired indoor mobile location positioning firm WiFiSLAM, in a deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million.
Apple has confirmed the acquisition of the company, which possesses proprietary technology that allows mobile apps to detect a smartphone user’s location inside of buildings using preexisting ambient Wi-Fi signals… Read More
More major corporate changes happening at Google. After Andy Rubin yesterday stepped down as Android boss, The Wall Street Journal just reported (and Reuters corroborated) that the Internet giant is breaking up mapping and commerce unit, with Senior Vice President of Maps and Commerce Jeff Huber stepping aside. The two-part management shift at Google also saw some major shakeup of Google’s Android and Chrome OS teams. Google’s mapping business will be folded into the company’s search unit as part of these changes… Read More
When Tim Cook wrote his open letter last September, apologizing for the quality of the new Maps app, he said that Apple would work on it non-stop until it lived up to its incredibly high standards. And it has been.
Though it hasn’t garnered much media attention, Apple has made a number of improvements to its Maps app over the past six months, including adding Flyover support and 3D building images to several new cities… Read More
Back in February, Apple seeded a beta version of iOS 6.1.1 to developers. The update featured a lengthy change log of some much needed fixes and improvements for its iOS Maps application in Japan.
Of course, Apple forewent that release in order to push out bug fixes for the iPhone 4S, and later Exchange. But it looks like Japan users finally got their new Map data that they’ve been waiting for today… Read More
Google Tuesday morning pushed a new version of its native Google Maps application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s the first update since the Internet giant released a standalone Maps software for Apple’s platform in December 2012, racketing up ten million downloads in just two days and becoming the App Store’s top free iPhone app in no time. New features in Google Maps version 1.1 for iOS include integration with Google Contacts, local search icons that make finding places of interest faster and easier and more… Read More
When Google released its standalone Maps app for iOS back in December of last year, it also seeded an SDK to select developers. The software development kit allows developers to integrate Google’s mapping data into their apps.
Today, Google has lifted the limitation, opening up its Maps SDK to all developers. The announcement comes alongside a nice little update to the dev kit, which now features ground overlays, and other new mapping tools… Read More
One of my favorite jailbreak tweaks, AssistantLove, just received an update for iOS 6 compatibility. AssistantLove was featured in our top jailbreak tweaks of 2012 list, and would have been added to my “perfect iPhone” feature, if it had iOS 6 compatibility at the time.
If you’re a Spotify user like I am, then you will really appreciate what AssistantLove brings to the table. Along with allowing you to integrate GPS apps with Siri, and launch apps using shortcut names, AssistantLove meshes Siri with Spotify. This means that you pretty much search for any song or artist you can think of using your voice. Read More
Last December, Police in Victoria, Australia issued a warning regarding Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6, after several travelers became lost and stranded in a National Park due to poor directions. The advisory added insult to injury after Apple had taken months of criticism over the service.
Well, they’re back at it today. Officials in Victoria, Australia are again warning users of Maps’ inaccuracies, claiming that problems with the software are making it difficult to determine where fires are located in the city’s Country Fire Authority bushfire information app ‘FireReady…’ Read More
As we’ve mentioned in the past, Flex is basically a Game Genie for the iPhone. While Flex can’t create new content, it can nullify lines of code, override return values, and mess with variable return values. These can be used to prevent jailbreak detection, enable hidden features, hide interface elements in apps, and even, as you may expect, cheat in games.
Flex is a very versatile tool with a near limitless number of potential uses, so today we’re going to highlight 5 general purpose Flex patches for iOS… Read More
It seems like criticism for Apple’s Maps app has died down in recent months. What was once the favorite topic of critics and naysayers has been replaced with talk of iPhone 5 part order cuts and the company’s floundering stock.
But that doesn’t mean that the Maps app is up to snuff yet, and Apple knows it. That’s why it’s been working hard to improve the software and, according to new job listings, is making a major hiring push for its Maps team… Read More
Want to find restaurants and bars you’ll like but are tired of getting reviews that the stores likely posted themselves? The problem with traditional crowdsourcing is the service tends to be anonymous, and you will get reviews from people who don’t necessarily share your tastes.
Scoopt has a different crowdsourcing philosophy. It’s an app that is designed to help you connect “with your favorite people’s favorite places”. Instead of comprehensive reviews from strangers, Scoopt gives you quick recommendations from friends you trust… Read More
PDF Printer for Safari was a jailbreak tweak originally designed to allow users to ‘print’ from safari to PDF documents in order to neatly archive websites, but it seems the tweak has grown beyond its name.
The latest version of PDF Printer for Safari adds PrintKit integration, which is the native printing library on iOS. This library means ‘printed’ documents will save faster, users can now delete pages from the PDF on the fly, and the PDF Printer now works with the stock Maps app in iOS 5… Read More
