Maps

Google Maps with OpenTable reservations, Uber integration and Material Design now rolling out

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2014

Announced yesterday, a much-improved Google Maps for the iPhone and iPad featuring Material Design appearance, OpenTable reservations, Uber integration and more is now rolling out in App Stores worldwide.

Featuring engaging animations, shadows and depth — courtesy of Google's newly-found design language for desktop, mobile and the web — Google Maps 4.0 promises to be the funnest version of the app to date.

The search giant says the layers and buttons “come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery.”

Download the app now, give it a whirl and tell us how you liked it in comments.

Google Maps 4.0 is free in the App Store.

Google Maps for iOS revamped with Android’s Material Design UI

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2014

Keen on deploying Android Lollipop’s Material Design across its mobile apps on all platforms, Google on Wednesday announced a new version of Google Maps for the iPhone and iPad featuring engaging animations, shadows and depth.

The fresh new design is all about creating surfaces and shadows that echo the real world, the search firm said.

With Google Maps’ new material feel, layers and buttons “come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery”. The update will be rolling out over the next few days.

Google Maps is available free in the App Store.

Apple launches Maps Connect, a way for businesses to manage their Apple Maps listings

Cody Lee ∙ October 21, 2014

Apple has launched a new self-service portal for US businesses to add or edit listings within Apple Maps. Dubbed Apple Maps Connect, the portal aims to allow small business owners to ensure that their listings are up-to-date and accurate.

According to Search Engine Land, who has used the service, Maps Connect is free, and listings appear in Apple Maps on both desktop and mobile versions. You simply login with your Apple ID, and either create or claim your business listing.

Video walkthroughs offer detailed look at CarPlay on Pioneer’s $700 AVH-4000NEX receiver

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Though we've seen our fair share of CarPlay demos in months past, we still can't get enough of learning about the intricacies of Apple's in-car iPhone entertainment system. You may have head that Pioneer recently released a firmware update bringing CarPlay functionality to five of its 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers, so people don't have to buy a brand new car just to enjoy CarPlay.

As noted by TUAW, Josh Carr of technology repair firm Fix Denver put Pioneer's new software through its paces and created several videos showing off different aspects of CarPlay, including Phone functionality, Apple Maps and various other built-in apps including Spotify, which recently updated its iPhone and iPad app with CarPlay support .

Interested? Jump past the break for more.

Nearly half of Flyover locations now have city tour enabled under iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 7, 2014

In the run-up to the forthcoming iOS 8 launch, Apple appears to have recently added dozens of cities and landmarks to the automated three-dimensional Flyover tours available in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, according to evidence MacRumors discovered Sunday. Specifically, as many as 40 locations are Flyover city tour-enabled out of the 90 cities where regular Flyovers are available.

Apple has also been expanding Flyover coverage with the latest additions of the Yosemite National Park in the United States and Wellington in New Zealand.

Nokia tries maps again, confirms free iOS navigation app coming based on Here Maps

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 3, 2014

Nokia executive Sean Fernback told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Finnish telecommunications company will be releasing a brand new cross-platform mobile navigation app for the iOS and Android platforms later this year.

Nokia, which sold off its handset division to Microsoft, kept its Here mapping service. The forthcoming GPS navigation app would be unique in that both the maps themselves and searches would work without an Internet connection.

You can now take a Flyover tour of Yosemite National Park in Apple Maps

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 19, 2014

Conveniently, Apple's added a 3D Flyover view of the Yosemite National Park in California and Wellington in New Zealand to its Maps service, available across Mac and iOS devices. The latest addition allows you to check out Yosemite's landmarks, or the buildings and other structures in the city of Wellington.

3D Flyover views for the Auckland and Christchurch areas in New Zealand have been added to Apple Maps earlier in the year. The Cupertino company has updated the Flyover availability webpage by adding Wellington and Yosemite to the list...

Apple’s Maps team calling businesses to verify user address corrections

Cody Lee ∙ July 12, 2014

Continuing on with its efforts to refine its mapping software, Apple has apparently begun calling businesses looking to verify user-reported address corrections. In a recent Reddit post, a business owner said he had been contacted by someone with Apple Maps.

Reddit user swb1192 said he received an interesting phone call from a 408 number (a Cupertino, California area code) this week. The person said that they were with Apple's Maps team, and that a user had reported his business address as incorrect, which it was...

Google Maps gains Gmail appointments and search results on map and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

As Apple continues to decrease its dependency on Google for maps in products such as the Find My iPhone service, the Internet giant keeps on adding new features to the native Google Maps iOS app in an effort to widen the gap between its own service and Apple Maps.

Today's version 3.2 update adds a couple new features to Google Maps, starting with a new Explore section acting as your local guide that highlights different places and activities, depending on your location and time of day...

Apple loses senior Maps engineer Chris Blumenberg for Uber

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Apple's senior engineering manager with the Maps team is leaving the company for Uber, the popular ride-sharing service founded in 2009.

Chris Blumenberg, who long worked on Maps for iOS and OS X and managed Apple's Maps Apps and Frameworks teams, will be taking a position at Uber, according to a report by The Information.

The departure comes as Apple appears to be ramping up hiring to overhaul the Maps backend.

More importantly, this development reaches us amid talk of internal politics, personal issues and managerial incompetencies allegedly causing significant Maps delays, as evidenced by the lack of major iOS 8 Maps announcements at WWDC...

Apple drops Google Maps for own maps in a new beta of the Find My iPhone web app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

It would seem that Google gave way to Apple Maps on the web in a new Find My iPhone beta, which was released yesterday alongside iOS 8 Beta 3 and the third OS X Yosemite Developer Preview.

At the time of this writing, the change appeared to affect Apple's Find My iPhone beta on the web, which has switched from Google Maps tiles to an Apple Maps backend. For those wondering, the native iOS app stopped using Google Maps in 2012...

Apple hiring software engineers to help ‘overhaul’ Maps backend

Cody Lee ∙ July 2, 2014

According to a pair of new job listings, Apple is looking for folks to help with a major rewrite of its Maps app programming interface. The listings, which were posted yesterday, call for software engineers to aid the company in a major overhaul of its Maps API.

The job descriptions call for cross-functional leaders to join the Apple Maps API team, which is responsible for the "doorway" to all systems powering the Maps service. The company says it has "big plans" for the API, and is overhauling things front-to-back...