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New Apple Maps With Cool Features Launches Today For All U.S. Users

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Apple has today announced that the new-look Apple Maps has just been rolled out for the entire United States, not just individual cities or states as had been the case until now. 

Do you use Apple Maps? Or did its dodgy beginning put you off for life? If the latter, maybe give it another go. Its design is way more inviting and elegant than Google Maps, I’d say, with better routing than the otherwise-excellent Here WeGo.

Mind you, Here WeGo has one great advantage: you can download entire country maps for free in advance so you can navigate offline, which can save a fortune on overseas roaming charges.

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Anyway, Apple announced in June that for iOS 13 it was redesigning Maps with extra features and more detail. It was a project that, according to Apple exec Eddy Cue in a statement from Apple today, “required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to reimagine how Maps enhances people’s lives — from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation — all with privacy at its core.”

As of today, that’s what all U.S. users will see. Here’s all you need to know.

All U.S. users see the new maps now – Europe coming later

Some features were already available in some parts of the country, with California among the first states to be upgraded. Now it’s the whole U.S. European users must wait, but Apple says it’ll roll out over the next months. 

Greater levels of detail, better road coverage, more accurate addresses

That’s what Apple has promised and it’s easy to spot the difference. Before, you’d see clean, simple roads on a pale background. However, now, there is a completely different look: parks appear as green spaces and buildings are shaded along the edges of roads.

There’s more pedestrian data, which is great because however you’re making your journey, you’re almost certainly ending it on foot. 

More precise addresses are promised which is certainly welcome. Again, the place mapping falls down is in the last few paces of your route – is it left or right on this street?

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Look Around

Remember when Apple Maps first launched? It had one super-cool feature called Flyover which offered interactive overhead maps of cities. Now, a similar effect has been brought to the street-level imagery we’re more familiar with on a day-to-day basis. Google has had Street View for years, though that can look jerky and uneven as you navigate through it. First, Apple had to find a different name. It plumped for Look Around, and it’s pretty spectacular. 

The images are high-resolution and animate smoothly from one to the other as you navigate through it. It could almost look like a 3D photo-realistic environment were it not for one detail: faces are pixelated in a way that real life does not match. 

To find it, when you’re in one of the Look Around cities, tap on the map and in the box below, tap Look Around.

It’s not everywhere yet, like Flyover wasn’t at first. But you can see Look Around in New York City, The San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Oahu. More are promised. Flyover, by the way, is now in 350 cities.

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It’s easier than ever to get home, to work or to favorite places which can sit onscreen so they’re always available. 

Real-time Transit

Public transit information has seen a real uptick in capabilities, with lots of information presented, as you’d expect from Apple with sublime simplicity. If there are transport issues, the app will know. I’ll just add that my favorite city travel app, Citymapper offers comparable levels of comprehensive information. 

Indoor Maps

Finding your way around shopping malls and airports isn’t always easy. Airports are especially tricky because you’re almost always stressed and uncertain, and wanting to make sure you know the way to get to the gate in time. The airport maps are particularly well-done, not least because they work on multiple levels. Literally. 

Siri will also look in your Calendar, Mail and Wallet apps to get flight information which it can serve up even before you ask for it. 

Siri Natural Language Guidance

Part of the upgrade to Maps has been better directions from Siri. So far, this benefit is only for U.S. users. It aims to talk in a more natural way, saying things like “At the next traffic light, turn right.” Although, I’ll be honest, if it was really going to sound normal enough to match real life in my car, it would say, “You’ve missed that turning now, you idiot, just concentrate.”

Privacy

Along with Eddy Cue’s comment above, since this is Apple, it’s probably not a surprise that privacy is built-in. This isn’t new. In previous versions Apple had worked out a system that kept some parts of your journey (the first and last bits) separate from the main route, to add to the security of the experience. 

Apple described it like this: “Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called ‘fuzzing.’ Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.”

Now, Apple says that personalized elements like what time you should leave for the next appointment in your calendar are on-device only. 

There’s no doubt that Apple Maps had transformed some years back from its unsatisfying debut to becoming reliable and capable. Now, with improved design, much greater accuracy and gorgeous extras like Look Around, it can completely hold its own in the world of mapping apps. 

For more on the Maps privacy issue, read fellow Forbes contributor Kate O’Flaherty’s post here.

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