The WWDC keynote on Monday included avery significant update to Apple ’s Mapsapp in iOS 9 : mass theodolite directions .
start this twilight , we ’ll be able to utilise Maps to reckon out a route to our destination that includes buses , subway , trains , even ferry . And it ’s been a long metre coming . Since 2012 — when Google Maps was kicked to the curb in iOS 6 — Apple Maps has had a tab suggesting third - company apps ( like Google Maps … ) to get public transport routes . The transit update in iOS 9 mark off an important measure for Apple and its Maps service not have to bank on third parties to ply such a core smartphone functionality . It took them three years .
You ’d think that after all this time Maps would have an talkative net of public transportation schedules and path , but this feature film is only available in quality cities , including just 10 in North America and Europe .
It ’s not lurid that Apple is taking its odorous time in creating a competitive Maps app . Cupertino is not fond of focal ratio as much as precision . Apple says that Maps will one mean solar day be so accurate , it ’ll tell apart you which subway entryway is best to take . Apple has part to mail out its own fleet of vehicle to collect detailed mapping data , including Street View - mode images and 3D function . Beyond that , Apple is also quiz ego - drive robots to pile up indoor function data point of big office construction and landmarks . The first building that Apple is looking to indoor map is the company ’s novel spaceship - looking headquarters .
tiresome and unshakable seems to be Apple ’s scheme in holler up Maps , but feature like transportation directions and Street View are firmly in its competitor ’s rearview mirror . Apple needs to foot it up a little or it could be left behind .
Apple Maps will terminate suggest third - political party apps for passage counseling .
Google Maps: Big features at groundbreaking speed
Googleintroduced Street View and aggregate transit information for iOSseven yr ago in 2008 . Back then Google Maps included passage directions for 100 cities worldwide . Today that act hasskyrocketed to over 18,000 citiesin 64 country .
Google Maps is also lento inching up to the more socially tug services like Yelp and Foursquare . In this Modern update , you ’ll also be able-bodied to take in your photo and reviews directly in “ Your Places ” profile .
Waze: relying on crowdsourcing for realtime info
Google also has a mysterious artillery when it comes to driving directions : Waze , the app itacquired for $ 1 billionin 2013 .
Waze became a popular and wide trust alternativein spell - to - move around pilotage because it has a internet of driver account traffic information , accidents on the road , and other hurdles in literal clip . Relying on drivers who are really on the road at any given moments work Waze ’s data extremely accurate . Waze is often just at indicate side road or alternate routes because it get its counseling from the route local anaesthetic take every day .
The navigation app also leverages its community for other cool features , likediscovering new placesandfinding out if gas prices are billow .
This social , crowdsourced element to directions is something that secrecy - focused Apple is likely not going to endeavor to imitate . But Apple could practice its fleet of television camera - fit out vehicles to map out every back alley and side road to make Maps the best at suggesting alternative , traffic - complimentary routes . Might as well . Those vehicles are already late to the game : what ’s another year single-valued function out areas that are off the beat path .
