A new job listing posted by Apple shows that the company is working to bring its in-house Maps app, currently only available as native apps for iOS and Mac OS X, to the web.
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Update: The new Google Maps app is now available on the App Store.
Google announced an update for its Google Maps for iOS app today that adds a fresh new Material Design layout focusing on bright colors and real world surfaces and shadows. The software’s refreshed interface is set to roll out over the next few days, with new features like dinner reservations from OpenTable (US only) and enhanced information cards with photos and reviews of popular attractions near your location.
Starting with iOS 5 in 2011, Apple has released a major new iOS version each fall and a notable follow-up update early in the following year. For example, iOS 6 launched in September 2012 and was updated to iOS 6.1 in January, and iOS 7, which was launched in September 2013, was updated to iOS 7.1 with CarPlay and interface improvements in March 2014. But starting with the recently released iOS 8, it appears that Apple has a different development schedule for 2015 and perhaps beyond. According to sources, Apple is already hard at work on three major follow-up versions to iOS 8: iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, and iOS 8.3.
iOS 8.2 visits to 9to5Mac
We’ve confirmed that these major new versions are in development via two means. First, a developer of a major hardware-connected iOS application has shared with us their analytics, and this data indicates that all three versions are in testing by Apple employees in or around Cupertino, California. Second, and much closer to home, our own Google Analytics for 9to5Mac.com show that iOS users are visiting our website via iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, and iOS 8.3 devices. iOS 8.1 hits to 9to5Mac.com started appearing even months before iOS 8.0 launched, but 8.2 and 8.3 visits only started picking up following iOS 8’s release in mid-September.
iOS 8.3 visits to 9to5Mac
While Apple works on several iOS features and enhancements over the course of several years, it typically only begins wholly testing major new releases close to the ship dates of the preceding release. Apple working on three significant follow-ups to iOS 8 is a shift from the usual development cycle, one which would normally indicate Apple to be working on just iOS 8.1 as well as iOS 9.0. It’s possible that iOS 9 is also in the works, and of course Apple is always working on nominal bug fix (x.x.1 or .2 or .3) updates, but the fact that 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 are all in simultaneous development raises some interesting possibilities:
Now that Apple is 8.0.2 rolled out and we’re all relatively stable with a Healthkit-enabled OS, Apple is giving us a new section of the App Store for health-related apps.
Experience an entirely new approach to wellness where your fitness app can talk to your calorie tracker, your doctor can be automatically notified of updates to your health data, and great apps work together for a healthier you. This handpicked collection highlights the best fitness, nutrition, and medical apps customized for iOS 8.
Red prices on pink background? They must have moved that Maps launch and iOS 8.0.1 guy over to design.
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Apple has steadily been adding new cities and locations with support for its 3D Flyover feature to its Maps app this year. The latest Flyover addition to Apple Maps includes support for two new locations: Wellington, New Zealand and Yosemite National Park, California. The addition of Wellington marks the third location in New Zealand to support Flyover with Auckland and Christchurch both previously being supported. Newly added 3D Flyover support for Yosemite National Park in California is especially notable though as Apple prepares to ship its redesigned Mac operating system named after the national park…
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Apple has shown a renewed focus on Maps with iOS 8. Although headline features like transit did not show at WWDC, recent iOS 8 betas are bringing improvements to the ‘Report A Problem’ features. The frequency at which these updates are passed through has also improved dramatically in the past couple of months.
Apple has added a new explicit ‘follow-up by email’ option at the end of the Report A Problem form. This means Apple is now actively looking to get additional information about map queries from customers via email.
Apple has for a long time hired engineers around the globe to contribute to making its Maps experience better. While positions for its team outside Cupertino usually consist of Maps Quality Analysts and Ground Truth managers that submit region specific corrections for Maps, a new job listing on Apple’s website hints at a “data-collection project” planned for New York.
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Apple’s Maps app, introduced as part of iOS 6 in 2012, has had its fair share of technical issues and was the source of a PR crisis and the ejection of multiple long-time Apple executives. But two years later, if data from UK carrier EE is any indication, Apple Maps usage appears to be on an upward trend. Here’s the latest usage data for Apple Maps from the network:
Apple is reportedly calling some business owners to verify information that has been marked as incorrect through its Maps app’s “Report a Problem” feature. According to a Reddit post this evening, at least one business has received a call from the Maps team to check up on an incorrect address.
As it turns out, the location was outdated and had been taken from Yelp’s listing some time ago, but Apple never updated its own database to reflect recent changes to the business on Yelp. According to the post, the updated data is expected to go live within a week. The full post reads:
A 408 number called me from Apple Maps and let me know that a user reported my business address as incorrect. They still had my old address that was listed on Yelp so I gave them the new one. I asked when I should expect it to be updated on Apple Maps and the lady said, “We don’t have an exact timeline for updates but it should be within the next week.”
It appears that Apple pulled from Yelp awhile ago but it doesn’t actually sync the addresses and other information.
Still couldn’t believe that they called me to fix up the listing – how awesome.
At the moment there haven’t been any other reports of businesses getting similar calls, though it could become a more common occurrence since Apple recently started making a serious push to correct inaccurate map data by sending out corrected point-of-interest info every night.
Google today updated its Maps application for iPhone and iPad to version 3.2 introducing new features and improvements.
The latest version of Google Maps now supports viewing search results with descriptions directly on the map view. Gmail users will notice appointments and reservations with addresses will now appear the map view as well. The update supports changing between the map view of results and the list view of results and features an explore view for discovering new locations to try out.
Google Maps 3.2 for iPhone and iPad is out today on the App Store.
Navigation app MapQuest has been updated to version 4.4, offering more accurate ETAs thanks to better traffic data; an app-specific volume control that allows you to set the voice navigation volume independently of other apps; Ballpark Guides to MLB stadiums and airport maps; and GrubHub integration to allow you to order food from take-out restaurants before the app navigates you there to collect it.
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When Apple launched its first-party mapping software alongside iOS 6, users immediately discovered that there were a significant number of issues with the map data. Apple eventually issued an apology and said that the release was not up to the company’s standards. A new Reddit post today seems it point to the fact that Apple is finally ready to start making serious changes to how it corrects Maps data.
Ever since the app debuted, it has had an option to report incorrect POI data to Apple. Until recently, however, it seemed that those reports were simply going to an unmonitored inbox to make users feel like they’d done something to help.
Just over a week ago, Reddit user “heyyoudvd” noticed that a number of incorrect data points in his area had been corrected—more than had ever been fixed in the previous two years, and many of which he had reported. Now “heyyoudvd” says he’s noticed an even bigger change…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ0UiebO1OY
A few days ago, 9to5Mac published some details about the elusive City Tours feature of iOS 8 found hidden in secret debug menus. It was thought that this was the only way to see the feature. However, reader Stefan Kuijt has now discovered that the feature is actually exposed publicly in the iOS 8 UI, albeit extremely hidden. This means anyone with the iOS 8 beta can try City Tours without any modification. The video above shows the current public user-interface in action, touring a selection of France’s famous landmarks.
Back in September we reported that Apple was developing a feature to help users find their parked cars for its in-house Maps app. While that feature wasn’t officially debuted during WWDC last week, new icons found inside the Maps application indicate that the feature was in development at some point and is likely still be worked on.
As we originally noted:
Sources say that Apple is testing a tool for its Maps app that, with the M7 chip, could analyze when your car is parked. When you park your car, the iPhone will register the car’s location. Now when you return to the parking lot, your iPhone will be able to help you assist with finding your car since it knows the vehicle’s location.
TechCrunch is out with a story today with details on why some of the mapping features originally scheduled for iOS 8 didn’t make the cut at Apple’s WWDC keynote last week. The report quotes a few sources close to the mapping teams that say most of the improvements originally planned for iOS 8 weren’t finished on time due to talent departures and internal politics:
Why didn’t they appear? One tipster says it was a personnel issue: “Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time. Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project.”… It’s a take that is both contested and corroborated by our other source. “I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group,” the source said.
We reported leading up to WWDC that the transit directions in iOS 8 might be pushed back to instead focus on other priorities.
While the TechCrunch report doesn’t mention any names, we do know that the mapping team has lost a few key people recently. Back in March, reports popped up that Cathy Edwards, who happened to be in charge of Maps Quality after joining Apple through the company’s acquisition of Chomp, was leaving the company. The reason behind Cathy’s departure was unknown at the time, but we’ve learned from sources that disagreements with employees on the Maps team working under Edwards and an opposition to her management style lead to problems on the Maps team and ultimately her leaving in April. Apple also lost key Maps team member Jared Waldman from Placebase who worked as Head of Geo at Apple Maps until late last year. In addition, we’ve heard from former employees of the mapping team that recently left the company due to issues with Edwards and management of the Maps team.
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In iOS 8, Apple is adding some new Core Location features that let app developers get precise indoor positioning data from an iOS device’s sensors and it’s even letting venues contribute by signing-up to get help enabling indoor positioning. We first exclusively detailed the new feature last year, which taps into the iPhone’s M7 processor and uses WiFi technologies to provide extremely accurate indoor mapping and navigation features to developers.
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Apple has updated its website to announce that it will be live streaming next week’s WWDC Keynote address for all to watch. As per usual, the event will be available on Macs running Safari 4 or later, iOS Devices running iOS 4.2 or later, Windows machines running Quicktime 7, and via an application on the Apple TV. The event kicks off at 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern time on Monday, June 2nd. Apple says that it has “exciting announcements” in store for the event (as it says for all of its events), which is likely to include talk of iOS 8 with Healthbook, a redesigned OS X 10.10, and new hardware products. We’ll be on hand live to bring you the latest news from the conference.
iOS 8 is likely to supercharge the functionality of Apple’s iPad with a new split-screen multitasking feature, according to sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development. These people say that the feature will allow iPad users to run and interact with two iPad applications at once. Up until now, each iPad application either developed by Apple or available on the App Store is only usable individually in a full-screen view.
Google released a major feature update to Google Maps for iOS today bringing a handful of useful features for navigation and travel with your iPhone and iPad including integration with the private transportation service Uber.
First up is a feature found on many dedicated GPS devices: lane guidance. The feature will present which lane is necessary with current directions to help you avoid missing important turns. Notably, Apple’s Maps software does not currently offer this feature. Google says lane guidance is currently only available for users in the US and Canada…
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TechCrunch reports today that the CEO and founder of Wifarer, a company working on innovative indoor positioning technology, has has left for a leadership role at Apple.
If a CEO and co-founder quits his indoor positioning startup to work for Apple, should his staff and customers be concerned? Wifarer, a startup which offers tools to help consumers navigate malls, museums and other venues, was notacquired by Apple, we learned, while following up on some tips pointing in that direction. However, its CEO and founder Philip Stanger now works there in a “leadership role.”
While Philip Stanger confirmed on his LinkedIn that he’s been at Apple since February, the report notes that the company claims it is still in business and has not been acquired by Apple:
And finally, it’s odd because despite new CEO Murphy’s claims, Wifarer could be seen as being in decline. The company got rid of its sales staff in 2012, and today there are roughly a half dozen employees still at the company, according to what we’ve heard, as well as public searches on LinkedIn. Murphy says its numbers are higher than that, but admits they’re less than Wifarer’s previous peak.
We’ve reported several times in the past that Apple is working on new Maps features that would rely on indoor positioning technologies. Ahead of iOS 8, Apple is currently testing unique ways of integrating indoor mapping views into its Maps app, but those features aren’t confirmed for the next iOS release.
Last year, Apple picked up another company working on indoor positioning technologies called WiFiSLAM.
Nobody is quite sure why or how Stongehenge was constructed, but the stone circle constructed sometime between four and five thousand years ago has long fascinated visitors.
As a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the closest most visitors can get to it these days is a pathway around the outside. (I probably shouldn’t admit this, but as a young child who lived nearby before all the restrictions were put in place, I used to climb on the stones …)
But thanks to Apple adding the site to its 3D Flyover library of Apple Maps, you can now take a tour around the site from the comfort of your sofa. Just enter Stonehenge into the search box.
Apple added 3D Flyover coverage of Perth, Saint-Tropez and Cordoba last month. This followed Cape Town, Helsinki and Marseille back in January. After a less than stellar start, Apple is working hard on an upgraded version of the Maps app ready for iOS 8.
Concept: jivaldi.com
On Tuesday we reported that Apple was planning to reveal its entry into the wearable market in August or September. Now a new Digitimes report corroborates that timeframe. According to the new report, three different firms have supplied Apple with samples of flexible circuit boards that will be integrated into the iWatch for a fall release.
The companies involved are Flexium Interconnect, Career Technology, and Zhen Ding Technology Holding, according to Digitimes. Zhen Ding Technology Holding is currently Apple’s largest supplier of such parts and is reportedly planning to increase production in order to meet increased demand for iPhone and iPad circuitry.
As with all Digitimes reports, it’s probably best to take this with a grain of salt given their less-than-stellar track record.
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Benoit Dupin, Vice President of Amazon A9’s Search Technology group, has left the high-profile search technology firm to take up a job with Apple. Dupin’s profile from Amazon A9’s executive management website disappeared this week, and his LinkedIn profile has been updated to reflect that he began his position as a director at Apple this month.
Amazon A9 is Amazon’s Palo Alto, California-based subsidiary that focuses on developing Amazon’s marquee search and advertising functionality. While Amazon has become popular in the tablet, eBook reader, and now set-top-box worlds, its core business has, of course, been Amazon.com, and Dupin’s work on search powers the heart of the online sales giant…
While Apple only officially announced its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week, we have been reporting all of the known information about what Apple plans to unveil at the event over the course of the past few months. Now that WWDC is official, we have compiled a roundup of everything we know about Apple’s next-generation iOS device and Mac operating systems below, and we’ve also included some new tidbits not found in our earlier reporting. You can find out what there is to know so far about iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 below: