A strange car with a complicated system of cameras on the roof has been recently spotted in Concord, CA. How is this car connected with Apple? Well, reporters and analysts claim the vehicle is either a mapping car similar to those Google uses to improve its maps and develop the Street View feature, or a self-driving car from the future. Below you may take a look at the image showing a black Dodge Caravan with massive cameras used for unknown purpose.
Google Maps app for iOS got the update on August 28th to give all the users the ability to share their favourite places trough Google+. Apart from that, there’re some stability improvements and bug fixes.
Developers from FutureTap recently released a 99 cent app on the App Store called “Street View” that allows users to access Google Street View from the iOS 6 Maps app.
One of the key features missing in the iOS 6 Maps app was the 360 degree panoramas of the Google's Street View. With the release of Google Maps app for iOS things got better, but there are still several reasons why many people continue using Apple’s Maps app.
Today iPhoneinCanads.ca reported that Google added its Street View to the Google Maps web app that is available to users of mobile devices. With Apple’s shift to its own Maps app in the new iOS 6, users who still want to use Google Maps service have been able to do so via the maps.google.com web-based app, but that app has been missing several features compared with iOS app that was available on Apple’s mobile devices. The report said:
In a today’s press conference, Google introduced “the next dimensions” of its Google Maps. The presentation included a lot of history of the Google Maps, Earth and Street View and a peek at what is expected. The announcements are particularly important given the rumors that Apple is going to replace Google Maps with its own maps application in iOS.
Earlier we reported that Apple bought 3D mapping company C3 Technologies. Much of the early demo videos showed the ability of C3 to create realistic 3D maps, but the firm had also been creating both interior views and street views prior to its acquisition.
Android phones have an advantage over Apple's iPhone in navigation, because Google includes their free nice Navigation program, while Apple doesn't have built in navigation in Maps. Here are some good news for iPhone users:
Google confirmed at a London press conference that it plans to bring free satnav to other smartphone platforms, including the iPhone, although it wouldn’t say when.
Unlike TomTom or iGo software, Google’s satnav software doesn’t store maps on the device but downloads them on-demand from the internet. However "Google Maps pre-caches the entire route," said Mobile Maps product manager, Steve Lee. "It needs a data connection when you ask for navigation. But while driving to your destination, if you intermittently lose the connection, it will still carry on. As long as you stay on the route."
Users can choose from several viewing options: standard maps and directions, satellite view and access to Street View, plus live traffic data. Sound like a good deal.
Google created a new application called Google Maps Navigator. This is a full and free navigation software supported by advertising. The app will have turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information, POI, voice search, sattelite, 3D and street views. There is only an app for the Android platfom, but an iPhone version will be released soon. Hopefully Apple will not reject it. Let's watch the video:
Apple has seeded iPhone 2.2 Firmware Beta 2 and has fully enabled Google Street View. Beta 1 of iPhone 2.2 had hidden APIs related to the Street View for Google Maps, but was not enabled.
The seed notes also indicated that Line-in audio accessories are now supported in the SDK.
First of all Apple has addressed one common request within the iPhone's Keyboard settings, allowing users to disable the iPhone's auto-correction.
The other feature is for Japanese market - Japanese emoji icons. The lack of emoji support has been blamed as part of the reason for slow iPhone adoption in Japan.
The third new feature is Street View. It allows users to view panoramic street level photographs in select cities within the Google Maps application.
Hopefully we will see more new features in this and next beta's of 2.2 firmware.