by Dan Moren
Apple expands new Maps to Northeast
Great in-depth look by Justin O’Beirne of Apple’s rollout of its new mapping data, which now covers the Northeast. O’Beirne has impressive side-by-side looks at the old and new maps; some of the differences are easily apparent, while others are more subtle until you really get into the nitty gritty.
Apple also appears to be staking some claims for future features, as O’Beirne suggests towards the end of his post:
It seems like Apple is making maps for AirPods–especially when you consider all of the improvements Apple is making to Siri…
And sidewalk and crosswalk locations are equally useful for AR.
Another thing that’s useful for AR is street-level imagery. Google, for instance, uses Street View imagery to help power its AR navigation feature (“Live View”)–and this imagery is so important to Google’s AR feature that it isn’t available in areas without it…
I’ve argued that maps could be the killer feature of any AR device from Apple, but it’s the kind of thing that requires enough investment in rollout and infrastructure that you’d want to start laying the groundwork well in advance–as Apple has done here.