Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
Apple has quietly expanded the availability of Look Around, a feature that was developed specifically to provide users with street-level imagery.
If you’re new in the Apple Maps world and don’t know what Look Around is all about, just think of a significantly upgraded Street View. Apple looked at Google’s feature and tried to make it significantly better, and in many ways, the company certainly achieved this goal.
Look Around offers high-quality street-level imagery of many locations across the world, but just like everything else in Apple Maps, the rollout in non-U.S. regions is happening at a painfully slow pace.
This week, the iPhone maker has quietly released Look Around in more locations, including in several large cities in Spain. Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia are all getting street-level imagery, though for now, it looks like the rollout is happening in stages and not all users are getting access to the future.
This isn’t an unusual approach. Apple typically enables such new features for a limited number of users before eventually accelerating the rollout and bringing them to everybody running Apple Maps. This is precisely what should happen in the coming weeks in Spain as well, so if you don’t see Look Around in the cities I told you about, just check again at some point next week.
The bad news is that the release of Look Around in new regions doesn’t mean anything as far as the DCE, also known as the Detailed City Experience, is concerned.
DCE is one of the biggest updates released by Apple Maps in the last few years, but once again, its rollout is happening slowly across the world. Thanks to this pack of improvements, Apple Maps is being provided with more detailed maps, including crosswalks, rich three-dimensional details, and greatly improved navigation.
One of the things I like the most in DCE is the three-dimensional city experience, as this makes Apple Maps feel like a completely new product. In many ways, it also makes Apple Maps one of the best Google Maps alternatives, but the slow rollout of the feature obviously limits this effect.
Apple has so far remained completely tight-lipped as to when it could bring the detailed city experience to more regions, but the consensus right now is that news on this front could be shared in the coming months just ahead of WWDC.
Apple’s developer event is a good moment for the company to announce further improvements for Apple Maps, especially as the platform is being improved with new tools that help it expand its capabilities. Reviews are now a lot more important, and so is business information, so in the long term, Apple Maps is well positioned to compete with Google Maps on more new fronts beyond navigation.
Look Around offers high-quality street-level imagery of many locations across the world, but just like everything else in Apple Maps, the rollout in non-U.S. regions is happening at a painfully slow pace.
This week, the iPhone maker has quietly released Look Around in more locations, including in several large cities in Spain. Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia are all getting street-level imagery, though for now, it looks like the rollout is happening in stages and not all users are getting access to the future.
This isn’t an unusual approach. Apple typically enables such new features for a limited number of users before eventually accelerating the rollout and bringing them to everybody running Apple Maps. This is precisely what should happen in the coming weeks in Spain as well, so if you don’t see Look Around in the cities I told you about, just check again at some point next week.
The bad news is that the release of Look Around in new regions doesn’t mean anything as far as the DCE, also known as the Detailed City Experience, is concerned.
DCE is one of the biggest updates released by Apple Maps in the last few years, but once again, its rollout is happening slowly across the world. Thanks to this pack of improvements, Apple Maps is being provided with more detailed maps, including crosswalks, rich three-dimensional details, and greatly improved navigation.
One of the things I like the most in DCE is the three-dimensional city experience, as this makes Apple Maps feel like a completely new product. In many ways, it also makes Apple Maps one of the best Google Maps alternatives, but the slow rollout of the feature obviously limits this effect.
Apple has so far remained completely tight-lipped as to when it could bring the detailed city experience to more regions, but the consensus right now is that news on this front could be shared in the coming months just ahead of WWDC.
Apple’s developer event is a good moment for the company to announce further improvements for Apple Maps, especially as the platform is being improved with new tools that help it expand its capabilities. Reviews are now a lot more important, and so is business information, so in the long term, Apple Maps is well positioned to compete with Google Maps on more new fronts beyond navigation.
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