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Apple is using Subaru Imprezas with old garbage-can Mac Pros to map the US
Apple's 3D Vision team uses a fleet of white Subaru Imprezas equipped with high-res cameras and LiDAR scanners to gather 3D images for Apple Maps.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for June 19, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Developer uncovers Maps "Flyover city tours" in iOS 8 beta
Without question, the best slide from every WWDC keynote is the one that lists out all the upcoming iOS features that couldn't be addressed individually. If you look closely at the slide above, you'll see that one such feature is called "Flyover city tours." While the feature isn't yet overtly featured in the iOS 8 beta, developer Pierre Blazquez figured out a way to unlock it for our viewing pleasure. As the name of the feature implies, "Flyover city tours" takes you on a guided tour of landmarks from major cities around the world. Think of it as Apple's way of providing travelers with the lay of the land and notable points of interest with just a simple tap. Some of the supported cities thus far include Rome, Stockholm, New York, Paris, Glasgow, Cape Town, and San Francisco. We'll keep you posted once, or if, this feature becomes available by default in subsequent iOS 8 betas.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for April 28, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Apple expands iOS Maps' 3D Flyover coverage in California, including Disneyland
Apple is continuing to roll out increased Maps 3D Flyover coverage. The latest update was first spotted by AppleInsider and appears to include large parts of California. Specifically, the latest update includes the cities of San Bernardino, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Moreno Valley and more. This update covers Anaheim as well, so users can now view a 3D Flyover of Disneyland in Apple Maps. It seems like Apple is continuing to roll out aggressive server-side updates to Apple Maps. Only a little more than two weeks ago Apple added 3D Flyover coverage in Paris.
Apple adds 3D Maps Flyover coverage to Paris and surrounding areas
Over the past few months, Apple has consistently, and yet silently, continued to increase the number of areas which receive the 3D Flyover treatment in its homegrown Maps app. Now, the French-language site iGeneration is reporting that Apple has added 3D Flyover support for Paris, France. The report adds that the 3D coverage extends to Versailles, Aulnay-sous-Bois, to Disneyland Paris and to L'Hay-les-Roses Previously, the only city in France subject to 3D Flyover coverage was Lyon. Apple's Maps team has certainly been keeping busy as of late. This past March, for example, Apple added new and expanded Flyover coverage to a number of cities, including Baltimore, Glasgow, Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Vancouver, Portland, London, Cleveland and Buffalo. You might also recall that Apple's Flyover effect comes from C3 Technologies, a company Apple acquired back in October 2011. The video below, shot well before C3 became an Apple property, explains how the 3D mapping process works. As a more detailed companion to the above video, C3's mapping process was described thusly by the MIT Technology Review back in April 2011. C3's models are generated with little human intervention. First, a plane equipped with a custom-designed package of professional-grade digital single-lens reflex cameras takes aerial photos. Four cameras look out along the main compass points, at oblique angles to the ground, to image buildings from the side as well as above. Additional cameras (the exact number is secret) capture overlapping images from their own carefully determined angles, producing a final set that contains all the information needed for a full 3-D rendering of a city's buildings. Machine-vision software developed by C3 compares pairs of overlapping images to gauge depth, just as our brains use stereo vision, to produce a richly detailed 3-D model.
Senator Charles Schumer asks Apple to consider privacy with new Maps
Apple and Google are rushing to bring 3D aerial views to their respective mapping solutions. While many view this as a good thing, some people like Senator Charles Schumer of New York are concerned about privacy and security issues that arise when people are photographed from the sky without their consent. As reported by MacObserver, Schumer sent an open letter to both Google and Apple asking them to notify residents before a planned flyover by their jets. The senator is uneasy with aerial high-resolution photography that potentially could capture private moments of people in their backyards. He writes, People on Long Island or in Buffalo have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they decide to have a barbeque on their back deck and would prefer to retain the option of deciding whether they should be photographed on their property. They should not fear that your planes will be overhead taking detailed pictures of their private events. Besides notifying residents of a flyover, Schumer also asked the companies to blur images of people, allow people to opt-out from having their property shown online and to work with law enforcement and local governments to make sure sensitive infrastructure details are removed from the maps.
Space Shuttle Discovery salutes Washington on historic final flight
As historic flights go, this has to be right up there with the best of 'em. Space Shuttle Discovery performed a final fly-by over the capital, and created a trail of excited spotters as it did so. Perched atop a Boeing 747, the iconic craft was flying at a relatively low 1,500 feet according to NASA. Pictures of the voyage have been popping up on social media and image sharing sites as it headed in from the west, before coming to its final resting place at a special off-shoot of the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. Have you spotted Discovery? Be sure to add links in the comments if you do. [Image credit: NASA]
Space Shuttle Discovery to make final in-air appearance in 1,500-foot DC flyover
Folks lucky enough to be in the nation's capital next week will have one final opportunity to gawk at Space Shuttle Discovery as the decommissioned spacecraft makes its way to its final resting place in Washington D.C. The shuttle is scheduled for a 1,500-foot flyover between 10 and 11 next Tuesday morning, passing over the National Mall and Reagan National Airport atop NASA's modified 747-100. The craft will then land at Dulles Airport before making a land-based journey to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Center, where it will replace the Enterprise shuttle, which is destined for the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan. That prototype shuttle is scheduled to land in New York City a few days later on April 23rd, where it will touch down at JFK mounted to what's likely to be the same Shuttle Carrier Aircraft scheduled to make the Discover delivery in D.C., though there's sadly no word of a similar photo op in NYC.
iPhone users come in all ages but probably live near a big city
The end of this week has brought a little flurry of information about the differences between iPhone and Android users. First up, Admob has released the results of a survey that says the iPhone is twice as popular as comparable smartphones in both young and old demographics. Unfortunately, we can only guess as to why (it would be a little more interesting if either age showed a preference for one phone over another), but it seems the iPhone has yet another remarkable trait: appealing to users of all ages. No wonder Apple is jumping in on the iPad -- they really do have a pre-release audience. But they can't sit on their laurels for too long -- according to a report at Myxer's Boombox (via Fortune), the Android OS is picking up the pace, especially in what city folk call the "flyover states." Android use of the program has actually surpassed iPhone users in Montana, the Dakotas, and Arizona and New Mexico, and the numbers are close in the Midwest, including Kansas and Missouri. That's interesting -- that could have something to do with the distribution of Apple retail stores, or maybe just more urban center dwellers are drawn to the iPhone. DC seems to be the exception, as Virginia and Maryland are much more Android, but otherwise, if you're in a state with a big population center, odds are that you own an iPhone. Fascinating.
Google, Microsoft set to snap aerial photographs on Australia Day
If you were forced to be photographed by airplanes soaring over your homeland in a jovial time of celebration, would you rather Gates & Co. have the negatives, or the future dominator of planet Earth? Aussies will have the option to make their choice on January 26th, as both Microsoft and Google have separately announced flyovers to occur on Australia Day in which high-resolution photographs will be snapped. Microsoft's motive is one with cultural and artsy underpinnings, as the company hopes to arrange individuals in order to form objects, scenes, and colored patterns from above, while Google seeks to cover more of the country for use in Google Maps and is encouraging individuals to distinguish themselves to get a free ride right into its mapping software. So if you're a Down Under native, or you just so happen to be hanging out in Centennial or Moore Park on Friday morning, toss up an Engadget poster, will ya?
