Apple Maps 3D Flyover coverage is now wider, expanding to include new cities, castles and locations in Japan, Germany, France, Italy and more.
The company enriched Apple Maps with a set of Flyover 3D views of cities before launching iOS 9 and it's now expanding the feature, adding more locations and landmarks to the list. The latest update is part of Apple's ongoing effort to improve its in-house Apple Maps service and better compete against rivals such as Google Maps.
For those unfamiliar with the feature, the Apple Maps 3D Flyover mode is a viewing option that overlays detailed, high-resolution images of a location onto accurate 3D models based on topographical and structural data. With this feature, users can zoom in on precisely rendered buildings, hills and landmarks to get a better look.
While Google Maps continues to grow in popularity and has a number of neat features to improve the overall experience, Apple Maps sets itself apart through this 3D Flyover feature.
The Apple Maps 3D Flyover feature now covers cities, locations and landmarks in France, Italy, Australia, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Japan, as well as Oklahoma City and Missouri.
In addition to these new destinations on the list, Apple Maps also offers Flyover guided tours for some important metropolitan cities and high-traffic tourist destinations such as Paris, Tokyo, London and New York. Such guided tours sweep the view in and out of important locations, tourist sights and areas of interest.
It's worth pointing out, however, that the newly-added cities, locations and landmarks don't offer such guided tours just yet, so interested tourists will have to find out for themselves where they should go sightseeing first.
Apple is also expected to offer a Google Street View-like feature of its own soon, as company-branded vans and cars equipped with 3D camera gear used for mapping recently roamed the streets of the U.S. and the U.K. It may take a while to catch up to Google in terms of Street View maps, but Apple nonetheless seems to be making notable progress with its Apple Maps. Apple finally added public transit directions to its Maps with the iOS 9 update and is adding more features to further improve its mapping service.
The new additions to the 3D Flyover feature will likely raise even more interest, convincing more people to use Apple Maps. Head over to Apple's website for a full list of the Apple Maps 3D Flyover coverage.
