The continuing drive to outdo each other’s mapping service has seen Apple add 19 new cities to its 3D Flyover suite, the one area Google hasn’t mastered.
A bit gimmicky, but also really cool to play around with, 3D Flyover is essentially a preordained tour of a certain city, of which there are now nearly 200.
So you can go to Cork, for example, click on the flyover button and sit back as different landmarks like the gaol fill your screen and look pretty good, too.
Cork City Gaol with (redbrick) Magdalene Laundry
The latest additions include places like Murcia, Parma, Carcassone and Stuttgart. There are views of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, the inspiration for the Disney castle in Neuschwanstein and even the culture centre in Tijuana.
These are flyover supported, for now, but don’t have the flyover tool enacted just yet, but this is quite common, with the standard 3D views coming before the tour usually.
Neuschwanstein, Germany
Tijuana Cultural Centre
Florence, full of landmarks
St Louis, Gateway Arch
Apple Maps still lacks the crucial USP that Google’s far more comprehensive offering enjoys, though, with no Street View comparable on OS.
Although that is more to do with Google’s incredible enthusiasm for a comprehensive mapping service than it has to do with Apple dropping the ball in any way.
And until it can match Google in that crucial map metric, flyover tours will have to tide people over.
The full list of cities included on flyover are here, with the new additions of:
- Angers, France
- Carcassonne, France
- Florence, Italy
- Genoa, Italy
- Gold Coast, Australia
- Lugo, Spain
- Mannheim, Germany
- Mexicali, Mexico
- Murcia, Spain
- Nagasaki, Japan
- Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Parma, Italy
- Pavia, Italy
- Sanremo, Italy
- Shizuoka, Japan
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Tijuana, Mexico
Main image of Florence via Shutterstock
