- This video was sponsored by Ring,
makers of the Ring Video Doorbell 2.
Stay tuned to find out more.
I'm Andru Edwards and
you're watching Gear Live.
(funky music)
When Apple Maps launched back in 2012,
it was heavily criticized
for not having the accuracy
people had come to
expect from Google Maps.
Over time, Apple has constantly iterated
and improved the Maps app.
But now after more than four million miles
of driving around the country,
Apple has a whole new map
that's far more informative
and offers a much more realistic view.
In this video, I give you a look
at the brand new features in Apple Maps,
and show you why if you use an iPhone,
then Apple Maps is the way to go.
What is going on tech
squad, Andru Edwards here,
editor-in-chief of GearLive.com.
And as I mentioned today, we
are talking about Apple Maps,
the history of Apple Maps,
the improvements made
over time to Apple Maps
and the all new map that
Apple is rolling out
all across the United States right now,
and across the world next year.
Now you may not have been
paying attention back in 2012.
But the launch of Apple Maps
alongside iOS 6 was pretty rough.
iOS had been shipping with Google Maps
as a default map app built into iOS.
But with the release of iOS 6,
Apple made a switch to
its own internal Maps app.
First impressions weren't great,
and the result was an
apology from Tim Cook,
and Apple went to work on
making Maps a better experience.
Now over the years, we've
seen many improvements
to the Maps app year over year,
driving directions got better,
transit directions were added,
business info, parking data,
the flyover feature from major landmarks
and even flyover tours over major cities.
Apple has definitely improved the Map app
over the past six and seven years.
But in the background
for the past four years,
Apple has been rebuilding
the Map from the ground up.
As I mentioned earlier, four million miles
of driving all over the country
in an effort to completely
replace the map data
without a full complete overhaul.
Now San Francisco in the
Bay Area got the newer Map
roughly a year ago with
iOS 12 and since then,
it's been rolling out
all across the country.
And a couple weeks ago, Apple let me know
that the biggest Maps rollout
was about to take place.
And it was going to include
the United States area
of the Pacific Northwest,
which is where I live here in Seattle.
So I've been using the new
Maps now for about two weeks.
And it's very obvious when compared
to what we had previously
that Apple definitely has an
absolute winner on its hands.
Now before we talk about what's new,
let's talk about how Apple treats privacy
as it pertains to maps.
When you ask for directions,
Apple doesn't know where
you're leaving from,
where you're going, or
even the route you take.
In fact, you don't even
need to be signed in
to Apple ID in order to
use the Maps app at all.
And the reason for that
is that nothing gets tied
to your Apple ID when you use Maps.
Apple also doesn't put
advertising in Maps.
So there's no ad
identifiers in there either.
And any Siri requests that
you make to the Maps app,
gets handled on the device itself,
and it's never sent to or
come back from Apple's Cloud.
Now that part isn't new
but it's still good to know
before using the Maps app,
that anything you do in
that app stays private.
Now what is new just
by opening the Maps app
and looking at it,
is that you're getting
a more accurate view
of the world around you,
you'll see bodies of water,
sporting areas, parts of vegetation,
and even swimming pools.
If you look at a golf course,
you're going to see the sand
traps and the water hazards.
Now this is all thanks
to new computer vision
and satellite imagery technology
that Apple's been using.
And one cool thing going
back to privacy for a second,
when you zoom in on Maps,
you see people and cars,
what you're not going to see
are the faces of the people
or the license plates of the cars.
Now Apple also wanted
to make maps more usable
for real world scenario, just
a little easier to get around.
And one example of this
is the fact that they've
licensed the different type faces
to match up with major
public transit systems.
So for example, they've
licensed the Helvetica font,
which is what's used
in the New York Metropolitan
Transit Authority.
So the trains in New York City,
if you look at the signage that you see
in the real world on
the subway in New York,
it matches up exactly with what
Apple puts into the Map app.
So typefaces and fonts
look exactly the same.
So it's much easier to get around
when you can just look at your phone,
look up and see that's an exact
match, you know where to go.
Now in addition to the new map itself,
Apple has also built in a
bunch of extra cool features
into the Maps app in iOS 13.
I'm gonna tell you about
those in just one minute
but before I do,
I wanna thank the sponsor
of this video, Ring.
Ring is the most well known
name in video doorbells
and the Video Doorbell 2
offers some great features
for those who wanna integrate
a connected doorbell
into their smart home.
It has a built-in 1080p high
definition wide angle lens
with a built-in microphone and speaker
along with Wi-Fi connectivity.
Together, this means that when
someone rings your doorbell,
you'll get a notification on your phone.
And with the Ring app,
you can see the person
and have a conversation with them
without having to go to the door.
And the Ring Video Doorbell 2 works great
even when you have visitors
who don't ring the doorbell.
It has adjustable motion sensors
and infrared night vision
so you get instant alerts
when motion is detected.
And you can pull up a live
view of the camera and audio
at any time right in the Ring app.
Another nice thing about
the Ring Video Doorbell 2
in particular is that you
have the choice of using it
either hard wired or with
a long lasting battery.
One other thing I love about it,
I get a lot of packages delivered here,
and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 alerts me
when a delivery person drops off a package
or I can just open up the app
and see if there's any packages
at my front door waiting to be brought in.
You can pick up the Ring
Video Doorbell 2 right now
in both silver and black colors.
If you're interested, I will leave a link
down in the description below.
And again, big shout out
and thank you to Ring
for sponsoring this video.
Now let's get back into the improvements
and usability features that
Apple has added to the Maps app,
starting with improved
turn-by-turn directions.
When using turn-by-turn directions,
Maps will factor in real-time
traffic information,
including your current speed limit,
so you'll know exactly how
long it'll take you to arrive.
It will also now say
things like turn right
at the next stoplight rather
than turn right in 1,000 feet.
And it'll tell you which
lane you need to be in
when you need to make
a turn or take an exit.
And now Maps will also guide
you even more precisely
than it used to, this
is actually something
that Apple seems to be doing better
than anyone else right now.
Let's say you wanna go to a store
that is in a shopping mall.
Well, shopping malls have
a bunch of different entrances and exits,
a bunch of different parking spaces
instead of directing
you to the mall itself,
Apple will actually direct you
to the nearest entrance to the store
that you wanna go to that's in the mall.
This way when you park your car,
you're right near your destination.
And when you get out of the
car Maps will drop a pin,
so that if you have a hard time finding
where you parked later,
you can just ask Siri.
Apple has also added the
ability to share your ETA,
estimated time of arrival.
If you're meeting up
with a group of people,
you can share the ETA with them
which will update in real
time and let them know
if you're significantly
delayed for any reason.
There was also real-time
transit information,
so not general transit information
but real-time to keep you alerted
as to what's going on as you're commuting.
Real-time transit info
lets you see detailed transit schedules,
live departure and arrival times,
real-time outage and delay info
and even the location of your bus or train
in supported areas.
Now Maps isn't just for outdoors anymore,
Apple also has built
some indoor maps as well
to help you get around in big areas
like airports and shopping centers.
This way you can find out
which restaurants are nearest to you,
where the restrooms are,
and what floor your favorite store is on.
Now there's also a new
feature called Look Around,
and this one is very impressive.
In fact, I personally think
that Apple leapfrogged
over Google with this one,
when you compare it to Google Street View.
In select cities, you can
access the Look Around feature
and it lets you explore cities
in a 360 degree environment
with transitions that
are smooth and seamless
if you wanna go down the street.
If you see something of interest,
you can just tap on a location
to get more information.
And as I mentioned earlier,
this is where you'll see cars
and people on the streets,
but you're not gonna see people's faces,
or the license plates of the cars
due to Apple's commitment to privacy.
Oh, also a typical Apple fashion
when using the Look Around feature
regardless of what city
you're using it in,
it's always going to be a
nice, bright, sunny day.
Now the new Apple Maps also
has a couple of new ways
to keep places right at your fingertips.
In fact Maps support
saving places as favorites,
giving you quick access to
places you visit regularly
like home, work, specific restaurants
or grocery stores, or your kid's school.
This gives you one tap quick access
to directions right from the Maps app
or your CarPlay dashboard.
Siri suggestions displays a list of places
you're most likely to go.
If you have an upcoming appointment
with an address in your
calendar, it'll pop up.
Or if you have a flight schedule,
you can get directions to the airport
and information about your terminal,
the gate you need to get to
and the time of your flight.
There's also a new collections feature
that lets you build out lists
of locations into groups.
For example, if planning a vacation,
you can create a
collection called New York
and save all the places
that you wanna go to
in New York into a collection.
or alternatively, you might wanna create
a best pizza places in the US group
and add all the different
pizza places in the country
that you wanna visit while traveling.
Even cooler, collections
are actually shareable.
So you can share them
with friends and family.
So as you can see, Apple Maps is getting
the long awaited attention
that it deserved.
And by taking ownership
of the Maps data fully,
Apple is committing itself
to actually creating the map
that its users expected
from them at the beginning.
The argument has been made by
many, but it's worth repeating
that if Apple thinks that Maps
are important enough to own,
then it should do everything
it could to own them.
And that's exactly what we're seeing here
with the new Maps app and the
new maps data found within.
Now let me know what you think.
Are you an Apple Maps user?
Do you use an iPhone
but still use an alternative mapping app?
Has it been a while since
you tried out Apple Maps?
Let me know in the comments below,
I will meet you there
for further discussion.
We'll be talking more
about Apple's new Map
on the Geared Up podcast,
that is the weekly podcast
I do with Jon Rettinger,
formerly of TechnoBuffalo.
Each and every week,
we bring you the latest
in tech, gadgets, and games.
If you wanna listen to the podcast,
I will leave a link down
in the description below
along with a card here
if you wanna see the
YouTube video version.
Till next time, thank
you so much for watching.
As always, guys, I
appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards and I will
catch you in the next video.
(funky music)
