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Navigation with Apple's Maps App: Now with speed limits
Photo: Apple
With a major update for its online map service, Apple continues its race to catch up on Google Maps on Thursday and introduces a number of innovations for Germany.
The most striking is the revised presentation.
The basis for this is improved map data, which is now used to display buildings three-dimensionally in the 3D view, which should improve orientation.
Furthermore, the improved data material enables a more precise representation of green areas and commercial areas, which differ in color from residential areas.
Functionally, drivers should now notice that Apple Maps now shows the applicable speed limits when navigating.
Current changes should also be adopted at short notice, for example when construction sites or a time-limited speed limit are set.
Clearer navigation instructions
Navigating with Apple Maps is intended to be made easier by the fact that the announcements are now issued in natural language and are easier to understand.
Instead of the request “Turn right after 300 meters”, a corresponding instruction should now read, for example: “Turn right at the traffic light”.
In addition, navigation instructions should now also be continued after changing the means of transport.
So if you have parked your car in a multi-storey car park on the way to the cinema, the software will continue to guide you to your destination using pedestrian navigation.
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Nymphenburg Palace in the new »Look Around« function
Photo: Apple
And finally, the "Look Around" function, Apple's counterpart to Google's Street View, will also be introduced in Germany.
»Look Around« allows users to look around a three-dimensional image of a place on the screen.
Previously, this option was available for some US cities, Andorra, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain and San Marino.
In this country, Munich is now the only city to make the start.
How to use the new features
Despite all these innovations, German users are still denied some functions of Apple's maps app.
Motorists, for example, would certainly be happy if they were also warned about speed cameras in this country, just as the app is already doing in 39 countries, from Australia to the USA.
Cyclists, on the other hand, still have to wait for Apple's Maps app to show them the way.
In order to use the new functions, users do not have to install an update.
Since the service only works online, the changes were imported to Apple's servers in the background and should be available automatically from Thursday.