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Flyover (Apple Maps)

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For other uses, see Flyover.

Flyover is a feature on Apple Maps that allows users to view certain areas in a 3D setting. Flyover also allows users to take "tours" of these locations through the City Tours feature, showcasing various landmarks in the area. Imagery is provided through the use of planes, which collect fine data on buildings.

Flyover
Initial releaseSeptember 19, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-09-19)
PlatformiOS[1]
iPadOS[1]
macOS[2]
Available inMultiple languages

Initially founded in 2012, along with Apple Maps itself, Flyover now covers over 300 cities, landmarks, and parks across five of the six inhabited continents through a series of several expansions, notably in 2014, 2015 and 2019. Despite earlier issues, Flyover has been praised for its detail and uniqueness.[3]

History

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2012 - 2015

[edit]

Flyover was announced along with Apple Maps at the WWDC 2012, and was also released alongside Maps in September 2012.[4] The 10 initial cities that first received Flyover were Chicago, Copenhagen, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and Sydney.[5] More cities would receive Flyover in later years, with Apple often adding multiple cities to Flyover at a time.[6][7] In addition to this initial release, Apple added the feature to other cities later in the year, including Toronto in Canada.[8]

In 2013, Flyover was added to Paris, as well as smaller cities such as Indianapolis and Baltimore, totalling 16 cities in the United States, Germany, Canada, France and the UK.[9][10] In addition, Flyover was also added to London, Barcelona, Cologne,[11] Rome, and Madrid,[12] as well as the city of Vancouver, in Canada the same year.[13]

Flyover was added to several cities and national parks in New Zealand, France, the United States, South Africa, Sweden and Japan, including Cape Town and two Arizona National Parks in 2014,[14] with Marseille, the second-largest city in France, receiving Flyover coverage later in the year as well,[9] The capital of Japan, Tokyo, also received Flyover that year.[15] along with Wellington, New Zealand and Yosemite National Park.[16] In addition, the City Tours feature, which allows users to tour locations supported by the Flyover feature, was also added around this time.[17]

South Africa, the only African nation to have Flyover, also first saw the feature with Cape Town in 2014, with Durban and Johannesburg receiving the feature in later years.[18]

Flyover was added to over 20 cities and locations in 2015 in various cities mostly across the US and Western Europe, including Canberra and Venice.[19][20][21] Flyover was also added to Budapest, in Hungary[22] and Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic later in the year.[23] In Italy, the cities of Florence and Genoa and Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany received Flyover that year as well.[24][25]

Guadalajara, the largest city in Mexico to have the feature, also received Flyover in 2015.[26] Japan also saw more cities with Flyover, with Nagoya, Osaka and Hiroshima receiving the feature in 2015 as well,[27] and Mannheim and Stuttgart in Germany also received the feature that year.[28]

An additional 7 cities received Flyover in June of the same year, those being the cities of Karlsruhe and Kiel in Germany, Braga in Portugal, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Cadiz and Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, and Hull in the United Kingdom.[29][30]

2016 - present

[edit]

2016 saw Apple add Flyover to around 20 additional cities, including cities such as Adelaide in Australia and the Virgin Islands, with the majority of the new cities being smaller ones, as only two of the cities that received Flyover that year had over a million people.[18][31]

2019 saw one of Apple's biggest Flyover expansions, with the feature being added to over 30 cities in France, Japan, the United States, and others, as well as the entirety of the nation of Monaco.[32][33]

After 2019 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively little progress was made with the feature, largely in favor of working other newer features. However, Apple added some new Flyovers during and since then, expanding to Amsterdam in 2020[34][35] and Vienna in 2023.[36]

Another major rollout of Flyover occurred in 2024, with dozens of cities across North America, Australia, and Europe receiving the feature, including Washington D.C.[37] and Kansas City.[38]

Use

[edit]

Apple collects the 3D data used for Flyover by using small military-grade[39] drone-like planes, which fly up close to buildings to create a more detailed map. Since 2013, C3 Technologies, a Swedish company which was acquired by Apple in 2011, has collected the data used for Flyover.[40]

With Flyover, certain locations – mostly big cities, landmarks and some national parks – can be seen from a birds-eye perspective. The three-dimensional views are photo-realistic, and users can change the vantage point on the map.[41]

Flyover imagery has been viewed as similar to that of virtual reality, and could possibly be a precursor to a VR feature on Maps.[3][42]

City Tours

[edit]

Flyover City Tours were released around 2014, but was inaccessible for a time until the feature was debugged by an Apple Maps developer, making it public.[17] City Tours is a feature that allows users to view various landmarks in a given city via a "flying" animation,[3] a feature only available to cities that already contain Flyover 3D maps.[43] City Tours was added as a feature to Apple Maps on iOS 8 on September 17, 2014, and in OS X Yosemite on October 16, 2014.[44]

Most, but not all cities with Flyover allow tours of a given city, where the above virtual tour of various landmarks in the area will be shown.[45][43]

Coverage

[edit]

Flyovers are available in over 350[46] cities and national parks across 29 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, as of 2024.[47][a]

Locations with Flyovers
Country Locations
 Australia Adelaide, Ballarat, Bendigo, Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Canberra, Central Coast, Darwin, Hervey Bay, Geelong, Gold Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Mackay, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Rockhampton, Shepparton, Sunshine Coast, Sydney, Twelve Apostles, Toowoomba, Townsville, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong
 Austria Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Vienna
 Bahamas Freeport, Nassau
 Belgium Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent
 Canada Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Saguenay, Saskatoon, Sherbrooke, Toronto, Trois-Rivières, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg
 Czech Republic Brno, Prague
 Denmark Aarhus, Copenhagen, Odense
 Finland Helsinki
 France Aix-en-Provence, Ajaccio, Amiens, Angers, Annecy, Arcachon, Avignon, Bastia, Besançon, Béziers, Biarritz, Bonifacio, Bordeaux, Calvi, Cannes, Carcassonne, Chambord, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Chenonceaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Collioure, Corte, Dijon, Gorges de l'Ardèche, Gorges Du Verdon, La Rochelle, Le Mans, Lens, Lille, Limoges, Lyon, Marseille, Millau, Mont Saint-Michel, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Nîmes, Omaha Beach, Paris, Perpignan, Pont du Gard, Porto-Vecchio, Propriano, Reims, Remoulins, Rennes, Saint-Étienne, Saint-Tropez, Strasbourg, Toulouse
 Germany Augsburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Bremen, Cologne, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Neuschwanstein Castle, Nuremberg, Stuttgart
 Hungary Budapest
 Ireland Cliffs of Moher, Cork, Dublin
 Italy Ancona, Bari, Bergamo, Bobbio, Brescia, Cittadella, Florence, Genoa, Messina, Milan, Naples, Padua, Paestum, Palermo, Parma, Pavia, Perugia, Pisa, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Sanremo, Taormina, Turin, Venice
 Japan Aizuwakamatsu, Akita, Aomori, Fukuyama, Gifu, Hagi, Hakodate, Hamamatsu, Hikone, Hiroshima, Hitachi, Izumo, Kanazawa, Kitakyushu, Kobe, Kōfu, Kumamoto, Kurashiki, Matsumoto, Matsuyama, Mito, Nagasaki, Nagoya, Naha, Naruto, Niigata, Odawara, Okayama, Osaka, Sakai, Sapporo, Sendai, Shizuoka, Takahashi, Takamatsu, Tōjinbō, Tokyo, Tokushima, Toyama, Toyooka, Tsu, Tsunoshima, Yamagata, Yokkaichi, Yokohama
 Luxembourg Luxembourg
 Mexico Acapulco, Chichen Itza, Cuernavaca, Culiacán, Ensenada, Guadalajara, Guaymas, Hermosillo, La Paz, Loreto, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Mexicali, Oaxaca, Puebla, Puerto Vallarta, Teotihuacan, Tijuana, Tulum
 Monaco Full coverage
 Netherlands Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Rotterdam, The Hague[b], Utrecht
 New Zealand Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Nelson, Queenstown, Tauranga, Wellington
 Norway Oslo
 Portugal Braga, Coimbra, Porto
 San Marino Full coverage
 South Africa Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria
 Spain A Coruña, Alicante, Almería, Badajoz, Barcelona, Cáceres, Cádiz, Córdoba, Ciudad Real, Gijón, Granada, Huelva, Jerez de la Frontera, León, Lugo, Madrid, Manilva, Murcia, Pamplona, Salamanca, San Sebastian, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo, Infantes, Zaragoza
 Sweden Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Linköping, Malmö, Stockholm, Uppsala, Visby
  Switzerland Basel, Bern
 United Kingdom Barnsley, Belfast, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bradford, British Virgin Islands, Cardiff, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Greater Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Stonehenge, Wakefield, Wolverhampton
 United States See below
 Vatican City Full coverage
Locations in the  United States with Flyovers
State/territory Locations
Alabama Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery
Arizona Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Lake Powell, Meteor Crater, Monument Valley, Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson
Arkansas Fayetteville, Little Rock
California Bakersfield, Catalina Island, El Centro, Fresno, Joshua Tree National Park, Lancaster, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Los Angeles, Mammoth Lakes, Merced, Modesto, Oakland, Palm Springs, Pinnacles National Park, Porterville, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, South Lake Tahoe, Stockton, Victorville, Visalia, Yosemite National Park, Yuba City
Colorado Denver, Pueblo, Royal Gorge
Connecticut Stamford
Florida Bradenton, Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville, Key West, Jacksonville, Miami, Ocala, Orlando, Panama City, Pensacola, Port St. Lucie, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, The Villages, West Palm Beach
Georgia Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus
Hawaii Big Island,[c] Kahului, Kapaa, Lahaina, Lihue, Oahu
Idaho Boise, Idaho Falls
Illinois Carbondale, Chicago, DeKalb, Kankakee, Peoria, Springfield
Indiana Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, South Bend
Iowa Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Iowa City
Kansas Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita
Kentucky Lexington, Louisville
Louisiana Baton Rouge, Hammond, Houma, Lafayette, New Orleans, Shreveport
Maine Bangor, Portland
Maryland Baltimore
Massachusetts Boston, Cape Cod, Foxborough, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Salem, Springfield, Worcester
Michigan Detroit, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Lansing
Minnesota Minneapolis, Saint Paul
Mississippi Jackson
Missouri Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis
Montana Billings
Nebraska Lincoln, Omaha
Nevada Hoover Dam, Las Vegas
New Hampshire Derry
New Jersey Newark, Jersey City
New Mexico Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe
New York Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse
North Carolina Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh
North Dakota Fargo
Ohio Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown
Oklahoma Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Oregon Eugene, Medford, Portland, Salem
Pennsylvania Allentown, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
Puerto Rico Aguadilla, Arecibo, Mayagüez, Ponce, San Juan
Rhode Island Providence
South Carolina Charleston, Columbia
South Dakota Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, Sioux Falls
Tennessee Chattanooga, Clarksville, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville
Texas Abilene, Amarillo, Arlington, Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, College Station, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Killeen, Houston, Lubbock, McAllen, Midland, Odessa, Plano, San Angelo, San Antonio, Sherman
US Virgin Islands Full coverage
Utah Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Lake Powell, Logan, Monument Valley, Salt Lake City, St. George, Zion National Park
Virginia Lynchburg, Norfolk, Richmond, Virginia Beach
Washington Bellingham, Kennewick, Mount Vernon, Seattle, Tacoma
Washington D.C. Full coverage
West Virginia Charleston, Huntington
Wisconsin Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee
Wyoming Cheyenne, Devils Tower

Controversy

[edit]

Errors

[edit]

Similar to Maps itself, Flyover saw many visual issues upon release, a notable one containing a massive glitch on the Brooklyn and Anzac bridges in New York and Sydney, showing "plunges" on both structures.[48] This was part of a larger series of technical issues with Apple Maps, most of which have since been fixed.

Security concerns

[edit]

In 2013, the Norwegian government denied a request by Apple to add Flyover to Oslo, the Norwegian capital, citing security concerns arising from the amount of detail given to buildings, information which could potentially be used to facilitate and carry out terrorist attacks.[49][50][39] The decision was met with criticism from Fabian Stang, then mayor of Oslo, who called for the Norwegian government to allow Apple to add the feature, citing the possibility of increased tourism from the addition.[50][51] A spokesperson for the National Security Authority of Norway stated that obtaining the needed imagery from a "Norwegian supplier" or from the Norwegian Mapping Authority could potentially assist Apple in adding the feature.[52] The US embassy in Norway also stated its support for Apple in adding the feature.[53] Flyover was eventually added to Oslo in late 2023, 11 years after the initial incident. Similar security concerns may have also prevented Apple from adding Flyover to other potentially sensitive areas, including Washington D.C. (which eventually got the feature in May 2024), among others.[49]

See also

[edit]

Notes

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  1. ^ Note that 3D coverage is generally not limited to the cities targeted for Flyover (see below) and often covers surrounding towns and communities in the area. For example, Cologne and Düsseldorf both have Flyover, and in addition to their coverage, all areas between the two cities, such as Solingen and Leverkusen, also have Flyover.
  2. ^ Only the southern part of the city.
  3. ^ Only includes Kailua-Kona and other towns on the western side of the island.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "iOS and iPadOS 17 Feature Availability". Apple Support. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  2. ^ Kazmucha, Allyson (13 February 2014). "How to use the Flyover feature in Apple Maps for Mac". iMore. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Bell, Karissa (28 June 2017). "Watch out Google Earth, Apple Maps has a hidden VR-like 'flyover' mode". Mashable. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  4. ^ "Apple Announces New Maps App at WWDC 2012". Local Splash. 11 June 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Here All All The Cities You Can Flyover In iOS 6 Maps". Cult of Mac. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  6. ^ "New Flyover and indoor maps locations now available in Apple Maps". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  7. ^ "Apple adds 11 more cities to Flyover on its maps". Actualidad iPhone. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  8. ^ "Toronto Arrives in 3D in Apple's iOS6". Urban Toronto. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Apple expands 3D Flyover coverage in Maps to Cape Town and Helsinki". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  10. ^ "Apple's Maps being updated often and significantly". The Loop. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  11. ^ "Apple adds iOS Maps Flyover support, 3D buildings, turn-by-turn navigation in multiple cities". Apple Insider. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Apple adds Flyover and 3D Maps to 15 new cities in Apple Maps". Gadget Helpline. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  13. ^ "Apple Continues To Bring Flyover & 3D Buildings To More Cities In Maps". Cult of Mac. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  14. ^ "Apple Adds New Flyover Locations to Maps, Siri Movie Showtimes in More Countries". MacRumors. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Tokyo, Zion National Park Added to Apple Maps Flyover Feature". MacRumors. 27 June 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  16. ^ Clover, Juli (19 August 2014). "Yosemite National Park and Wellington, New Zealand Added to Apple Maps Flyover Feature". MacRumors. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  17. ^ a b Smith, Chris (20 June 2014). "Here's one way Apple Maps is getting better than Google Maps". Yahoo News. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Apple Adds 20 New Flyover Locations Around the World, New Maps Info in Taiwan and Finland". MacRumors. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  19. ^ "Apple Adds 20 New Flyover Locations to Maps". MacRumors. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  20. ^ "Apple adding 9 new 3D Flyover locations to Maps". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  21. ^ England, Lucy. "New Apple Maps Flyover Locations". Business Insider. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  22. ^ "Tour Budapest in 3D with Apple Maps – Flyover Tour". We Love Budapest. 2 January 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  23. ^ "Praha začala podporovat FlyOver v Apple Maps!". 24 September 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  24. ^ Hunt, Gordon (29 September 2015). "Apple's 3D Flyover maps expand to cities in Italy, Japan and beyond". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  25. ^ McCormick, Rich (29 September 2015). "Apple Maps adds its 3D flyover view to new cities, towns, and castles". The Verge. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  26. ^ Kahn, Jordan. "Apple adding 9 new 3D Flyover locations to Maps". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  27. ^ "Apple Adds New Flyover Locations, Expands 'Nearby' Feature to Australia, Canada, France and Germany". MacRumors. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  28. ^ "Here are all the amazing new locations you can fly over with Apple Maps". Business Insider. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  29. ^ Lee, Cody (24 June 2015). "Apple adds 7 new Flyover locations to Maps". iDownloadBlog. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  30. ^ "Apple adds Maps Flyover support for 7 cities in Spain, Germany, UK and Puerto Rico". Apple Insider. 24 June 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  31. ^ Lovejoy, Ben. "Apple Maps adds 5 new U.S. Flyover locations, 15 more international ones". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  32. ^ "Apple Maps Gains New Indoor Mall Maps and Flyover Locations". MacRumors. 8 January 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  33. ^ "New Flyover and indoor maps locations now available in Apple Maps". 9to5mac. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  34. ^ "Apple Maps Expands Public Transit Information and 3D View in Portugal and the Netherlands". MacRumors. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  35. ^ Neely, Amber (3 September 2020). "Apple Maps now has 3D images in Amsterdam, transit information in Portugal". Apple Insider. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  36. ^ "Wien bald in 3D: Apple Maps vermisst Hauptstadt (in German)". oe24. June 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  37. ^ Popa, Bogdan (27 May 2024). "This Quiet Update Will Make Everyone Love Apple Maps Again". autoevolution. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  38. ^ Popa, Bogdan (30 April 2024). "Apple Maps Flyover Quietly Launches in New Regions". autoevolution. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  39. ^ a b Orange, Richard. "Oslo bans Apple's mapping drones". The Local. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  40. ^ "How Apple Creates 3D Flyover Maps". Apple Gazette. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  41. ^ "Apple: Maps". Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  42. ^ Elliott, Matt. "Take awesome VR tours with Apple Map's Flyover feature". CNET. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  43. ^ a b "What Is the Flyover Feature in Apple Maps?". AppleToolBox. 29 March 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  44. ^ Slivka, Eric (7 September 2014). "Apple Filling Out Flyover City Tours Ahead of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite Launches". MacRumors. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  45. ^ "Take Flyover tours in Maps on iPhone". Apple Inc. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  46. ^ "Apple Maps is looking better than ever, but it still has a long way to go". The Verge. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  47. ^ "iOS and iPadOS 17 Feature Availability". Apple Inc. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  48. ^ "Apple Maps' Six Most Epic Fails". Forbes. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  49. ^ a b Dewey, Caitlin. "Why Norway is blocking Apple Maps from taking 3D images of Oslo". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  50. ^ a b Gates, Sara (12 August 2013). "Norway Blocks Apple From 3D Mapping Oslo For Maps App Flyover View". Huff Post. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  51. ^ Grothaus, Michael (12 August 2013). "Norwegian government bans Apple from capturing 3D Flyover Maps data in Oslo". Yahoo News. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  52. ^ Kleinman, Zoe (12 August 2013). "Apple aerial map photos blocked over Oslo in Norway". BBC News. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  53. ^ "Apple's request to conduct 3D mapping of Oslo denied by Norwegian government". Apple Insider. 12 August 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
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