Apple’s Maps being updated often and significantly

There is no doubt that Apple is working hard on improving its iOS Maps application in the past few months. The results can be seen in an update to the app this week in Japan, but Apple has been steadily releasing updates for countries and cities from around the world.

The updates have been quite significant for the areas involved. For instance, the update in Japan brought toll road notifications and improved pronunciation of roads during turn-by-turn navigation; updated icons and labels for freeways, transit stations, subway lines and other categories like fire stations, hospitals and post offices; and added 3D buildings including Tokyo Station, Japan Imperial Palace, and Tokyo Tower.

In the past few months Apple added flyover support for:

  • Baltimore, MD
  • Providence, RI
  • Portland, ME
  • Cleveland, OH
  • Green Bay, WI
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • Albany, NY
  • Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Cologne, Germany
  • Glasgow, Scotland
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Vancouver, BC
  • Tulsa, OK
  • Hoover Dam
  • Modesto, CA
  • Stockton, CA

The company also expanded Flyover coverage in a number of other cities, including:

  • Portland, OR
  • Boston, MA
  • Houston, TX
  • Stockholm, Sweden
  • Munich, Germany
  • London, England
  • Madrid, Spain
  • Rome, Italy
  • Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Berlin, Germany
  • Lyon, France
  • Birmingham, AL
  • Toronto, ON
  • Barcelona, Spain

Maps has updated 3D buildings for Standard view and Turn-by-turn navigation for:

  • Barcelona, Spain
  • Berlin, Germany
  • Birmingham, England
  • Cologne, Germany
  • Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • London, England
  • Lyon, France
  • Manchester, England
  • Milan, Italy
  • Munich, Germany
  • Rome, Italy

Apple also made a number of updates in China, one of the company’s newest and biggest markets. Maps in China now has a new coloring scheme that matches the vector-based Maps; new Chinese character font for improved readability; Re-prioritized locations so more relevant/interesting locations display first; Updated road network; and it now contains narrower roads.

In addition to all of these changes, Apple has updated city labels in cities worldwide and improved satellite imagery in a number of countries. Other updates include location information for Apple Stores, businesses, movie theaters, restaurants, airports and transit stops.

Maps may have disappointed some users when it was first released, but when Tim Cook said he was focusing Apple’s attention to fix the issues, he meant it. And it shows.