Apple on Monday announced an update to Maps that include access to public transit directions, enhanced location detail, and the ability to discover nearby business and other points of interest.
Apple’s new public transit maps starts in 10 major cities in North America and Europe, plus 300 locations in China.
Speaking from the stage at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference, senior vice-president Craig Federighi mentioned that Maps will soon provide dedicated maps and directions for public transit systems in a number of cities like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, and over 300 locations in China. The company has gone as far as incorporating detailed surveys of individual subway stations into its data—a feature that makes the directions provided by Maps more accurate and timely.
Maps is also getting more local with the ability to search for businesses near a specific location. Search results include a wealth of details, including photos, directions, and even an icon indicating whether a particular store supports Apple Pay.
Local search results in Maps will show cards with photos, directions, store details, and an icon if the location accepts Apple Pay.
The new Maps updates will find their way into iOS 9 and OSX 10.11, which the company plans to release later this year.
Author: Marco Tabini
Marco Tabini is based in Toronto, Canada, where he focuses on software development for mobile devices and for the Web.