As an update to my previous post about Apple's maps I wanted to share a view out of the small town of Canton, NC, about 20 miles west of Asheville. Here we see a view of a grocery store parking lot. On the left we have Google maps on the iPad using iOS 5. This shot was zoomed in as far as possible, because closer satellite imagery is unavailable.
On the right we have updated maps in iOS 6 beta 3. It looks like whoever Apple is sourcing for imagery has much more recent shots. These shots are from October of 2011. Google's are from sometime 2-3 years ago and nowhere near as detailed as Apple's. The image from Apple's updated maps was not even zoomed in as far as I could go, but I wanted to show the same basic area for comparison's sake.
I am very impressed with this. Good to know that at least in my area the maps are even better than Google's, which is no small task. It's not all good news yet though. If you zoom into Muskegon, MI, for instance, the maps are in black and white! It looks like satellite imagery from 1999 to me.
UPDATE:
I've noticed that the satellite imagery here is exactly the same as that used in Bing maps, seen below. Interesting.
