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In Pictures: Street View, Safari for iPhone 2.2

by Robert Palmer Oct 29th 2008 at 1:30PM


Following up on our report yesterday, a new tipster sent us screenshots of the Maps and Safari applications, highlighting changes on the way in iPhone firmware 2.2.

Apple looks like they're maximizing the income they make from offering a Google search option by cramming a search box in next to the address field. In the current firmware, the search field only appears when the address field is tapped.

As we mentioned yesterday, Google and Apple have also worked out a way to include Google Street View. It doesn't work quite the way I thought, but is much like Android's implementation nevertheless: Tapping on an icon of a human torso (according to our tipster) rotates the screen and displays Street View. Then, you can pan around the scene with your finger, in a 360-degree panorama. Our tipster says "the entire experience feels snappier than 2.1, very very fast in general."

Soon to be available in Maps is a new "Share Location" button that drafts an email with a clickable link. Handy for when you want to find friends after you've split up.

As always, if you have screenshots or tips you'd like to send in, please do!

Update: Because there was some confusion as to what we meant by "torso," a new image showing the icon has been added to the gallery below.

iPhone 2.2 beta

  • Google Street View
  • Address Details
  • Address Details
  • Safari
  • Update: Street View Icon



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Following up on our report yesterday, a new tipster sent us screenshots of the Maps and Safari applications, highlighting changes on the...
 

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Unregistered

I wish for landscape email! :)

Am wondering what the 3rd generation iPhone will be.. prob 9 mths away?

October 30 2008 at 2:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
matthew

I think a lot of these comments are overly negative. I use the Maps feature constantly when traveling in new cities and even pretty regularly in my home city finding new places, and being able to see the street view will be extremely helpful to figure out landmarks to look for. Fine, there are plenty of other features that should be added, and may be higher priorities for you, but that doesn't make this a worthless feature for everyone, even if you don't care about it.

October 29 2008 at 6:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fritz Laurel

Oh, how I long for the day when I can view the place where I'm standing on a hand-held device. It'll be so much more real than actually being there.

This reminds me of how when I go to a sporting event, I'm much more likely to watch everything on the big screen than right in front of me.

October 29 2008 at 3:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Fritz Laurel's comment
Mike

I completely agree. Streetview is a gimmic showcase piece. Why won't apple give us things that we've been asking for like flash, landscape e-mail(SMS), turn-by-turn navigation, or cut and paste? The iPhone is a great device but give us a little help here!

October 29 2008 at 5:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
punkassjim

So, I'm new to the bay area. A friend invites me to a little El Salvadoran restaurant in a neighborhood I've never been to, and I'm running extremely late. My girlfriend pulls up the address while I'm driving, bookmarks it in Maps.app, and looks at it in Street View to get a better idea of what the place looks like, and where it's situated. Handy.

I know life has marched on steadily without crap like this, but the fact of the matter is it's useful. I'm sure my little anecdote is just one of many.

For the record: I value Street View's utility far more than Google Earth, which I think is merely "entertainment."

October 30 2008 at 7:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
niclet

Nice but how about just get rid of the #&K$§x+*Ø‚fiˇ%$)@! persistent crash!

October 29 2008 at 3:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt2k

Nice but how about just giving me flash support

October 29 2008 at 3:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Matt2k's comment
Buckingham

You know that will never happen. If they implement it, it will be incomplete and won't do anything compared to the full-blown flash movies with actionscripting, server-side connections, and all the other stuff it can do. Apple also do not want flash content stepping over the YouTube app and native apps that are available in the App Store. Mobile Safari without flash is already very crash prone when loading full pages, and playing embedded movies on it won't help. It can open up as a standalone player when you click on an embedded movie, but you already know Apple doesn't want that.

October 29 2008 at 4:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

Have you never used Google Earth / Street View???

October 29 2008 at 2:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ivan

What I really want is for Apple to give us to-do on the iPhone. Ok, so copy+paste is useful but what I really miss is my to-do list synced directly from Ical. Just can't understand such an omission and even third parties weren't able to solve this. And I surely don't want my calendar floating around the cloud...

October 29 2008 at 2:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ivan's comment
Jack

you are so right

October 31 2008 at 12:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NNTPgrip

Wish list:

Persistent "alarm" reminders for missed calls, voicemail like it does now for text.

Option to keep the reminders going indefinitely until missed is acknowledged.

That's it, and if it's already there tell me how...


P.S.

I did get my first MMS after having the phone for a year, kind of sucks that it will pick up the viewmymessage.com as a URL in the SMS, but not grab the message ID and password and send that as well to safari. I waited until later and checked it on an actual computer... I really do not care about it though.

I do agree that if they are going to do anything else, they should make for landscape e-mail etc.

October 29 2008 at 2:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to NNTPgrip's comment
The Chad

NONONONONO!
How about an OPTION to do all of that?!? I freakin' hate the persistent reminders, they are the bane of m'iPhone's existence!!

October 29 2008 at 3:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
paulygon

Landscape SMS, and email!

God in heaven, just please let them include this in the next firmware update. I get it, copy and paste is never going to happen, and I have come to grips with it, but please please Steve, give me landscape! I have short, little sausage like fingers and I miss key like a bastard!

Nobody cares about the map feature on the iphone. After there was no inclusion of a real GPS feature on the iphone, google maps became lame. Also, AT&T's service sucks so hard it is hardly usable anyway.

FIX THINGS THAT MATTER!

October 29 2008 at 1:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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