Apple’s Look Around outperforms Google’s Street View

DrNo one expected it so fast: Apple this week updated its Maps app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and what previously worked in a few big cities now works just about everywhere. “Look Around” is the name for the expansion of the card, which stands for binoculars. If you click on the icon, you will see a photographic view of the area as in Google Street View.

However, the photos are better, and most of them were taken in bright sunlight – they show almost all the facades of houses in Germany without pixels. This puts Google Street View far behind. The service was launched in 2010 for major cities and has not been updated following privacy protests.

Faces and license plates are also hidden in Apple Maps. The technology called “Image Blurring” works independently, and in order to limit the number of people photographed from the start, photos are taken in off-peak city centers, for example. If you want to make your home view split after that, you should contact Apple, for example via this email address. However, the 3D representation of the property remains visible as usual. Privacy advocates have no objections to the Apple app. In Germany, the data protection authority of the state of Bavaria is responsible and has set up an information page on the Internet.

Captured with 360-degree cameras, you can navigate the streets with a flick of your finger like in an augmented reality screen and discover loads of details. This way you get an insight into what it might look like there even before you visit a foreign city. The footage was captured not only by camera cars, but also by photographers with camera backpacks in pedestrian areas. Here you can see where Apple photographed which regions and when. Most of the footage is a little older, as evidenced by the petrol and diesel prices at the gas station, among other things.