Rumblings of a new, Google-free iOS Maps app have been winging their way around the web for a few weeks now, and just in time to whet our appetites before WWDC, an early version of the revamped app has apparently been caught on film.
The folks at BGR managed to score a handful of (extremely blurry) photos depicting the new in-house Maps application that Apple will reportedly unveil alongside iOS 6 next month.
Putting Apple’s shift away from using Google map data aside for a moment, one of the bigger changes being forecast is the addition of a new 3D map view. It certainly jibes well with Apple’s purchase of 3D mapping company C3 Technologies in 2011, and BGR’s source claims that the feature is currently being tested on iOS 6 beta builds.
Enabling the new 3D view is a simple enough process — after tapping the button on the screen to bring up the map display settings, selecting the 3D option will cause a new toggle to appear in the bottom left corner of the main map. From there, users will be able to locate themselves and toggle between 2D and 3D views as desired.
Sadly, though the folks at BGR have cobbled together a mockup of what the updated app will look like (above), there’s still no clear shot of what the 3D map view will actually look like running within the application. For now though, we’ll have to make do with some early demos of the company’s impressive maps running on iOS hardware as we wait for WWDC to kick off.
