Apple's Plan To Bring Eye-Popping 3D Maps To Your iPhone

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Apple recently acquired a 3D mapping company called C3 Technologies in order to bolster its Maps feature in iOS, according to 9to5 Mac.

C3 is able to create photo realistic 3D maps of cities and geographic features. It uses the same technology the military uses in missile targeting to form the maps.

The results are pretty good.

Since the beginning, Apple has relied on Google to provide the back end for iOS maps. Now with C3, it's possible for Apple to handle mapping on its own without depending on its rival.

With C3, Apple will not only have access to gorgeous 3D maps, but also the ability to overlay information such as traffic, tweets, and Wikipedia entries.

It'll probably be long time before we see C3's maps hit iOS. We're thinking iOS 6 will have it next year. In the meantime, we snagged some screens of C3's gorgeous maps to give you an idea what it'll be like in iOS.

The level of detail is incredible, especially considering most of the mapping process is handled by computers

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C3 maps can display information too. Here's a goofy example where someone added a King Kong animation over the Empire State Building

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Terrain looks gorgeous too. It's almost like a photograph

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Eventually, Apple can use the technology to perfect traffic monitoring from your iOS device.

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Landmarks show up on stunning detail, right down to the shadows.

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Here's an example where someone placed Facebook updates over the locations they were made. This could be very useful for gathering location-based information from your iPhone.

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Even tiny details like foliage are in the maps.

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At times, it's hard to tell if you're looking at a photo or computer render.

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Until we get 3D maps on the iPhone...

Ellis Hamburger, Business Insider

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