One of Apple’s big announcements at this years WWDC keynote was an all-new mapping system for iOS 6, complete with turn-by-turn directions and a cool new 3D “Flyover” view. Interestingly, according to new references found in iOS 6, Apple’s new maps may be headed for the Mac as well!
Technically Personal reports (via 9to5Mac)
Our developer friend, Cody Cooper has now stumbled upon an interesting code dump in iOS 6 maps application which hints at the possibility of Apple Maps coming to Macs in the near future.
During his routine investigation of Maps app, Cody found some interesting bits in the filealtitude_manifest.xml
In this XML file, there is a reference to a set of Intel based graphics chipsets for which certain features like Shading are disabled.
Of course, Apple’s iOS devices do not feature Intel graphics, which fuels suspicious that Maps may be on its way to OS X, although it’s unclear exactly what the benefit might be, or what form Maps might take on iOS. Perhap Maps could integrate with Finder and Apple’s built-in apps to help users look up addresses and find directions – or maybe even send directions from the Mac to your iPhone or iPad?
What do you think? Would it make sense for Apple to bring Maps to the Mac? Sound off in the comments! We’ll let you know if we hear any more, or if we find any hints of this within the latest Mountain Lion beta.
