Apple Surveying Canada's Largest Cities With Specialized Backpacks to Improve Maps
Apple Maps team members wearing specialized camera-equipped backpacks will be walking in Canada's three largest cities of Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver through October to help improve the Apple Maps app.
Apple typically drives a fleet of vehicles around the world to collect Maps data, including street-level imagery for its
Look Around feature, but it conducts pedestrian surveys "in areas where vehicles simply can't go." Apple promises that the pedestrian surveys offer the "same privacy protections as the Apple Maps vehicles."
A list of locations maintained on Apple's website reveals that the company began the pedestrian surveys in Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver on September 11. Apple will also be surveying the Region of Durham immediately east of Toronto.
Apple says it is committed to protecting the public's privacy while conducting these surveys. In line with Google's Street View, Apple censors faces and license plates in imagery made available through its Look Around feature. If you have comments or questions about this process, your privacy rights, or would like to request that a face, license plate, or your own house be censored, Apple says to email mapsimagecollection@apple.com.
Introduced in iOS 13, Look Around provides 3D street-level imagery that can be zoomed and panned. The feature is already available in Canada, but Apple periodically revisits some locations "in an effort to maintain a high-quality, up-to-date map." Look Around is also available in parts of the United States, UK, Ireland, and Japan.
Popular Stories
Apple is planning to debut a high-end secondary version of AirPods Pro 3 this year, sitting in the lineup alongside the current model, reports suggest.
Back in September 2025, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to introduce a successor to the AirPods Pro 3 in 2026. This would be somewhat unusual since Apple normally waits around three years to make major...
Over the last few months, rumors around the iPhone 18 Pro's front-panel design have been conflicted, with some supply-chain leaks pointing to under-display Face ID, reports suggesting a top-left hole-punch camera, and debate over whether the familiar Dynamic Island will shrink, shift, or disappear entirely.
Today, Weibo-based leaker Instant Digital shared new details that appear to clarify the ...
iOS 27 is still many months away, but there are already plenty of rumors about new features that will be included in the software update.
The first beta of iOS 27 will be released during WWDC 2026 in June, and the update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense...
MacBook Pro availability is tightening on Apple's online store, with select configurations facing up to a two-month delivery timeframe in the United States.
A few 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations with an M4 Pro chip are not facing any shipping delay, but estimated delivery dates for many configurations with an M4 Max chip range from February 6 to February 24 or even later. At...
In addition to updating many of its existing products, Apple is expected to unveil five all-new products this year, including a smart home hub, a Face ID doorbell, a MacBook with an A18 Pro chip, a foldable iPhone, and augmented reality glasses.
Below, we have recapped rumored features for each product.
Smart Home Hub
Apple home hub (concept)
Apple's long-rumored smart home hub should...
