Apple to offer mobile map app

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 11 (UPI) -- Apple will revamp its Maps app in the next update to its iOS mobile operating system to feature photorealistic 3D mapping technology, sources told AllThingsD.

Apple is apparently moving away from the Google Maps service to provide its own version of a mapping application, expected to be unveiled at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June, Appleinsider.com reported.

The new Maps are expected to be shown off in a keynote that will kick off the event, AllThingsD's report said.

"Sources describe the new Maps app as a forthcoming tent-pole feature of iOS that will, in the words of one, 'blow your head off,'" AllThingsD's John Paczkowski reported.

"I'm not quite sure what that means, and the source in question declined to elaborate, but it's likely a reference to the photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies," he reported.

C3 Technologies a Sweden-based 3D mapping company Apple bought in 2011.

Apple's new Maps application for iOS 6 could also feature a traffic function, as Apple announced last April it was "collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database."