Apple makes improvements to Map app

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CUPERTINO, Calif., March 13 (UPI) -- Apple has quietly released improvements to its much-criticized Maps app for the iPhone to improve its accuracy and functionality, tech websites report.

The Maps application, which was introduced with iOS 6 on the iPhone and iPad last fall, was slammed by many users for multiple inaccuracies including mislabeled roads, missing points of interest and even absent towns.

The company was forced to apologize and even went so far as to allow Google Maps, which it has tossed from iOS 6 in favor of its own app, back into the Apple Store, where it immediately garnered a million downloads.

Recent updates to Apple Maps includes a significant expansion of its 3-D flyover feature -- which gives users a bird's-eye view of cityscapes -- to include 16 new cities, now including Baltimore; Cleveland; Green Bay, Wis.; Minneapolis; Indianapolis; Portland, Ore.; and Buffalo, N.Y.

Apple also has expanded the scale of the flyover feature in more than a dozen existing cities, including Boston, Houston, London, Toronto and many others, InformationWeek reported Wednesday.

Basic improvements reportedly have been made to maps for other regions of the world, particularly Asia.