A song of maps and fruit
A few days ago Apple officially announced this year’s WWDC through its dedicated microsite. Surprisingly, they were using what looked like a web version of Apple Maps (currently only available via native clients installed on iOS and OS X devices) on it, which meant a public API could be there or around the corner.
As soon as we got a couple of spare hours, Lluís Ulzurrun and I (Javier Rodríguez) started working on figuring out how it was set up, and if there was an actual chance of building a working web client before Apple’s was released (what most likely will happen during WWDC). Well, there was, a public API was available for us to tinker and for the world to enjoy, so we started breaking things. In about 20 minutes I built a mock-up UI in Sketch trying to port Apple Maps functionality to the look and feel of the iCloud suite; meanwhile Lluís managed to get location requests working, so it was just a matter of putting it all together.
Eureka! We got a decent-looking Apple Maps web client working and online in a couple of hours of guessing and playing. A name for it? Of course (Apple) Peach Maps.
The next day we got directions working, so basically it was Apple Maps on the web before Apple Maps on the web.
In a few hours traffic started getting interesting, a lot of views from the States, some from Europe, but the funniest thing was having Cupertino as one of the main spots traffic was coming from.
And oh! Look at that, is it a time traveler checking out our site? Definitely probably.
Then Spanish press wrote about us (it was SO nice, props to you @Applesfera and Miguel López) and all of a sudden we lost (partially) access to the API (Was Apple blocking us? Is the API still buggy and can’t handle all this attention?). So basically if you visit Peach Maps now you will most likely get a beautiful empty UI, hoping for Apple’s love and comprehension.
Anyway, it was a project really fun to make, thanks Tim Cook and the rest of the team for letting us have some fun. Apple, your move, please do it cool ❤
