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We’re switching to Apple Maps
posted by
Patrick Crowley
on
August 20, 2018 at 8:14 am
Hey, folks!
We’re changing how theater maps on Cinema Treasures look.
In the past, we have been using Google Maps for all the maps you see on Cinema Treasures. We used Google Maps on each theater page to show where the theater is located. We also used Google Maps when we displayed a list of theaters so that we can show the location of each theater in a given area.
Unfortunately, though, Google has decided to dramatically increase prices for their mapping service. This price hike has impacted our website and thousands of other sites like it. In our case, if we continue to use Google Maps, our monthly bill will definitely increase. And, not just a little bit — we would need to pay 500 times what we used to pay!
We’re not kidding. Our bill would literally be 500 times greater. And, as you can imagine, that’s not really something we can afford, so we can no longer use Google Maps on Cinema Treasures.
Luckily, however, Apple has recently started allowing websites to use Apple Maps in the same way Google does. (Up until now, Apple Maps was only available for use on the iPhone.) While these new maps from Apple do look a little bit different, they mostly work the same as Google Maps.
In addition, due to this pricing change, we have been forced to disable embedding street views on our theater pages for now. In the future, we may be able to bring these back and there’s a real possibility they will return — but only if we can figure out a way to do so affordably.
For now, if you need to access the street view for a theater, just click on the ‘View larger map’ link on the theater page. This will display a larger theater map. And below the map there will be a direct link to the Google Maps page for that theater. And, once you’re looking at theater in Google Maps, you can load the street view for that location.
Lastly, while we have done a lot of extensive testing, if you do see a bug with these new maps, please let us know.
Thanks for your understanding and support!
Cheers,
Patrick
Comments (40)
I like the fact that the flags are now named, making it easier to identify the theatres. Not noticed any problems yet.
Thank you
That’s a good idea. It is easier to identify the theatres. No problems so far.
My internet browser has started flashing “Not secure” whenever I connect to the Cinema Treasures website. What’s that all about?
Hey, Comfortably Cool. Currently, we don’t support secure connections (via https), so that’s why you’re seeing that message.
While we do plan to switch to secure connections in the next few months, it’s still perfectly safe to use Cinema Treasures since we’re not storing sensitive data (like credit card information).
Sorry, guys. We had a technical glitch with the maps, but they’re working again. :)
If you’d rather not see the unsecure connection message you may want to give Chrome a try. (Google isn’t charging for their browser …. yet.)
Also Chrome gets along very nicely with the CT site.
No reason, Comfortably Cool. That was a bug! ;)
Thanks for bringing it to my attention, though. I’ve fixed this issue — that widget is now once again showing the correct movie theaters.
good effort. now how about updating stories…
The new mapping service is more than adequate. Is there any chance that a county search could be introduced?
stevenj. Thanks, I have reported this to the site owners.
The maps are working again. Sorry about that, folks!
any update on newer stories on cinema treasures?
Can’t load “Find a movie theater near you:”, everything else works just fine…. any thoughts?
How about waze?
When I search by my zipcode, it just returns every single theater in the US.
Lucky me. There are 7,021 open movie theaters within 30 miles of my zipcode.
Whether the majority of movie venues operating in 2019 can be described as theaters (or theatres) is open to debate.
Moviepass is no more starting today, causing other membership sites to down, specifically AMC.
I’ve noticed that whatever cinema name and location you enter into the search engine on here, the answer always comes up that it’s not found. However, if for instance, I type “Cinema Treasures Focus, Longton, Stoke on Trent” into the Google search engine, it takes me to that page straight away. Speaking of the Focus, Ken Roe, who included that on Cinema Treasures, didn’t state that there were three other cinemas in the town of Longton in those days, the Alexandra; Empire and Royal. Perhaps if he reads this, he could put that omission right.
David Rayner: You only need to type in one word in the ‘search’ box. Type in ‘Focus’ and it will come up with all cinemas on the site which have that name in the database. Type in ‘Longton’ and it will find city or towns on the site with that name. Longton, England is one that come up. Click on it and we have 6 cinemas listed in Longton: Alexandra Palace, Alhambra, Broadway, Empire, Focus & Royal.
At least one person on this thread has asked what has happened to the theatre news. The news was gathered and edited by a staff member of the Theatre Historical Society in Pittsburgh. At least once or twice per week she posted news on the THS website, the THS Readerboard e-mail newsletter, and here on Cinema Treasures. This worked well for a long time. But in the fall of 2018 the THS suffered a financial collapse. The last Readerboard appeared over 12 months ago and the publication of the THS"Marquee" Magazine has been suspended. There has been no one gathering theatre news since late-2018.
I managed that, Ken. It’s just that when you click on the Focus and the page loads, there is no list of Nearby Theaters in the right hand column as there is with all the other cinemas. It just says there are no more theatres (cinemas) within 30 miles of Longton, which is nonsense.
Cool – Yes, the THSA still owns and operates the Hollywood Th. in Dormont, just a short trolley car ride south of downtown Pittsburgh. They show current movie product on its single screen, and they installed some new seats in mid-2018. If you go to the Hollywood’s page here in CT there are some comments made very recently.
Ron – Conclave 2020 was postponed due to covid-19, not the reorganization of THS. It will still be in Boston next year provided we’re allowed to have events like that by then. A public announcement is coming (along with an announcement about relaunching of Marquee), but the pandemic has pushed a few things back. A few people have termed off the board, but we’ll be replacing them. That’s the extent of the “reorganization.”
Ron – I’m well aware of that. We’re transitioning from having paid employees to completely volunteer run. There would have been news as well as a regular return of the readerboard while back, but hopefully it will be out in the next few weeks.
“What will SF movie theaters look like when the pandemic wanes?”
SFGate story Here
I’m saddened to say, I received an Email from Billy Smith.. AS most know, Billy, along with Don Lewis, has a lot of photos on cinematreasures & flickr too. Well, Don passed away on May 27, in Lubbock Tx at the age of 71.. Billy wanted me to post this on here.. R.I.P. Don Lewis.. Thank you for all of your contributions to this great site & flickr too.. Randy
Randy, Many Thanks for notifying us of the passing of Don Lewis. He was a stalwart member of Cinema Treasures and will be missed on the site. He, together with Billy Smith have contributed numerous photographs to the site and shared them with us, even adding new theatres to swell our database. In my capacity as the Editor of Cinema Treasures I have had several personal correspondences with Don, who was a charming & polite person to know, even though we never actually met ‘in person’. May he R.I.P.
I think Tenet will move to next year very much like how Universal smartly delayed their tentpole movies to that year. I remember when The New Mutants was teased back in the fall of 2017 and they pushed the release date too many times.
Tenet is postponed indefinetly
Now i hear that Tenet will open a week before the US release around labor day weekend.
movies are delayed again
Thank goodness drive in theaters are open. :)
Today I saw a tv news segment about an effort by the National Association of Theatre Owners called #SaveYourCinema, to rally people to contact their representatives in the United States Congress and tell them to do something to help stop movie theaters from going out of business before they can fully reopen.
Long-time Cinema Treasures member and poster Hank Sykes of Cincinnati OH died recently. He had many friends in the Theatre Historical Society of America and in the Cinema Theatre Association in England.
Ron, Many Thanks for relating the sad news of Hank’s passing. He was a good friend to both the THS & CTA participating by attending THS Conclaves and CTA Visits and was a member of the Cinema Theatre Association for 20 years.
I accidentally UNSUBSCRIBED to your e mails. Can I reverse this error.
The news was gathered and edited by a staff member of the Theatre Historical Society in Pittsburgh. At least once or twice per week she posted news on the THS website, the THS Readerboard e-mail newsletter, and here on Cinema Treasures. This worked well for a long time. But in the fall of 2018 the THS suffered a financial collapse. The last Readerboard appeared over 12 months ago and the publication of the THS"Marquee" Magazine has been suspended.
Is there anyway to report incorrect placement of locations on the map, or move them to the correct place? I’ve noticed that the map pins for two cinemas in Nuneaton, England (the Scala and Palace) are not in the correct places on the map - just a minor move to the correct location in both cases.