Althouse: Apple Maps screw-ups.

September 22, 2012

Apple Maps screw-ups.

Pictures of Applefail.

55 comments:

Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I've noticed my iPod touch is using up the battery juice faster.; 9/22/12, 5:14 PM
edutcher said...: Oooh, that's gnarly, dude.; 9/22/12, 5:25 PM
Alex said...: Maybe I shouldn't update my iPod Touch to iOS 6. I only use it for music, so screw it.; 9/22/12, 5:30 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It says data from Tom Tom..

No street view.. Google map has that edge.

Went to Google map via the web and its now offered as an app you can download.

Apple must have been paying Google and Tom Tom is cheaper... Jobs must be spinning in his grave.; 9/22/12, 5:37 PM
kjbe said...: The iOS 6 upgrade screwed up my wifi on my 4s - couldn't connect. It also greatly accelerated my battery usage.

Took it into the Apple Store - they replaced the phone.; 9/22/12, 5:37 PM
kjbe said...: Not crazy about their map app - I really like Google's. I went and bookmarked Google maps to my Homepage. Depending on my needs, I've now got both available.; 9/22/12, 5:40 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The interface on the iPod now looks like the iPad.; 9/22/12, 5:50 PM
Mark said...: The development code name was "Brown Acid."; 9/22/12, 5:52 PM
Alex said...: The project name was "runny shits".; 9/22/12, 5:52 PM
Sammy said...: Anne , Instputit has a great link to a walter Russell Mead artcule, thought it would be something you ould post about.
IF WE HAD A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT, THIS WOULD BE A BIG STORY: Walter Russell Mead: Afghan Surge Ends: Not with a Bang but a Whimper.

"We should all be very glad that we have a Democratic president right now; otherwise the news would be terrible. We would be seeing a rash of horrible and depressing stories in the newspapers about strategic failure, with unremitting second guessing and belittling of a president who agonized for months before the surge and then saw his plan fail. We’d be hearing non-stop reports in the media about the incompetent and klutzy leader who torpedoed his own policy by announcing a withdrawal date; the man who tried to please everybody and do everything—and failed at all he tried.

The press would be jumping on this narrative. There would be continuous coverage of the disarray in Afghanistan: the soldier’s we’re training are shooting us, the corruption is intensifying, and the opium trade spreading. There would be story after story about how Afghanistan seems little changed after the surge, and how peace is still not at hand. These stories wouldn’t be on the back pages; they’d be perceived as major news with profound implications for America’s global position and the Sunday shows and nightly TV news round ups would be full of talking heads endlessly analyzing each wrinkle of the failure.

There would be bitter, wounding comparisons between the president and LBJ in Vietnam. If we had a conservative Republican president right now, we’d be hearing him compared to the noble Duke of York, who marched 10,000 men to the top of the hill only to march them down again.

And we’d be hearing all kinds of damning stories about the failure of the U.S. government to deal with the chaos in Pakistan.

We’d also be reading stories linking the apparent U.S. failure in Afghanistan to the empowerment of anti-American movements throughout the Middle East. The recent riots would be used as a stick to beat the president with—his weakness, indecision and strategic inconsequentialism in Afghanistan would be endangering our interests all over the region. Instead of concentrating on the real terror threat, the press would tell us, this hypothetical clueless Republican president wasted time, treasure and attention on a failed strategy in Afghanistan. The press would try to hang the corpse of the U.S. ambassador in Libya around the neck of a Republican president, if we had one right now.

But thankfully we have a Democratic president, and in an election year the normally feisty American media—the same media that worked night and day to expose every flaw and contradiction in the Bush policies in the region (and they had plenty to expose)—is too busy reporting the flaws in the Romney campaign (again, there’s much to report) to pay attention to anything as insignificant as a comprehensively failed presidential strategy in a foreign war.

Yeah, we’re real lucky that way.; 9/22/12, 5:58 PM
Kylos said...: Functionality is much better in iOS 6 maps vs iOS 5, though its map data set is is not as strong as google's yet. I've found the web based google maps is clumsier to use than a dedicated app.

I find the new maps to be a useful upgrade even though the data set isn't as robust just because it's more functional.

Bridges and other structures are rendered poorly because apple morphs satellite imagery with ground contour information. Thus images with bridges are rendered at the elevation of the ground beneath them, not at the elevation of the bridge.; 9/22/12, 5:59 PM
Alex said...: Yeah keep apologizing for shitty maps.; 9/22/12, 6:02 PM
Kylos said...: Who's apologizing?; 9/22/12, 6:05 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It looks like Apple has an Inception mode.; 9/22/12, 6:06 PM
jungatheart said...: "Who knew that Hoover Dam is a giant vagina?"

I know who didn't.; 9/22/12, 6:09 PM
Kylos said...: Lem, I hadn't heard that google had released their app yet. I'll have to give it a try.

Apple's original maps app was created by Apple but used google data. The data was fine but the app was only marginally useful without real turn by turn directions. The new app is much more useful but the data isn't as good.

Hopefully google's map app will be better; 9/22/12, 6:11 PM
David said...: One Hundred Fifty years ago from today, Lincoln's cabinet adopted the Emancipation Proclamation. It was published the next day and was to go into effect on January 1, 1863.

Only Secretary Blair was opposed. Here is the passage from the Diary of Gideon Welles describing Blair's objections, and Lincoln's response.

[The proclamation] was then handed to the Secretary of State to publish to-morrow. After this, Blair remarked that he considered it proper to say he did not concur in the expediency of the measure at this time, though he approved of the principle, and should therefore wish to file his objections. He stated at some length his views, which were substantially that we ought not to put in greater jeopardy the patriotic element in the Border States, that the results of this Proclamation would be to carry over those States en masse to the Secessionists as soon as it was read, and that there was also a class of partisans in the Free States endeavoring to revive old parties, who would have a club put into their hands of which they would avail themselves to beat the Administration.
The President said he had considered the danger to be apprehended from the first objection, which was undoubtedly serious, but the objection was certainly as great not to act; as regarded the last, it had not much weight with him.; 9/22/12, 6:23 PM
pm317 said...: Steve Jobs would have died looking at this.; 9/22/12, 6:54 PM
coketown said...: I poked fun at a friend yesterday over this. He's a total mactard and any word against Apple is blasphemy. I showed him the Hoover Dam example and I got a huge kick out of it. But it isn't nearly as bad as the pictures make it look. It took a while to orient the map to achieve the roller coaster effect. Looking at it any other way looked fine. Plus the whole 3D map thing is a stupid novelty. I can't imagine using it for anything other than funsies.

The redundant, incorrect, and missing data worry me most. It's not as widespread as they're making it out (Oh noes! Streets on the Cayman Islands are missing!), but I wouldn't want to wait until I needed directions before finding out my destination wasn't correct on Apple Maps. Hopefully Apple is in overdrive correcting this.

In fact, I was planning on getting the iPhone 5 (I haven't owned one before) but this map thing makes me hesitant. I'm hoping Google's map app gets approved soon so I can rely on that.; 9/22/12, 7:23 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: This could be very harmful. if people rely on these maps as they do and hook them up directly to their personal transporters then hundreds of Segways across this great land of ours could go flying over cliffs and bridges and dams. Or tens perhaps. Or a couple. Or one, like that one guy.; 9/22/12, 7:53 PM
yashu said...: Hilarious! Actually those pictures are awesome. They work as creepy vertiginous photographic art.; 9/22/12, 7:53 PM
Alex said...: Coketown - wait for the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia's mapping services are the best bar none.; 9/22/12, 7:55 PM
Anonymous said...: The melting bridges look like Surrealist art. And I love the giant shrubbery on 5th Ave. Think of how pleased the Knights Who Say Ni! would be.; 9/22/12, 8:11 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Looks like somebody upset the apple cart.; 9/22/12, 8:16 PM
Kylos said...: I've not used Nokia smartphones, but it wouldn't surprise me. Nokia owns Navteq.; 9/22/12, 8:17 PM
Michael said...: Er, they will fix it. Relax.; 9/22/12, 8:19 PM
coketown said...: Coketown - wait for the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia's mapping services are the best bar none.

I've been off-contract for two months waiting for the Lumia 920, and there still isn't a release date set. Nokia should have offered that device shortly after it was announced, before the iPhone 5, and it would have sold like crazy. But nobody wants to wait indefinitely when there are so many great phones out right now.; 9/22/12, 8:22 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Somebody dili dali with Tomtom.; 9/22/12, 8:22 PM
yashu said...: The melting bridges look like Surrealist art.

Yes, exactly. Or a scene from "Inception."

And heh at the monster shrubbery, hadn't noticed that. Ni, indeed.; 9/22/12, 8:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Its an Apple cart packing plan that went awry.; 9/22/12, 8:37 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Apple tried to improvise a map and it got a little out of hand.; 9/22/12, 8:49 PM
yashu said...: Heh Lem, yes: as if Cecilia Jimenez decided to touch up some cityscapes too.; 9/22/12, 9:12 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...wait for the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia's mapping services are the best bar none."

I'm a long-time Apple fan and user, and I took delivery of an iPhone 5 yesterday morning. (Yep...I got up at 3:00 a.m. last week to preorder it.)

It's a beautiful device, and, as someone on tv apparently said about it, it feels like the future.

All that said, I'm intrigued by the Nokia Lumia 920 hardware and Windows 8 phone OS. If I were ever tempted to stray from iPhone, it would not be Android that would tempt me but the Lumia 920/Windows hardware/OS combo.

If I had enough money to buy two phones, I'd get the Lumia 920 as a second phone.; 9/22/12, 9:21 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...I hadn't heard that google had released their app yet. I'll have to give it a try."

They haven't. One can open up to Google Maps on the web using iPhone's Safari browser, and then save it as a link on the iPhone's "desktop." It looks like an App Icon, but is really just a "shortcut" (in Windows parlance) to the Google Maps webpage.

In short, it's a webapp.

Google has said they'll have an actual maps app out by year's end, or so I've heard reported.; 9/22/12, 9:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Had dinner at the WH; dessert was from Georgetown cupcakes.

The focus was how bad the Romney ticket will be. In DC world, no one loves Romney. No one. No one.

How can Romney even win something is a mystery. Every-one here loves Obama. Everyone. Everyone.; 9/22/12, 9:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Had dinner at the WH; dessert was from Georgetown cupcakes.

The focus was how bad the Romney ticket will be. In DC world, no one loves Romney. No one. No one.

How can Romney even win something is a mystery. Every-one here loves Obama. Everyone. Everyone.; 9/22/12, 9:47 PM
Alex said...: All that said, I'm intrigued by the Nokia Lumia 920 hardware and Windows 8 phone OS.

The key difference between iOS & Windows Phone is that in Windows Phone you can pin applications and other content to the main screen. iOS only has application shortcuts. Also Windows Phone has live tiles which can show you updated information without you having to launch the app. It's really the next generation mobile OS.; 9/22/12, 9:54 PM
Anonymous said...: wow really fantastic blog no doubt.; 9/22/12, 10:08 PM
Rose said...: Ann, go check Drudge - the hands - Leader of Iran, Hillary, and others....; 9/22/12, 10:09 PM
bagoh20 said...: I read and hear all this talk about design and styling of these phones as if it's the car you drive or something. I don't know what phone any of my friends use. It never comes up and from a distance they all look pretty much the same.

As a monitor they are still crappy compared to a 5 year old computer monitor, as a phone they are still inferior in quality of sound and reliability to a land line from 1950, as a computer they suck compared to a laptop or desktop. I have a GPS/flight tracker app that tracks my hang glider flights, and I can use my phone for a TV, an MP3 player, a radio, a traffic aware GPS in the car, etc. But, in all these uses it is far inferior to the technology it emulates

Their value is that they work marginally well at a lot of things, everywhere and fit in your pocket, period. That is incredible, but it's amazing to me how much less quality and increased expense we have learned to accept for portability. It's like bottled water.

I do love the Google Sky app. There is no better substitute for that. Ironically, the worst part of cell phones is still the phone part - what they are really about, and always have been. I still lose calls, and the duplex is still poor compared to old school land lines.

Blah, Blah, Blah, get off my lawn.; 9/22/12, 10:19 PM
bagoh20 said...: I have a Samsung with Android and you can pin anything (web or local) to any screen, which you can create a bunch of, and it updates info on the screen automatically without opening the app. It's a year old.; 9/22/12, 10:23 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Blah, Blah, Blah, get off my lawn.; 9/22/12, 10:27 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: A "screw up" that gets press, when press is what's intended, is an interesting thing, to the extent many experts or hyper-interested layman have an opinion that is more than just justified but misses the mark of a company aiming for the masses.; 9/22/12, 10:45 PM
wyo sis said...: It does nothing well, but it tries everything. Must be a metaphor here somewhere.; 9/22/12, 10:51 PM
wyo sis said...: Avatar in accordance to God's command.; 9/22/12, 10:52 PM
Conserve Liberty said...: Well - rebuilding all my Passwords, no thanks to iOS6. Of course now I ahve to change them on every other device. And my Router.

Damned Apple. They're as oppressive and intrusive as Microsoft.; 9/22/12, 11:15 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Shithouse mouse of a cunt whore.

Or.

Shithouse mouse from a cunt-whore.

Or something close to that is my own personal definition of Chris Hitchens.; 9/22/12, 11:16 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Hitchens considered Ronald Reagan sub-human.

Hitchens, until his death, claimed Reagan was a lizard.

Sub-human, Hitchens claimed, and was and is lauded, for saying Ronaled Reagan lacked humanity.

So Christopher Hitchens was a decrepit anti-Buckley worthy of that title his end, thank God not our end.

Asshole.; 9/22/12, 11:27 PM
Mark said...: Hitchens was a principled follower of Trotsky.

He was also a valiant defender of the Enlightenment.

That's a hard road to walk, and it leads to some hard decisions.

You can say he was wrong about Reagan and right about Bin Laden without contradiction. Asshole.; 9/22/12, 11:35 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Something about the cuntishness of C. Hitchens makes me want to comment more, which is something that won't be spoken about me, therefore I give grudgingly respect to the Hitchens that is Christian.; 9/23/12, 12:04 AM
Anonymous said...: Shouldn't there be one for Obama?

We should just make a t-shirt with his crappy, communistic "Hope" poster with the word "Hope" removed. Above and below his slimy image we should print two words, respectively:

President

Fail!; 9/23/12, 2:06 AM
Curious George said...: Maybe with the iPhone 6 Apple will take out the annoying feature that forces users to show everyone they meet how amazing it is.

I want to a party last night and a friend and wife both have the new iPhone. Both showed me "how amazing it is". My friend actually uttered the words "Apple doesn't create products. They have created a new ecosystem."

Yes Andy they have. Where only sheeple survive.; 9/23/12, 8:52 AM
Aridog said...: Sometimes AP is just funny cute...

Had dinner at the WH; dessert was from Georgetown cupcakes.

So Sandra Fluke was there passing out favors, eh?; 9/23/12, 9:06 AM
MadisonMan said...: Parallax is a bitch.; 9/23/12, 10:55 AM
Unknown said...: New Apple Maps has lacked many things as compared to Google maps. The number one thing is Google's database. Apple Maps sources its location information from Yelp, which so far is less reliable than Google's offering. Also, you totally lose mass transit directions, which always existed on Google Maps.; 9/27/12, 2:24 AM