It knows about the frontage road shortcuts that my car, and ever other app I’ve ever third has always ignored!

The GPS in my car will get me where I need to go.

Apple Maps will get you there with the shortcuts that locals will know about.

Thanks to Made in China road signs and the fact they can’t copy the road designs from abroad, people get in accidents just by trying to figure out what signage they see. And 80% of the drivers have had driver licence less than 10 years and drive a brand new car, you’ll understand why everything can be a mess.

To go east on the 280, driving northward on N De Anza Blvd, you need to be in the two leftmost lanes (before even reaching the overpass), then (past the overpass) turn left and take the freeway entrance.

So what is Tim to do? I think he absolutely took the correct action, regardless of whether the product was actually seriously flawed. He humbly apologized for disappointing Apple’s loyal fans, he vowed to make Maps conform to Apple’s exceedingly high standards, he graciously recommended competing products, and he asked for our help to make Maps the best mapping program in the world. In my mind, home run! He shows that Apple cares. That Apple’s core values are about producing superior products that delight its customers, not simply separating us from our hard-earned coin.

What has happened since? All of the sudden, reviews are coming out that are saying “Maybe the real situation isn’t as it has been portrayed”. For example, the one above and a great series on Maps by Appleinsider. Folks are looking for themselves and discovering that “Hey, this app is actually pretty darn good”. Also, from what I understand, Apple fans are reporting errors as they find them and the product is improving almost overnight. I think in very short order Map-gate will be history and iOS users will forget google was ever on their phones.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Memo to constipated pundits: take a 2000 mile road trip as this chap did, testing Maps. Then, and only then, give us your opinion, unclouded by echo chamber bias and a poorly concealed desire to be acknowledged the tech world’s designated dragon slayer.

I have an iPhone 4, updated to 6.0 but can’t find the app?

No big deal if its not, on a waiting list for iPhone 5!

Because APPLE is the frelling industry leader.

THEY set the standard and the public has come to expect that standard. Any misstep howls are just screams from haters mostly, because Apple is the company that JUST WOULD NOT DIE!
For YEARS I heard that Apple was on its last legs and was about to go under, I heard that the iPod was “just a fad”.

Uh huh, a fad that took the company to the top of the tech industry.

Am I an Apple fanboy? Yes, to an extent. I don’t give Apple a pass to be evil or sloppy. I want them to BE and ACT the best because they ARE the best.

Period.

The weakly Cook instead got scared and intimidated by media hacks and thugs like Joe Nocera, David Pogue, and the like and folded like a cheap suit. The only one who fell short in this case is Cook himself.

Apple should order a liquid metal backbone and a pair of carbon fiber balls for his CEO.

The main problem is with the data.

About the whole “they launched too soon” and “X person should be fired”: Funny, but while I heard some negative comments while iOS 6 was in beta, I didn’t hear many people saying Apple Maps wasn’t ready to launch.

It seems to me that Apple Map Error Hunters are really seeking out problems, and Apple will get these fixed soon enough. It seems like Apple had to launch Maps to get this feedback.

It’s no surprise that were I live (filled with iOS developers and Apple employees), there aren’t many areas of problem or missing data.

Although I do find it funny that the icon for Apple Maps, showing Apple’s headquarters is actually (technically) wrong itself (showing a left turn off an overpass).

Map has worked flawlessly every time we used it. Today,for fun, on the way home from a major supermarket I asked my lovely wife Jess to open the app. It immediately picked up our location and told us how far we were from home, (3.6 miles) and routed us home perfectly.

Same thing last Friday when we flew out of Stansted. It took us right to the entrance of the Mid Stay Parking – and when we came back this week took it us home safely in the dark of the night..=*^)

{
That’s a joke.
1) There are no bridges to Mackinac Island, only ferries.
2) Cars are illegal on Mackinac Island; have been since the 1890s.
}

I prefer to base my opinions on blind punditry.

We complain about Windows and Internet Exploder at work, but no mass media echo chamber because everyone has low expectations of it.