Apple Getting Criticism Rather Than Praise
Loyal Apple fans disappointed by the new map app which replaces Google Maps.
Apple, which is usually the focus of praise and even adulation from its fans, is facing rare criticism over its mapping application. Apple released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system on Wednesday (September 19th) that replaces Google Maps with Apple's own mapping app. But users are saying the new maps are less detailed, look weird and misplace landmarks. The app also tends to judge landscape features by their names, so Madison Square Garden in New York and TD Garden in Boston, which are sports stadiums, are marked as green park space. Meanwhile, Airfield Gardens, a farm and plant nursery in Ireland, is marked as an airfield. That led the country's Justice Minister to warn pilots, concerned that a pilot unfamiliar with the area who's in an emergency situation and without other information might try to land there. He called it, quote, "dangerously misleading." There's even criticism of the app's most-hyped feature, called Flyby mode, which shows three-dimensional images of buildings and other features. While it does a good job with buildings, it tends to make bridges and highway overpasses look wobbly or partly collapsed.