In a surprise move,
Apple today declared moral
bankruptcy (financially, of course, they are doing quite well):
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/apple-seeks-order-blocking-sale-of-samsung-products/?ref=global-home
This, in addition to socking Samsung for a billion bucks.
Pride goeth before ....
well, an appeal, at any rate.
[More here:
Welcome to the new world of Apple
Maps that greeted iPhone and iPad users when they downloaded the highly
anticipated update to the consumer giant's mobile software platform, iOS 6.
Apple Inc's home-grown Maps feature
was introduced with much fanfare in June by Apple's software chief Scott
Forstall and is a direct challenge to the same service offered by
ally-turned-rival Google Inc.
But the app is already facing
criticism from users globally for a number of geographical errors, missing
information and because it lacks features that made Google Maps so popular,
including public transit directions, comprehensive traffic data or street view
pictures.
Apple Maps has replaced Google
Maps, which is no longer available on iOS 6.
Many users who downloaded Apple's
iOS 6 software, released on Wednesday, took to Twitter and online forums to
express their frustration at the glitches.
"The people who thought the
world was flat were more accurate cartographers than Apple Maps,"
@RayneBradley said on Twitter.
"Apple Maps also have errors
in business listings. I went to call a local taxi driver and it was a
taxidermist (seriously)," said @TomDavenport on Twitter.
Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said
the company launched the new service knowing it was a major initiative.
"We are continuously improving
it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better
it will get," she said. "We're also working with developers to
integrate some of the amazing transit apps in the App Store into iOS
Maps."
"We appreciate all of the
customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even
better," she added.
The criticism comes as Apple's
iPhone 5 hits stores around the globe. The iPhone 5 comes pre-loaded with the
new iOS 6 software and Maps.
Users have created a Tumblr blog
sarcastically dubbed "The Amazing iOS 6 Maps" where many have posted
screen shots of the errors (theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/). Pictures showed
the Norwegian town of Leknes in the Norwegian sea, the entire city center of
Stratford-upon-Avon is labeled as a hospital.
Some of the errors have even irked
politicians. Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said he was surprised to
discover that Airfield - a 35-acre estate with working farm and café in center
of his constituency in Dundrum, on the outskirts of Dublin - has been labeled
with the image of an aircraft.
He said this could be dangerous for
pilots and suggested in a statement that Apple use the image of "a cow, a
goat, a sheep, a flower" instead, and that an "aircraft is an
entirely inappropriate flight of imagination".
Users in Asia were surprised to see
two sets of the disputed islands known by Japan as the Senkaku and by China as
the Diaoyu. Some joked that this was Apple's effort at providing a diplomatic
solution to Japan and China, both of which claim the islands.
I've never really understood this "Cloud-based" mantra; at my workplace, it is used in a way that makes no sense at all. Is Apple saying that, say, what country Paris is in, should be decided by a consensus of user opinions? -- Well if so, my ten billion penguin friends are about to weigh in with the information that the Center of the Universe is in Antarctica ...
* * *
~ Commercial break ~
Relief for
beleaguered Nook lovers!
We now return you to
your regularly scheduled essay.
* * *
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/11/itunes_11_it_s_time_for_apple_s_horrible_bloated_program_to_die.html
The day APPLE declares bankruptcy would be the day, technology owns the people.
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