Tim Cook says sorry that Maps sucks

He even suggests using Google Maps or others like from Nokia, Waze, Mapquest, or Bing.

http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/

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To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

In before "This wouldn't have happened with Steve"

They apologized for the G5 iMac delays back in 2004.

http://tidbits.com/article/7728

"Apple has stopped taking orders for the current iMac as we begin the transition from the current iMac line to an all-new iMac line which will be announced and available in September. We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by the time the inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks, but our planning was obviously less than perfect. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers."

This is iPhone 5's antennagate... sort of.

The App Store now has a Map Apps section.

http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new...ative_maps.jpg

This is mighty big of them. Bigger would be to just make the old Maps app available through the App Store.

We were in Chicago this week and my wife was using the new Maps on her iPhone. It was a disaster. And, the new app had the added feature of sucking her battery dry at a startling rate.

iOS6 Apple Maps do not suck.

iOS5 maps are intentionally lousy, Google makes them that way. Google can make sucky iOS5-type Google Maps available if they like. Me, I am thrilled with iOS6 Apple Maps on an iPhone 4s.

iOS5 Google Maps are impossible as a real time driving tool, and if you are not using it as a driving tool just use web Google Maps if that is what you like.

-Allen

Interesting. How old is her iphone?

I have used iOS6 on a 4s (no comment on _old_ iPhones, of course they may be better with _old_ iOS versions) since day one and it is a hella improvement. What few errors I have seen have been comical rather than problematic, while iOS5 Google Maps are always problematic as a driving tool. I use it all over northern California, cannot comment on Chi.

Vehicular use as a GPS the way I use it I expect to be battery-draining, so I have always plugged it in when using it as a turn-by-turn Siri GPS.
Sucking the battery dry should be irrelevant for that usage, not a valid flaw.

-Allen

If you really want to know just how appallingly bad Apple Maps are, try leaving the USA. The level of detail is shockingly bad and there's very little local data. It's actually unusable. As a long time Apple fan boy, I'm incredibly disappointed. I am currently in Doha, Qatar (which is not the boondocks, by the way, it's one of the wealthiest nations on Earth and is a thriving, modern City) and the difference between Google and Apple Maps is inexcusable.7404/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
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Working very nicely now in and around hamburg. Which is not in the USA.

I was in Santo Domingo (DR) recently and Apple maps was pretty useless. Google maps on my partners iPad running iOS5 saved the day.

Here's a fun Chicago one I read about on reddit:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...8EAD199CFF.jpg

The jail is at 2200 South California. That's 2200 North. It even has the address listed correctly in the database, but is hitting the wrong side of the zero line.

I am however, impressed with how our corrections facility fares on Yelp.