All the excitement for the release of iOS 6 seems to take a halt. First iPhone 4 Antennagate, then New iPad Heatgate and now it looks as if iOS 6 Mapsgate will drive us crazy. You must be wondering why, it is because Apple’s new iOS 6 seems to be a jumble or mess.
Apple ditched Google Maps for its new mobile maps, the new operating system for iPhones, iPads and iPods. Hence, one of the biggest feature of iOS 6 that released on Wednesday was New Maps App. But unfortunately this release is creating a mess. We all know that the Washington Monument lies above the National Mall in Washington exactly between the U.S. Capitol to the east and The Lincoln Memorial to the west, but Apple’s iOS 6 thinks it is several hundred yards to the south, near the Potomac River. Apple’s map app seems to make its users feel completely lost. Apple is thus facing many complaints from the users who downloaded Apple’s new feature of maps app to experience the new change and it looks like that these complaints might rise as people are getting their hands on iPhone 5.
Tech-loving comedian Baratunde Thurston, a former digital director for The Onion tweeted, “What Apple has done with #iOS6 maps is like planning a mission to outer space and NOT TALKING TO NASA”. Unfortunately all the iPod, iPad users and those who are likely to buy iPhone 5 will be forced to use the new map system as this new software will be pre-loaded with the maps. Many iPhone users who used the new software just after its launch on Wednesday noticed that a lot of landmarks were misplaced, lost entirely or incorrectly named on Apple maps. Such as, English town Stratford-upon-Avon, the place where Shakespeare was born does not exist in Apple maps. Users who searched for London (The British capital) on the maps app directed them towards London, Ontario, in Canada. Moreover, Ireland’s minister for justice expressed that Apple maps recognizes a working farm of Suburban Dublin as an airport.
Many Apple users are disappointed with Apple for removing the feature of mentioning public transportation or stations, the famous feature on the Google system that enabled users to see bus train schedules at individual stations, which is now being removed from Apple’s map app. On this matter, Apple’s Trudy Muller told ABC News, “We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it, We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get. 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.”
But on the other hand, Ars contributor Iljitsch Van Beijnum, conducted a poll to the Open Forum to get into the details and see how good or bad is the Apple’s map app.
Surprisingly, the results came out to be interesting. Although, Apple maps does not provide a great user-experience and functionality, but still there were many positive votes as compared to the negative ones. According to the chart, there are many arguments in support of or against Apple’s new maps app.
