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A decade after a disastrous launch, is Apple Maps finally good?

www.theguardian.com A decade after a disastrous launch, is Apple Maps finally good?

Engineers’ work on cycling and public transit have transformed the app – but rural directions remain a sticking point

A decade after a disastrous launch, is Apple Maps finally good?

Archived version: https://archive.ph/hguLn

Excerpt:

Apple Maps’ offering might surprise people who remember its disastrous launch in 2012, which the Guardian described as the company’s “first significant failure in years”. Users were more than furious – they were lost, sometimes dangerously so. In Australia, police had to rescue tourists from the huge Murray-Sunset national park, after Maps placed the city of Mildura in the wrong place by more than 40 miles. Some of the motorists located by police had been stranded for 24 hours without food or water. In Ireland, ministers had to complain directly to Apple after a cafe and gardens called “Airfield” was designated by the service as an actual airport.

But mostly the map was just glitchy and unhelpful, its directions always a little off kilter. Users revolted and Apple made a rare retreat, allowing Google Maps to be used as the default on many iPhone apps and apologizing for the product.

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  • I know I'm a fanboy, but I have been using apple maps since iOS 6 beta and it has been great for me. Maybe I just happened to be in parts of the world where it just worked better. Often when I would find an issue, I would check google, and google had the same issue.

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