London, UK, Is In Ontario: The World According To Apple's Horrid Map App

Unless you need to find an Apple Store, the Apple Maps app is pretty useless. In fact, it's not even great at finding Apple Stores.

By Clay Dillow Posted 09.20.2012 at 12:01 pm 7 Comments

Airfield, in Dublin No runways though, because this is actually a park. via HuffPo UK

Apple’s iOS6, the operating system that will drive the new iPhone5 as well as previous iterations of iPhones should users opt to upgrade, is out, and not necessarily to rave reviews. The operating system itself is not the issue, but Apple Maps--the replacement for the much beloved Google Maps program that is no longer embedded in new iOS products--is turning out to be about as big a failure as many had imagined. Reports The Guardian: “Users were reporting that Paddington station had vanished, London had been relocated to Ontario, the Sears Tower in Chicago had shrunk, and Helsinki railway station had been turned into a park.”

So much for a seamless rollout. Most of the faulty cartography complaints appear to be coming in from the U.K. and mainland Europe, though there are also complaints rolling in from Asia. In Tokyo, a city known for its trains and its citizens reliance on them, some railway stations are missing entirely--including Tokyo station, one of the world’s largest train terminals.

One Twitter user has even pointed out that Apple Maps has tried to solve a particularly thorny and timely political problem by creating two sets of Senkaku--or Daioyu, depending on who you ask--Islands. These disputed land masses are claimed by both Japan and China and have recently been the source of rising geopolitical tension between those nations. It’s nice to think that Apple might be able to calm the escalating friction there, but let’s not forget that faulty digital cartography has led to international incidents in the past.

Elsewhere, one of Helsinki’s principal rail stations has been turned into a park and one of Dublin’s Park’s has been turned into an airport, a problem that a local minister says could lead to a serious issue should a pilot, with no other information available and looking to make an emergency landing, decide that Airfield (that’s the name of the park--see the confusion here?) is a reasonable place to set down an aircraft.

HuffPo has a long list of Apple Maps bloopers worth noting: Woolworth stores are back in business (many long defunct businesses are listed as present on the app). Stratford-upon-Avon doesn’t exist, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. The Falklands Islands are now uninhabited wildernesses. Even the Apple Store in Sydney is on the wrong side of the street.

For Apple, its a rare miss for a product release. For users, well, if you like Google Maps don’t upgrade to the new iOS6 unless you absolutely have to.

[Guardian]

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7 Comments

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korauth

09/20/12 at 12:33 pm

There is actually a London Ontario, it's located about halfway between Toronto and Windsor on the 401. My guess is that Apple Maps thinks it's pre 1867 and/or doesn't know of the British North America Act and/or the Statute of Westminster.

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menoc

09/20/12 at 1:26 pm

Unlike the Adobe Flash wars, If Apple wants to engage in a long term war with Google, they better be prepared to suffer dearly . . .

Google is NOT Adobe and none but the mightiest can take down Google the way they did Adobe Flash (Adobe is alive and well). . .

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suddenmischief

09/20/12 at 1:33 pm

Please, PopSci, if you *must* give a new outlet a cutesy name like "HuffPo" please at least refer to it by its proper name first. It made me think a teenage girl texted this article to you.

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Mukuro Holmes

09/20/12 at 10:31 pm

Kufufufufufufufufufu. I read Steve Job's biography, and he would have NEVER let anything like this happen under his watch. This could be a sign of Apple's inveitable decline due to a lack of Jobs (ahahahaha, get it?).

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killerT

09/21/12 at 9:46 am

The Mayans were right! The end is nigh.
Apple did something WRONG!

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jonny5ive

09/21/12 at 12:44 pm

I find it fascinating that this actually got through the editing process. it's nice to see that popular Science actually put out a negative story about Apple. although it is kind of hard to ignore how bad apple did on this program. I guess popular Science can take away a couple 1,000,000 from their budge t budget this year. I'm sure they'll make up for it when apple stuffs another product out our faces. please don't get me wrong I do enjoy the iPod and some apple products but in no way do I think popular Science should be paddling their products as well and giving such a great reports on how Apple is doing all the time when there are better products out there

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jonny5ive

09/21/12 at 12:48 pm

please excuse my typos I'm using a Samsung product................ ironic? hahaha.

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