The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


More fun with Apple Maps

Posted on September 24, 2012 by

Like picking at a scab or peeling sunburned skin (and roughly as attractive) there's something addictive about the sheer awfulness of Apple Maps. Having already highlighted its total inability to perform the most basic function of an electronic map – finding places to within, say, five miles of their actual location – I couldn't resist going back to the Apple Store later the same day to document the visual quality of its maps. And because a picture's worth a thousand words, let's get straight to the results.

This is a busy little corner of my home town. On the left we see the Google Maps version from iOS5, and on the right the embarrassment that is the Apple Maps iOS6 version at its maximum level of detail. (The Google version also has a fantastically sharp Street View available.) If you're ever in Bathgate, by the way, Aldo's is the finest fish'n'chip shop in town. Not that you'd know it existed from Apple Maps.

I'd wondered how Apple Maps might do with a slightly more out-of-the-way location, so I tried a little town I know just north of Dingwall in the Highlands. Google Maps went straight there, but Apple Maps had never heard of it. After navigating myself there manually, the above image (again with Apple Maps at maximum detail, whereas the Google one still has several levels of zoom to go) showed just how much help an iPhone 5 will be in finding your way around the place.

I wanted to give Apple Maps a fighting chance, so my next stop was Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh. On the right, we have the maximum detail available of Princes Street Gardens, scene of last weekend's stirring rally for Scottish independence. Google, on the other hand, will let you zoom in so much closer that you can easily pick out the pattern on the tiles on the ground in front of the stage.

This one was an accident, and back at Apple Maps' ineptitude rather than its ugliness, but it was too good not to use. When trying to get back to Bath for another couple of pics I foolishly just typed "Bath" into the search box. Rather than picking out the famous Georgian city, Apple Maps decided that what I meant to look for was the home of a "B McPherson", who turned out to live halfway between Falkirk and Avonbridge in central Scotland. (Not all that far from "Beescraig Country Park", as it goes.)

On managing to get Apple Maps to understand where I wanted to go, I took a look at the city centre of my adopted hometown, in which for some reason it had decided to depict Westgate Street as a river with a bridge across it. Google had picked out a wide range of accurately-identified shops, whereas iOS6 could manage only five.

Of those, the Rat & Parrot has been through two changes of owner and name since it was called that, the Cadbury Coco House closed down maybe five years ago (I think it's now a Carphone Warehouse), and the Roundhouse pub – the pink wineglass at the bottom of the shot – has in fact been a Pret A Manger for probably around the same amount of time. (It's also located on the opposite side of the street, and about 50 yards further up. There are no drinking establishments on the left-hand side of the street, and never have been in the 21 years I've lived here.) It did get the Disney Store more or less right, though.

There's more, but you get the idea. Apple's only statement on the fiasco so far claims that user reports will correct the abysmally inaccurate/out-of-date placement of shops, restaurants, entire towns etc – that's right, YOU'RE going to have to do the richest company in the world's job for it, unpaid – but user reports aren't going to fix god-awful blurry monochrome maps that look like someone badly photocopied a photograph of a 1952 atlas taken through binoculars from a mile away during a thunderstorm. Those will be staying, for years, because Apple really, really loathes you.

0 to “More fun with Apple Maps”

  1. Romanista says:

    Google maps as webclip on homepage… And i'm okay aain, but indeed what a messup…

    Reply
  2. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Using the web Google Maps via a homescreen icon is a poor substitute: no orientation, no Street View, much slower.

    Reply
  3. CdrJameson says:

    I hear it's good for finding your local Our Price.

    Reply
  4. Jon says:

    I wonder why there isn't the good ole google maps app in the app store yet. I can only imagine because Apple doesn't want it there.

    Reply
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

      Well, Google haven’t actually submitted one yet. Be interesting to see what happens if and when they do.

      Reply
  5. jon says:

    Good point. Schmidt has apparently said they have "no plans" link to m.guardian.co.uk
    I'm sticking to ios5 for now.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,791 Posts, 1,222,776 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Lorn on Safety First: “Brilliant, Chris. I don’t actually blame anyone in the institutions for this because it was achieved under the radar. I…Jul 26, 15:08
    • Xaracen on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““I have repeatedly explained and provided evidence to support the fact that the petition has been thrown out. ” No,…Jul 26, 14:37
    • McDuff on Safety First: “I quite agree Willie. I don’t like Trump but the US is an important trading partner for Scotland and it…Jul 26, 14:28
    • James Cheyne on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Rejoin the UK? There Is no such country as the UK, at present it is a State, If Scotland left…Jul 26, 14:15
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Alf Baird above @ 26 July, 11:31 am, writes: « Fearghas, in ‘The Mither Tongue’ Billy Kay informs us of…Jul 26, 14:01
    • SilentMajority on Safety First: “Good to see the return of the weekend artwork. It is amazing, after reading some of the opinions from medical…Jul 26, 13:55
    • Peter McAvoy on Safety First: “When Trump meets Von Der Leyen,I hope he calls her irrelevant and an a power grabbing dictator and tells her…Jul 26, 13:29
    • Confused on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “the union, some helpful analogies : – a badly stitched up pantomime horse, with Scotland in the back, getting farted…Jul 26, 13:29
    • Northcode on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “I like how Billy Kay ends his book, The Mither Tongue. Scots is as essential to Scotland as her folk,…Jul 26, 13:22
    • Confused on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Trump: Horrible migrant invasion is killing Scotland US president told Scotland ‘get your act together’ on arrival for four-day visit…Jul 26, 13:19
    • Confused on Safety First: “Trump says ANGLO IMMIGRATION IS KILLING SCOTLANDJul 26, 13:12
    • Confused on Safety First: “Scottish independence is there for the taking, lads : the cost will be – – Turnberry is back on the…Jul 26, 13:09
    • Confused on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “England has been booted out of 65 countries worldwide. – no one has ever asked them back. Some of these…Jul 26, 13:05
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““Re-join the UK”…Oh, ma sides. Stop it! All around the world they’re queuing up to re-join right enough! ROTFLMFAO.Jul 26, 13:02
    • David Wardrope on Safety First: “It’s beyond laughable now really. Did I read the other day that Dr Upton was offended that Nurse Peggie was…Jul 26, 13:02
    • James on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Day off, annual leave was it?Jul 26, 12:56
    • willie on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Interesting points Northcode but when do you recognises Gaidhlig to have come to Scotland. Gaidhlig or the Goidelic version of…Jul 26, 12:44
    • Mark Beggan on Safety First: “Foghorn Leghorn has left the building. Bye bye ( again) Mhairi.Jul 26, 12:44
    • Stuart on Safety First: “It’s funny how people who tell us to accept “climate science”, refuse to accept biological science, which is far more…Jul 26, 12:41
    • Andy Wiltshire on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “If Scotland became independent and ran its own affairs, could it then decide to re-join the UK? Would that decision…Jul 26, 12:41
    • Northcode on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: ““A pertinent hypothesis here may therefore be that the Brittonic Pictish language, coupled with other influences (travel, migration, trade etc)…Jul 26, 12:35
    • willie on Safety First: “Of course there is a huge police presence around the Donald Trum visit. He is of course the president of…Jul 26, 12:24
    • Aidan on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “@Xaracen – I have repeatedly explained and provided evidence to support the fact that the petition has been thrown out.…Jul 26, 11:54
    • Mark Beggan on Safety First: “It’s very kind of the President to spend a little time with Sticky the Stick Insect. No one else gives…Jul 26, 11:47
    • Alf Baird on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “Fearghas, in ‘The Mither Tongue’ Billy Kay informs us of the origins and natural development of what we term as…Jul 26, 11:31
    • agent x on Safety First: “Yes but once Swinney has a chat with Trump all of the World’s problems will be solved immediately.Jul 26, 11:17
    • Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “‘DECLARATION OF ARBROATH: John Duns Scotus and the Idea of Independence’ by Professor Alexander Broadie FRSE Professor Alexander Broadie is…Jul 26, 11:17
    • Chris Downie on Safety First: “Look on the bright side, it’ll be amusing to see Swinney about turn and kiss Trump’s orange arse during his…Jul 26, 11:11
    • Stuart MacKay on Safety First: “Why are police forces, and the prison service, so easily manipulated for political purposes? Is it simply that politicians have…Jul 26, 10:52
    • Xaracen on Everybody’s Normal Nowadays: “You first, Aidan! You made the original claim that Scotland’s Petition had been; ‘sent packing’, ‘rebuffed’, ‘all over’, ‘an automatic…Jul 26, 10:28
  • A tall tale



↑ Top