Apple is one of the few companies on the planet that can get away with launching products that simply don't work. When it launched an iPhone that struggled to make phone calls, customers around the world simply learned to hold their phones differently. Now Apple has a mapping system that's FUBAR-ed enough to have become a world-wide-joke in under 24 hours, so where can we look for a solution?
KitGuru has not been alone in condemning Apple Maps. We live in a world where a half decent SatNav can be purchased for less than 50 quid and many of us have some kind of mapping/navigation system available on our smartphones already. On that basis, it's hard to see how Apple has missed the mapping mark by such a huge distance [All cheap puns intended – Ed].
But fear not. Google is here to save you from misshapen maps.
On your iOS6 infected device, open up a browser and navigate your way to the Google Maps page that's appropriate for your country, for example here in the USA and here for the UK.
Remember that for this to work, Google has to be allowed to read your present location.
You can then add a link for this page to your iPad's home screen and, Bob's your uncle, you have bypassed Apple's horrific mapping in favour of something tried and trusted.
One of the strangest things about Apple's new iOS6 mapping is that the underlying TomTom data is about as good as it gets. Without pointing the finger at Cupertino, the TomTom hierarchy have done a good job of locating the mapping fault ‘somewhere in the north western United States'.
KitGuru says: We believe that Google will have a range of solutions for the ‘Apple Maps is Pants' problem. Watch this space.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
If i was Steve Ballmer, I’d be on the phone to Apple offering them a dirt-cheap Bing Maps deal – a once in a lifetime chance to make up some ground on Google