back to article Another Apple maps desert death trap down under

Just when Apple thought it couldn't get any worse for its beleaguered Maps app, which has been leading motorists deep into the desert when they try to find the town of Mildura, The Register can reveal another SNAFU that could send travellers to an even less hospitable destination. The site in question is Mount Isa, a town in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Non sequitur

    I had a dog named Barkly. I miss him. It is nice to see that his name lives on.

  2. Martin Huizing
    FAIL

    I've heard of ballpark science, but ballpark tech?

    And never has this sentence rang more true for a map:

    "You are holding it wrong!"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I've heard of ballpark science,"

      Well, as a rather OTT american tech sales person once said in a meeting I was in when he was big-ing up his companies software: "you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that our product isn't in the same ballpark ... its not even in the same zip code!"

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Perhaps you should read this from yesterday before you decide Google Maps are so much better:

      http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/15610781/police-warn-of-safety-concerns-from-google-maps/

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

    Q: How many Apple engineers does it take to correct a map?

    A: Apparently, not enough.

    http://www.news.com.au/technology/apples-latest-ios-6-maps-system-is-luring-motorists-into-danger-police-warn/story-e6frfro0-1226533592620

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

      "Police have confirmed five vehicles have become stranded in the park, with many more people presumed to have become lost but found there way back to civilisation."

      I can see a macabre tourist attraction in the making.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

        Wonder how many people the maps app has saved - we need some balance. I do struggle to have complete sympathy for someone who would not have any sort of backup etc.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

        "Police have confirmed five vehicles have become stranded in the park, with many more people presumed to have become lost but found there way back to civilisation."

        How many iPhone owners are still out there?

        Well, they will be stupid!

        1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
          Coat

          Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

          Maybe its a new "feature" of objective-but-not-very-critical-C, the repeat until nearly correct loop...

          route = startPoint

          REPEAT

          route = route + RANDOML(direction)

          UNTIL TAIL(route) == NEARLY(destination)

          1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

            Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

            When I'm driving, I use this algorithm:

            REPEAT

            FOLLOW road_signs

            UNTIL arrived

            Presumable, these iMaps drivers don't actually look out of their windscreen when driving.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Devil

              Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

              Too busy wiping the frequent stains off their screens every time a picture of Steve Jobs appears.

    2. jmihere

      Re: Apple Still Got Mildura Wrong After Update

      Now news of more wrong places in Australia are being identified on iOS maps (from tourist destinations to outback locations):

      http://www.news.com.au/technology/key-design-flaw-leading-to-more-map-headaches-for-apple/story-e6frfrnr-1226535382385

      Wow. A near 50km difference in location..... dang.

      1. Marvin the Martian
        IT Angle

        What's with the Apple fixation?

        Everytime there's something at Foxconn (who make the bulk of ALL laptops, not just the fancy schmancy macbooks) then it's "trouble at Mac-builder Foxconn".

        Every single error at Apple Maps is reported in an article. Some evenhandedness, then! The number of Google Maps weirdnesses were staggering at the beginning, but you only got one article per type --- e.g., the Escher-like buildings that were leaning in all directions. Now every misplaced locality (where nobody ever goes, that's how nobody notices in the first place).

        "UUUUh, the Apple links to scenic Luton in Devon instead of the shitty one near the airport" (what else you'd expect from a company that takes design seriously?) --- There's dozens of similar non-Apple WTFs [a classic one is truck drivers going for Lille in France (en route to the UK) ending up in the small Belgian village of Lille 100miles eastward] but suddenly that's not interesting? indeed, because there's dozens upon dozens. And it's not Apple.

        Get over it, sick puppies.

        1. Anonymous IV

          Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

          "The laddie doth protest too much, methinks..."

          (accurately misquoted from Hamlet, Act III, scene II)

        2. xyz Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

          Are you 'avin a larff? Apple maps(sic) is an unmitigated disaster...an omni-shambles, the Norwegian Blue of parrots, a German soldier just obeying orders, a stinking pile of SH1TE. It's got eff all to do with Foxconn and everything to do with a bunch of lazy "designers" at "they'll buy any old crap as long as it's shiny" central.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

            You must be using a different Apple Maps. Expecting the worst, I tried it for a couple of walking routes, in Geneva, Zurich and a rather obscure, light industrial area in Rothenburg, plus some random lookups of places I know in other countries. Bit of a shock: it found them all; in Geneva it led me on a shorter, true pedestrian route straight to my destination, than any of my attempts with Google Maps, that seemed fixated on following streets and put the hotel (with address!) in the wrong street, plus using GPS with it can be very random. Going to the industrial estate, to the particular address I wanted, ws pretty much spot on with Apple Maps, complete with spoken instructions. I've tried it a couple of times with Google and always been misled to the wrong road, wrong building (my memory is bad in that area and I seem always to need help to find it).

            OK, not exhaustive: but good in my experience, even hunting for addresses in England and NZ and moving in nearby bits of Elsass. If this is their first, much criticised release, I think Google, after all their experience, have to improve quickly.

            I always have tended to use Tom Tom in preference to Google after such oddities with it (yes, I paid real money for Tom Tom Europe on the iPhone, worth every penny, working well even in remote parts of Serbia and Croatia). and, in my Nokia days, found Nokia maps first class.

            Google seems to attract even more rabid loyalists than Linux and Apple.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

              @AC 13:16 "Google seems to attract even more rabid loyalists than Linux and Apple."

              Yes, because while Google is not perfect at least it does not try to pretend it is unlike some Cupertino based company's I could name.

              1. Ted Treen
                FAIL

                Re: What's with the Apple fixation? @AC 15:20

                "...while Google is not perfect at least it does not try to pretend it is..."

                Is that why it's still pushing the "Don't be evil" crap, and denying deliberate harvesting of private network data, inter alia?

                PS

                The plural which escapes you is "companies".

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

                Wait, so you're angry at Apple because it claims its products are the best?

                Are you also angry at [every other company everywhere]?

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Are you also angry at ...

                  No, just the really smug arrogant ones.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Devil

              Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

              Yes but in Jean-eeva in Swatchiland and all that... you gotta remember, this is Austraya mate.....

              If you go off the beaten track, to beyond the black stump and all that, you will be in the middle of no where, where there is nuffin and no one......

              Except for the drop bears that will eat you alive.

              Now the ABOBBI (Australian Bureau of Better Bonzer Ideas) has created a sure fire digital mapping system, that has a permanent memory and uses no batteries or artificial contrivance to develop or maintain the imaging system.

              It's call the DPTPMSFAASTDWTGL (Digital Pencil to Paper Mapping System for All Adventurous Sorts That Don't Want to Get Lost).

              First we grab a big note book, in one corner of a page we draw a dot with our pencil, and call it, YEWAREAR, then we draw some lines and things, and call them roads, and we name them, then we draw dots, for towns and turn offs and all that, and at the other end we write a big dot with "Bingowemadeit", to show that we made it.

              DPTPMSFAASTDWTGL comes with a 2B pencil, a 6B pencil, and a red Columbia correction pencil, and a sharpener and an eraser.

              Fits in every glove box and does not blow off the dashboard - except in cyclones when the windows are open or smashed.

          2. Doug Petrosky 1
            Thumb Down

            Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

            Really?

            A place so obscure that there are 5 instances of issues (and as soon as they were reported it was corrected) makes Apple maps an unmitigated failure? So 99.999999999999999999999999999232% accuracy is an unmitigated failure?

            I'll let people know when it finally gives me bad directions!

            This is so totally blown out of proportion!

        3. JaitcH
          FAIL

          Re: What's with the Apple fixation?

          It's NOT a 'fixation' it's a natural reaction to a bunch of California a*seholes who keep on proclaiming they are perfect,

          They, like their dead leader, have never been able to walk on water, either.

      2. AdamChew

        Maps data are provided by their respective rights holders

        Yes laugh while you still can.

        What goes around comes around.

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps you should check Darwin

    It seems appropriate, somehow.

  5. Rick 17
    Meh

    Did they fix Cairns yet?

    I seem to recall when it was released they relocated Cairns (120,000) 100km further north, past Port Douglas, up into the Daintree Rainforest.....

    Considering there is no road there, and you would have to pass Cairns(*) first, I assume nobody got lost there.

    (*) unless coming from the Atherton Tablelands - but a bit hard to miss the signs

    1. David Hicks
      Pint

      Re: Did they fix Cairns yet?

      Heh, looks like they've put cairns in Stewart Creek Valley...

      Gorgeous part of the world that, I highly recommend grabbing a 4x4 and driving further up, past cape Tribulation and on to Cooktown via the Bloomfield Track.

      Of course I highly recommend grabbing a 4x4, a water supply, extra fuel and some food before you follow Apple Maps anywhere in Australia!

    2. greenawayr
      FAIL

      Re: Did they fix Cairns yet?

      @Rick17

      Was a while back, but I thought that even coming from the Tablelands you brushed through Cairns (past the cable car) on your way north.

      Not relevant I know.

      As for why the fixation, it's not as obscure a place as you think. I drove past there on my tour of Oz and I have two friends out there now. That's 4 people from the South-West cider swigging country out there alone. Sure it's not just Zummerzet folk who like travelling around various parts of the world.

  6. Bob 18
    FAIL

    The Outback

    I dunno... if you're driving out there with no more preparation than a glance at your iPhone, you deserve what you get.

    1. Mark 65

      Re: The Outback

      I think if I were driving in the outback, apart from the various essentials, I'd be using a proper GPS.

      1. Rampant Spaniel

        Re: The Outback

        Have to agree, I hate using google maps, much prefer a decent topo map with gps. Bikes tend to be phone killers (vibration perhaps?) so a decent garmin is the way to go. Google maps et al are fine for finding a street a few miles away but personally I wouldn't trust them for something like a drive across the outback but perhaps I'm a little too cautious.

        1. Peter2 Silver badge

          Re: The Outback

          Only an idiot would bet their life on a mapping service that's widely known to be less accurate than soviet reporting from Pravada.

          Were I going driving in Australia, you can bet your life that I not only would have acquired safety information from the locals, but would also have not just a GPS, but a reliable paper map, compass and stopwatch for dead reckoning.

          IT people should know the importance of reliable, tested backups for disaster recovery. ;)

          1. David Hicks

            Re: The Outback

            I've done a *lot* of driving in Australia and it's pretty unnecessary to go that oldschool/hardcore.

            Sure, a decent water supply and a couple of spare fuel cans (20L cans) are essential when you get out of the comparatively densely populated south east, just in case the worst does happen. But in terms of directions... there's usually only one road. You follow it until you get where you're going. Sometimes that takes weeks.

            I did take a GPS on my travels there, a Nokia N900. Far from the world's best in terms of functionality, but you can preload the entire world onto those things for free. The only issue I had with the nokia maps was that they mapped too much. I've driven down some very steep and tricky forest tracks only to find out that the route I was planning on using to get back out to a main road became a 'management only' track beyond a certain point, and I had to find my way back out somehow.

      2. Peter Murphy
        Happy

        Re: The Outback

        My dad and I drove from Brisbane to Darwin in 1985. Most of it is Outback. We brought spares (a good idea, because our fanbelt broke between Augathella and Blackall) and a map, but no GPS. The latter wasn't necessary, because we stuck to the highway the whole route.

        When you go off the highway - that's when GPSs are necessary. But on the highway, road signs are good enough to get you where you need to be.

    2. greenawayr

      Re: The Outback

      I got by on a iPhone in the outback. Granted it was a 3GS with Google Maps though. I also took butt loads of water everytime and a road map that was usually our "go to" map until we actually found a town. with more than one road, at which point the maps granularity failed a tad.

  7. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Source: Google StreetView

    Seriously ? Somebody drove a Google streetview car the length of Australia photographing 2000km of bugger-all?

    1. Rick 17
      Pint

      Re: Source: Google StreetView

      Hey, if the pay's good..... mind you, what's the maximum speed you can drive at while it's taking photos? Could be an awfully long trip......

      Beer, because you'd need it watching nothing but dust and roos at 60km/h for 2000km....

    2. David 164

      Re: Source: Google StreetView

      It shows the dedication Google employees have to mapping the world. An what uphill struggle Apple will have catching up to Google.

      1. LPF
        Angel

        Re: Source: Google StreetView

        Self respect mate , get some !

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Source: Google StreetView

          "Self respect mate , get some !"

          by ditching your last decade iPhone.....

    3. David Hicks
      Pint

      Re: Source: Google StreetView

      That would be an awesome job for a traveller or someone on a gap year - we'll pay you to drive all the roads in the state. Transport and accommodation provided...

      I did almost 30,000 km around Oz a few years back, one of the best experiences of my life.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Source: Google StreetView

        yup, driving the stewart highway and passing 21 cars in 600 km.

        1. Stoneshop
          Coat

          Re: Source: Google StreetView

          passing 21 cars in 600 km.

          So, it's like northern Sweden and bits of Finland? Apart from the temperatures, that is. And the lack of precipitation. And the different critters. And the night sky view. And, um, some more differences. But apart from those it's the same, yes?

    4. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: Source: Google StreetView

      Yes, and that is what Apple will need to do if they are to match Google for accuracy of their maps.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    All we need are some inbred cannibals living at down that road and we've got a B-movie!

    Let's call it "The Hills Have iPhones"!!

    Paris, because she's been in a few of these....

    1. frank ly

      Re: All we need are some inbred cannibals living at down that road and we've got a B-movie!

      I'm working on a film script that has inbred cannibals using GPS spoofing to misguide victims to their isolated lair. So, will you be suing me or can we come to an accommodation of some kind?

      1. Allan George Dyer
        Pirate

        Re: All we need are some inbred cannibals living at down that road and we've got a B-movie!

        What a coincidence, so am I. If you come to these coordinates, I'm sure you can make a contribution. The cast tells me they are looking forward to having you for dinner.

        1. Rob Carriere

          Re: All we need are some inbred cannibals living at down that road and we've got a B-movie!

          What, no zombies?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        Re: All we need are some inbred cannibals living at down that road and we've got a B-movie!

        @Frankly

        I'll only be suing you if the GPS spoofing device has rounded corners on it, or if the unlucky bipedal lunchmeat are using Samsung phones....

  9. Rick 17
    Flame

    Needs to be said again, Roadsigns?

    Over 20 years ago I drove through Mildura from Melbourne going to Broken Hill (and I was a Queensland boy).

    One glance at a paper map from RACV was all you needed to know that if you stayed on the highway - you had to hit Mildura. I mean the highways were drawn up to connect the cities.... Though when they made that bypass past goondiwindi in SW qld years ago, it confused me a little. But certainly an unpaved road is not going to lead to a city....

    Actually I blame the car rental companies - I flew down to OZ a few months ago and rented a car - no more free maps, can't even rent maps - have to rent their GPS at 12aud per day - pirates!

    1. Gerhard den Hollander

      Re: Needs to be said again, Roadsigns?

      I've seen more examples then I would like to remember of people who, when gettting conflicting information from roadsigns and their satnav, would trust their satnav.

      If there are major roadworks in the Netherlands, these now include warning signs that people should switch off their satnav.

      1. Stoneshop
        FAIL

        Re: Needs to be said again, Roadsigns?

        warning signs that people should switch off their satnav.

        Which they fail to see, busy trying to work out why their navigation is telling them something different from the actual situation.

        Someone I know did a stint as a traffic guard at the Rotterdam marathon, last year or the year before. He had a car trying to get into a cordoned-off street at a spot he was guarding six or seven times as "the navigation tells us to go that way" and every time he had them switch the thing off and gave them instructions to get where they wanted to go.

        Too stupid to live.

        And there was the fellow who didn't want to drive from Nijmegen to Arnhem to pick up something he wanted to buy, because his navi was broken. The directions? "Cross Waal bridge, drive straight on until you cross John Frost bridge, turn right at roundabout, turn right again immediately, turn left at traffic lights. It's just past the next traffic lights". I wonder how he got by before satnav became commonplace.

  10. Martin 47

    We going to have this everyday? Can we not have just one article explaining if you are relying on just a sat nav to find your way anywhere off the beaten track you are an idiot.

    Perhaps you could then go onto explain how some mapping software is better than others?

    Just a thought.

    1. Rampant Spaniel

      True, but it must illicit a little chuckle that the company that prides itself on its revolutionary and magical products can't reliably copy a mapping app, either that or its so bloody magical it takes into account wormholes.

      I think we all knew at least one kid at school who was always on about whatever latest and greatest thing his parents got him, and had a chuckle when it broke. Apple didn't release their maps program and say hey we are still kinda working on this so treat it as a beta, they said it was made of pixie jizz and could turn mud into gold. Set yourself up for a fall and even some folks who like your products will chuckle when you fall.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "either that or its so bloody magical it takes into account wormholes."

        It's just that Apple's technology is so far ahead that even the tectonic plates haven't caught up yet.

      2. Stoneshop
        Headmaster

        @Rampant Spaniel

        but it must illicit a little chuckle

        The word you're looking for is 'elicit'

        Yours faithfully, Brigadier Sir Charles Arthur Strong (Ms.)

        1. Rampant Spaniel

          Re: @Rampant Spaniel

          Mahalo! caught me bang to rights :-) I shouldn't post at 4am lol Not that my spelling has ever been any good but again thanks :-)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @Rampant Spaniel

            I think it's best if we believe the irony there is intentional ;)

            * BANGED to rights

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What happened before smartphones - yes people followed paper maps, used a compass and read road signs. If using GPS on a smartphone means you park your common sense not sure it's so much of a step forward.

    Did these people not consider what would happen if their smartphone broke - or (albeit unlikely) if there was a problem with the GPS system?

    1. SkippyBing

      And yet people still got lost, mostly the ones who can't read maps. It's not as if map reading is an innate skill people are born with, and in some cases despite your best efforts it's not one you can force into them either. I suspect on the Venn diagram of life the circles containing 'people who can't read maps' and 'people who rely on their smart-phone's GPS to the point of madness' are pretty much coincident.

  12. Doogs

    While not exactly what you'd call a tourist destination, I have to say it's very pretty when you drive past it at night with all the mining infrastructure lit up like a Christmas tree.

  13. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Relying purely on a smartphone for navigation proves these phones are smarter than their users.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      iPhone for ya!

  14. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Obvious solution

    Is for all those penpushers in the various Australian state governments to buy something fruity and start fixing things - either by providing detailed and accurate information to Apple who have unfortunately been provided with substandard material by devious and unscrupulous companies, or by relocating towns and geographical features to match maps. Apple is just the victim.

    I guess it's lucky (for Apple) that unlimited liability doesn't seem to apply in Australia.

  15. glen waverley
    Pint

    which way is the sun?

    I notice that the pins, eg on the Mt Isa maps, have a shadow pointing to the north east. The developers of the pin-drawing applications (which may not be Apple, nor Google nor even Uncle Tom Cobbley) really ought to know that in the southern hemisphere shadows fall to the south, shouldn't they.

    Or are the shadows just some sort of decoration? In which case why do it?

    Al in all, it doesn't really inspire confidence that the product actually understands what it is trying to do. Which I suppose is really the point of the article, and also the Mildura article.

    Beer icon - well it is Oz, after all

    1. Eddie Edwards
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: which way is the sun?

      I think the idea is that the pin is a pin in the map, not a huge Space Needle type affair in the real world that you megalomaniacally control with your finger. Hence, the shadows would depend on your local light source, not on the light source at the mapped location. You'll notice they also fail to render the map in black when it's nighttime at the mapped location.

      The real shocker here is that they're not using the front-facing camera to determine the location of the light sources where I am to make the drop shadow accurate even for that case. Clearly, it shows they have no attention to detail. I for one wish Apple would finally show some interest in Skeuomorphic interfaces.

      1. glen waverley
        Pint

        Re: which way is the sun?

        Eddie E says "Hence, the shadows would depend on your local light source, not on the light source at the mapped location"

        Yeah, i'd thought of that one. I always have my desk lamp pointing at my work from under my left arm pit to throw a shadow to the upper right. Which would give me a shadow to the nor' east while I'm sitting at my desk. But perhaps not so much in the back o' beyond while I'm trying to drive to the Isa. Or Mildura.

        I did have a bit of mental confusion as to what time of day would lead to a nor'east shadow in the outback. But then i thought "If I was in a car on my way from Tennant Creek to Mt Isa, that is local to me" and so in the morrning, the shadow should be W to SW and in the arvo SE to E. And as Eddie says, at night pretty dark so not much shadow. Or light!

        My original point was probably that the application is saying "we're not from these parts", which should be a warning. But a bit too subtle for those people who having paid for a software bundle, think that an application should be fit for purpose. Which it doesn't seem to be.

        Need a beer after thinking that hard

  16. M0les
    Trollface

    In this case they've improved their customer's lives

    I mean really... Who wants to go towards Mount Isa?

  17. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    Grief, was none of these iMap-relant users never in the scouts???

    Basic ap-reading and a compass?? Sheesh! Cheaper than the app, and vastly more reliable!

    1. SkippyBing

      Re: Grief, was none of these iMap-relant users never in the scouts???

      They do app-reading in the scouts, is that like a badge for playing Angry Birds?

  18. g e
    Holmes

    Advice to Oz users in-the-style-of

    Apple users in Oz are obviously navigating it the wrong way.

    Just go somewhere else instead. Not that big of a deal.

  19. Shane8
    Trollface

    If the Mayans are correct, then Apple maps will soon be 100% accurate...

  20. Techs UK
    Happy

    Nokia maps puts it in the right place...

    ... if anyone is interested. I suppose that is what IOS6 users are using anyway.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As for other entries than Mildura and Mildura Regional City, it's fairly easy to eliminate a mine, school, railway station, airport from the dataset.

    Reminds me of the story of the travellor who arrived at a station and discovered to his surprise that it was situated a couple of miles from the actual down - when he asked the station master why the station wasn't actually in the town he got the reply that they'd thought of that but decided it was best to build the station beside the railway line!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Had alook at the area on google maps and using the "terrain" options then there's a "mountain" about 400m high at about where the Apple pin is ... no indication of a name is given but I'd hazard a guess that its called "Mt Isa".

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Here's the thing, when you've got billions of dollars sitting in your bank account, sell your phones for premium prices and tell the world how fantastic they are, then you ditch a major competitors mapping app and bring out your own, making a massive announcement about how fantastic it is (it has Singapore on it, and everything), if you claim it is beautiful and that you're doing it all yourself, then, it turns out that you've spent so much time making it look nice when you're rendering downtown San Francisco buildings, but it can't find towns or cities, because they either don't exist or are in completely the wrong location... when you'e done all that... expect the world to point and laugh... and keep laughing... because you've made yourselves look complete and utter fuckwits.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "because you've made yourselves look complete and utter fuckwits" just like the tech's owners.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "because you've made yourselves look complete and utter fuckwits" just like the tech's owners."

        You clearly speak with considerable authority.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    IOS Maps is for finding lattes.

    It's as I keep saying.

    iOS maps is for finding your nearest Barista not for navigating outside of city limits....

    I may own an iPhone but I don't use the maps on it...

    Beer icon cos there's no coffee mug......

  25. DMoy
    FAIL

    Longest street in the world?? - - I think not!

    "...approximately 200 kilometres to the west of Mount Isa and its main street is actually the highway, making it the longest street in the world,” PIFFLE!!!

    Younge Street, running north from the shore of Lake Ontario, through Toronto and into Northern Ontario is 1,896km long. For the apparantly maths-challenged in that little town in Aus: 1,896>200

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Longest street in the world?? - - I think not!

      The point was that the 200km length is all WITHIN the city boundaries.

      There are lots of other long streets.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Got an old second hand iPhone 3GS as payment for some computer work. Only way I would own one.

    Love jailbreaking and 3rd party Satnav apps, got me around New Zealand and New England with no problems, except when it died in the "urban canyons" of downtown Boston. At rush hour. Bugger!

  27. Jason404
    Mushroom

    Definitely...

    ..the killer app on iOS.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just pinch and zoom out; then the places appear closer. Continue to zoom out and before you know it, they are right on top of on another. It's not that hard.

    Steve Jobs

    Sent from my iGrave

  29. Petrea Mitchell
    FAIL

    Try Death Valley

    The obvious place to check in the US is Death Valley, which has seen enough trouble from people using more reliable mapping systems that the National Park Service actively warns people off using any form of electronic navigation, as on this page:

    http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/directions.htm

  30. John Tserkezis

    I don't get it.

    When travelling on out-of-the-way areas, or even some out-there tarmaced roads, we have at LEAST two or three separate maps covering the land we'll be on. And that's just in the digital realm, he have other paper maps that seldom get used, but you never know when hardware failures happen.

    Heck, one of the guys I know has two lots of hardware too.

    It staggers me to hear that people are getting lost using a mere iPhone with online maps.

    Well, not that they're getting lost, but that they actually trust this...

    I bet they don't have comms, food and water either.

    I guess you can't trust against idiocy.

  31. Hellcat
    Thumb Up

    Well with the launch of Google maps for iOS today, maybe these people can finally find their way home?

    Thumb: Because you don't want to be hitchhiking and lost in the outback!

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A Solution to it all

    Apple should patent the idea of paper maps and print their own using the same database. The would avoid any confusion surely?

  33. TimChuma

    This is why you still need paper maps/local knowledge

    Also a good GPS for outback Australia.

    People still die in Australia of exposure in the outback every year.

    Had to go to a music festival in Nymagee (Western NSW) a few years back and it was hard to even find on Google Maps. You cannot find out local road conditions such as if the road we were taking was closed due to flooding 24 hours before.

  34. Tim Roberts 1

    been to outback australia?

    Unless you have been to the real outback, you have no effing idea about remoteness. Anyone who relies on a phone/tablet/whatever for directions in such areas needs their head read. Unfortunately a good proportion of the population now believes that a phone is all they need.

    A good quality GPS backed up by paper maps - or perhaps the other way around, and a satellite phone are mandatory .....Oh and dont forget your emergency beacon, it may well save your life.

    Some guidelines for survival

    - dont leave your vehicle

    - take plenty of water

    - dont leave your vehicle

    - take more food than you think you'll need

    - dont leave your vehicle

    - use your satellite phone

    - dont leave your vehicle

    - activate your emergency beacon

    - dont leave your vehicle

    Think I'm joking or over-reacting? Again you have no effing idea.

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