Apple’s new mapping software has Senkakus for everyone!

Apple has promised that the much-derided mapping software on its new iOS6 mobile operating system will improve soon, the BBC reports:

The BBC received a lot of complaints about Apple’s maps, with users saying that some towns, such as Stratford Upon Avon, were missing and others were in the wrong place.

In addition some places, including a train station, were shown to be in the ocean and many others were wrongly labelled.

Before the release of the iOS6, Apple’s updated mobile operating system, many developers had warned about the poor quality of the mapping app. It was particularly poor, they said, at finding local businesses via search.

The most geopolitically significant of the map’s glitches may be its depiction of the Senkaku/Diaoyu/Diaoyutai islands, which have been in the news a bit over the past two weeks. As the China Digital Times‘  Samuel Wade noticed, the maps very diplomatically created twice as many of the disputed rocks:

Problem solved. As Oprah would say, “You get an island! You get an island!”

See here for a collection of more particularly noteworthy mapping fails. 

Via TPM and TechinAsia