Apple CEO Tim Cook has today issued a letter to customers regarding the issues they have been experiencing with Maps in iOS 6. Cook says Apple is “extremely sorry for the frustration” the new service has caused to its customers, and he insists the company will continue to work incredibly hard until Maps is fixed. Cook even suggests a number of alternative services users can try in the meantime.
The full letter is below.
Stories about valuable items going missing at airport TSA checkpoints are worryingly common, but it’s not often you can prove your possessions have indeed been stolen by the people employed to protect you. Fortunately, Apple has made iOS devices easy to track when they go missing, and ABC News recently took advantage of this feature to catch a thieving TSA officer red-handed.
I remember playing MechWarrior 2 in the mid 90s. Man, what thrill — I spent days piloting horribly destructive giant robots around a 3D battlefield, firing rockets, blasting anything that moved with terawatt lasers.
Of course, that was on my old 386 PC clone, back when I still followed the dark side of the force and hadn’t jumped onto a Mac yet. But the MechWarrior / BattleTech series of games has been around on Apple machines since day one — so I’m pretty jazzed to finally see the a MechWarrior game arrive for the iPad in the form of MechWarrior: Tactical Command.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=445DW89GO2c&feature=youtu.be
I’ve never actually played Taboo (which is apparently massively popular; shows you just how much I get out); so when Clucks‘ PR guy referred to this new game as “video Taboo for iPhone,” my reaction was: Huh? So I looked up the game on Wikipedia (and finally realized that I had, indeed, heard of Taboo before), and it turns out that’s a perfect description for Clucks. But he might have called it “the next big social media craze on the iPhone,” because that might turn out to be an even better description.
Millions of us have spent many hours trying to eliminate those pesky green pigs in Rovio’s Angry Birds series, but now it’s time to switch teams. Rovio just released Bad Piggies on Android, iOS, Mac, and PC. And for the first time ever you’re joining the pigs on their mission to steal as many eggs as they can get their hooves on.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Google is currently working on a native Google Maps app for iOS, which is expected to make its debut before the end of the year. But in the meantime, it will be bringing Street View to its web app so that you can enjoy the much-loved feature in mobile Safari.
It seems Apple’s new Maps app isn’t the only thing frustrating iOS 6 users right now. A 91-page thread on Apple’s Support Communities forum is full of users who are also complaining about Wi-Fi connectivity issues, which are said to be plaguing the iPhone 4S and the new iPad after upgrading. It’s not just that Wi-Fi performance is poor; some users can’t enable it at all.
It’s been nine months since Madfinger Games teased a multiplayer version of its hit title ShadowGun. An early build of the game was demoed at CES back in January along with a YouTube video showing off some in-game footage. A few lucky CES attendees received some hands-on with the game and MadFinger Games claimed a Q1 launch. Well, Q1 has long since passed with no sign or word on the future of ShadowGun Deadzone. That was until today.
Last night Dropbox announced the release of their new beta, Dropbox 1.5 for Mac. The update will bring a few new features and UI changes to the popular cloud storage service. Users of the desktop client will discover a redesigned menu system that combines all the functionality of the older tray menu with a new view of Dropbox’s event stream that allows you to see your latest changes.
As we reported on Tuesday, Instagram has updated its iOS app to introduce support for iPhone 5 and iOS 6. It’s a welcome update to those enjoying a new 4-inch display, but it’s not all good news: Instagram also pulled live filters from the iPhone 5. It has since confirmed that live filters will soon be phased out of the iOS app completely, but for now, there is a workaround for those who miss them.
We’ve heard a lot of rumors surrounding a Google Maps app for iOS over the past week, and now The New York Times is weighing in with information from its own sources. Fortunately, it’s good news: it claims Google is indeed working on a Maps app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and that the company is hoping to have it ready and released by the end of this year.
Why’s it taking so long? Well, Google had no idea Apple was kicking Google Maps out of iOS until Apple first previewed iOS 6 back in June.
Facebook has released the latest version of its SDK — version 3.1 — to iOS developers. The update brings a number of great new features, such as native Facebook login for third-party apps, native sharing sheets, and more, and Facebook promises that it will make it “easier to build more immersive social experiences, as well as better ways to distribute and promote your app.”
Gameloft is doing what it does best: teasing its upcoming titles. Next on their list is Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour and they’ve released quite the reveal trailer for us to drool over. Being released for Android and iOS this fall, the next installation in the Modern Combat series looks just as intense as the 3rd and chock full of guns, ammo and bloodshed.
We all knew this was coming. It was only a matter of time before Hitler found out about Apple’s new iOS 6 Maps. As you may have already guessed, der Führer isn’t all that happy with the new service and is quite irate over the fact that his house is listed as a fountain in Austria.
Watch the hilarity unfold as Hitler is informed that a Google Maps app has yet to be approved and his army is officially all out of 30-pin connectors.
If you ever lose your iPhone 5 and have to track it down using iCloud.com’s Find My iPhone web app, you can at least rest assured that you’ll have the best mapping data available to track it down, because iCloud.com is still using Google Maps.
Even though Apple has switched the Find My iPhone iOS app to use Apple Maps, their website is still using Google Maps to provide location information on lost devices. Users can log in to iCloud.com and go to Find My iPhone to see where their devices are located on a Google Maps app rather than Apple’s new map app that users have complained about.
As a massive soccer fan, I love EA Sports’s FIFA Soccer series. So imagine my delight when I opened up the App Store this morning to find FIFA 13 staring back at me. This is the FIFA game I’ve been waiting for for iOS. Why? Because it’s the first to boast online multiplayer, allowing you to play against your friends over the Internet.
With Google Maps gone from iOS 6 in favor of Apple’s own solution, many are hoping Google will bring its own Maps app to the App Store — as it did with YouTube a couple weeks ago. A recent report claimed that it was already on its way, but according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, that’s not the case at all. In fact, Google hasn’t even submitted a Maps app to Apple for approval yet.
Ever since Google gobbled up the developers of Sparrow to put them to work on a Gmail app, the future of my favorite iOS email client has been in question, but the lack of iPhone 5 support was a particularly hard pill for me to swallow as I reviewed Apple’s latest handset.
Luckily, it appears that while Sparrow may not see many updates going forward, it will get iPhone 5 support, taking full advantage of the 1136 x 640 display.
Apple is said to be “aggressively” recruiting Google Maps employees in an effort to fix its highly criticized Maps service, according to an unnamed source “with connections on both teams.” The Cupertino company is reportedly using recruiters to attract individuals who have previously helped develop Google Maps, and many of them seem to be snapping up the opportunity to work at Apple.
iOS jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has successfully gotten the old iOS Maps app, which was powered by Google and boasted features like Street View and walking directions, running under iOS 6. The port is said to be unstable at the moment, but it’s working, and with a little more work, it could be available in all its glory to users with jailbroken iOS devices.
Galaxy on Fire 2 is perhaps the best-looking space game on iOS. With astronomical scenes that call to mind a portable Eve Online, Galaxy on Fire 2 is an action space shooter with RPG elements, such as upgraded ships and weaponry, questing systems, and the like. It’s even made the move to Mac OS X.
It’s been a couple of months since FishLabs, the developers behind the title, released a teaser trailer and a vague September timeline for a release date for the upcoming downloadable content (DLC) expansion, Supernova. Well, that date is actually here, as Supernova is available on both the iTunes and Mac App Stores, for iOS and Mac OS X, respectively.
Gaming is going to be a new experience on the iPhone 5 with that larger 4-inch display, which means it’s going to take a little while for your favorite games to be optimized. Fortunately, there are some incredible titles already available. We’ve put together a list of the best ones, so that you can start enjoying your iPhone’s 4-inch display the day you unwrap it.
Swampy the Alligator from the hit game Where’s My Water? is turning one tomorrow. To celebrate this milestone, Disney takes a look at Swampy’s first year and the over 2 billion showers he has taken. Bathe in Swampy’s achievements and then head into the game for an exclusive birthday-themed level (tap the birthday present).
Have a happy birthday tomorrow Swampy and thanks for the hours of fun!
After lovingly unboxing your new iPhone 5 today, the first thing you’ll do is install all your favorite iOS apps. But what if you don’t have any? What if this is your first iPhone? Well, we’ve compiled a list of must-have apps for iPhone 5 to get you started. We’ve got Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube clients; news readers; note-takers; word processors, and more — and everything in the list has already been updated to take advantage of the iPhone 5’s larger display.
So dive in and check out the best apps to get you started with your new iPhone 5.
