Mike Judge’s great HBO comedy Silicon Valley has featured some fantastic references to Apple in the past — including a tongue-in-cheek dismissal of Steve Jobs as someone who “didn’t even code” and two not-so-obvious Apple logos that pop up during the show’s opening.
The most recent episode, entitled “Homicide,” contained one more namecheck of everyone’s favorite Cupertino company, but it’s unlikely to be a reference that got Tim Cook guffawing in front of his TV at home — since it skewered one of the most notorious Apple products of all time.
The episode in question dealt with a disastrous showing for Hooli’s Nucleus compression software as it screws up a UFC livestream, triggering Gavin Belson to have the following exchange:
“How bad is this, be honest? Is this Windows Vista bad? It’s not iPhone 4 bad, is it? Fuck. Don’t tell me this is Zune bad.”
“I’m sorry Gavin. It’s Apple Maps bad.”
Apple Maps was, of course, one of the most notorious botches in Apple history. The mapping service’s sins ran the gamut from depicting horribly warped landscapes to directing folks visiting the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, to drive across one of the taxiways.
Apple Maps was initially so bad, in fact, that Cook was forced to apologize and tell Apple users to download Google Maps instead.
To be fair, Apple has made considerable advances since then. The company has started updating Apple Maps every day, introduced features like Flyover, and published a number of fascinating patents — like one designed to make navigation software more humanlike by referencing landmarks and street signs instead of just road names.
Over the weekend it was announced that Apple has snapped up Coherent Navigation, a company that helped develop a form of ultra-detailed GPS that is accurate within centimeters as opposed to the usual meters.
Today, the general consensus among tech users is that Apple Maps is far from a debacle. However, this week’s Silicon Valley shows just how closely the name is equated with “disaster” in the mind of the greater public.
And while some will argue that no publicity is bad publicity, I’d expect very few people at Apple would agree in this instance.
It was funny, though.
Via: Gizmodo
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
16 responses to “Silicon Valley takes hilarious shot at one of Apple’s worst products”
I say it’s Go-ogle Glass bad.
Or Eric Schmidt Bilderberger bad.
iOS-stolen-to-make-Android bad.
lol don’t pride yourself, iOS is now copying form Android. ennuf said!
Perhaps copying some features but not stealing patented IP, a la Go-ogle, Samsung, et al.
Funny how no one’s really ragging on Google for releasing a $1,500 beta product then putting the project back on the whiteboard with absolutely no backlash from consumers or the media.
Trying to imagine the carnage and vitriol Apple would be subjected to if they released the Apple Watch as a beta product at that price, had in the wild for 2-years with almost no updates, complaints of fights, elitism, earning the moniker of GlassHole (or WatchWuss), being banned in bars, restaurants, and entire countries. Then after all that time telling everyone the “experiment” was being put on indefinite hold but, hey, thanks for the $1,500.
Exactly.
One miss out of a dozen and that’s all the media remembers. Apple is still improving Apple Maps, so it’s not like Apple didn’t try to correct the mistakes they made. Windows Vista and the Zune are long gone from this world. Google Glass is supposedly making a return although I doubt Google Glass v2 will be any more profitable than Google Glass v1.
I don’t disagree with you at all. It just made me chuckle. To be honest, Apple’s ubiquitousness is almost always used in a positive way. Remember when every new great piece of non-Apple hardware was described as “The iPod of XXXXXXX”? They can afford the odd miss, although this one was pretty grievous at the time.
It’s Apple’s blessing and curse to be the only company on the planet expected to bat .1000 and smack the ball into the parking lot with every swing. But the moment they step to the plate and strike out it’s a cataclysmic disaster and an affront to the human race.
But like most so-called scandals finer details are left out in favor of soundbites and catch phrases for the attention deficient (thanks Twitter).
In the end it’s all tongue-in-cheek. This is a sitcom which means they’re gonna push buttons and offend on a regular basis (like Family Guy). For some comedians pushing the envelope and drawing out awkward or uncomfortable moments is what it’s all about. Anthony Jeselnik, Daniel Tosh, Chris Rock and Sarah Silverman come to mind.
I watched this episode and literally laughed out loud when they said it was “Apple Maps bad.” Hahaha
A proper analogy should have been “It’s Ping bad” but ping was so bad that no one used it and no one would have got the reference.
Difference is iOS was without a proper Google Maps app for a while. Apple Maps came along and replaced it, leaving users frustrated when maps were wrong and directions were incorrect.
Ping was a flop, but it made no difference to users.
Windows Vista, Windows ME, ZUNE, Google Glass, Google+ BAD
Funny, I seem to remember that the first “3D” images in Google Maps had the same problem with graphics being skewed. A major artery thru Charlotte NC, Independence Blvd, not being locatable in the early years, and Oh YEAH Map distortions are still the norm in Google Earth.
Shh!! Remember, the focus was to rip Apple apart. They’re not allowed to make mistakes.