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Apple Maps' Six Most Epic Fails

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Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 5 includes two huge flaws that Steve Jobs would never have sanctioned. As I posted September 24, one of them is a new connector that forced one iPhone owner to spend $1,300 to replace all the iPhone accessories that became useless when he decided to buy the iPhone 5.

But the most dangerous flaw is clearly the broken mapping App, Apple Map, that replaced the excellent Google (GOOG) App available on earlier iPhones. As the New York Times reported, Apple decided that it no longer wanted to give Google all that valuable information about how iPhone customers were using Google Maps.

So it decided to buy mapping data from about 24 suppliers and display it using Apple's home grown software. For example, Apple bought map data from TomTom, restaurant and store listings from Yelp (YELP), and traffic data from Waze. And Apple is having trouble finding and fixing the 1% of all that data that's wrong.

In my opinion, here are the six most egregious errors in Apple Maps:

1. 747 Rendezvous. As CNNMoneyTech reported, Apple Maps provides an incorrect address for Washington, DC's Dulles Airport and directions to it that "could get a driver arrested and possibly run over by a 747."

2. Brooklyn Bridge Plunge. WeKnowMemes provides a comparative image of the Brooklyn Bridge from Nokia Maps and Apple Maps. The Nokia image looks right, but the Apple one depicts a sharp plunge in the road -- if drivers used that image, they'd prepare themselves for sudden death and be pleasantly surprised when it did not happen.

3. Sydney Anzac Bridge Plunge. TheAge provides a similar Apple Map fail from Sydney, Australia. That's where its Anzac bridge is portrayed as taking a plunge -- though not as steep as the Brooklyn Bridge's. No word on whether Sydney residents are reporting "no worries" about the flaw.

4. Israel missing its capital. As Haaretz reports, Apple Maps -- unlike all the other mapping programs out there -- does not show Jerusalem as the capital of Israel -- moreover, it does not affiliate Jerusalem with a country. Let's hope this Apple Map epic fail does not set off another Middle East conflagration.

5. Florida hospital replaced by supermarket. The Times reports that Apple Maps labels a Jacksonville, Fla. Publix supermarket as the Riverside Hospital. In 2002, that location was a hospital, but if you were having an emergency and followed the Apple Maps directions to Riverside Hospital, chances are excellent that you would not get the free care about which Mitt Romney bragged in the Publix fresh produce aisle.

6. Cape Cod bridge detached from the road. The Bourne Bridge connects the Massachusetts mainland to Cape Cod. According to the Times, Apple Maps depicts the Bourne Bridge as taking a different path from the road. If a driver took that Apple Maps depiction to heart, she would face a confusing choice of whether to drive over the road without a bridge or the bridge with no underlying road. Based on the image, the road -- a miracle of engineering that seems to float on water -- would be the better bet.

While Apple does not have the sense to keep such a flawed product off the market, the 10 million people who insist on buying the iPhone 5 despite this and other flaws suggest that Steve Jobs' reality distortion field has so far survived his passing.

And while they are not enough to stop the iPhone 5 love-fest, I sincerely hope that the massive flaws in Apple Maps do not cost anyone their lives.