Apple's iOS 6 Maps App Derided For Poor Directions, Missing Businesses (PHOTOS)

Apple's iOS 6 Maps App Derided As Its 'Worst Ever' Release
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Bad directions? Missing locations? Mislabelled addresses?

There's an app for that - and Apple made it.

Apple is under pressure on Thursday after users reported a huge swathe of problems with its new Maps application, included in the latest iOS update for iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch.

Businesses in the UK were listed on the maps despite having closed 15 years ago, while Apple's own retail stores were placed in the wrong location.

Other shops and restaurants were absent, put in the wrong place or renamed.

Apple decided to release its own mapping application in order to remove its dependence on Google. It partnered with Yelp and TomTom among other companies for its own app, which features a typically 'pared down' user interface with fewer distractions and labels. The App was included in the iOS 6 upgrade, released on Wednesday, and to its credit added a new 3D satellite view, turn-by-turn navigation and greater integration with Siri.

But the Maps rollout has not gone smoothly. Not only did it remove Google's Street View, but businesses across the UK were being reported either missing, placed in the wrong location or up to 15 years out of date.

In Australia the maps app even misreported the location of an Apple retail store, placing it on the wrong side of the road.

In one Huffington Post editor's neighbourhood two local restaurants were missing, one non-existant pub was brought back to life a year after closing down, and a petrol station was moved to the other side of a dual carriageway. Meanwhile St Katherine's dock - a marina near the Tower of London - was suddenly filled with concrete according to the new App.

One tech editor called the release the worst software update in Apple's history, while on Twitter hundreds more reports of mistakes and omissions flooded in by upset iOS users.

Meanwhile a parody account was set up within hours of iOS 6's release, purporting to be Apple's new Maps app apologising for its poor performance:

Apple was even criticised for apparently showing an impossible driving route on its Maps icon, with a blue route path driving off a motorway overpass.

Users will be hoping that Google releases its own iOS Maps application, as it has done with YouTube, Gmail and its other services. But Google has remained coy on that possibility, and no details have so far been announced.