All articles tagged with #maps
Google and Apple Maps incorrectly display the Wyoming town of Shoshoni as closed, despite the community being fully operational. Local media Cowboy State Daily clarified that the error is a mapping glitch, not a physical shutdown. The incident highlights ongoing issues with rural data accuracy in major navigation platforms.
The UN General Assembly voted 164 in favor (with six abstentions) to replace the traditional Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection to better reflect Africa’s true size; the non-binding decision will influence maps used by UN bodies and institutions worldwide, with the United States as the sole dissenting nation.
The United Nations General Assembly voted 164 in favor, with six abstentions and only the United States against, to replace the Mercator projection with the Equal Earth map so countries are shown at their true relative sizes. Led by African nations and the AU, the move aims to correct centuries of distortions that minimize Africa and other regions and calls on tech platforms to adopt the more accurate projection; France signaled support for the switch.
Updates to Google Maps and Apple Maps have intensified the rivalry, with many users arguing Apple Maps is catching up or even better in some cases; viral posts and early history of Apple urging alternatives fuel the debate, while Google still leads in speed outside the US, keeping the competition fierce.
President Trump floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz to 'Trump Strait' in a Truth Social post, mirroring a recent push to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America;' there’s no clear mechanism to rename a strait that isn’t U.S. territory, and international reception is uncertain, even as the administration cites wartime oil-flow figures and some map services have already updated names.
MapQuest rose to No. 1 on the US App Store after refusing to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' amid a Trump executive order, highlighting nostalgia-driven interest in old-school mapping apps as rivals like Google Maps and Apple Maps update lake names in various regions.
Tesla's 'Preferred Routes' learns your most-used paths to common destinations and suggests the best option if it’s close to the fastest route. It’s rolling out in the US via map update 2026.26 and doesn’t require the full Summer Update; online routing is needed, data is anonymized, and it uses Tesla’s own routing for features like preferred turns and Supercharging considerations, available on all Intel/AMD infotainment models.
The August 12, 2026 solar eclipse will be visible as a total eclipse from Greenland, Iceland, Spain and northern Portugal, with a partial eclipse across the rest of Europe, the UK, northern USA and parts of Canada. The coverage aggregates eclipse-path maps, UK/Ireland timings, NASA animations, and video guides to help observers, and notes that the Perseid meteor shower peaks on the same night, with additional resources from BBC Sky at Night Magazine and NASA’s Visualization Studio.
Google Maps’ AI assistant, Ask Maps, now offers broader agentic capabilities such as ordering food, finding hotels and events, and giving route-aware suggestions via Gemini's Personal Intelligence. It can factor in dietary needs and saved places, auto-add items to your cart, and will work with Square and Toast today (Uber Eats coming soon). Real-time transit updates and conversational location contributions are also included, with rollout expanding from the US to other countries.
A Conversation analysis argues that adding a generative AI tool to Google Earth threatened the long‑standing trust in maps, tracing how historical map errors (like the Mountains of Kong) shaped our view of the world, the role of copyright in mapmaking, and how Google's AI integration produced plausible but fake imagery that was rolled back with stronger guardrails, underscoring how critical trust is to the use of satellite maps in journalism, OSINT, and public understanding.
Tesla is rolling out a sizable navigation data update across North America, upgrading from NA-2025.44 to NA-2026.26. The update improves street layouts, speed limits, and points of interest, and downloads in the background over Wi‑Fi with no in‑car notification, with rollout happening gradually. Map data (not visual tiles) underpins routing and driver-assist features; Tesla uses Google Maps data globally and Baidu data in China, supplemented by its own data. Updates typically arrive about twice a year, so ensure your car is connected to Wi‑Fi to receive NA-2026.26 when available.
At AIDS 2026 in Rio, a US State Department slide showing Africa mislabeled several countries (Nigeria placed in the Sahara, Mozambique in the Horn of Africa, Ivory Coast misplaced) and appeared to carry an OpenAI watermark. The error, attributed to a hastily modified slide, drew online ridicule and prompted a formal apology from the department, even as PEPFAR-related health discussions continued.
After testing 200+ iOS 27 beta features, this roundup highlights 10 favorites—Journal prompts that generate questions from text or photos; notes with section links for quick navigation; real-time AirPods Pro EQ; automatic resends of failed Messages; improved FlyOver 3D maps; landscape support across several apps; Photos tools like Clean Up, Extend, and Reframe; and the ability to create custom Wallet passes and automatic Safari Tab Topics—showcasing a mix of productivity, media, and navigation upgrades in iOS 27.
Strava announced upcoming richer map styles with more trail data, while confirming subscriber-only Route Saves, off-route alerts, and Activity Replays — features that are already available to subscribers, with the map updates launching later this summer.
Google has added a free, browser-based flight simulator to Google Earth, playable directly in Chrome or Safari without needing to download software. Marketed as a fun enhancement to the web version of Google Earth, the feature revives a decades-old concept and lets users pilot with keyboard and mouse, using arrow keys (and Page Up/Down) to maneuver and adjust speed. The browser version has drawn millions of views, though some users report controls can be tricky.