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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Collins Center absent from iPhone 5 maps

Many of IU’s buildings are missing from Apple’s new map application, which debuted with last week’s release of the iPhone 5.

The new app, which severed Apple’s ties with the previously used Google maps application, has been subject to scrutiny across the Internet and was recently the focus of a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal.

This article featured side-by-side images of a Google map of Collins LLC and an Apple map of the same location, which included no trace of the residence center.

Owners of the iPhone 5 complained, among other things, that many businesses and landmarks are misplaced or completely missing on the Apple maps, the Journal reported.

Carl Ipsen, director of Collins LLC, said although he wasn’t sincerely angered, he did find the article amusing.

“I’m outraged at Apple’s attempt to eliminate Collins from the map of Bloomington,” he said. “It’s surely a corporate plot of some kind.”

An alumnus brought the article to his attention.

“Of all the maps they could put on the picture, it was ours,” he said.

According to the Journal, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the application was designed to improve the more people use it. She also acknowledged that features previously available with the Google app are missing, and developers would work to remedy the new app’s shortcomings.

“We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better,” she said in the article.

Verizon Wireless stores across the state opened earlier than usual on Sept. 21 for the release of the new iPhone.

“The Bloomington store had more than 30 people in line for the iPhone 5 — three camped out overnight,” a Verizon Wireless spokesperson said in an email. “More than half of those in line were students.”

Senior Mimi Nguyen purchased her iPhone 5 at 8 a.m. Friday.

Although she hadn’t used the Apple map app extensively, she said there are some differences between it and the Google version. Among them, she said, is an automatic 3-D map feature and a feature to aid navigation. All in all, though, she said she loves her new phone.

“It has a lot of cool stuff,” she said. “There are significant differences between the 4S and the 5.”

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