What's interesting is that Apple is a member of MPEG LA: http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/Licensors.aspx

> Oh well, who is John Galt?

Here you go: John Galt

In what way wasn't it automated? There is a lot of evidence pointing to it having been automated. I'm sure there were some manual steps, there always are, but still.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/02/26/73121/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6aphdX0rI

They've backed down from these claims: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/11/25/SciTechTalk-NASA-says-Mars-discovery-may-not-be-one-for-the-history-books/UPI-73681353843060/

Apple is better than most companies when it comes to UI. They spend more time refining their UI than other companies. So far all the transit apps in Japan are poor compared to Apple's iOS 5 maps experience.

Part of what makes these free third-party apps a poor experience is that they're ad supported. The ads contribute clutter to the app which distracts from the user-experience.

In Tokyo, if you need to catch a train across town when it is getting late it can make a big difference. It is about $5 to ride the train vs. $100 to take a taxi.

An extra tap makes a difference. I recall Apple discussing UI issues and talking about how they counted clicks and taps to ensure users got what they wanted with the minimal number of gestures. Besides, in this case it is more than just a tap, it is tap, wait for launch, maybe tap more depending on resulting app's UI. (I recall an article recently where users tend to give up using services when they have to wait a few seconds.)

I just tried four different Tokyo metro apps and they all don't use Apple maps for their directions. (They may use the MapView at some point, but not on their main screens.) Some discard the walking part of the route, some include it. One I just tried sends you back to Apple maps app for the walking part.

Because the apps aren't necessarily using Apple's services, Apple is getting less data. If users bypass Apple's maps app entirely then Apple gets even less. Also, because Apple only offers their maps on one platform (so far), they're getting less data than Google which offers their maps on many platforms.

Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is that the maps experience in iOS got worse going from iOS 5 to 6. There are good points about iOS 6 maps, but they're overwhelmed by the bad. I'm expecting it to get better, but I think it will take a while.

I think the fact that Apple has fired two people because of this issue and has apologized shows that the company is aware that this was a downgrade.

Given that the iOS maps app was using Google map data I was using Google maps all the time. I've never run into or heard of the problem you mentioned, but your mileage may vary.

Apple's approach is to not have transit directions integrated into the maps app. This has a number of problems:

1) It leads to an inconsistent experience. You go from an app with Apple's attention to quality to one that is usually of lower quality.

2) The integration requires more steps. When looking for directions you need to push a button, then click on a app if it is installed, wait for the app to launch and look up directions.

3) Once you get to your destination you need to switch back to the maps app to get your walking directions.

It is true that with Apple's new approach you get access to some services that Google didn't provide, but there are better ways to integrate those services.

A potential problem here is that since the experience of using the map app is no longer integrated, users may end up going directly to the transit app for directions. If this happens then Apple misses out on the data which lets them know what services are important for users. One of Google's strengths is the enormous amounts of data it has access to. It analyzes this data to determine how to improve its services. Since, at this time Apple is only offering its map service on iOS, it is not getting the volume of data Google is. If users are turning away from its service, then they'll get even less.

It would probably be easier to install the old maps app on iOS 6.

You have some good points, and what you say may be true about China, but I don't think it is true about Japan. iOS 6 maps got rid of transit directions, which is what most people in big cities like Tokyo use. In both English and Japanese it still has a train station right next to the emperor's palace. It still has doubly listed entries. It still doesn't find the supermarket next to my house. Also, with two locations I just checked, the images on Apple's maps are in the first case older than Google's and in the second case black & white compared to Google's color images.

I wasn't aware that when Bungie became independent the Halo properties stayed with Microsoft.

Bungie is now independent of Microsoft, however, they now have a 10 year publishing agreement with Activision (with 8 years left), which probably means that they're not planning on doing Linux anytime. However, even if they didn't have that agreement they probably wouldn't be doing Linux anyhow.

...it's gotta be good.

Along these lines there is a report that up to 3300 people have been killed by our drone attacks in Pakistan, while only 41 were the intended Al Qaeda targets. This is another situation that could blowback on us.

Also, many parts of iOS were ported back to OS X for the performance improvements that were part of Snow Leopard.

If you put it that way then all power, except geothermal, is solar.

There is a report that Samsung is denying that they're terminating the contract with Apple for LCDs:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57537773-37/samsung-says-its-still-supplying-lcd-panels-to-apple/

I have no idea what is true or not, but there are well known hazards believing rumors.