I feel dumb. Yesterday review after review came out for the iPhone 5, all glowing. This morning iOS 6 comes out, and the Maps app is broken—totally broken. It can't find Coney Island.
I really thought tech journalists would at least review the devices. I expected them to actually use the new Map app, and actually test it—you know, put in a variety of searches, kick the tires thoroughly. It's a big change for them to ditch Google.
No one did. Not one review came out about the iPhone 5 or iOS 6 ahead of today that noticed that the Maps app was utterly broken.
I feel dumb because I keep trying to believe that tech can grow up and actually be what it needs to be—the vitally important field about the tools that help define our lives. And they can't even show rigor in simple reviewing—the thing that is supposed to be at the heart of what they do.
And it's industry-wide—EVERYONE missed this. Except for a Mac repairman at a Mac shop in Colorado, who totally nailed it and wrote it up ahead of time. It didn't look hard for him to figure out.
I don't enjoy watching Apple fail. And I enjoy even less watching tech journalists fail, and alongside them everybody who I am hearing from who blindly updated to iOS 6 and is now discovering that the maps app is currently a failure.
If we can't even test the equipment, if we can't use any kind of rigor in reviewing, how can we begin to actually pay attention to the circumstances under which it's made?