This was, to me, a hugely amusing — in retrospect — example of Mercury in Retrograde and for some, a continuation of Apple’s “Map-Gate.”
Popped the address into the new iPhone, and the new location of the one Austin event showed as the south-bound (west) side of the Interstate, north of Austin, in Round Rock.
Round Rock, TX: famous for Sam Bass — the outlaw dies there, and famous for Dell computers, at one time, the number one supplier of PC things.
Close to the previous location, but still, a change in venue. One client — a hair dresser — she claimed that every time a stylist changes locations, there is a 40% loss in clientele.
That doesn’t explain me in a small hybrid, growling at the phone and the iPad screen.
“You have arrived at your destination.”
“Oh like hell I have!”
One set of directions put me at an empty space on the freeway’s edge.
One would suppose that an iPhone 5, running the latest Apple iOS software, one would expect it to return the identical if faulty data as an iPad running the same system software.
Both were wrong, in different ways.
“Here, honey, let me see your phone (iPhone 4s)….”
Again, Siri directions, and then, “You’ve arrived at your destination” — a gas station on the wrong side of the freeway.
Northwest corner of Sam Bass Road and Interstate 35, in round Rock, exit 253. I know it’s in the fine print already, but as the admonishment goes, “Like all computer generated driving instructions, do a reality check, first.”
No kidding.
(Kindle Version)
(Apple iBook)
astrofish.net/mrx
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I’ll stick with my low tech method: I check the address on Google Maps and/or MapQuest (which has its own problems in a city where street names are repeated multiple times) and write down the directions before I leave the house.
Since I’m near-sighted, I have finally learned to print them in large block letters so I can read them while I’m driving, or my right seat navigator can.
I’ve learned not to trust GPS enroute, unless I’m ready for unplanned side trips. L.A. has the river and its tributaries running through it. Quite often, GPS might think the road goes through, but it doesn’t. Botheration!