Taiwan asks Apple to obscure radar defense system in iOS 6 Maps
Another day, another complaint about iOS 6 Maps. Today, the Taiwanese government is asking Apple to obscure details of a new radar system near Hsinchu Air Base on the island that appear in satellite images.
Apple's doing nothing illegal; it's just a request to have Apple use lower-resolution images in the map of this area. While we don't know exactly where the radar system is or what it looks like, a quick look at the Hsinchu Air Base in both iOS 6 Maps and Google Maps shows that the Apple images are already at a bit lower resolution than the Google images.
In the Google Maps image, I was able to easily discern Taiwanese F-16 fighters sitting next to a taxiway (below). The iOS 6 Maps images (above) were less sharp, although I was able to tell the difference between an F-16, what appears to be F-5E or F, and a Mirage 2000 on a taxiway.
A post on The Verge notes that Google has been asked to obscure images before in the past, so this similar request to Apple is nothing out of the ordinary. For the Maps team, it's probably just another few hours of overtime.
