Apple Maps becomes even more flawed when used in Italian, says one user

Oct 12, 2012 14:39 GMT  ·  By

An Apple customer who recently updated his iPhone to iOS 6 says the software “is now completely bugged when it comes to Italian writing.” He claims the autocorrect feature keeps adding accents at random, “something that worked fine in iOS 5, and is now broken.”

After reading countless stories on the Apple Maps blunders, especially how Apple reportedly ignored the warnings, Beppe thought he could help bring new attention to the problem, by reporting a different issue that he says is well known in Italy, but hasn’t been widely reported.

“iOS 6 is now completely bugged when it comes to Italian writing,” he tells us. “Its autocorrect feature keeps adding accents at random! It is something that worked fine in iOS 5, and is now broken.”

The Italian customer makes a good case for his fellow citizens, noting that, in his language, “accent signs are important to differentiate between different words.”

“Therefore you can't ‘add’ accents, because that changes the meaning of words (and a computer can't know the meaning when the accent itself determines the meaning!),” he tells Softpedia.

He provides an example, saying the common word for “and” in Italian is “e.” Once you add an accent, it becomes “he is” – “which iOS 6 does all the time,” says Beppe.

To work around the problem, users are forced to disable autocorrect. However, this causes a new problem for people who actually rely on the automatic spelling checker.

“When you keep replacing one word with another one, isn't it as bad as giving wrong directions?” asks Beppe, who seems a tad more disappointed about Apple Maps than the regular user.

In his email, he also recalls how Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, replied to a customer who asked about Siri in Italian, saying “I love Italy.”

“Well, if this is a sign of his love, I am glad he doesn't hate Italy!” he concludes.

Apple, your move.