MapQuest unveils alternative to Google Maps for iPhone

[AppleInsider]

MapQuest on Monday took the wraps off a new application for iPhone users designed as an alternative to the built-in Google Maps software and billed as a "leap forward in how people interact with maps, directions and local search" on their Apple handsets.

One tap search

Among the highlights of the free application (App Store), called MapQuest 4 Mobile, is a "place carousel" that makes it easy for users to conduct one-tap category searches from any location on a map.

Similar to the Dashboard feature of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the carousel features icons, called 'place widgets,' that represent categories such as hotels, movie theaters, post offices, shopping centers, parking garages, schools, bars, pharmacies, gas stations and restaurants.

iPhone users can customize their place carousel with any of the 20 or so place widgets available simply by dragging and dropping them to and from the carousel. There are also place widget icons for leading brands, such as, Walmart, Autozone, Holiday Inn and Best Western, with more promised for future releases.

Driving directions

Unlike with Google Maps for iPhone, users of the MapQuest software can plan and save maps and driving routes on their computer using MapQuest.com and then retrieve them on the iPhone by logging into their My Places account. Some users may even find this interaction essential given that MapQuest for iPhone cannot access addresses stored in an iPhone's Address Book the way Google Maps can.



Asked about a lack of Address Book address, a spokesperson for MapQuest said the company is looking into adding the capability in a future release of MapQuest 4 Mobile for iPhone.



For trips that include more than one stop, the software offers multi-point routing and draggable re-ordering capabilities. Driving directions can be seen in standard map or list view, but are also available in a third view called "Max Maneuver" that kicks in when the iPhone is held in landscape mode. Under this view, each maneuver instruction fills the entire screen and users can progresses to the next or previous maneuver simply by "swiping" the screen to the right or left.



Other features

Some other features of the MapQuest iPhone app include smooth panning maps, live traffic, free-form search, GPS to identify a user's current location, and a search history.



Users can also customize the icon that represents their location on the map, either with a stock "My Position" icon that is chosen from a list of options or by using any phone available in an iPhone's photo album.

For those interested, MapQuest has also posted a silent walk-through video of the new software.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[macosxp]

I used to use MapQuest... until Google Maps started letting me find what the places I was looking for by typing in an address that wasn't perfectly formatted, or just the place name. MapQuest sucks in comparison since their maps are no better than Google's in my estimation, and their search feature sucks worse too.

[chronster]

mapquest got me lost in the middle of kentucky once. That was fun, especially since me and my girlfriend were freaking out so much over the directions we failed to notice we needed to get gas. We puttered into an exxon at 4am and miraculously it took credit cards.

Screw mapquest.

[thebudda]

As a law enforcement officer of 13 years, I can attest that over the last 10 years I've come to easily spot vehicles on the side of the road or driving erratically with the driver holding some papers in his/her hands as Mapquest users. I hate use the term profile, but they all have the same confused, desperate look about them. 98% of the time I would pull up beside some confused looking driver and ask "Let me guess, Mapquest?" and they would all say yes. They would proceed to tell me about trying to find some highway that didn't even exist in my state, much less my county. I've grown to down right hate Mapquest over the years just for the aggravation they put everybody through.

I wonder if anybody has ever gotten some BS government funding to conduct a study about the carbon footprint of using Mapquest? Has to be at least a few hundred thousand miles in America that have been wasted with this crappy service.

[blue1516us]

Originally Posted by macosxp

I used to use MapQuest... until Google Maps started letting me find what the places I was looking for by typing in an address that wasn't perfectly formatted, or just the place name. MapQuest sucks in comparison since their maps are no better than Google's in my estimation, and their search feature sucks worse too.

I just clicked the link in the article to go to the app in the store and it says it's not available in the US app store.

[docprego]

Originally Posted by blue1516us

I just clicked the link in the article to go to the app in the store and it says it's not available in the US app store.

Just search for it and it comes right up. The link is broken.

[Milford]

Still, multiple destinations that you can change on the fly, and a clean list of all the turns you need to make, are both features that I have desperately wished for in Google Maps over the last year. The former is especially necessary when your live traffic info shows something terrible ahead and you need to set an intermediate point in order to route around it; or, say, you're driving from Boston to DC and you want to force it to take the Tappan Zee bridge instead of plowing through NYC.

[iVlad]

Originally Posted by thebudda

As a law enforcement officer of 13 years, I can attest that over the last 10 years I've come to easily spot vehicles on the side of the road or driving erratically with the driver holding some papers in his/her hands as Mapquest users. I hate use the term profile, but they all have the same confused, desperate look about them. 98% of the time I would pull up beside some confused looking driver and ask "Let me guess, Mapquest?" and they would all say yes. They would proceed to tell me about trying to find some highway that didn't even exist in my state, much less my county. I've grown to down right hate Mapquest over the years just for the aggravation they put everybody through.

I wonder if anybody has ever gotten some BS government funding to conduct a study about the carbon footprint of using Mapquest? Has to be at least a few hundred thousand miles in America that have been wasted with this crappy service.

wow, "my state", "my country" .... feels very welcoming to people who live in your area.
By the way what does your response have to do with iPhone? If you wanna complain, there are plenty of DMV and Gov sites that can easily help you ease your anger from people who need help.

[a_greer]

this may have been interesting last year, but with Googls doing such a good job, and TOMTOM and Garmin waiting in the wing, this is a non starter...

[chronster]

Originally Posted by iVlad

wow, "my state", "my country" .... feels very welcoming to people who live in your area.
By the way what does your response have to do with iPhone? If you wanna complain, there are plenty of DMV and Gov sites that can easily help you ease your anger from people who need help.

Did you even read what he wrote? This article is about a mapquest iphone app. He was talking about how confusing mapquest directions can make people worse drivers as they start to give more attention to the directions, and give less to the road.

So yeah, his response does have something to do with the iPhone app the rest of us are discussing. What does your response have anything to do with mapquest or the iphone? He should complain to the DMV that mapquest sends people on wild goose chases?

[rorober]

Originally Posted by blue1516us

I just clicked the link in the article to go to the app in the store and it says it's not available in the US app store.

Just like MapQuest: It's giving the wrong directions.

[a_greer]

Originally Posted by thebudda

As a law enforcement officer of 13 years, I can attest that over the last 10 years I've come to easily spot vehicles on the side of the road or driving erratically with the driver holding some papers in his/her hands as Mapquest users. I hate use the term profile, but they all have the same confused, desperate look about them. 98% of the time I would pull up beside some confused looking driver and ask "Let me guess, Mapquest?" and they would all say yes. They would proceed to tell me about trying to find some highway that didn't even exist in my state, much less my county. I've grown to down right hate Mapquest over the years just for the aggravation they put everybody through.

I wonder if anybody has ever gotten some BS government funding to conduct a study about the carbon footprint of using Mapquest? Has to be at least a few hundred thousand miles in America that have been wasted with this crappy service.

What about all of the miles saved by the 90ish % of correct directions, saving people from buying the paper maps that were sitting in gas station racks for 10 years and are out of date and do not mention construction closing and detours...

[NOFEER]

Originally Posted by a_greer

this may have been interesting last year, but with Googls doing such a good job, and TOMTOM and Garmin waiting in the wing, this is a non starter...

too little too late, i have to have a substantial reason to duplicate services
google does more and has more apps

i wish google had a "notes" or "to do" list that could sync with gmail or allow sharing
then when my wife needs the shopping or to do list i don't mess it up by forgetting it

but perhaps AI members could do a shoot out for mapquest and maps maybe we can learn from it.
what does each do better or best

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by a_greer

What about all of the miles saved by the 90ish % of correct directions, saving people from buying the paper maps that were sitting in gas station racks for 10 years and are out of date and do not mention construction closing and detours...

He wasn't complaining about computer-based directions in general, but about MapQuest specifically--which is what this article is about.

People are sure jumping all over thebuddah

[JohnnyKrz]

Originally Posted by iVlad

wow, "my state", "my country" .... feels very welcoming to people who live in your area.
By the way what does your response have to do with iPhone? If you wanna complain, there are plenty of DMV and Gov sites that can easily help you ease your anger from people who need help.

This seems like the perfect place to complain since we are talking about MapQuest here. Also, I like when people take ownership of their town/county/country. It doesn't mean outsiders aren't welcome, but that you have a sense of pride and responsibility towards the place you call home.

MapQuest does suck big time! This still hasn't been fixed: When I get directions to this restaurant right next door to me, it sends me 5 miles down to the nearest highway and then tells me to u-turn and come up a different street that intersects with the street I'm on. I can literally see the place if I walk outside my office. Honestly, I don't remember why I ever looked up those directions; I think it was just because I was testing their directions way back. To be really nitpicking, I don't even like the way their maps look. They are too cartoonish and harder to visualize accurately. These features won't sway me from Google Maps.

[lilgto64]

Originally Posted by NOFEER

too little too late, i have to have a substantial reason to duplicate services
google does more and has more apps

i wish google had a "notes" or "to do" list that could sync with gmail or allow sharing
then when my wife needs the shopping or to do list i don't mess it up by forgetting it

but perhaps AI members could do a shoot out for mapquest and maps maybe we can learn from it.
what does each do better or best

I think you may have something there - for example you put milk on your shopping list and if you get within say 10 minutes of a grocery store you get an alert - maybe even have your favorite store plugged in - and sync across accounts would be good - you add milk to the list and your wife is heading home past the grocery store and a note pops up with the shopping list on it and directions to the store from where she is.

[echosonic]

Originally Posted by iVlad

wow, "my state", "my country" .... feels very welcoming to people who live in your area.
By the way what does your response have to do with iPhone? If you wanna complain, there are plenty of DMV and Gov sites that can easily help you ease your anger from people who need help.

"My state" indicates he was referring to tourists from out of state.

"My country" indicates he was referring to tourists from out of state or out of country.

Both also indicate, like the previous poster said, pride in both his home and country.

His response had a great deal to do with iPhone because the topic was MapQuest on iPhone, which is the entire point of this article, and he cited a very relevant career-learned story about folks being led astray by MapQuest.

He used an emoticon to show an "angry face" which was directed from the first word toward MapQuest.

You should toughen your extremely delicate sensibilities...

[801]

Competition remains good.

[TBell]

I agree with the Officer. Map quest stinks in the implementation of the service it offers compared to Google. Out of the five or six times I have used Map quest, at least half of the times resulted in me getting lost. Usually it was something small like telling me to take a left, when it meant right. Sometimes it was naming Streets that didn't exist there. I have had no such problem using Google Directions. Of course, maybe the services make the same amount of errors, but that hasn't been my experience.

Originally Posted by a_greer

What about all of the miles saved by the 90ish % of correct directions, saving people from buying the paper maps that were sitting in gas station racks for 10 years and are out of date and do not mention construction closing and detours...

[lilgto64]

Originally Posted by 801

Competition remains good.

And when both are free - why not try them both - compared to whatever the TomTom app and accessory will cost this may be a very good alternative for anyone.

Having both Google and Mapquest to compare against each other - or to try the other should one fail is a good thing.

I have had both success and failure with the built in Google maps - in Florida it got me from the airport to the hotel - after I drove in circles getting my bearings (original iPhone) - but on the way back to the airport Google maps sent me to the cargo/service entrance at the back of the airport rather than the passenger terminal/rental return.

[OldCodger73]

Does anyone read carefully anymore? If you go back and read post #4 again you'll clearly see it says COUNTY not COUNTRY.

[nathansmart]

Originally Posted by 801

Competition remains good.

But only if the competition is worth a change. I would consider this app worth a look if it had address book look up - I use it a lot of google maps because I don't know my friends' addresses by heart.

Can't believe they didn't consider that option. Sounds just like them to be one step behind.

[steviet02]

Originally Posted by OldCodger73

Does anyone read carefully anymore? If you go back and read post #4 again you'll clearly see it says COUNTY not COUNTRY.

Not on here, some people like to start the 'gang up him' mentality. In a frenzy to be the first to jump on that wagon, they don't bother reading the post slow enough to comprehend it before posting, that assumes they're actually capable of that type of comprehension.

[DHKOsta]

Originally Posted by steviet02

Not on here, some people like to start the 'gang up him' mentality. In a frenzy to be the first to jump on that wagon, they don't bother reading the post slow enough to comprehend it before posting, that assumes they're actually capable of that type of comprehension.

It's such a luxury to hide behind a computer screen. I bet cops get the most shit from people on the web and the least shit from people in person.

[c4rlob]

MapQuest's squiggly, cutesy icons have always turned me off from day one. They remind me of something I'd see on the back of a kid's Happy Meal or cereal box. Not something to depend on for accuracy and raw functionality.

Do they still have that annoying incremental zoom instead of Google's fluid zoom? Are they still missing mass transit stations and directions? Do they even have some equivalent of Street View yet? And they're talking about leaps forward? Go away MapQuest until you get it right. And when you get it right you won't have to advertise it - we'll know. There's a reason why Google is the preferred map service on so many mobile devices and computers. The fact that it took MapQuest this long to offer a dedicated app speaks volumes about their inability to provide quality technology for such a critical resource where anything less than precision and quality is unacceptable.

[GTL215]

i've been wondering where Mapquest has been the past few years, while GoogleMaps has been hanging them out to dry. Now we know.

[Maestro64]

At least everyone feels the same here about mapquest.

Here is my experience which is old, so I am not sure it is still valid

Printing off directions, the maps were small and you could barely see the roads, however, the ad they places took up lots of space... I am not interested in seeing mapquest ads when I trying to see an enlarge picture of the roads I am driving on.

Second and the last day I used mapquest, driving to a location some distance away which I was not at all familiar with so I use mapquest, did the get me from here to there and printed off the directions. As I got into the car and started to review the direction I notice right down the street from me it tels me to turn on this road then make a left onto the highway, the only problem is that road was an overpass and did not have an on ramp to that highway. At that point I realize if mapquest had no idea the road and highway did not connect I was not going to trust it on the other end where I have no idea of the roads of location.

I know some people who continue to use mapquest and it seems to take them odd ways to get places. Some time less then direct and even through neighborhood when it would be better to just take the highway.

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by iVlad

wow, "my state", "my country" .... feels very welcoming to people who live in your area.
By the way what does your response have to do with iPhone? If you wanna complain, there are plenty of DMV and Gov sites that can easily help you ease your anger from people who need help.

Are you a native English speaker Vlad? Because I think you very badly missed the tone and tenor of what he said. Plus it was my state, my county, not country. His post didn't have the negative tone (regarding the drivers of the lost cars) that you seem to have read into it. Saying that the directions referred to a road that wasn't in the state, much less the county, means that Mapquest had the driver turning on a road that didn't exist anywhere near where the driver found himself.

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by OldCodger73

Does anyone read carefully anymore? If you go back and read post #4 again you'll clearly see it says COUNTY not COUNTRY.

There's someone else who can read

[addabox]

Originally Posted by nagromme

He wasn't complaining about computer-based directions in general, but about MapQuest specifically--which is what this article is about.

People are sure jumping all over thebuddah

Originally Posted by JohnnyKrz

This seems like the perfect place to complain since we are talking about MapQuest here. Also, I like when people take ownership of their town/county/country. It doesn't mean outsiders aren't welcome, but that you have a sense of pride and responsibility towards the place you call home.

MapQuest does suck big time! This still hasn't been fixed: When I get directions to this restaurant right next door to me, it sends me 5 miles down to the nearest highway and then tells me to u-turn and come up a different street that intersects with the street I'm on. I can literally see the place if I walk outside my office. Honestly, I don't remember why I ever looked up those directions; I think it was just because I was testing their directions way back. To be really nitpicking, I don't even like the way their maps look. They are too cartoonish and harder to visualize accurately. These features won't sway me from Google Maps.

Originally Posted by echosonic

"My state" indicates he was referring to tourists from out of state.

"My country" indicates he was referring to tourists from out of state or out of country.

Both also indicate, like the previous poster said, pride in both his home and country.

His response had a great deal to do with iPhone because the topic was MapQuest on iPhone, which is the entire point of this article, and he cited a very relevant career-learned story about folks being led astray by MapQuest.

He used an emoticon to show an "angry face" which was directed from the first word toward MapQuest.

You should toughen your extremely delicate sensibilities...

Originally Posted by TBell

I agree with the Officer. Map quest stinks in the implementation of the service it offers compared to Google. Out of the five or six times I have used Map quest, at least half of the times resulted in me getting lost. Usually it was something small like telling me to take a left, when it meant right. Sometimes it was naming Streets that didn't exist there. I have had no such problem using Google Directions. Of course, maybe the services make the same amount of errors, but that hasn't been my experience.

Originally Posted by OldCodger73

Does anyone read carefully anymore? If you go back and read post #4 again you'll clearly see it says COUNTY not COUNTRY.

Originally Posted by steviet02

Not on here, some people like to start the 'gang up him' mentality. In a frenzy to be the first to jump on that wagon, they don't bother reading the post slow enough to comprehend it before posting, that assumes they're actually capable of that type of comprehension.

Originally Posted by DHKOsta

It's such a luxury to hide behind a computer screen. I bet cops get the most shit from people on the web and the least shit from people in person.

Originally Posted by cameronj

Are you a native English speaker Vlad? Because I think you very badly missed the tone and tenor of what he said. Plus it was my state, my county, not country. His post didn't have the negative tone (regarding the drivers of the lost cars) that you seem to have read into it. Saying that the directions referred to a road that wasn't in the state, much less the county, means that Mapquest had the driver turning on a road that didn't exist anywhere near where the driver found himself.

One person took exception to the officer's tone. One person suggested he was overstating Map Quest's downsides.

If there's any "piling on", "ganging up" or "hiding behind a computer screen" "around here", it's coming from people who apparently think disagreeing with a cop is a crime.

[MacTel]

I sure haven't been fond of MapQuest or Yahoo Maps but it is amazing what competition will do to drive these companies to improve their products.

Recently our GPS device broke so we went through about a month of using printed-out directions from Yahoo, Google, or Mapquest. A GPS device just can't be beat (dedicated or turn-by-turn on an iPhone or like phone). I'm glad to say we have a new GPS device that we've already put to good use without getting lost.

[Techslacker]

Originally Posted by addabox

One person took exception to the officer's tone. One person suggested he was overstating Map Quest's downsides.

If there's any "piling on", "ganging up" or "hiding behind a computer screen" "around here", it's coming from people who apparently think disagreeing with a cop is a crime.

Not that it really matters but it's coming from people who apparently think disagreeing with "someone who claims to be" a cop is a crime.

No matter though in my experience mapquest was never all that bad but it just failed to keep up. My wife, she likes to use Expedia and, oh my god, I can't tell you how many times that Expedia directions have been completely inaccurate with the mistaken directions of turning right instead of left, etc. This has been going on for years and yet she clings to them because that's what she knows and once in awhile they actually are right.

With that said I wouldn't be so blind to just stick with Google maps as my wife is with Expedia as while I've used Google maps extensively, they certainly have not been perfect. Competition is always good. If MapQuest can get moving in the right direction again(pun intended), it's good for all of us.

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by addabox

One person took exception to the officer's tone. One person suggested he was overstating Map Quest's downsides.

If there's any "piling on", "ganging up" or "hiding behind a computer screen" "around here", it's coming from people who apparently think disagreeing with a cop is a crime.

Hey I didn't pile on, I was just trying to clarify to him what I think was his misunderstanding of what the OP said!

"Are you a native English speaker Vlad? Because I think you very badly missed the tone and tenor of what he said. Plus it was my state, my county, not country. His post didn't have the negative tone (regarding the drivers of the lost cars) that you seem to have read into it. Saying that the directions referred to a road that wasn't in the state, much less the county, means that Mapquest had the driver turning on a road that didn't exist anywhere near where the driver found himself."

[lilgto64]

Interesting this - i just did a search on google maps and it came back with 3 different possible routes - not sure but I think that is new - and they also have an option to track historical traffic data - in other words not just pick a route but also set a day and time to get a better idea of what the trip might look like - I have not used mapquest in a long time so not sure how they compare (or how much of those features translates to the iPhone version - I will sometimes plan a route on the computer then email the link to myself so I can pull it up on the iPhone with the minimum fuss).

[addabox]

Originally Posted by cameronj

Hey I didn't pile on, I was just trying to clarify to him what I think was his misunderstanding of what the OP said!

"Are you a native English speaker Vlad? Because I think you very badly missed the tone and tenor of what he said. Plus it was my state, my county, not country. His post didn't have the negative tone (regarding the drivers of the lost cars) that you seem to have read into it. Saying that the directions referred to a road that wasn't in the state, much less the county, means that Mapquest had the driver turning on a road that didn't exist anywhere near where the driver found himself."

Sorry, not trying to disparage any one poster, I just thought it was funny that a single post would get so much grief, especially when some of that grief seemed to imagine that "people" were "ganging up" "like they do" on this board, which is humorous.

To me at least, but I'm cranky.

[juggernaut30]

I can't believe no one is talking about the potential use of the data port to add better game controls in the form of a clip on device. Finally someone is:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7...CarouselArea.4

"Proper controller support. Sneaked in under the radar amid the iPhone 3G S news is the fact that the 3.0 software update allows third-party app interfacing with peripherals. While a larger focus on this functionality has been on medical devices, it's now possible for someone to make a clip-on control pad case and to have that controller be usable in any game. What should happen is that publishers gather to designate one universal controller that then gets adopted as the iPhone's "gamepad." The question is, who will make that accessory? For a while last year it was rumored to be Belkin, although it was unclear who would support the device. On consoles, the manufacturer usually settles these issues by making the controller themselves (except in the case of peripheral-driven games like Rock Band). "

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by juggernaut30

I can't believe no one is talking about the potential use of the data port to add better game controls in the form of a clip on device. Finally someone is:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7...CarouselArea.4

"Proper controller support. Sneaked in under the radar amid the iPhone 3G S news is the fact that the 3.0 software update allows third-party app interfacing with peripherals. While a larger focus on this functionality has been on medical devices, it's now possible for someone to make a clip-on control pad case and to have that controller be usable in any game. What should happen is that publishers gather to designate one universal controller that then gets adopted as the iPhone's "gamepad." The question is, who will make that accessory? For a while last year it was rumored to be Belkin, although it was unclear who would support the device. On consoles, the manufacturer usually settles these issues by making the controller themselves (except in the case of peripheral-driven games like Rock Band). "

Not sure how this is related to Mapquest... but I think the opening of the connector has been the MOST talked about (and rightly so) aspect of the OS3.0.

[auxio]

Originally Posted by thebudda

As a law enforcement officer of 13 years, I can attest that over the last 10 years I've come to easily spot vehicles on the side of the road or driving erratically with the driver holding some papers in his/her hands as Mapquest users. I hate use the term profile, but they all have the same confused, desperate look about them. 98% of the time I would pull up beside some confused looking driver and ask "Let me guess, Mapquest?" and they would all say yes. They would proceed to tell me about trying to find some highway that didn't even exist in my state, much less my county. I've grown to down right hate Mapquest over the years just for the aggravation they put everybody through..

Just to add an example that Google maps isn't perfect either...

A couple years back I used Google maps to look up directions from Toronto to Mont Tremblant for a ski trip (middle of winter). We were in a hurry so I quickly just grabbed them and hopped in the car.

About 2/3 of the way there, we ended up on a road which seemed small (but not bad) so we continued on. The road continued to get even smaller due to snow build-up in the ditches (to the point where we were worried about meeting other cars and being able to pass). Finally, we ended up at a sign which said "Road Closed For Season. Snowmobiles only."

So we had to backtrack about 30 minutes to get back to the highway and find a service station where we could get directions and a proper map. Not a huge mistake, but it was definitely an inconvenience as we got in much later that night than we had planned (was pretty tired the next day).

Lesson learned: don't put blind faith in any automated mapping system. Double check your directions with another map if possible. And if you end up on a road which seems wrong, trust your gut instinct and head for a service station.

I've had similar experiences with my Garmin GPS as well (a 2 hour drive was scheduled to be a 14 hour voyage).

[Slang4Art]

Originally Posted by DHKOsta

It's such a luxury to hide behind a computer screen. I bet cops get the most shit from people on the web and the least shit from people in person.

Cops are generally disliked because of their need to control other people's lives. It's the same reason people dislike politicians, school officials and corporations. Just because police are able to get away with brutality, even when it is recorded using digital video and audio, and distributed on YouTube, doesn't mean that their sentiment is any different. It just means the people haven't fully united yet and started taking back "our" country and rights from the inevitable police state we are creating.

End rant.

[Slang4Art]

Originally Posted by addabox

One person took exception to the officer's tone. One person suggested he was overstating Map Quest's downsides.

If there's any "piling on", "ganging up" or "hiding behind a computer screen" "around here", it's coming from people who apparently think disagreeing with a cop is a crime.

If you've ever taken a speeding ticket to jury trial, you'd know that it basically is an admission of guilt, at least in the public eye. A cops word, even when he describes his equipment as "the red laser dot thingy" is never to be second-guessed.

All this being said, I personally didn't take offense to anything he wrote, or anything anyone else in the thread wrote, except perhaps the fool that said people were too scared to confront cops in person. There are plenty of brave people in the world who have stood up to corrupt, government imposed authority, often with success.