dhandler65

I agree that local officials are to be held liable, specially since the bridge in question had collapsed years prior. The lack of sufficient warning signs falls on squarely on the shoulders of local highway management. My impression is that this lawsuit took a shotgun approach hitting anyone or anything remotely related.

I use Google maps, Apple maps, Waze, and a Garmin while my wife prefers paper maps when we’re traveling. The benefit of using these apps is that they tend to get updated far more frequently than paper maps. Some do offer helpful realtime updates to road conditions.

Recently while driving in my community, I turned onto a street that according to my Garmin (which is always updated to the latest version) showed the street I turned onto wasn’t a thru street. In fact my wife, as I turned onto the street remarked, “This isn’t a thru street”. Apple Maps (via my iPhone) showed it was a thru street. It was. 

The street in question had recently (within 6 months) been extended which I knew because I'm a local. I’ll bet the city map one can get from the local Chamber office doesn’t reflect the change yet - but probably will in future printings. Perhaps Garmin will be updated at some point as well.

My point is, and what dewme and others are saying, is that these apps are not always accurate. They have no direct control and responsibility for keeping up to date. I always take directions given from these apps and devices with a grain of salt. But I also rely heavily upon state and local officials to keep drivers apprised of changing road conditions - something that clearly didn’t happen in this instance.

Watching people take videos holding the phone vertically happens so often but these are probably the same people who complained about watching a letterboxed feature film instead of pan&scan because they're being cheated out of seeing the "whole" movie. And the digital zooming...ugh! But what was left out of the article is using the iPhone for digiscoping and the various adapters currently available. I use my iPhone SE with an adaptor from Kowa and my Swarovski scope for stunning photos and videos. So much so I've stopped carrying my DSLR. While I gave up the flexibility of aiming my DSLR for rapid shots, I've gotten very quick at getting on subjects, specially when anticipating where the subject will be "in the frame". An article on digiscoping with an iPhone would be a nice compliment to this tips article.