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Hollywood Sign Neighbors Fretting Over New iPhone 5 Maps

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Last week, Apple released the iPhone 5 and all the millions of new users have spent the intervening time bitching about the new proprietary mapping software--Apple actually offered "a rare apology" today for things like "misplaced location markers and bizarre satellite images," reports the Wall Street Journal. The app has now created a new little scuffle in the Hollywood Sign Viewing Spot Wars, the long ongoing battle in Hollywoodland to keep tourists off the narrow, often poorly-paved streets (which happen to provide the most direct path to the Hollywood Sign). The neighborhood had previously gotten Google, Garmin, MapQuest and other software companies to change their GPS directions to the Sign "to locations outside our neighborhood, for example, Griffith Observatory," according to an email today from the Hollywoodland Homeowners Association.

But the new iPhone points people "to a very sensitive area in Hollywoodland, an area that starts with the letter 'd'." We're guessing they mean Deronda Drive, the street that dead-ends at the emergency access gate for Mount Lee (meaning it needs to be kept clear for fire trucks or other emergency vehicles). The email says that "Apple has promised to change it, but has been vague about when it will do this," and encourages neighbors to get in touch with the company themselves. Meanwhile, Apple is telling iPhone users to use the competition's mapping apps until they get all the issues sorted out.
· Hollywood Sign Viewing Spot Wars Archives [Curbed LA]