I've been a little less than thrilled with the latest round of AmazonBasics cables. The first batch I ordered a year or so ago lasted a good, long while before finally failing at the connection point (rubber at the joint cracking and exposing the metal wire underneath, eventually leading to failure).

But on the current batch I ordered in August, I have occasional issues with all three of them asking if I want to "trust this computer" when plugging my phone into my laptop, even when I've tapped it dozens of times before (never happens with the OEM ones), and one has already cracked the cable's rubber sheath near the base of the lightning connector after barely a month's use.

That said, the Apple OEM ones aren't particularly amazingly well-built or heavy-duty, either. I don't have as much experience with them as I have only bought two extras from Apple beyond the ones that have come with my phones, so my sample size is smaller. But my go-to cable right now for syncing is an OEM one; I keep the Amazon ones in my car and next to my bed for charging only.

I wouldn't be as bothered with the build quality and potential for failure if they weren't so expensive--I'd just buy a couple dozen and be done with it. But even at AmazonBasics prices, they're just overpriced for what a cable should be, given the wear and tear a typical cable is exposed to.

Here's an oddity.

The built-in maps app which has otherwise worked perfectly refused to route me to Bloomington, IN - possibly to save me from myself??

I carefully select it as my destination and it then routes me from Chicago to either Bloomington, MN or Bloomingdale, IL!

Looks like Elon Musk was wrong about there being a problem with AI.

Google Maps app.

Which hasn't been updated for i6.

Still seems to work though.

Right - it just doesn't take advantage of the screen real estate. It just zooms.

Got it, that's right. I misunderstood.

Yeah, it's ugly, but it's still my go-to maps app.

I wonder if the lack of a new release is intentional ("hey, if you all want a nice-looking maps app, you should come buy an Android!") or just laziness...

I'm think it's at least not a top priority for them.

I agree; it's my go-to also. But I was really expecting it to use the extra space.

Frankly, they took out custom layers and have put those back, and now this. It's starting to feel intentional.

Anyone here with an i6+? Does it just zoom there also? That would be a shame.

Yes, I have a 6+. It just looks giant and pixelated.

I swapped between Apple maps and Google maps on my recent trip to vienna and prague. Both were fairly fine for walking. Google maps was atrocious for transit directions in vienna (never gave options involving the subway) and I could never get the bike directions to work either so the area where Google maps could have differentiated itself; it absolutely failed.

Fdw

I am planning a trip next month to Vienna. Yeah I was looking to go from Stephansplatz to Schonbrunn, which should take 30 minutes on the u-bahn. But instead it routed via s-bahn taking well over an hour. Had to get the qando vienna app, from the transit system.

Also they've really messed up My Maps. You have to use the new one, you can no longer save found POIs to the classic My Maps.

Well in the New My Maps, you can't do transit directions at all. The way they've botched up My Maps, it may not matter if they re-integrate My Maps or Places back into the mobile Google Maps apps.

I found I needed to shave down the edges on the Amazon and pQi cables to let them work with an iPad Air with an Apple smart case

Well, for me - at least for the next 2 weeks - the issue is moot. My beautiful new Iphone6 was pickpocked on the Metro in Barcelona today. It has been a painful 3 hours getting everything turned off and checked, but the only loss seems to have been the phone. By the time I got to check via the icloud, the phone was already turned off, and T-Mobile shows no transactions post-loss. I hadn't used it for several minutes before so it was locked down in any case.

I'm a great and careful traveler, but this was one of those "run into you agressively" and strip open your pockets before leaping off the train. I feel violated. Since it had been in my pocket for at least 15 minutes the guy had no idea what I had and was just fishing. Sigh.

The main issue is that I'm traveling for 2 more weeks, and they have no way to get me a replacement, either with my number of with the ability to transfer calls to the new number, since to do so would mean they couldn't totally disable the account. Just changed to simple choice, and will really miss seamless access to my world - at least I'll have the laptop but won't be able to do things like download my BPs onto the phones passbook. Makes me realize how attached we are to our phones.

New phone already ordered and I hope it will be waiting for me on my return to the states, but there is a huge amount of angst at the moment!!