Taiwan wants Apple to blur sensitive military images
The west side of Taipei, as shown on Apple's satellite images. Apple Maps
The company’s mobile map app draws even more fire.
Taiwan is asking Apple to blur mobile map images of a sensitive early warning radar station that can detect aircraft and missiles, reports note.
The defense ministry was irked after the Liberty Times, a local newspaper, printed a satellite image, downloaded on an iPhone 5, of a long-range radar base in the northern county of Hsinchu, AFP reports.
The over-$1.2 billion, high-frequency radar is supplied by Raytheon. It can detect missiles launched as far away as China's northwest, articles said.
A Defense spokesman said that Apple should follow Google’s lead and lower the resolution of satellite pictures of secret military facilities.
The political fire comes amid heavy criticism over glitches on a maps app created to replace Google Maps in the iOS 6 operating system. Apple chief executive Timothy Cook was forced to apologize to iPhone users last month after misplaced landmarks and embarrassing omissions on Apple’s mobile maps went viral on the Internet.
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