Linked List: January 28, 2025

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Google Maps Will Rename Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’, for American Users Only ★

Google, in an announcement on X:

We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.

For geographic features in the U.S., this is when Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated. When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America.

Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.

Jennifer Elias, reporting for CNBC:

Google’s maps division on Monday reclassified the U.S. as a “sensitive country,” a designation it reserves for states with strict governments and border disputes, CNBC has learned. [...]

Some team members within the maps division were ordered to urgently make changes to the location name and recategorize the U.S. from “non-sensitive” to “sensitive,” according to the internal correspondence. The changes were given a rare “P0” order, meaning it had the highest priority level and employees were immediately notified and instructed to drop what they were doing to work on it.

Google’s order states that the Gulf of America title change should be treated similar to the Persian Gulf, which in Arab countries is displayed on Google Maps as Arabian Gulf.

No word from Apple on how Apple Maps will handle this. (I’ve asked for comment; will update if I get an answer.) Re-renaming Denali back to Mount McKinley seems like a no-brainer for the maps to comply with. A country names its own mountains. If Obama could rename it, Trump can re-rename it.

The Gulf of Mexico, though, is an international body of water, and its name wasn’t even debated until Trump started talking about it a few weeks ago. Google (and perhaps Apple) having a policy where they simply follow the naming conventions of the GNIS seems not merely sensible but utterly uncontroversial ... until now.

There are three countries in the world that don’t use the metric system as their official units of measure: the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. I expect there will be fewer — namely, one — who go along with calling it the “Gulf of America”.

iOS 18.3 and MacOS 15.3 Are Both Out ★

Chance Miller at 9to5Mac has a good rundown of everything new in iOS 18.3, and his colleague Ryan Christoffel has a similar rundown for MacOS 15.3 all-five-vowels Sequoia. (See also: Michael Tsai.)

Jim Acosta, Reporter and Anchor Despised by Trump, Was Pushed Out of CNN ★

Jim Acosta, signing off from CNN for the final time:

It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant. I believe it is the job of the press to hold power to account — I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN, and I plan on doing all of that again in the future.

One final message: Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth, and hope.

President Trump, gloating on his very popular social network, Truth Social (current ranking in the App Store: not in the top 200 free downloads, #20 in Social Networking):

Wow, really good news! Jim Acosta, one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history, a major sleazebag, has been relegated by CNN Fake News to the Midnight hour, “Death Valley,” because of extraordinarily BAD RATINGS (and no talent!). Word is that he wants to QUIT, and that would be even better. Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up. Good luck Jim!

Here’s a recent example of Acosta’s exemplary work on CNN, interviewing Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee:

ACOSTA: Do you agree with Trump’s decision to pardon violent people?

REP. BURCHETT: If they were truly violent, no. But I don’t know that?

ACOSTA: What do you mean you don’t know? We’re showing the footage right now.

Oliver Darcy, the former CNN media reporter now working under his own umbrella at Status, has been all over the abject cowardice of CNN’s current chief executive, Mark Thompson:

The anchor, I’m told, signaled to associates in private conversations over the weekend that he intends to depart the network after its chief executive, Mark Thompson, booted him from the morning programming lineup — a move that conspicuously coincided with Donald Trump’s return to power.

CNN brass, as we first reported earlier this month, decided to strip Acosta of his 10am show, which he has anchored to great ratings success over the last 11 months, at times even seeing higher viewership than programs in the channel’s prime time bloc.

Acosta was instead offered the less-than-desirable option of anchoring a show from midnight until 2am ET.

CNN pitched the gig to Acosta as anchoring during prime time on the West Coast and said he could move to Los Angeles to host the program. But the reality is the program would have aired at a time in which cable news viewership is at its lowest levels.

Acosta’s morning ratings were high, not low. There’s no explanation for CNN forcing him to midnight other than appeasement of a president who spends his days obsessing over cable news.