Did Apple just create the best Google ad campaign ever?

The Williamsburg Bridge in New York like you've never seen it, thanks to Apple's new map app.

Schadenfreude, anyone?

Nobody at Google is going to own up to this publicly, but Apple just handed Sergey, Larry, and the Android team the best marketing material they could ever hope for this fall.

With only hours to go before the iPhone 5 goes on sale in Asia, this would normally be an occasion for full-on celebration at Apple. Instead, it's been a tough 24 hours with iOS 6 users around the world posting evidence of myriad geographic mistakes and misplaced towns they've turned up in the mapping app for the iOS 6 operating system.

And in the zero-sum game that defines the smartphone war between Google and Apple, this was a moment to relish at the Googleplex. Of course, the official response from Google was low-key to the point of absolutely anodyne. To wit:

"We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system." But let's get real. This is part of a long and nasty rivalry -- remember Steve Jobs' charming threat to "go nuclear" after accusing Google of ripping off the iPhone's operating system. And if you're Google, today was all about karma given how Apple dumped Google's ma... [Read more]