Apple Maps now calls Lake Ontario “Lake America” for U.S. users, following President Trump’s controversial name change.
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Apple has updated Apple Maps so that U.S. users see Lake Ontario labeled as Lake America, matching a change recorded in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System after President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming the lake for federal use.
The update appeared on the web version of Apple Maps on Tuesday and is rolling out more broadly. Apple said U.S. users will see “Lake America,” users in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario, and users elsewhere will see both names. That is the same approach Apple used after the Gulf of Mexico was renamed the Gulf of America on U.S. maps.
Google Maps made a similar change for U.S. users over the weekend. Both companies have pointed to official U.S. geographic naming records as the basis for what American users see.
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes. About 52 percent of its surface area lies in Canada, with the rest in New York. Trump’s order applies to U.S. federal usage and does not require Canada or international bodies to adopt the new name.
The lake rename follows last year’s Gulf of America change, which Apple and Google also reflected for U.S. users. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the president contacted Apple directly about aligning maps with the new official U.S. name.
Apple confirmed the Maps update tracks the Geographic Names Information System listing. For travelers, boaters, and anyone using Apple Maps in the United States, the lake now appears under the name adopted in U.S. federal records.
MacDailyNews Take: President Trump’s full Executive Order, “Honoring The American History Of The Great Lakes And Renaming Lake Ontario As Lake America,” can be read here.
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The post Apple Maps now displays ‘Lake America’ after President Trump’s executive order appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Trade talks between the US and Canada broke down last week, leading to a wave of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. US President Donald Trump also fell back on an old favorite to needle his opponents, signing an executive order on Thursday to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America."
The body of water, which straddles the US-Canada border, gave its name to the Canadian province rather than the other way around. Regardless, the US government now refers to this great lake as Lake America—or it will soon. Official US government maps have yet to be updated, but Google wasted no time adopting the new, Trumpian name.
Google began rolling out this change for US users on Saturday. The company posted a brief update on its Google Maps blog, noting that it follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for its maps, so the company implies it had no choice but to rename Lake Ontario in Google Maps, which is the most popular mapping platform in the US by a wide margin.
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