“Apple is suddenly looking to hire a bunch of map tech experts,” Lora Kolodny reports for CNBC. “More than 70 job listings went live in the past month on the company’s site relating to its maps team, or requiring skills around things like: ‘geospatial information services,’ ‘navigational aids’ and ‘fleet management.’ That’s a lot of hiring around one discipline even for a juggernaut like Apple.”
“Adding more map-tech talent to its ranks won’t just help the company make Apple Maps more competitive with Google Maps. The new hires could also help Apple deliver on two big promises: to become an important player in augmented reality and ‘autonomous systems,'” Kolodny reports. “Improving and developing new map capabilities could also, obviously, help Apple finally come out with ‘core technology’ for the self-driving car market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: During Apple’s conference call with analysts on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the following:
In terms of autonomous systems, what we’ve said is that we are very focused on autonomous systems from a core technology point of view. We do have a large project going and are making a big investment in this. From our point of view, autonomy is the mother of all AI projects. And the autonomous systems can be used in a variety of ways and a vehicle is only one. But there are many different areas of it and I don’t want to go any further with that…
I could not be more excited about AR and what we’re seeing with ARKit in the early going… just take a look at what’s already on the web in terms of what people are doing and it is all over the place. From entertainment to gaming, I’ve seen what I would call more small business solutions. I’ve seen consumer solutions. I’ve seen enterprise solutions. I think AR is big and profound and this is one of those huge things that we’ll look back at and marvel on the start of it.
So I think that customers are going to see it in a variety of ways. Enterprise takes a little longer sometimes to get going. But I can already tell you there’s lots of excitement in there. And I think we’ll start to see some applications there as well. And it feels great to get this thing going at a level that can get all of the developers behind it, so I couldn’t be more excited about it.
There was an Apple maps car roaming around Warren County NJ this week and this is a low density area
I saw an Apple Maps vehicle roaming a neighborhood in Beaverton OR last week, too.
Ditto in Rockport, MA, on Saturday
Considering how bad Apple maps are and how poor it’s suggested routing is they need all the help they can get.
There’s always one troll who sadly sets the trend.
Indeed. So please refrain from following suit.
My take: Apple Maps lost its opportunity to lead the way in mapping. There are better options out there. The problems are much deeper than just mapping data. The speed, interface, and features all suck. Wake me up when you can plot multiple waypoint routes. You know, like you could do on Mapquest 20 years ago.
Aw, come on. You know that you are living in the past, right? Oh, and here’s more useful news for you: Scott Forstall, the architect of iPhone software which includes Apple Maps is gone.
You must not be using the same Apple Maps I am. I was a long time Waze user and former area editor. I eventually gave up on Waze because some times the maps are unreadable due to all the information bubbles which cluster along big city highways with lots of exits.
We tend to remember those experiences which support our beliefs about something. Mapping software is no different. Conducting extensive, objective comparisons is very difficult, since most of us travel in the same areas from day to day.
All of the map software has problems. Apple Maps finds some addresses that Google Maps, Mapquest, and Waze cannot. But each of these has areas where they best Apple Maps
What is wrong with you? MDN should start a poll. Who is more annoying? DavGreg or Botty?
It all depends on where you live. In the USA, EU, Australia (one presumes) Apple maps is great and works fine.
In other areas where Apple doesn’t have a significant presence? Like Asia where Android is dominant? Let’s just say Waze beats both Google and Apple Maps. (Yes I know Google owns Waze).
Apple Maps has made great strides since it debuted, but the improvements seem to be focused mainly on the developed countries. I wouldn’t use Waze in Australia etc. as it’s not as strong there. Less users, less real time data.
In business I expect big things will develop with IBM and its Watson related technology, they are already working on various business related AR projects which are made to work with Apples strategy. That agreement Apple signed with them is eventually going to be a massive influencer into the business markets for Apple well beyond even their present growing inroads.
I was saddened when a so-called “social justice warrior” friend chose to get hired by a Pentagon contractor rather than Apple to work on its maps. Both recruited this sharp, intelligent, and morally sound individual. I valued her for several reasons: We go on bike rides; She introduces me to plants; She convinced me to get a new bike. She is high-minded.
Apple offered to take her in if at some point she changed her mind; That’s how good at spatial data gathering she is in the field of plant sciences and surface and weather dynamics.
I think that this moment is her test in life, whether she’ll stick with what I think is the relatively bad side or whether she’s going to Apple, the good side.
St. Michael waits with a scale at the heavenly gates, according to Christian mythology. He weighs the soul against a feather. He allows the sould to enter if it’s lighter than that feather but, if not, well…. When one dies, a story goes, the person is shown two rooms; One room contains bad deeds while the other contains good deeds. The person’s afterlife is determined by the quantity and quality of good and bad deeds accumulated in those two rooms.
I’m not going to lose any sleep over your SJW friend. SJWs are absolutely the most intolerant people on the planet. Period. Don’t believe me? Just look at the backlash William Shatner received when he tweeted that SJWs are not the same as the liberal humanist movement of the 60’s/70s; hundreds of responses from the entire SJW community were swift and damning: “Just die already”, “You’ve proven that you obviously have Alzheiemer’s”, “Nobody will ever listen to you again”, etc. And all this because someone (William Shatner, himself a liberal) dared to disagree with an SJW view. Wow.
As for your rant on Christianity: try to comment on something when you have a decent understanding of it. To Christians, accepting Jesus as your personal savior and receiving the Holy Spirit is the only way to enter heaven.
Please, Jesus would not want you to sleep on your job; Sleep afterward.
William Shatner’s story is not in the Bible so it’s not scriptural.
On a secular level, your faulty premise that Shatner represents all SJWs throws everything else you say in your comment into suspicion.
“To Christians, accepting Jesus as your personal savior and receiving the Holy Spirit is the only way to enter heaven.”
NO.
To SOME christians, this is so. Of course, they think they are the only true christians.
I hope Scott Forstall is one of the applicants
I had Tom Tom on a Palm Treo, navigated a Navy ship with a sextant in the in the 70’s, and have at least 6 navigation apps on my phone and iPads.
I use Apple Maps a lot, but here’s what I think it needs.
1. allow navigation to intermediate waypoints between the start and end points. even old Tom Tom had this in the planning mode. save routes so you can compare, contrast, plan and share
2. allow definition of multiple points that all appear on the map at the same time and allow navigation to them. I drop pins, define them and then they disappear.
3. needed this today. Like ARCVIEW, allow the dragging of a line on the map and showing its distance, maybe even its direction.
I do like the coordination between Contacts and Apple Map — the main reason I use it. But I’d like to make a multi-segment route using the Contact or defined pin locations
4. SIRI and Maps need to work better together. Like when you ask for a restaurant while driving down the interstate it finds ones in front of you, not behind. DUH! Or, “navigate me to home via [point A]”
5. Allow caching of maps for when there is no cell coverage, like MotionXGPS. Again, even good ol’ Tom Tom can get you where you need to go without cell coverage.
6. I would like an option to keep North up on the map, even when using turn by turn. Just the old navigator in me. To me, going West is moving to the left on a map, not up. Other apps provide this option.
7. Provide for a compass or a read out on the map that shows your course and speed. At least have a arrow that shows which way you are going, not a pulsing ball. Again, even TomTom did that and it helps.
Excellent list.
I would only add: At a certain zoom level the only roads highlighted nicely are interstates and state highways. Notice the other roads are a super thin and light, very hard to see. I would increase the weight of the lines and darken the color …
Apple is hiring Perl coders for its maps.
Not my profession, so it means nothing to me. But thanks anyway …
Bravo All Y’All!
Not my field, but I’m always impressed when someone in another field brainstorms their topic to the nth degree! 😎