Apple is working on exciting new features for iOS location services reveals a job posting for an iOS QA Location Engineer and the job posting obviously doesn’t mention what the feature are. A few Apple patent filings have surfaced recently that might offer a glimpse at what the company is planning and earlier this month a patent filing revealed that Apple is looking into improve Maps by implementing schematic maps that distort data to emphasize more important areas and deemphasize areas that are less important. The posting also requests applicants to have familiarity with typical sensors in mobile devices, namely GPS chips as well as navigation algorithms and suggesting that Apple might be looking into developing its own turn-by-turn navigation technology, similar to the one provided in Google Maps………………
A new job posting on Apple‘s site for the position of iOS QA Location Engineer further strengthens claims that Apple is working on greatly improving and expanding location based features on iOS devices and the in-built location based experience on iOS devices largely revolves around the bundled Maps app, which in turn heavily relies on Google‘s data.As further evidence that Apple plans to dramatically expand location services and navigation in a future version of iOS, a new job listing reveals the company is working on exciting new features for location-aware software on the iPhone. “You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iOS products, working on exciting new features for iOS location services,” the listing reads. “The successful candidate will complete both documented and adhoc testing to ensure high quality releases.” Specifically, a preferred candidate will have experience with GPS as well as navigation algorithms, suggesting that Apple could be working on a turn-by-turn navigation service similar t the free Google Maps Navigation. Apple has been looking to expand location services provided with iOS, the mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad, for some time. In fact, in April the company publicly admitted it is building a crowd-sourced traffic service for iPhone users that will arrive in the next couple of years. There are indications that Apple has been on a hiring spree in 2011 to improve its Maps application and location services. For example, in March, the company posted a number of listings related to developing location services for iOS, while another advertisement in March revealed the company is looking to radically improve Maps for the iPhone along with location services. While there has been no indication that Apple’s new crowd-sourced traffic service will arrive as part of iOS 5, location services will still play a significant role in the forthcoming software update for the iPhone and iPad. One major feature is the new Reminders application, which offers location-aware to-do lists which can issue an alert to a user when arriving at a specific pre-set location.
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