
Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers days before launch - cpeterso
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/21/apple_hiring_ios_maps_engineers/
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SquareWheel
I don't care for the title. Clearly these spots aren't for engineers to come
on board and fix maps in a couple days, they are there for future development.
"Scrambled" implies an imminent deadline.

~~~
CamperBob2
Another explanation is that a substantial portion of their Maps team either
walked out or was fired just prior to launch, and must now be replaced.

What does Fr. Occam say?

Exactly the same thing happened with Antennagate.

~~~
nirvana
Or that, once shipping a piece of software, the team was ready to re-staff for
the next major release, coming in a year.

You don't add engineers on at the end but at the beginning.

There was no mass firing for "Antennagate" in fact there was no
"antennagate"... like this BS maps "issue" Antennagate was just a bunch of
apple haters bashing the company.

The reality is, the iOS maps app is already far better than google maps around
here. Apple has terrain data and correct streets, google doesn't even know
this major city exists (becuase it isn't in the US or europe.)

~~~
rustynails
Antenna gate wasn't real? I can reproduce the antenna fault with a significant
drop in signal strength with one pinkie.

I classify that as a major fault. For a premium product, that's unacceptable.

~~~
batista
> _Antenna gate wasn't real? I can reproduce the antenna fault with a
> significant drop in signal strength with one pinkie. I classify that as a
> major fault. For a premium product, that's unacceptable._

Really? Because tens (hundreds) of millions of people found it _totally
acceptable_ and made that phone the top selling phone.

Not to mention that they found that the "issue" was a non issue in practice.

~~~
blinkingled
I know at least 3 friends of mine that bought the 4 on AT&T and suffered
through several dropped calls - they even used my Moto once and Nexus the
other time to complete their calls at the same place on the same carrier.

So Antennagate was real, iPhone <5 dropped more calls than any other phone on
AT&T. That's the disingenuous part about how Steve handled Antennagate - sure
competitors dropped bars when holding hand over their antennas but the
competitors antennas weren't badly designed such that they would be easily
covered while holding the phone and their phones didn't drop as many calls.

People decided to live with it but 2 out of my 3 friends are on non-iPhones as
their work doesn't afford them dropped calls.

~~~
batista
Well, I, for one, still have an iPhone 4. Never updated on 4s (or 5). Never
had any reception problems that I can recall (i.e not getting through a call).

It might be that I get a good signal where I live and work (and in 2 different
countries, neither of which is the states). So, YMMV.

But, I do remember iPhone 4 owners actually reporting LESS dropped calls than
iPhone 3GS:

"iPhone 4 owners are reporting fewer dropped calls than iPhone 3GS owners":

[http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/04/report-iphone-4-owners-
report...](http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/04/report-iphone-4-owners-report-fewer-
dropped-calls-than-iphone-3/)

And after the media noise blew out, there weren't any complains about it --as
if the forums and people forgot all about it--, just people using their
phones.

And AT&T could be to blame, not the iPhone. For:

""According to a March study by ChangeWave Research, AT&T is the reason the
iPhone drops calls. Users of the Verizon iPhone 4 reported a 1.8% dropped-call
rate, the same rate as users of other Verizon phones. Users of the AT&T iPhone
4 reported a 4.8% dropped-call rate, 2.7 times the rate of Verizon iPhone
users.""

------
brudgers
The advertisements for employees (whether there were or will be any actual
hires is unknown) is Apple's way of controlling the narrative in a case where
they have long known they would be shipping an inferior product.

Every update to maps is now newsworthy, and every piece will be themed "look
at all these improvements." Part of me, the cynical part, suspects that the
earlier copyright issue with OpenStreetMaps was deliberate and intended to
positively brand the product with the FOSS community by drawing attention to
their use of open source. It was TomTom that they threw under the bus this
week.

~~~
logn
TomTom got thrown under the bus and there were so many other players involved
in making the failure. There are tens of companies that contributed to the
data all of whom have gotten little exposure/blame.

------
thomasd
I don't know how Apple is going to catch up with Google, when Google has about
7100 people working on Google Maps

[http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-has-7000-fewer-
people-w...](http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-has-7000-fewer-people-
working-on-maps-than-
google-2012-9?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Falleyinsider%2Fsilicon_alley_insider+%28Silicon+Alley+Insider%29)

------
Zenst
Maybe Apple should recruit these two chaps:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZ56qzXltU>

There again maybe they did.

But in all fairness, Apple have stated it will get better and in that
everybody believes them because I doubt it could get much worse, especialy
given pictures like this:
[https://plus.google.com/u/0/105902573976541607678/posts/iTjb...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/105902573976541607678/posts/iTjbqvvNdgV)

On the plus side, they haven't found anything to realy moan about the phone,
so there had to be something for the press to complain about. A company new to
maps release a map that they can update as they go along and make it better,
oh the shock, what was google maps like on initial beta, I know last year
google maps got me lost and upon one occacion traveling thru a brick wall,
bless. It'll get better and or there will be something new to complain about.
Poor Apple, were is RIM when you need them :D.

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poundy
This reminds me of how they "scrambled" to hire antenna engineers and similar
job posts with iPhone 4 launch!

------
Zarathust
As a "Steve Jobs would", I'm pretty sure that not launching half baked
products was very high in his priority list

~~~
taligent
Why does this nonsense keep being perpetuated on here.

Steve Jobs routinely launched products that were less than perfect. Hence his
quote, "real artists ship".

~~~
topbanana
Can you point to something (in the iOS line) that was as broken as this? I
can't think of anything

~~~
bruceboughton
The original iPhone didn't have copy/paste (and it was right to ship it).

~~~
akandiah
But it didn't break any existing functionality did it? There just wasn't any!

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nextstep
Why was this article written in pseudo-textspeak? Is that the style that
guardian uses for technology news now?

~~~
bapbap
It's written for The Register which has a much more _relaxed_ reporting style.

~~~
kapowaz
If by ‘relaxed’ you mean ‘tabloid’, sure. It seems to be a requirement that
any Register article about Apple products has to be dismissive towards people
who use them (even though that is most people who might read the article these
days):

> fanbois and fangrrls across the world branded the new satnav-like service as
> rubbish

1\. needlessly trollsome, 2. alludes to them being irrational supporters, and
yet… these are the people being critical? Maybe they're not irrational
fanatics after all…?

------
SpikeDad
Cheesus H Crust. Apple has leaped over years of Google development in 1
release and people are complaining? Apple hate has no relationship to reality.

