An Apple Maps desktop edition looks set to be unveiled, with a new job listing at the Cupertino-based company hinting at the expansion of the Google Maps rival.
Despite having got off to something of a rocky start, with the original Apple Maps service having been plagued by glitches and errors, the currently iPhone and iPad locked Apple Maps could be desktop bound as Apple looks to employ new developers for the service.
Although Apple has incorporated a desktop edition of its Maps software within the Mac looked OS X Mavericks operating system, to gate the service has not been made available to all desktop users.
"At Apple, we’re lucky to be working on projects that have the potential to change the world,” the company’s job listing understatedly reads. It adds: “We’re working on an exciting new system and need your help.”
The listing for a Maps based Web UI Designer goes on to state: “You would be joining a small team working on an advanced web platform upon which many of Apple’s future services will be based.”
Hunting for a developer with experience in HTML, CSS, Javascript and data exchange formats, it has been suggested that the new position marks a sign of Apple Maps becoming a truly multiplatform challenger to the likes of Google Maps and Bing Maps.
Although Apple has recently acquired startups Embark and HopStop to enhance its Maps software, the platform is still facing a number of issues, and this week Apple Maps forced an airport in Alaska to close.
Affecting Fairbanks International Airport in the remote American state, the latest Apple Maps glitch saw users directed across the airport’s runways. Amazingly two driver ended up on the active taxiway, causing the airport to close the runway and divert a number of jets, including Boeing 737s.
“We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this,” Melissa Osborn, Chief of Operations at the airport said of Apple following the Maps problems.
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Via: AppleInsider
