Neil Hughes
Just before Christmas, Apple posted two new job listings (1, 2) for the title of "iOS Software Engineer." While the two full-time positions discovered by AppleInsider have different job descriptions, both describe an emphasis on remote storage for data access.
"Apple is hiring outstanding operations engineers to deliver and manage the next generation of hosted infrastructure serving Apple products and services," one of the listings reads. The other says, "Apple is hiring experienced software engineers to work on distributed computing for data with non-trivial properties, and efficient online services for data access."
One of the positions also seeks a candidate who has "experience developing large-scale offline or online storage systems." Both positions are based at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus.
Some may view the hirings as further evidence of a cloud-based iTunes or other MobileMe-style services from Apple. The hirings could also be an effort by the company to bolster its new cloud-centric Apple TV, a device that also runs a version of the lightweight iOS operating system.
Numerous reports have indicated that Apple is interested in creating its own cloud-based iTunes service, which could allow users to stream their own music library from any Internet-connected device. It is believed that some of the functionality could come from Apple's acquisition of Lala.
There's also an e-mail allegedly sent by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs earlier this month, in which he purportedly said that his company's MobileMe service would "get a lot better in 2011." The $99-per-year Internet-based service is an existing cloud venture from Apple, but a major portion of it, Find My iPhone, became free with the release of iOS 4.2.
Apple's massive data center in North Carolina was set to launch this year, though Apple has not yet made any announcements for its potential use. But many have speculated that it will be used for cloud computing, perhaps via MobileMe, and streaming services, likely through iTunes.
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19 Comments
I believe Apple has been developing a new html5 / Javascript framework API including web user interface elements for its cloud. This will change web applications forever.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/20...e-develops.php
I expect some big cloud announcements involving the new data centers as well.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/t...ta-center-faq/
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/t...er-faq-part-2/
Time will tell.
I'm a fan of the word "non-trivial". I wonder what it means in this context... And I wonder if they ever look for someone with experience with data that has trivial properties...
Umm... wouldn't the new data center be useful for a software service that sells and tracks updates for your OS X software? Wouldn't they expect to get a lot of use for that? My guess is the Mac App Store will use the data center quite a bit!
They ought to start by improving the reliability and speed of the services that MM already offers.
I'm a fan of the word "non-trivial". I wonder what it means in this context... And I wonder if they ever look for someone with experience with data that has trivial properties...
It probably means that the data requires non-trivial computations on it to be useful. Plain old website pages would be an example of data with trivial properties: someone requests a page, you get it from disk, and shove it to the customer ASAP. No computation required, just shoveling bytes. Not necessarily trivial, but the engineering effort is in data storage and communication.
As I interpret it, some examples of "data with non-trivial properties" would be cartographic data that has to be rendered into custom tiles, movie data that has to be custom encrypted or scaled, search engines, and perhaps databases of some kind (although in that case Apple probably would have explicitly asked for someone with database expertise). Custom-compiled software would also fall under "data with non-trivial properties". Still, all this is just speculation, Apple still has plenty of room to surprise us.