Apple Looking to Nearly Double Headcount of In-House Creative Design Team

Apple is reportedly looking to nearly double the size of its in-house creative design team, seeking to bolster its brand image with new advertising content from dedicated designers, according to a report from Ad Age.

 Longtime observers say after years of capping the size and type of internal creative talent, the tech giant is significantly expanding its in-house design group. One executive familiar with the company said the group could grow to 500 or 600 staffers from about 300...

It is now seeking talent to work on the brand itself and wants to bulk up its ranks of high-level creative directors and heads of innovation. As part of its recruiting efforts, Apple has approached senior creatives known for innovative work...

Read the full story here... Source: Mac Rumours

Apple retail employees encouraged to report Maps issues

With many thousands of staffers in the US alone, Apple's retail team has numbers on its side. It also has geographic diversity, with stores in 45 of the 50 states. Lots of people in lots of places who presumably carry lots of iOS devices -- just what you need if, perchance, you're looking to clean up some facepalm-worthy glitches in a shiny new mapping dataset.

Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore tweeted early this morning that store managers are asking employees to report Maps errors that they see in iOS 6 while they are out and about while working, on the clock. We've independently confirmed that a communication to that effect did go out to retail staff members (at least in the US and Canada), although we don't know precisely what it said.

MacRumors suggests that the map quest will be fairly formal and well-organized, with teams of employees dedicating up to 40 hours per week, cumulatively, to the wayfinding fixes; submitted data would go through a dedicated Apple portal rather than being bundled with general user feedback. Allen's initial report suggested the effort would be voluntary.

Of course, calling for fixes to map errors isn't purely the province of those who are being paid out of Cupertino's hoard of dragon gold: you too can help the cause by reporting errors and missing features in iOS 6's Maps app. Tapping the page curl on the lower right corner of the map reveals several controls including the "Report a Problem" button, which in turn gives you all the necessary feedback options.

[Source: TUAW]

Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

FORTUNE -- There's no shortage of embarrassing instances where Apple (AAPL) Maps "fell short" -- as Tim Cook's public apologyput it -- but on Friday Canadian reader John Garner pointed me to a particularly striking one.

Jason Matheson, a fellow Canadian with a knack for Mac programming, ran a quick Xcode script that compared the iPhone 5's map of Ontario with an official list of the province's cities and towns. Of 2,028 place names, Matheson reports, 400 were correct on Apple's Maps app, 389 were pretty close, 551 were clearly incorrect and 688 weren't on the map at all.

"There's no excuse," Garner writes. "Quality control on Apple Maps had to have been terrible to not get this right. Bluntly, Scott Forstall should be fired over this mess."

Garner is not alone in pointing the finger at Forstall, the senior vice president for iOS software and the Apple executive -- after Cook -- most often described as an heir apparent to Steve Jobs.

[Source: CNN Money - Read more there]