Ahead of a rumored revamp of the Beats Music service it had obtained as part of its $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, Apple is now hiring people with a background in music and pop culture commentary, Music Ally reported Monday.
The company is looking to hire a London-based individual with “a specific expertise in music journalism” who must be a “seasoned writer with broad pop culture background.”
Talking to sources, 9to5Mac has put together a list of key experts Apple's hired and assigned to its rumored car thing, code-named Project Titan. The project is led by product design Vice President and former Ford executive, Steve Zadesky.
Another big hire is Johann Jungwirth, President & CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America.
He specializes in integrating smartphone functionality and developing advanced user experiences. All told, the Cupertino firm is reportedly is assembling a thousand-people team under Zadesky. Hundreds of them are from an automotive hardware background and were hired recently or around the time Tim Cook reportedly approved the project.
Here are some of them.
Apple is trying very hard to hire engineers away from Tesla Motors, says Elon Musk. Speaking with Bloomberg, the CEO claims that the Cupertino company is gunning hard for his employees, offering them as much as $250K signing bonuses and 60% salary increases.
This is interesting for a few reasons, one being that Apple was recently spotted driving unmarked minivans around the Bay Area with complex rooftop cameras. It's believed the vehicles are either working on a new Street View-like Maps feature, or a driverless system.
After appointing former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts its new Senior Vice President of Apple Retail, and having recently hired Burberry's social media executive Musa Tariq, Apple has now poached another high-profile executive from the British luxury fashion house.
As first discovered by Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac, Chester Chipperfield, the Vice President of Digital and Interactive Design at Burberry, has now joined the Cupertino firm.
Apple has hired former HP senior vice president John Solomon, according to a new report from Recode. A spokesperson for the handset-maker has confirmed the hire, but would not specify what Solomon's title or role would be with the company.
Recode's Arik Hesseldahl is hearing, though, that Solomon will be "central to Apple’s push to boost sales to big companies and government agencies with large technology budgets." He may also play a part in international sales of the Apple Watch.
A new job listing hints the Apple Maps team is working on improving community crowdsourcing, as well as better Siri and Passbook integration. First spotted by 9to5Mac, the listing calls for a 'Maps Community Client Software Engineer' to join the Cupertino firm's growing Maps group.
According to the position's description, the engineer will focus on "high level UI development of the 'Report a Problem' feature." They'll also be working on the frameworks and plugins that enable Maps to "integrate deeply and seamlessly with other applications" such as Siri and Passbook.
Apple has named Steve Dowling as its new head of public relations, reports Recode. Citing sources close to the company, the outlet says that after 6 months of searching for a replacement for Katie Cotton, Tim Cook offered Dowling the position last week and he accepted.
Dowling’s appointment is temporary as of right now, and Apple will continue to evaluate high profile candidates as they come up. But Recode points out that since Cook selected the long-term veteran himself to lead Apple's PR team, there's a good chance he could stay put.
Apple has hired Mary Carol Harris, former Director of Mobile at Visa Europe to help bring the NFC-based Apple Pay mobile payments system to Europe, PaymentEye reported Monday.
She's been with Visa since 2008 and previously headed up NFC at Telefónica, Spain's leading multinational by market cap and one of the largest private telecommunications company in the world.
Introduced alongside new iPhones earlier this month, Apple's mobile payments solution is scheduled to debut in the United States on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in October, and on the Apple Watch early next year, extending the service to over 200 million owners of the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s devices worldwide.
Harris has fourteen year experience in digital and mobile payments, including NFC technology utilized by the Apple Pay. Harris's LinkedIn profile lists her an employee of Apple Europe.
Coming soon after the introduction of its mobile payment system, Apple is hiring several high-profile tech executives from companies including American Express, Google, and PayPal. These new recruits are not only to help expand Apple Pay, the newly-announced method of paying for transactions both online and in retail stores, but to develop a loyalty system for Apple Pay.
This rewards program is reported as offering a free music, TV show, or app download to users after a transaction or number of transactions have been completed using Apple Pay. In this way, the merchant doesn't have to be affected at all, and Apple can work to promote its mobile payment system with an enticing loyalty system.
Vanity Fair is reporting this afternoon that world-famous designer Marc Newson will be joining Apple's design team. His exact role is unknown at this time, but he will be working closely with long-time friend Jony Ive, and his design team, to help shape future products.
The outlet says that Newson will continue to be based out of the United Kingdom, but he will frequently travel to Cupertino. The designer has in the past collaborated with Ive on design work for Apple, but today's announcement makes his input and participation official.
Revered technology journalist Anand Lal Shimpi, who founded the well-regarded hardware review website AnandTech seventeen years ago, will be joining Apple to work on undisclosed projects.
The hire was first reported on by Re/code on Sunday evening after Shimpi announced his departure from AnandTech in a blog post.
Just to clear up any confusion about the hire, a spokesperson for Apple has officially confirmed that Shimpi would be soon on the company's payroll, but stopped short of providing specifics as to what his new role at Apple might entail.
Despite its experience and notoriety, Pebble faces some serious competition in the smartwatch business. Major tech companies like Samsung and Google are stepping up their offerings, longtime watch veterans are getting involved, and who knows what Apple has planned.
With that in mind, Pebble has recruited some significant talent to help it forge its next generation of its smartwatches. According to a report from The Verge, the company has picked up two designers from LG, who were instrumental in creating webOS TV, as well as webOS...