Apple Reportedly Asking Retail Staff for Help Fixing Maps

Apple's iOS 6 differs from previous iterations of the operating system in that it's the first version to ship with Apple's own mapping solution as opposed to Google's Google Maps. However, the release of Apple Maps hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. The company has since apologized for the bumpy start and says it's working on getting all the bugs and errors ironed out. It seems part of that plan involves Apple retail staff.

MacRumors reports that Apple is piloting a program that will see the company use its retail store employees aid in the improvement of Apple Maps. Word on the street is that staff at participating stores will manually submit corrections for their own areas.

"Details on the initiative remain unclear, but multiple sources have indicated that participating stores will dedicate 40 hours of staff time per week, distributed among a number of employees, to manually examine Apple's mapping data in their areas and submit corrections and improvements," writes MacRumors' Eric Slivka.

However, it's not just retail employees that have been tasked with fixing Apple Maps' problems. Last week, word got out that Apple's hoping to hire as many ex-Google Maps developers as possible. A source with connections from both teams told TechCrunch that Apple is aggressively trying to recruit software engineers that previously worked on the Google Maps application.

Last week, in an apology letter to users, CEO Tim Cook advised that people use alternative mapping applications, such as Bing Maps, or the web-based Google Maps, while things get straightened out with Apple Maps.

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