Apple has put up a job post requesting a carrier technician familiar with the Sprint network, which has led many to believe they may be prepping to include Sprint in their ammunition chest of US carriers that support the iPhone.

Apple in a newly discovered job posting effectively gave away plans to make a Sprint iPhone. A position for a "carrier engineer" is being offered that would work out of Kansas City, Missouri, just a short distance from Sprint's Overland Park, Kansas headquarters. The recruit would be responsible for getting technical certification of devices in an area where Sprint is the only company with a major office.

This goes along with recent rumors of the iPhone 5 possibly including Sprint and T-Mobile as supported carriers, and also backs up Verizon's claims that the next iPhone will be a world phone supporting both CDMA and GSM networks.

You may recall Apple was seeking CDMA engineers in a similar job posting late last year, which eventually led to the Verizon iPhone being released on the network shortly after.

Do you think we'll be seeing the iPhone on Sprint anytime soon? Let us know in the comments!

[Stop it, AT&T via Electronista]

A little while ago TiPb asked if the Apple TV should be switched over to the iPhone OS, but what about the Mac? Coincidentally, a recent Apple job offering was discovered by ComputerWorld that hinted Apple was seriously considering pushing the iPhone OS from phone, MP3-player iPod touch, and tablet iPad to further devices:

The Core Platform team within Apple's Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms. The team is responsible for low level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms. The team consists of talented engineers with experience in hardware, firmware, IOKit drivers, security and platform architecture.

Now the New York Times blogs quotes a former Apple engineer musing about whether or not the iPhone OS could be implemented as a special layer on top of Mac OS X, the way Front Row or Dashboard work today. Push a button, the multi-touch iPhone OS screen zooms in, you flick and swipe and pinch though what you want to do, then tap and go back to your mouse and keyboard.

We're all fans of the iPhone OS here, do we want to see it everywhere else as well?

(ComputerWorld and New York Times blogs via MacRumors, twice)

While it is not anything new to see Apple job postings, TechCrunch spotted a listing for iWork that stood out from the crowd. It was a year ago that Apple opened up iWork.com to beta testing. It allows the sharing of iWork documents, spreadsheets and presentations with anyone with access to a modern web browser, on a Mac or PC. On December 22nd Apple posted that they are seeking an Applications Engineer for the iWork team and they hint that more than just online sharing might be in store for iWork:

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:

• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects

Reading this job listing one would get the impression Apple is looking to start a venture outside of the current iWork team, perhaps iWork in the cloud.

We haven't gotten a native iWork app for the iPhone or iPod touch yet. Would an HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript WebApp be a workable alternative? Would you want?

[Via TechCrunch]

Apple is looking to hire an experienced multimedia engineer for the iPhone and iPod touch, who's a passionate gamer and has shipped at least one "AAA" game in the last few years.

While first-party titles are a mainstay, and main point of attraction for dedicated gaming platforms like Nintendo (Mario), Microsoft (Halo), and Sony (Little Big Planet), so far all Apple has offered its "funnest iPod ever" is Texas Hold'em [$4.99 - iTunes link] back in 2007.

Just what could Apple be brewing now? Anyone imagine what a first-party Apple gaming franchise could be?

[via AppleInsider]

MacRumors has come across an Apple job listing for someone with:

excellent understanding and knowledge of processor architecture, specifically ARM and its vector unit NEON. Additional Intel SSE or PowerPC AltiVec is also very helpful. Being able to use processor micro-architecture to write and deliver fast routines is an essential attribute.

Neon, they remind us, is the brand name for the ARMv7 Cortex, the next-generation of the processor Apple uses in the current iPhone and iPod touch.

What's not yet clear is whether Apple will tap the multi-core potential of the ARMv7 Cortex to really shift multimedia performance into the mobile stratosphere. However, another tantalizing glimpse into the iPhone's potential future is revealed in a second job listing, this one for an engineer with:

Experience developing embedded image and video processing solutions. Experience developing embedded image and video analysis solutions. Experience working on real-time media and networking applications (WiFi and cellular networks).

Of course, we won't keep our fingers crossed too hard for those iTunes Replay, personalized podcast streaming, or remote DVR access patents Apple has teases us with in the past...

While "patent peeping" shows what Apple might be doing in the far flung future, the equally voyeuristic "job watching" gives a slightly better idea of what's going to be happening in the now and soon. With that in mind, following up on rumors of the next generation iPhone packing a 3.5 or 5 megapixel camera, it's nice to see Apple looking for a Camera Project Manager and Camera Design Engineer.

AppleiPhoneApps.com points out:

The most intriguing part of the job listing is that they mention integrating a camera into an iPod as well.

Could it simply be a boilerplate mixup, or is the iPod touch 3,1 (likely to debut this fall at the next iPod/Music Special Event) going to be packing it's own megapixel surprise?

So a new employment opportunity popped up at Apple's job listings the other day and Apple is looking for an experienced iPhone Security Engineer to create "proof of concept" attacks on current security mechanisms and provide risk analysis of potential security threats. Basically, Apple needs an iPhone Hacker to prevent future jailbreaks, unlocks, and security breaches.

So if any of you are good at what you do and want to work for the "good guys", go give it a try. Apple is trying to ramp up security to protect enterprises who are adopting iPhone 2.0 and more selfishly, protect their own App Store from competition ahem Cydia & Installer. Either way, Apple is getting serious about security and the iPhone.

What do you think?

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