Edible Apple

Apple yesterday posted a new job posting on its website looking for a Media Streaming Engineering Manager, prompting some to speculate that Apple is working feverishly to get its supposed cloud-based media streaming initiative off the ground as soon as possible.

“We are looking for an excellent engineering manager to join our team and help develop our media streaming engine for our iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows products,” the posting states in part.

The position is one within Apple’s Interactive Media Group, which is responsible for handling Apple’s software services that relate to audio and visual media. This encompasses local media playback, video on demand, and live streaming of multimedia content as well. Apple notes that the media engine in question is used “across Apple products such as QuickTime, Safari, and iTunes as well as 3rd party applications.”

It’s no secret that Apple has some important streaming initiatives in the pipeline. For starters, the next implementation of MobileMe is rumored to have a digital locker feature where users will reportedly be able to store purchased content in the cloud and potentially stream music (and maybe video?) back down to their iOS devices. Last we heard, Apple was busy securing licensing deals for such a service with the four major record labels and had already inked up contracts with two of them.

Also remember that Apple recently acquired the iCloud.com domain name for $4.6 million, suggesting Apple has big plans for whatever its iCloud service will pan out to be. There have also been reports that Apple’s digital locker service will first be offered for free with a $20/year service charge to be enacted later on.

Also of particular interest is that a job listing from Apple this past April indicated that the company was looking to hire a “Cloud Systems Software Engineer” to join a new cloud services team housed within the IMG group. The new team would be tasked with developing “the future of cloud services at Apple.”

via AppleInsider