Apple has purchased Poly9, a Quebec-based firm that specializes in web mapping. Poly9 has provided APIs for Apple in the past, in addition to Microsoft, Yahoo, MSNBC, NORAD and many others. The takeover has been an immediate and immense transition, as Poly9′s website has been removed and all employees that chose to stay with Apple have already moved to Cupertino and joined the rest of the Apple staff.

According to a recent report, a new Apple job listing is looking for an iPhone software engineer to help the current Maps team improve the iPhone’s built-in Maps application. Such a job listing is rather unusual for Apple, and hints at competition. Google has become a leader in the mapping sector, which has even been an essential component of the iPhone Maps application to date.

Today, Google released their free GPS guidance app for Android 2.0, called Navigation. But rumor, or CNET, has it that the app will make its way to iPhone at some point in the future. Many first time users guess, erroneously, that the iPhone has a GPS navigation app built in. This could fix that, especially if the way it makes it to the iPhone is to replace the Maps app.

Apple has made two important iPhone announcements in the past week, but both of them have gone rather unnoticed. The first is the complete revocation of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) by which iPhone developers were previously bound. Though there are still some limits on exactly what developers can disclose, Apple appears to have responded to the general hullabaloo that surrounded the original terms of the NDA.

The other big announcement is the seeding of a new build of the iPhone 2.2 software to developers. Aside from a few previously-disclosed updates, such as a reworked Safari interface, the only major functional improvements seem to be in the Maps application.

MacRumors has gotten word that the newest version of the beta for iPhone firmware 2.2 contains more than just bug fixes. The update was marked as “compatibility testing,” and we’re finally finding out just what Apple is testing the compatibility of.

Check out the new features after the break.

I’ve been jealous of the iPod nano’s ability to use the Nike + kit for some time now. Currently, the iPhone can’t use the peripheral that tracks your runs. But according to iphone.fr, an app is being developed to make use of the Nike + on the iPhone (and presumably the iPod touch), and will possibly cure my jealousy.

iphone.fr has some great leaked photos of the rumored application that look pretty tempting. Many more features are available straight from the app than are offered on the iPod nano. For instance, you can track your goals and progress with the app. It offers some great looking graphs, and keeps track of a lot of details.

Details and pics after the jump.