Search Results for: google

Apple and Apple are under pressure from Senator Charles Schumer to remove smartphone apps that alert users to the locations of nearby police DUI checkpoints, according to “PC World” (http://macte.ch/qoP6d).

These apps typically use your device’s GPS capabilities to alert you to nearby speed traps, red light traffic cameras, and DUI checkpoints from a database of user-generated locations. Schumer asked Apple and Google to consider whether these apps violate the companies’ respective terms of service by facilitating illegal activity, notes “PC World.”

U.S. lawmakers considering new privacy laws “scolded” Apple and Google Tuesday for not doing enough to guard mobile device users’ location data, despite executives’ assertions that they don’t abuse the information, reports “Reuters” (http://macte.ch/m9bOS).

“I have serious doubts about whether those rights are being respected in law or in practice,” Democratic Senator Al Franken said at a hearing of a new subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.

“I’m pleased that Apple and Google have confirmed that they’ll be sending representatives to testify at my upcoming hearing on mobile technology and privacy,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said in a statement.

Franken, who chairs a new Senate privacy panel, added that the hearing was a “first step” in Congressional inquiries whether federal laws have kept up with the surge in mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, notes “InfoWorld.”

Appcelerator (http://www.appcelerator.com) — a mobile cloud platform for developing native mobile, desktop, and tablet applications using web technologies, and industry-leading analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC) — have announced results from a joint survey of more than 2,700 Appcelerator developers around the world.