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Google ‘App Maker’ Low-Code Tool for Building Business Apps Now Generally Available

HIGHLIGHTS

App Maker is G Suite’s low-code application development environment
Google first launched the App Maker in November 2016
App building tool would allow developers access to 40 Google services

Google has made App Maker, its low-code tool for building business apps, generally available and open to all developers, a year and a half after the launch of its beta version.

“Today, we’re making App Maker generally available to help you rethink how your teams operate,” Geva Rechav, Product Manager, App Maker, wrote in a blog post late on Thursday.

“App Maker is G Suite’s low-code application development environment that makes it easy for teams to build custom apps to speed up workflows and make processes better,” Rechav added.

Google first launched the App Maker in November 2016 and made it available through its Early Adopter Program for G Suite Business at that time.

It was created with the idea of enabling line-of-business teams to create bigger apps, revamp company processes, resolve help desk tickets and more.

The new features include a built-in support for Cloud Structured Query Language (SQL), responsive templates, a drag-and-drop user interface design and declarative data modelling.

It would also come with Expanded OAuth Whitelisting controls to let administrators prevent apps from running without their approval.

In addition, the app building tool would allow developers access to 40 Google services including Gmail, Google Calendar, Sheets and other data sources, Rechav said.

The App Maker is now available to all G Suite Business and Enterprise customers, as well as G Suite for Education customers.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

TRAI, BEREC Sign Memorandum on Preserving, Promoting Net Neutrality Rules

Left to Right: BEREC OAM Laszlo Igneczi, TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma, BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl

HIGHLIGHTS

TRAI and BEREC met on Thursday in Poland
The two announced their common understanding of net neutrality
They also collaborated to develop effective regulations

Telecom regulators from India and the European Union (EU) met this week to announce their common understanding of the “building blocks of net neutralityrules”, and their intention to collaborate on regulations. Representatives of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronics Communication (BEREC) on Thursday in Sopat, Poland signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to “advocate for effective electronics communications regulation.” The two also released a “Joint Statement for the Open Internet”, that defined the heretofore mentioned building blocks.

The MoU was said to show the willingness of both sides to develop regular exchanges regarding the implementation and preservation of net neutrality rules. The regulators said they intend to “promote competitive markets, technological innovation, and value for consumers.”

In their joint statement, TRAI and BEREC listed what they consider to be the foundation of net neutrality rules, common to current frameworks of both India and EU. These included the enforcement of end users’ rights to send or receive information; the equal treatment of traffic; provision for reasonable traffic management if transparent and non-discriminatory; provision for commercial practices such as zero rating if they complement competition and promote an open Internet, and finally, the users’ right to detailed information on Internet providers, prices, as well as current traffic management measures.

The regulators may impose additional requirements allowed by their respective legislative frameworks on top of these building blocks, the joint statement added. Representing the two bodies were TRAI Chairman Dr. Ram Sewak Sharma and BEREC Chair Johannes Gungl. Commenting on the MoU, Gungl said, “Net neutrality is a vital principal and an open internet crucial for people around the globe. We are very happy to have TRAI as a partner to ensure a univocal protection of net neutrality principles for internet access services.”

R.S. Sharma said, “We consider that the internet will continue to be an enabler of growth and innovation for countries like India who can use technology to leapfrog to the next stage of development. Therefore, it is important that the internet is kept as an open and non-discriminatory platform. Our MoU with BEREC gives us an opportunity to not only work closely together in areas like net neutrality, but also to collaborate in areas where the EU has adopted a very effective regulatory framework like consumer protection, broadband development and promotion of NGA rollout.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

Apple Maps Recovers From Multi-Hour Outage Affecting Users Globally

HIGHLIGHTS

Apple Maps faced a multi-hour outage on Friday
The outage wasn’t limited to a specific region
Apple investigated and fixed the issue

Apple Maps on Friday faced a multi-hour outage that affected navigation and location search services for several hours. The outage wasn’t limited to a specific region. As per the system status available on Apple’s website, all users were affected by the issue that was resolved after over four hours of its emergence. The prime cause of the issue hasn’t been revealed formally. However, Apple said that it investigated and fixed the issues. Users weren’t notably able to access navigation or search for places through the mapping service in the duration of the outage. Some users even spotted its impact on third-party apps, including weather apps, using Apple’s location services.

The system status page on Apple’s site shows that the Maps Routing & Navigation and Maps Search services were down between 6:18pm and 10:35pm IST. While the company didn’t specify the issue, it mentioned on the status logs that all users were affected by the problem.

As folks at Apple Insider report, users on Apple Maps weren’t able to find a route as the app shows a warning message that reads, “Directions Not Available, Route information is not available at the movement.” The Apple Maps app was also showing errors while searching any locations. The Verge notes that the app was showing the error “No Results Found” after attempting to load search results for about 30 seconds before timing out. Furthermore, weather apps on iOS weren’t able to show real-time weather information due to the limited access to Apple’s location services.

Apart from iOS devices, the outage was impacting location-based experiences on Apple Watch and in-dash systems powered by Apple’s CarPlay. The issue apparently affected the Maps Routing & Navigation and Maps Search services, while Maps Display and Maps Traffic services didn’t face any issue.

Launched in September 2012, Apple Maps is competing against services such as Google Maps and Here. Apple recently revealed that it has started using drones to improve its mapping service.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

Apple CEO Says Requested Zero Personal Data From Facebook

Apple neither requested any personal data from Facebook nor did it receive any, Apple CEO Tim Cooksaid while responding to a New York Times report that claimed that the social networking giant allowed about 60 device makers, including Apple and Samsung, to access personal information of users and their friends.

“We’ve never been in the data business,” Cook told National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday during the company’s annual conference for developers in San Jose, California.

“The things mentioned in the Times article about relationship statuses and all these kinds of stuff, this is so foreign to us, and not data that we have ever received at all or requested – zero,” Cook was quoted as saying.

Even before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, Facebook had data-sharing partnerships with the device makers, The New York Times report said citing company officials, adding that most of the deals remain in effect.

The deals raise concerns about the company’s privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it added.

“What we did was we integrated the ability to share in the operating system, make it simple to share a photo and that sort of thing,” Cook added.

“So it’s a convenience for the user. We weren’t in the data business. We’ve never been in the data business,” he said.

Facebook is already under scrutiny after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal revealed in March how the political consultancy firm had misused data of millions of Facebook users.

The social network, however, defended on Sunday the pacts with the device makers saying that these partnerships do not raise privacy concerns.

Facebook said that contrary to claims by The New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends.

“We are not aware of any abuse by these companies,” Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Vice President of Product Partnerships, said in a statement.

The social network added that the device partnerships are very different from the public APIs used by third-party developers who used the Facebook information people shared with them to build completely new experiences.

Facebook said that it had already ended 22 of the device partnerships.

A CNET report on Monday said that Senator John Thune, head of the US Senate Commerce Committee, said his committee “will be sending Facebook a letter seeking additional information” about issues including transparency and privacy risks.

“We look forward to addressing any questions the Commerce Committee may have,” a Facebook spokesman was quoted as saying.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]