Google removes an undocumented App Ops control panel from its latest release, Android 4.4.2, that had let users choose which app permissions to enable. Google Barge: 10 Informative Images (click image for larger view) Google, in its Android 4.4.2 release every week ago, removed an undocumented, experimental privacy control panel that were released inadvertently in July as part Android 4.3. The control panel, called App Ops, allowed Android users to disclaim the provision of selected permissions in an app. Though it was not accessible to users without some technical knowledge, it was immediately noticed and made available through Android apps that provided shortcuts to the hidden interface. App Ops turns Android’s permission model on its head. As opposed to allowing the developer to offer an inventory of requested (and customarily necessary) permissions to the user for all-or-nothing approval, the control panel allowed users to disable certain permissions while leaving others in place. In a blog post Wednesday, Peter Eckersley, technical projects director on the Electronic... Read More »

Like VMware, Microsoft looks to a hard and fast of partners to construct out Azure-compatible cloud services and offer them on a regional basis. VMware Vs. Microsoft: 8 Cloud Battle Lines (click image for larger view and for slideshow) Microsoft has began to build a global chain of Azure datacenters, with two in Europe, five in Asia, and 3 within the US. Now it’s partnering with 25 third parties to assist fill in one of the most gaps. Microsoft is equipping these third parties its Cloud OS Network with the newest Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, and Azure Pack, which might be Azure cloud functions running on Windows Server. The partners are launching their very own Azure-like cloud services. In many cases, Microsoft is partnering with a regional merchant, allowing a eu company to maintain its citizens’ data inside its own boundaries. One example is TeleComputing in Oslo, Norway, which has two datacenters in that country and two more in Sweden. In other cases,... Read More »

Low-risk, incremental improvements aren’t innovation, but that’s where most companies focus, Accenture finds. Innovation is thrilling when it actually happens in a business, but all too often it is the emptiest of buzzwords. Last fall, our annual InformationWeek 500 rankings highlighted IT innovators just like the Gap, UPS, Dish, and residential Depot which have turned great ideas into action using cloud services, data analytics, collaboration tools, and/or mobile apps. It’s no small feat. But these are the exceptions. What’s much more likely is an uninspiring parade of low-risk, incremental improvements. That is the rather dreary conclusion of an Accenture study of greater than 500 executives from companies with greater than $100 million of annual revenue. [An inflexible IT strategy could break what you are promoting. Read: IT’s Famous Last Words: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.] If an organization invests in a disruptive product or business model and the returns are disappointing, the pursuit of “a higher big thing” dries up fast, and so... Read More »

Going far beyond Jeopardy, IBM’s favorite child is rounding up friends to make intelligent apps proliferate, in healthcare and other fields.

Appointment scheduling, imaging apps, or even a competing medical billing service will tap cloud service. Remote Patient Monitoring: 9 Promising Technologies (click image for larger view) Drchrono, the electronic health records cloud service best known for its iPad app, is making its application programming interface freely available, and is likewise introducing a medical “apps store.” To call it an app store is slightly grandiose — it’s really only a listing of compatible apps and cloud services, with accompanying screenshots — but Drchrono says it should vet the apps in keeping with the standard in their technology and their fit with its own services. Philosophically, in any case, the approach mirrors that of the app store for the iPhone and iPad, said Daniel Kivatinos, COO and cofounder of Drchrono. “i believe what Apple did is brilliant. They said anyone can build apps for the iPhone, but we are going to review them.” Developers must fill out an API access request form, but “the API itself, we’ll... Read More »