Tag: google apps

The activities of applications from Google, Apple, and even Amazon are being examined.

American technology giants Google, Apple, and Amazon, as well as Gameloft, a game developer from France, are all being investigated by Italy for having allegedly participated in unfair commercial practices with respect to their mobile app marketplaces.

The allegation was made by the Italian antitrust and competition authority.

Now, the investigation into the practices is going to determine whether or not those four companies should be deemed to be misleading to customers when mobile app downloads are labeled as being free. This is specific to the applications that are marked as being free but which then require a player to have to pay a fee in order to be able to continue to use the apps beyond a certain point in the game or to unlock certain additional features.

The Italian authority feels that a free mobile app should never require a consumer to have to pay.

The antitrust watchdog released a statement that said that “Consumers could wrongly believe that the game is entirely free and, in any case, that they would know in advance the full costs of the game.” They added that “insufficient information seems to be provided to consumers about the settings needed to stop or limit the purchases within the app.”

Apple did not release a comment by the time of the writing of this article, but Gameloft issued a statement that it was conducting its own investigation into this issue, but had no comment beyond that. Neither Amazon nor Google could be immediately reached in order to obtain their response to this accusation.

An authority spokesperson explained that this investigation would likely take between seven and eight months to conduct and that if the companies are found to be guilty of the allegations, then the minimum fee that would be imposed on each would be €8.63 million.

This specific mobile app practice investigation follows closely on the heels of a previous one that was conducted by the European Commission earlier in 2014 which required companies to revise their rules for applications that can be downloaded for free but which then later require customers to pay for use.

A Chrome Remote Desktop application has now been released for a whole new device experience.

Google has now released a new mobile app that is meant to help to change the way that device users interact with the various different gadgets and computers that they own and use on a regular basis.

The application is meant to be installed on every computer from which an individual wants remote control.

To use it, the Chrome Remote Desktop mobile app must be installed on each computer from which he or she would like to be able to access his or her Android device, as well as on that gadget, itself. The application works itself into the Chrome browser. From the point that it has been installed, the app icon (which consists of two rectangles that overlap) appears on the browser’s app section. A PIN (chosen by the user) is then created when a connection is established.

This mobile app is meant to make it possible for Android devices to snatch needed files from desktops.

For instance, a person with an Android smartphone may be out on a sales call and suddenly needs access to a file that is located on a desktop computer that is located back at the office. Instead of having to request that the file be emailed from that machine – or to have to make the trip back to the physical computer location – it can be grabbed through the smartphone by way of this application.

The original Chrome Remote Desktop was unveiled by Google way back in 2011. At that time, it gave users remote access to a computer from other PCs or laptops. However, this new application will now provide that same type of access experience, only through an Android based smartphone or tablet, instead of relying exclusively on computers. An Apple iOS version of this same app is expected to be released in the near future.

It is likely that this mobile app will hold the greatest appeal to the business community as opposed to the individual consumer, however, there could be some applications for that function among that demographic, as well.