Google Launches Private Android App Stores 86
Trailrunner7 writes "Malicious apps have emerged as perhaps the most serious threat to mobile devices at the moment, and the major players, such as Apple and Google, have tried several different methods of preventing them from getting into their app stores and into the hands of users. Now, Google is taking one more step with the launch of a new service called the Private Channel for Google Apps, which gives enterprises and other organizations the ability to create private app stores and control the apps their users can download. Private Channel is essentially a way for organizations to stand up their own miniature app stores inside of Google Play--the main app store for Android devices--and publish apps to it. That gives these organizations the ability to point their users directly to the apps they want users to download for their Android devices. The new service will include some of the security features built into Google Play, most notably the anti-malware system and the ability to authenticate users."
In other news they Axe the Free Google Apps. (Score:3, Informative)
Google Apps Free Edition
Starting on December 6, 2012, Google will no longer offer new accounts for the free edition of Google Apps. Google Apps free edition is sometimes referred to as "Standard Edition."
If you already have the free edition, you can continue to use it for free. This change has no impact on existing users of the free edition.
Please see the Google Enterprise Blog for additional details.
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com.au/ [blogspot.com.au]
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?answer=2855120 [google.com]
So like BlackBerry but not as sophisticated (Score:5, Informative)
So what? (Score:1, Informative)
I'm not sure why this is interesting. Apple has offered companies a way to upload their own private apps to IOS for years. Slightly different to this mechanism, but the same result.
Re:Watch out Google, Facebook might sue! (Score:5, Informative)
Plenty on AliExpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=android+mini+pc&catId=0&manual=y [aliexpress.com]
Re:EFF / FSF Channel? (Score:5, Informative)
F-Droid [f-droid.org] is almost that "FSF channel": only free software built from source. Apps that spy on you are marked as such and aren't shown by default.
(Disclosure: I contributed translations to the project.)
Re:Cool idea... (Score:4, Informative)