After pressure from four U.S. senators, Apple Inc. has said it will start rejecting iPhone applications that tip drivers off about police checkpoints for drunken driving.
Apple updated its app developer guidelines Wednesday to exclude such apps. On Thursday, some DUI apps were still available in the App Store, but Apple usually gives developers a chance to update their apps so they can conform to the new guidelines before booting them.
The apps often combine warnings about DUI checkpoints with warnings about speed traps and red-light cameras. Users of the applications help create the warnings by registering the locations.
An Apple spokesman had no comment on the change in the guidelines, and wouldn't say why the change was made.
Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) asked Apple, Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, and Google Inc. to remove DUI-avoidance apps in March. RIM complied, but Google refused.
Google runs an application store for phones that use its Android software. The company places far fewer restrictions on application developers than Apple does.
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Showing posts with label Smartphone App. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smartphone App. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Smartphone app helps drunk drivers avoid police
More than 10,000 Americans die in drunk driving crashes every year. Now there are smartphone applications that could help drunk drivers avoid the law. Now lawmakers are fighting back, trying to get rid of the apps.
Mobile apps like Phantom Alert, Trapster and iRadar warn drivers of speed traps, red light cameras and D.U.I. checkpoints.
Some say drivers are using these apps to side-step the law and avoid speed traps and D.U.I. checkpoints. Others, like Colorado law enforcement don’t see it that way.
“We certainly make no secret to when we are going to do [checkpoints] and where we are doing to do them,” says Steve Davis, PIO for the Lakewood Police Department. “We never operate checkpoints secretively we want people to know we are out there doing this.”
Critics say these tactics are not stopping drunk drivers but instead giving them a way out.
“You shouldn`t be driving drunk. Why should you be protected to know where they are at?” says smartphone user, Erica Ruseck.
“You can look at your phone and say, oh we can`t go that way we gotta go this way,” adds driver, Mark Easter. “They are just avoiding the consequences."
A group of Senators sent a later to smartphone companies asking to ban the apps. Blackberry’s maker, Research In Motion agreed to pull the apps. Google and Apple haven’t responded.
Lakewood police say the apps aren’t the problem.
“There`s always going to be some way people are trying to circumvent the D.U.I. checkpoint and we probably miss some people,” says PIO Davis.
Both Research In Motion and Apple reportedly claim their apps are not designed to help drunk drivers avoid getting caught. Rather, they’re made to get drivers to think twice about drunk driving and remind them how easy it is to get caught.
SOURCE
Mobile apps like Phantom Alert, Trapster and iRadar warn drivers of speed traps, red light cameras and D.U.I. checkpoints.
Some say drivers are using these apps to side-step the law and avoid speed traps and D.U.I. checkpoints. Others, like Colorado law enforcement don’t see it that way.
“We certainly make no secret to when we are going to do [checkpoints] and where we are doing to do them,” says Steve Davis, PIO for the Lakewood Police Department. “We never operate checkpoints secretively we want people to know we are out there doing this.”
Critics say these tactics are not stopping drunk drivers but instead giving them a way out.
“You shouldn`t be driving drunk. Why should you be protected to know where they are at?” says smartphone user, Erica Ruseck.
“You can look at your phone and say, oh we can`t go that way we gotta go this way,” adds driver, Mark Easter. “They are just avoiding the consequences."
A group of Senators sent a later to smartphone companies asking to ban the apps. Blackberry’s maker, Research In Motion agreed to pull the apps. Google and Apple haven’t responded.
Lakewood police say the apps aren’t the problem.
“There`s always going to be some way people are trying to circumvent the D.U.I. checkpoint and we probably miss some people,” says PIO Davis.
Both Research In Motion and Apple reportedly claim their apps are not designed to help drunk drivers avoid getting caught. Rather, they’re made to get drivers to think twice about drunk driving and remind them how easy it is to get caught.
SOURCE
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