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Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

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Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#291

Post by mancerayder »

This story (and from different outlets) is now all over the press, which is great.

Can I add another qualm in a similar vein? It involves Samsung TV's. I'm convinced Samsung is increasingly mean.

I only use streaming services (Netflix, et. al.), and for the past year I've been pretty pleased with "Smart TV" functionality, which makes life easy. That is, until the following happened. After a recent update, the TV:

* Now starts up automatically onto some broadcast TV station, I think it's some sports station. There is No Way to turn this off, because it's not an app, but a new functionality built into the TV. By "broadcast TV" I don't mean the old-school antenna or cable, I mean the equivalent of live broadcast TV streaming via the Internet. If I turn the TV off, for example, while the YouTube app is up, when it turns back on, I get that streaming broadcast crap again.

* The broadcast crap has commercials, and sound on.

* Ads have ALSO popped up in place of one of the "buttons" in the Apps menu.

You're not enraged yet? Let me save the best for last:

* When using the voice functionality on the remote during a search (either on YouTube or someplace), a popup jumped up telling me that I needed to accept THREE terms and conditions (three checkmarks), and click OK, or I could not use the voice functionality. The TOC involved aggregating my searches and data for ad purposes, and it said something about other Samsung devices. Luckily, I don't own any.

I went back to plugging my PC into the TV.

Folks, please do not buy any Samsung products.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#292

Post by burtonator »

LeonM wrote: post #20

It's not just FB, my Samsung S9 came preloaded with 'undeletable' Microsoft apps too. But this is nothing new, Samsung phones have came preloaded with bloat since forever. When buying a new phone I always spend some time deleting all Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook and carrier related apps. Yes, you can delete 'undeletable' apps through ADB, without rooting the device. pm uninstall -k --user 0

I'm done with all Samsung products until they get their shit together.

- no upgrades - flat out horrible bugs that are never fixed - bloatware that you can't remove - shoving their apps down my throat.

Just about to buy a new TV and Samsung is explicitly excluded. Next phone won't be a Samsung either. I'm done.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#293

Post by untog »

vetinari wrote: post #231
untog wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both. Why does Android have undeletable apps anyway?

> Why does Android have undeletable apps anyway? It was explained only zillion times, but I will try one more: In android, you have storage in two partitions: /system and /data. /system is read-only, this is where anything that is shipped with phone is stored. Outside of system updates, it is not being touched. /data is, where user data, installed applications, configuration, etc. is stored. To factory reset the phon…

What you're saying is that Android has undeletable apps because Android was created in such a way that it allows undeletable apps. Which is circular logic.

And the issue here is pretty clearly that users have to resort to adb to disable these apps. Why does Android force this? There is no reason, it could easily be built into the Android GUI.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#294

Post by judge2020 »

simulate wrote: post #279
Someone1234 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't really accurate, you're just defining "crapware" is such a way so that Google's apps don't qualify. That's a double standard. Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, Play Music, Play Movies, Play Games, Play Books, Duo, Google+, and YouTube could all be called as crapware since they aren't required for core phone functions (and upsell for-profit services). I guess it is somewhat a discussion what we mean by "c…

This is identical to how all other phone OS vendors work where the OS vendor pre-installs apps as part of their ecosystem. If you consider them crapware, then there are no major mobile OS vendors who don't install crapware. iPhone preinstalls 42 apps, not all of which can be easily deleted: App Store, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Clock, Compass, Contacts, FaceTime, Files, Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, Game Center…

(as said in the other comment thread): you can delete many stock apps in iOS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208094

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#295

Post by thecatspaw »

nojvek wrote: post #122

FaceBook is scammy on many levels. Their ads business always reports very inflated numbers. We spend $1000/mnth on FB ads. They show millions of impressions and 20k link clicks. However only 2k visits are shown by both google analytics and Mixpanel on the actual website. It really seems like an empire that will crumble some day.

Sounds like facebook counts accidential clicks.

It often happens to me that I click on ads on my phone accidentially, but click back before the page actually loads.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#297

Post by codq »

caiocaiocaio wrote: post #148

Mouse over the green icon in the corner, and you will see a 'like this on Facebook' button. I have never seen a single article criticising Facebook that didn't have one.

The most effective crapware is ever-present, pervasive crapware.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#298

Post by bo1024 »

mancerayder wrote: post #291

This story (and from different outlets) is now all over the press, which is great. Can I add another qualm in a similar vein? It involves Samsung TV's. I'm convinced Samsung is increasingly mean. I only use streaming services (Netflix, et. al.), and for the past year I've been pretty pleased with "Smart TV" functionality, which makes life easy. That is, until the following happened. After a recent update, the TV: * N…

The idea (and implementation) of Smart TVs is very frustrating to me, so I'm glad to see others reaching this conclusion--

> I went back to plugging my PC into the TV.

It's a perfect example of what Stallman has always warned us about -- companies using software in products to control and exploit us rather than empower us. All the things you mention, planned obsolescence, and more.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#299

Post by neya »

Someone1234 wrote: post #251
simulate wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the iPhones, phones distributed by Google, starting with the Google Phone G1 in 2008, and continuing to the Nexus phones and today's current Pixel phones (Pixel 1, 2, and 3), have never had crapware.

That isn't really accurate, you're just defining "crapware" is such a way so that Google's apps don't qualify. That's a double standard. Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, Play Music, Play Movies, Play Games, Play Books, Duo, Google+, and YouTube could all be called as crapware since they aren't required for core phone functions (and upsell for-profit services). I guess it is somewhat a discussion what we mean by "c…

> That isn't really accurate, you're just defining "crapware" is such a way so that Google's apps don't qualify. That's a double standard.

I need to clarify - I'm not an Apple hater, I own an iPhone, 2 iPads, 2 Macbook Pros and a Mac Mini at the time of this comment.

But, this same logic can be applied to Apple as well. For example, I don't use Apple's photos app at all. And I can't delete it. There is absolutely no way to even replace it. The same logic applies to Apple's crappy music app as well. I use Spotify 100% of the time. Not to mention the constant push to upgrade to Apple music on a system default app is unacceptable.

The photos app isn't crucial to my iPad's core functions. Yet I get constantly harassed with upgrade to iCloud bullshit constantly. Same thing goes with App Store as well, which has no way to turn off upgrade notifications. This is even true of Mac OS X as well, where I get notified constantly to upgrade to Mojave when I have no plans to do so...so that Apple can make my system slower and force me to upgrade my otherwise perfectly functional Mac. It's not like they haven't done this in the past, so...that's the real double standard I would argue.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#300

Post by culot »

charlysl wrote: post #4

Am I the only one experiencing "Facebook is so bad" fatigue? I am not implying that there should be no criticism, I believe quite the opposite, but I think we have heard all of this before, many times over.

Facebook has for some reason angered the mainstream media and is suffering their wrath. I wonder if its because of their support of Republican political stuff? That's definitely a big no-no if you want to keep in the good graces of the media. Or is it because some other reason? There has to be some major transgression that caused this coordinated media flagellation, essentially for doing things that many other firms are guilty of doing.

Why such the laser focus on them specifically instead of on Silicon Valley giants in general? Why is the focus of the article on Facebook when they are not the only app that OEMs and carriers force onto their customers devices? What is the real reason that Facebook is being targeted?

Also weird how the article focuses on Samsung when it is an industry-wide issue with Android devices. It reads sort of like an Apple ad with a bonus anti-Facebook slant. To focus only on Facebook and Samsung for this issue is disingenuous on Bloomberg's part. The part quoting random Twitter users chiding Samsung is a poor choice for the article: its not just a Samsung problem and they know this. They acknowledge in the article that the issue is not just Facebook and Samsung, yet the focus is kept on them.

Fascinating!

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