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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

#301

Post by culot »

apatters wrote: post #13
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.

As long as they force their shitty software down people's throats every day (literally what the article is about), people will keep complaining about them. Just like everyone who's forced to use Comcast complains. In fact it's mainly abusive monopolies that tend to receive this nonstop criticism. Ordinary crappy companies go out of business because people can switch to their alternatives, then no one complains about…

> force their shitty software down people's throats every day

Did Facebook force OEMs to include their software on their devices? Isn't it more likely that OEMs are getting paid for the placement and the blame for its inclusion lies with OEMs?

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

#302

Post by dragonwriter »

untog wrote: post #293
vetinari wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> And the issue here is pretty clearly that users have to resort to adb to disable these apps

No, you can disable (not delete or uninstall) nondeletable (system) apps on Android without adb. adb also lets you “uninstall” them for a given user (but not from the device), which makes them less visible to the user than disabled apps, but it's not clear to me that it does anything substantively different, since neither disabled nor uninstalled-for-current-user apps run.

> Why does Android force this? There is no reason, it could easily be built into the Android GUI.

The only difference I am aware of between disabling through the GUI and uninstalling for a particular user with adb is that the former allows you to reenable through the UI if you later choose to, whereas the latter removes it from the All Apps list in Settings, making it invisible from the UI and impossible to enable.

Requiring the latter to require the user to use the same tool necessary to reverse the process makes it less likely that users will accidentally do something that the same user can't reverse if they change their mind.

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

#303

Post by djohnston »

iamben wrote: post #136

I feel like Facebook is getting more and more desperate. There have been times I've loved it, but in the last year or two I've dialled back my usage to almost nothing. Now I get regular emails / (and when I log in a whole load of) red dot notifications - both things that used to be alerts about just _ME_ - that say things like "[friend name] just posted". With an undeletable app, I wonder how far away we are from som…

this embedding is common with fb google and microsoft products, and has been around for years. this is not new and no one is desperate

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

#304

Post by lern_too_spel »

mrguyorama wrote: post #271
softawre wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel has no bloatware.

My Pixel came preinstalled with at least three of Google's multitude of chat applications. If that's not bloatware then I don't know what is

Mine downloaded them after initial setup. I simply cancelled the downloads of the crapware messaging apps that hadn't started and uninstalled the ones that had already downloaded.

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

#305

Post by lern_too_spel »

matchbok wrote: post #256
higginsc wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been an iPhone user for a decade and am a huge Apple fanboy, but even with that bias, I have to say this is a load of crap. Apple has been adding loads of undeletable bloat since forever. they only really let you start deleting the Apple pre-installed apps very recently. I still have a folder on my devices called "iCrap."

Bloatware != preinstalled OS software. There are 0 preinstalled third-party apps on the iPhone.

iOS came with Facebook and Twitter not too long ago, not to mention Yahoo Weather, Google Maps, and a bunch of others. https://www.axios.com/apple-removes-facebook-and-twitter-int...

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

#306

Post by zepto »

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…

Almost all of the apps you listed can be deleted just like any other. Are you trying to create a misleading comparison on purpose?

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

#307

Post by culot »

syntaxing wrote: post #273
Steltek wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reviews of the Essential PH-1 were hilarious in this regard. People were annoyed that they had to install "obvious" apps for their Essential that every other manufacturer forcibly included.

Yeah, I'm not sure why the PH-1 didn't take off. 128 GB storage, Snapdragon 835, and ceramic backing is amazing for less than $300 after tax. The only "downside" is the non-OLED screen, weird reception for T-mobile, and subpar camera app (which the pixel 3 port fixes). The screen is still great and vibrant though.

They would have needed to get on Verizon or T-Mobile to really make a dent in the US, being only available on Sprint was never going to be enough.

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

#308

Post by bogomipz »

partiallypro wrote: post #261
tivert wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Except those had been going on for years, and now all of a sudden, after Facebook changes their algorithm, journalists notice that Facebook has a problem. I think the 2016 presidential election has a lot more to do with the increased scrutiny. It brought both the media's direct attention and motivated many insiders to make public criticisms of Facebook, which fuels coverage.

The question also is, had Hillary won, would there have even been much increased scrutiny from that? Or would the story have merely faded away.

That's a total strawman but the answer is yes. Even before the "Russia story" broke, the story of Brad Parscale the Digital Director of the Trump Campaign and how FB embedded employees with him was a national news story. It was covered on 60 Minutes:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-embeds-russia-and-the-...

And even before that back in 2012 the Atlantic did a piece on the emerging role of FB in politics entitled:

"Did Facebook Give Democrats the Upper Hand?"

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/did-f...

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

#309

Post by isodude »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #139
isodude wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reason I've stopped surfing the web and stay on news aggregate sites. It's madness how many dependencies sites have. Having Little Snitch on and not allowing general port 80/443 will make you perfectly aware.

Please don't stop surfing the web, that is insane. You are staying locked in your news aggregator sites like someone with agoraphobia, that is even more unhealthy than whatever beasties you think are out there waiting for you.

Maybe I'm starting to show grandpa syndrome, but I tend towards getting news from public channels/radio here. The amount of click bait articles that's in ad-based sources are just astonishing.

Trying to keep the head space clean, and there is only so much time at my disposal with caring for a family.

So at the same time I got pissed about how much deps sites rely on, I discovered that there wasn't much to miss either. It's like dropping facebook, just a relief. To be fair I'm talking about news outlets mainly.

I was there when we had the BBS with dial-up modems. HTML was sweet, but it got quite boring when it faced reality. It's easy for people to share now, but just how easy can it be for people to care about what they share and how? (Like caring about how much tracking there is etc.)

My wife and I strongly disagree, she lives in the real world and actually like how well she can communicate and I'm just overwhelmed instead and care about the technicalities.

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

#310

Post by isodude »

kowdermeister wrote: post #114
isodude wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reason I've stopped surfing the web and stay on news aggregate sites. It's madness how many dependencies sites have. Having Little Snitch on and not allowing general port 80/443 will make you perfectly aware.

Why don't you use a blocker extension?

Because I should not have to avoid it. Then it's broken by default and we should vote by not visiting.
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