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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

#321

Post by zanny »

kodablah wrote: post #239
c16 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repetition is in some ways emphasis. The fact that you are getting fatigued is showing that it is slowly working, and that people are slowly waking up to it.

Disagree. Instead it's showing the signal to noise ratio has reached a level where the content doesn't outweigh the category. People are in fact slowly falling back asleep to it.

The arguments against Facebook at this point have basically shown that the whole platform and every service they provide is tainted and exploitative. Anyone still using Facebook after all that will never stop using Facebook. The repetition is more to reach new ears, not try to again to convince those who already decided otherwise.

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

#322

Post by Rebelgecko »

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.

I'm assuming it's to avoid a situation where Grandma accidentally deletes her web browser and the Play Store and doesn't know how to unbrick her phone.

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

#323

Post by chrismeller »

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…

I have a Roku for these and many other reasons. I have never seen or touched a smart TV that didn’t suck in multiple ways, even if it was just the laggy as hell Java interface.

I’m not saying the Roku is perfect, it’s far from it (and I’d love to be able to give them feedback), but at least if they piss me off I can throw their device in the trash and replace it with an Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire, etc. and still have a perfectly well functioning 4K TV.

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

#324

Post by iscrewyou »

neya wrote: post #299
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…

> 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…

You can remove most of the non-essential apps like Music, iTunes Store, Maps, News.

I consider Photos and essential app to the phone. But the push to iCloud could be annoying (I haven’t experienced it because I already have it). If I remember correctly, android phones come with a Gallery App for Photos and then additionally Google Photos. This was a few years ago, I’m not sure if it has changed. Whereas iPhones come with Photos and the iCloud functionality built in.

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

#325

Post by gregknicholson »

sfotm wrote: post #284
simulate wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

iPhones now let you uninstall almost all of those. I know Safari and the App Store are two of the rare exceptions.

How very generous of them!

Not getting at you personally here :) just... it's astonishing how quickly we've gotten used to the idea that you'll pay hundreds of dollars for a licence to use a device that you're not really in control of.

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

#326

Post by dalore »

dragonwriter wrote: post #264
dalore wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all Android platforms. The Amazon Fire platform which is Android is clearly lacking the Google apps and it's pain to install them.

> The Amazon Fire platform which is Android No, while it is an AOSP-derivative, it is not Android.

You better update Wikipedia with that information then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_OS

> Amazon Fire OS is an Android-based mobile operating system produced by Amazon ....

The A in AOSP stands for Android. Android Operating System

Guess you're splitting hairs and trying to say Android based isn't the same as saying Android.

I would argue that the AOSP is Android (and that's what Wikipedia confirms here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) )

You're getting it confused with Google Mobile Services which is the crapware in question.

> Android is also associated with a suite of proprietary software developed by Google, called Google Mobile Services[10] (GMS) that very frequently comes pre-installed in devices, which usually includes the Google Chrome web browser and Google Search and always includes core apps for services such as Gmail, as well as the application store and digital distribution platform Google Play, and associated development platform. These apps are licensed by manufacturers of Android devices certified under standards imposed by Google, but AOSP has been used as the basis of competing Android ecosystems, such as Amazon.com's Fire OS, which use their own equivalents to GMS.

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

#327

Post by chrismeller »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #314

Don't use default smartphone firmwares, don't buy smartphones you can't install a custom firmware to.

Sure, but let’s be honest, back in 2007 when the first iPhone came out it was a huge deal that Verizon, et al couldn’t install crap on it by default because it came straight from Apple.

No “normal human” is ever going to install their own OS on anything. At least Apple enforces some standards...

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

#328

Post by madeofpalk »

iscrewyou wrote: post #324
neya wrote: post #299

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. 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…

You can remove most of the non-essential apps like Music, iTunes Store, Maps, News. I consider Photos and essential app to the phone. But the push to iCloud could be annoying (I haven’t experienced it because I already have it). If I remember correctly, android phones come with a Gallery App for Photos and then additionally Google Photos. This was a few years ago, I’m not sure if it has changed. Whereas iPhones come…

Well, no, you can just hide the icon on the screen. That’s all that does, just like how you can ‘disable’ Facebook on the Samsung phones.

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

#330

Post by iscrewyou »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #314

Don't use default smartphone firmwares, don't buy smartphones you can't install a custom firmware to.

A very large population can’t install their own firmwares because they don’t have the chops to do so.

On top of that, not everybody has a CS degree to read and go through source code of these custom firmware to make sure they aren’t doing anything funny.

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