Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 478 posts

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

#331

Post by karmickoala »

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 didn't know that. Thank you!

For those of you wondering how to do it (I'm using Windows 10, but it's not that different):

1. Download Android platform tools for your platform: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools...

2. Unzip it, open cmd and head to the unpacked folder.

3. Enable developer tools and USB debugging in your Android.

4. List packages avaiable:

  adb shell pm list packages
5. Delete the unwanted package

  adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name

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

#332

Post by ipsum2 »

tivert wrote: post #252
partiallypro wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they don't report on Google. That would be like reporting on Ebola as a #1 killer, but then ignoring the Opioid crisis.

Facebook is only company that operates social networks that deeply penetrate the US population. Google doesn't have any successful social networks. Twitter isn't used heavily by typical people, and neither is Snapchat or Reddit.

Youtube (owned by Google) is a giant social network that probably has more users than Snapchat, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook combined.

Users can make video posts that others can comment on and share. Youtube also has rolled out Stories, which is similar to Instagram and Snapchat.

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

#333

Post by iscrewyou »

wvenable wrote: post #290
_x5tx wrote: post #280

After years of using android I just moved from my galaxy s8 to an iphone xs max, and I was surprised to see that apple allows to uninstall most of their apps. What I usually did on my former samsung was to disable the apps I didn't needed, it is not the same as uninstalling it but it does the job.

On iOS, the built in apps aren't "uninstalled" either as they're stored in the OS image just like on Android. So when you delete them, you're just disabling them the same way, and you can put them back just as easily. The difference is that Apple makes the operation appear to be the same as deleting them and that's a good thing from a UI perspective. Clearly the "disable" option in Android is too confusing for some p…

But when you redownload a now-deleted-preloaded app, it actually downloads it. Which makes me think that Apple actually removes the App package from the phone.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

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

#334

Post by rchaud »

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…

> I consider Photos and essential app to the phone.

So do I, but OS vendors are making that experience worse by 'integrating' it to some cloud bullshit whether I want it to or not.

My Galaxy S7 (with all the bloatware the article mentions) was replaced with an "Android One" device from Nokia. First thing I noticed on the Nokia was that the only gallery app was Google Photos, which I want nothing to do with.

The Galaxy S7 had Google Photos, but also Samsung's stock Gallery app, which I greatly preferred because it acts exactly like the dumb pipe I want it to. Same with Samsung Music. On the Nokia, I had to install an alternative app because Play Music is unusable with the constant nagging to join their streaming service.

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

#335

Post by partiallypro »

bogomipz wrote: post #308
partiallypro wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 entitle…

And...the 2012 article doesn't actually put Facebook under a critical microscope like it is today. In fact, at the time it was viewed and covered as political genius. So, you sort of proved my point. Examples:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campai...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-campaign...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/14/obama-digital-...

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

#336

Post by qwerty456127 »

chrismeller wrote: post #327
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...

> 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.

Good, nevertheless all my friends jailbroke their iPhones to install apps not available in the store.

> No “normal human” is ever going to install their own OS on anything.

Whoever cares about having at least minimal degree of privacy will at least get root access, remove bloatware and install tools like droidwall and xprivacy on their android phones.

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

#337

Post by Yizahi »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #243
stabbles wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As op admits

The moment you say "everybody does that" (which is often very debatable), you are implicitly being an apologist for the subject of that specific criticism.

Well first of all it is not really debatable in case of spying by bigcorps. And I wrote "everyone does that" comment for one reason - after FB scandal quiets down we should not forget that by eliminating FB from our life we didn't even start getting out of this spying mess, given how everyone does it.

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

#338

Post by rchaud »

mariusmg wrote: post #144
AlexandrB wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I'm old enough to remember when this was standard. Before smartphones almost all cellphones were bought through carriers and came pre-loaded with a bunch of carrier crapware (often unremovable). One of the best things about the first iPhone was t…

Windows Phones didn't had crap on them either. This is strictly a Android issue.

Windows Phone didn't survive in the market long enough to start adding crapware. With their < 1% market share (not exaggerating), it's not like app makers were knocking down MS' doors to include their apps on WP devices.

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

#339

Post by moogleii »

wvenable wrote: post #290
_x5tx wrote: post #280

After years of using android I just moved from my galaxy s8 to an iphone xs max, and I was surprised to see that apple allows to uninstall most of their apps. What I usually did on my former samsung was to disable the apps I didn't needed, it is not the same as uninstalling it but it does the job.

On iOS, the built in apps aren't "uninstalled" either as they're stored in the OS image just like on Android. So when you delete them, you're just disabling them the same way, and you can put them back just as easily. The difference is that Apple makes the operation appear to be the same as deleting them and that's a good thing from a UI perspective. Clearly the "disable" option in Android is too confusing for some p…

I think that was true of older versions, but newer versions will also offload them, either via the user or via the "unused apps" feature.

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

#340

Post by culot »

timrichard wrote: post #262
culot wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful about buying 'new' copies of that phone on Ebay: there are none. Almost all of the new copies bring sold on Ebay for the last year or so are fraudulent. Finding an actual new LG V20, outside of perhaps Korea, is unlikely. edit: just checked Ebay, and yup, there are no legit new copies to be had, except for maybe AT&T or unlocked variants for $400+. There's a very low chance that anyone will be/or has been abl…

Item was described as "new and sealed factory unlocked", and I had no complaints when it arrived. If it is repackaged, I was completely unable to tell any difference from other new devices I can remember unpacking (new from Amazon or directly from a vendor). The spare batteries I sourced from a separate UK supplier. It's definitely intended for AT&T, but worked fine with Three in the UK as soon as I entered the appro…

Ah, perhaps my experiences are only valid for US/North American buyers of US carrier variants. I know that there was a proliferation of repackaged V20 models being sold as new, and they all seemed to come from the same source - they had the same packaging Chinese/international packaging, but the devices included were used/remanufactured and were often incorrectly-specced for their purported carriers, giving away their fraudulent origins.

Like the packaging shown in that Ebay link is incorrect for an AT&T variant. AT&T almost never uses OEM packaging, instead they use some weird gimpy branded boxes of their own. If it didn't come in a box like this, then it was a fraudulently repackaged and was not new:

https://i.imgur.com/n2dFAq2.jpg

Also the printed inserts should have AT&T branding on them, and will include AT&T-specific inserts. The flood of fraudulent LG V20s usually include generic international versions of the printed inserts. Watch for the IMEI label on the box being pasted over with another label, to hide the ID numbers of the device the box originally came with.

Just because its not new doesn't mean it might not work fine, it just means you'll likely never get warranty coverage; or if you do get LG to accept it once they examine in-house for repair you're probably boned.

Post reply on HN