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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

#391

Post by saagarjha »

vatueil wrote: post #381
saagarjha wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android system apps can be reenabled without redownloading them, IIRC. On iOS you must download the app again to use it.

You would probably want to download the latest update rather than using the old version from the system image, but that's correct. Though IIRC the Facebook "app" the article complains is just a minimal placeholder, with the real app downloaded from the Play Store. There are some built-in iOS apps that can't be deleted at all, such as Photos. For those that can be "deleted" Apple says users can restore them by downloa…

> There are some built-in iOS apps that can't be deleted at all, such as Photos.

Yes, because if you take photos you kinda need a way to view them. It would be extremely confusing if your pictures you took with Camera ended up being saved somewhere but you could not view them, so Apple seems to have just made it a requirement.

> But if a user deletes all the built-in apps that can be deleted, are they restored if the iOS device is reset? I would assume so, since wiping a phone is recommended before reselling it and a new user may be confused if default apps are missing, though I don't want to wipe my device just to confirm.

That's a good question, and I don't want to wipe my device either. I'll see if I can get access to a "burner" iPhone to test this.

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

#392

Post by tapland »

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.

It is Android. You go into your settings and enable installation from unknown sources to install the Play store and run android apps just like any other android device.

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

#393

Post by tivert »

ipsum2 wrote: post #332
tivert wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Personally, I don't put Youtube in the social network category because most of its users are passive consumers. I think social networks as systems that explicitly model social connections and whose users have a relatively high ratio of send-actions to receive-actions.

That said, Youtube does have many of the same social problems as Facebook (e.g. use as a cheap and effective channel for pushing disinformation, cultivating hyperpartisan filter bubbles, etc.).

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

#395

Post by Toutou »

vetinari wrote: post #265
nildos wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can delete the big apps tho. The biggest mandatory app is iTunes and it's only 213Mb. Kind of bugs me that I can't delete 8Mbs of Chess anyway.

I just tried it in 10.14... and you are right! It wasn't possible in 10.12/10.13.

Definitely possible at least since 10.10 (Yosemite). Not sure how SIP affects this, as I have it disabled.

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

#396

Post by designtofly »

I'm glad this story has gone viral recently. Hopefully there will be more pressure to stop this practice.

I've been using Android for a number of years now and between the handset manufacturers and the wireless providers, there has been undeletable crapware since the beginning. I've been slowly modifying my behavior in response. I stopped buying phones directly from the wireless providers (e.g. Verizon). This has noticeably improved my experience. Every time I upgrade my phone, I look into the Google flagship Android phones, but they always have some critical flaws that drive me to buy the Samsung Galaxy phones. The same thing happened a few months ago when I chose the Galaxy S9+ over the Pixel 3's. I also always think about switching to Apple iPhone, since I do think they take user experience and privacy more seriously than Google Android.

While I'm on the subject. Samsung, please get rid of Bixby and all of your crappy Samsung apps. I hate the feeling that there's two OS's loaded on my phone... the Android layer and the Samsung layer (which I never use but always get prompted for unless I figure out how to disable it).

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

#397

Post by ptero »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #275
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…

You can remove all of the Google apps, though. (You can't remove the storage space they take up on the phone's ROM, as they ship on the stock device so that they don't need a download at setup time, but you can completely disable them so that they're treated as not installed.) Also, these days, people consider photos, music, videos, email, and similar to be core phone functions; frankly, many people use them more oft…

> these days, people consider photos, music, videos, email, and similar to be core phone functions

Yes, which is why I want full freedom to choose clients and apps that would be doing this on my phone.

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

#398

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#399

Post by vatueil »

saagarjha wrote: post #391
vatueil wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would probably want to download the latest update rather than using the old version from the system image, but that's correct. Though IIRC the Facebook "app" the article complains is just a minimal placeholder, with the real app downloaded from the Play Store. There are some built-in iOS apps that can't be deleted at all, such as Photos. For those that can be "deleted" Apple says users can restore them by downloa…

> There are some built-in iOS apps that can't be deleted at all, such as Photos. Yes, because if you take photos you kinda need a way to view them. It would be extremely confusing if your pictures you took with Camera ended up being saved somewhere but you could not view them, so Apple seems to have just made it a requirement. > But if a user deletes all the built-in apps that can be deleted, are they restored if the…

Yeah, I agree it makes sense that certain apps shouldn't be easy to get rid of, though in comparison Android does let users disable apps such as the default gallery, browser, and even app store. I think the stock dialer and SMS apps are the main exceptions.

If deleted built-in apps aren't restored even after resetting an iOS 12 device, it's a good thing some apps aren't removable. I wish I'd thought to check before trading in my old iPad.

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

#400

Post by p1necone »

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…

Thanks for the heads up, I will make sure I never install updates on my Samsung TV.
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