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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

#431
post #284

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.

Safari, AppStore, Phone, Messages, Clock, Photos, Camera, Health, Settings. I think that's the full list of the apps that can't be removed from iPhone.

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

#432
As anyone really surprised or "perturbed" by this? This nonsense has been going on for years. I can't remember a Samsung phone without garbage, undeletable apps.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8. I like it. I took all the undeletable apps and removed them from my home screen. I hardly notice they are there. You can also shut down their permissions in the settings menu. They are basically inert.

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

#433
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Safari, AppStore, Phone, Messages, Clock, Photos, Camera, Health, Settings. I think that's the full list of the apps that can't be removed from iPhone.

Calculator?

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

#434

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 not…

I keep going back to Motorola. Their phones can be bought retail, no relationship to a carrier, and almost everything can be removed or disabled. No crappy skin either.

They aren't the best with updates, sadly.

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

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Since it's relevant to the topic conversation, only use a Roku if you're blocking its outgoing requests. It sends out an insane amount of outbound data that goes beyond just your viewing habits (e.g. wifi name, "connection data") [1]. Installing pi-hole reveals how noisy a Roku is [2]. [1] - https://docs.roku.com/doc/userprivacypolicy/en-us [2] - https://imgur.com/a/n5zcAwl

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

#436
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. 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…

What really pissed me off with the last iOS upgrade was the change the made to HomeKit. I had it connected up with my WeMo and Philips Hue devices, and could use Siri to turn on lights, etc.

After the upgrade, I was suddenly required to sign into HomeKit with my Apple ID. What for? It was all working fine without it. None of my "smart" devices need a cloud connection to function. I prefer to not connect everything to the cloud when my home network works just fine for me. Since I refuse to sign in out of spite for this change, now I can't control things with Siri.

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

#437
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hyperbole...

You see a lack of control over your own device. I see someone else managing my device for me so that I don't have to think about it.

You see the app store locking you in. I see it protecting me from malware and keeping me secure.

I know you're right and I should care more.

You can appreciate how nice it would be to just let someone else figure it all out and take care of it for you.

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." - Thoreau

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

#438
post #36

I hate to be one of "those people" but I logged out of Facebook on all of my devices on New Year's Eve and haven't been back since. I used to check the site multiple times per day. I thought I'd miss out on a few groups but to be honest the people I know from those groups IRL keep me updated on the rare important announcement - ie a couple of upcoming events. I haven't missed it at all. Full Disclosure: I do still ha…

What service do you use for chatting?

My telephone

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

#439
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…

> If I remember correctly, android phones come with a Gallery App for Photos and then additionally Google Photos.

It depends on the phone. On Pixel devices, which is arguably the closest on the Android side to Apple phones in terms of being curated, it's just Photos, plus the ability to swipe back in the camera app.

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

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 t…

> But if a user deletes all the built-in apps that can be deleted, are they restored if the iOS device is reset?

Yes.

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