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Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

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Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#131

Post by jeroenhd »

duxup wrote: post #2

I recently bought a cheap android device because I needed to test something on Android. The setup was about 3 hours of the device starting up, asking me questions, installing apps I explicitly told it not to, and then all sorts of other apps and OS updates trying to do their thing seemingly at once. I wasn't even transferring data, just a brand new phone, new google account. What a horrible experience you get with so…

Cheap devices get subsidized by shitty adware. The cheaper the device, the more likely that it's full of terrible adware.

Consumers often have a choice, at least between "filled to the brim with crap" and "a modicum of crap", by choosing between buying their phone from a store or from a carrier. Carriers have better deals but shovel their phones full of the worst apps you can imagine. Still, people will buy the crap-filled experience that makes you want to tear your hair out because they like the idea of scoring a better deal.

Nothing like unadulterated greed combined with short-sighed consumer behaviour at scale to drive a market segment into an awful race to the bottom.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#132

Post by MomsAVoxell »

dralley wrote: post #127
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that such preposterously stupid military means are not preventing the continuation of blood-shed, and if you are saying that exploding pagers are a perfectly acceptable means of executing military goals, then .. whats next .. are Israeli citizens expected to live under the continuous threat of exploding vibrators and vaporizers, now, too?

Does the IDF issue vibrators to their soldiers?

[flagged]

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#133

Post by _DeadFred_ »

dogma1138 wrote: post #92
paxys wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RTFA > The presence of an Israeli-origin technology component on Samsung phones in WANA countries poses additional problems. Several nations in this region legally bar Israeli companies from operating, and in light of the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict, the preload of an app tied to such a company becomes even more contentious. So yes, the presence of Israeli software is a problem in many countries, and may even b…

I’ll wager there is a bit more Israeli tech in those phones than some adware.

Or a heck of a lot of non-phone tech as well.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#136

Post by richwater »

ngcazz wrote: post #83
vladgur wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he cited a single Israeli private citizen. not Israeli leaders. The fact that a data-harvesting bloatware is installed on common handsets should be controversial enough. Both the title of this post and the link try to add "Israel is baaaad" angle as just because a company was founded in Israel. Israel is a middle-eastern tech hub that produces a lot of tech companies and innovations. Its just a numbers game that some…

[flagged]

Your claim has nothing to do with the parent claim. Truthful or not, you can't write an article, have it debunked or disputed and then move onto another argument.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#137

Post by gruez »

coffeecoders wrote: post #86

I bought an Ipad yesterday. The setup was almost the same, except all the bloat was from Apple itself. Numbers, GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote, Pages, Clips… even the Tips app felt like bloatware. Wild how every ecosystem has its own "preloaded surprise pack."

Those are easily deleteable though, moreover they don't install third party "recommended" apps.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#138

Post by pmontra »

xethos wrote: post #19
atonse wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the "paying off the subsidy" is to buy a more expensive phone. Or getting a Google Pixel. I've heard those are as much stock android as possible.

I agree, and that's the exact point I would make. The problem though, is I want a small phone with a headphone jack (and a physical keyboard, but that's orthogonal to the point). Many OEMs sell their flagship as a shiny glass slab with only BT or USB-C for audio, and ship 3.5mm jacks and other "antiquated niceties" like a uSD card reader, on their lower-end models. It's difficult to square the circle of "I want these…

Serendipity happens. Maybe you almost want this https://liliputing.com/zinwa-q27-prototype-brings-classic-bl... Keyboard but it seems no 3.5" jack.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#139

Post by Un1corn »

Centigonal wrote: post #75
hersko wrote: post #12

So a Unity owned bloatware company being used by Samsung is now somehow controversial because it was founded in Israel? Am i reading this right?

From Stuxnet to Pegasus to the 2024 pager attack, Israel has a history of leveraging its tech sector to advance its national security aims through clandestine means (this is not unusual: so does the US, and so does China). If you're a country with not-so-friendly relations with Israel, the company being founded in Israel is absolutely pertinent.

Which _Israeli_ companies were used for Stuxnet or the 2024 pager attack? NSO is not the same as the company from the article since it's explicitly a cyber company.
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