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Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

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Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want this stop, you gotta stop using these services, even if it means sacrificing a hobby. If, on the other hand, you care more about your hobby than these quirks annoy you, than by all means, go right ahead.

I'd rather try and get the executives, product managers, and engineers who implemented it fired and elect politicians that will make policies like that illegal. I could go to a baseball game last year and have been able to for decades. The march to enshittification isn't inevitable. Otherwise there will be no hobbies in the future, and I'll be hoarding my money to just sit in my house doing nothing.

I agree with you in principle, but reality is far and away from this, unfortunately. These types of companies need an incentive to change their ways, and money is the only language they know how to speak—and in “they” I’m including all the executives, product managers, engineers and, ESPECIALLY, the politicians you spoke about. Money will always trump morals when it comes to companies that voluntarily elect to put such shady deals in practice.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#212

Think how bad the market got. Today we have preinstalled garbage apps like LinkedIn, garbage apps mandated to be preinstalled by the government, ads, cloud accounts, notifications spam, telemetry. This is not only Chinese smartphones, for example Samsung also plays this game. I assume there are Chinese backdoors, American backdoors and national government backdoors on almost every phone. And there seems to be no way…

Not sure what timescale you're referring to when you're talking about "how bad the market got" and "today", but back around 2012 I got my first and last Samsung smartphone, must have been a Galaxy 3 or something, that had all of those problematic things too. It seems like this starting to happen as soon as apps were installable on phones, even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regard…

> even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regardless of how little you use them.

While a lot of the code that apps rely on is part of the OS frameworks, these days you can 'remove' most of the apps on an iPhone if you want.

That said, I would also argue that there's a difference between not being able to remove "Calendar" on iOS and not being able to remove "LinkedIn" on Android.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what timescale you're referring to when you're talking about "how bad the market got" and "today", but back around 2012 I got my first and last Samsung smartphone, must have been a Galaxy 3 or something, that had all of those problematic things too. It seems like this starting to happen as soon as apps were installable on phones, even iPhones came (and still comes) with a ton of apps you cannot remove regard…

I can't remember if it was Samsung or something, but one of the providers shipped Android tablets with a custom-but-default keyboard which sent ALL your keystrokes back to the provider. That was a big nail in the Android coffin for me.

Guess what?

https://x.com/mysk_co/status/1747604112231776364?s=20

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather try and get the executives, product managers, and engineers who implemented it fired and elect politicians that will make policies like that illegal. I could go to a baseball game last year and have been able to for decades. The march to enshittification isn't inevitable. Otherwise there will be no hobbies in the future, and I'll be hoarding my money to just sit in my house doing nothing.

I agree with you in principle, but reality is far and away from this, unfortunately. These types of companies need an incentive to change their ways, and money is the only language they know how to speak—and in “they” I’m including all the executives, product managers, engineers and, ESPECIALLY, the politicians you spoke about. Money will always trump morals when it comes to companies that voluntarily elect to put su…

People would quit the sport before to stop. They won't.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, I've never gotten any moto apps on my cheap Moto G. I don't sign into any of their crap, but I don't recall doing anything else....

How old is your Moto G? Anything in the last few years has the moto app manager that force loads LinkedIn etc. Due to cheap and cheerful with long lasting battery - I still buy Moto G - but setup offline and disable all these apps using https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-an...

2023 I think

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#217

Think how bad the market got. Today we have preinstalled garbage apps like LinkedIn, garbage apps mandated to be preinstalled by the government, ads, cloud accounts, notifications spam, telemetry. This is not only Chinese smartphones, for example Samsung also plays this game. I assume there are Chinese backdoors, American backdoors and national government backdoors on almost every phone. And there seems to be no way…

Buddy, there has been an un-removable Facebook app on literally every version of Android right from the very beginning. Not every handheld model for sure, but at least one model in every generation from the very beginning has had Facebook and other apps burned indelibly into the operating system.

Before we even had smartphones, your flip phone came with utterly indelible versions of Facebook and others.

And you'll be shocked to hear this I'm sure, but the very lowest level code that governs the radio in your phone is legally mandated to be managed by your service provider, and essentially always has been.

None of this is new. Not in the slightest. It's not even worse nowadays except that the apps themselves got more malicious. There aren't more baked in apps than before, and they aren't any more un-removable. The most important code on your device isn't yours, it never has been.

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#218
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although you will have to buy a used phone in order to pay less than 250$, it seems like GrapheneOS is the best solution for that problem. Not optimal, but the best among what we have.

I was thinking the same. But it worries me that these news about Motorola in particular doing shady shit. I was looking forward to the upcoming GrapheneOS/Motorola partnership :(

How about the FairPhone running /e/os (which is de-googled)? You can buy it preinstalled directly from Murena.

Although this is not at your target price point. But /e/os can be used on hundreds of android phones (as opposed to GrapheneOS). So you can probably install it on your current phone

https://doc.e.foundation/devices

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#219

Think how bad the market got. Today we have preinstalled garbage apps like LinkedIn, garbage apps mandated to be preinstalled by the government, ads, cloud accounts, notifications spam, telemetry. This is not only Chinese smartphones, for example Samsung also plays this game. I assume there are Chinese backdoors, American backdoors and national government backdoors on almost every phone. And there seems to be no way…

In the US DMCA provides "frigate harbor" for the the British consul, etc., etc. IF they've managed to get you to install the "app" instead of utilizing something preinstalled on the phone (a uh errr... web browser?). Potential law migrants banned by law!

Re: Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes

#220

Isnt Motorola basically a ‘Shanzhai’ (copy cat) brand now? Some dude putting the logo on some OEM parts? I am thinking of that Commodore phone from a while back and others. While completely speculative, it is interesting to see legit brands go Shanzhai or get Shanzhaied and Shanzhai brands go legit (xiaomi, huawei)

Especially outside the flagship market, "shanzhai" is enough. I bought a $250 Motorola (G Stylus 2024 model) I wasn't looking for unique and breakthrough experiences. I just wanted good-enough screen/camera/battery life/performance, which can be presumably be produced from a wide assortment of more-or-less off-the-shelf parts.

I am annoyed at the software degradation though. I don't appreciate the repeated unskippable prompts to set up Glance. I feel like when I bought the Ultimate Shanzhai Experience (a Umidigi F1 Play back in the Android 9 days), they didn't pull noxious bait-and-switch software tricks.

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