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

401–410 of 478 posts

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

#401

Post by Temasik »

propogandist wrote: post #126
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

While I didn't have microsoft apps on my S9, if you install netguard (firewall) [1] you'll see that most samsung apps are constantly trying to get a connection with facebook servers and Samsung HQ. Apps that have no reason to have internet connectivity, like the dialer, clock app, the finder (search functionality within the stock launcher) are phoning home [!] Unfortunately Samsung phones have locked bootloaders, so…

Same with xiaomi using bloackada

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

#402

Post by plopz »

karmickoala wrote: post #331
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. Delet…

You might need the android usb driver https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy/others/android-usb-driv...

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

#403

Post by petepete »

ajmurmann wrote: post #153
mariusmg wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At least the Nexus phones I've had also never came with crap ware. This is yet another reason why I would only ever by a Android phone from Google. Of course the main reason are the longer update cycles that might even delay arrival of security updates. I really wish Google had gone the exact same route as Apple and only shipped Android phones themselves. To me the collaboration with random manufacturers also weakene…

Android One phones are like this. My Nokia 8 Sirocco came with only one non-stock app (Nokia Support).

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

#404

Post by apocalypstyx »

Sometimes, I wish Rick Roderick were still around to comment on the present, then I realize that he did / is, even if he did it in 1990.

But in the matrix of needs, in such a possible future system, as if it weren’t already kind of like that. Within such a possible future system, the only command or need that the machine would not respond to would be the one command that I have a feeling some of us would most want to type into the machine. Which is the demand that it destroy itself, you see, that would be my problem with the machine. It would meet all the needs except my need to see it destroyed. It would take every other command well, and meet every other need well, but the need to just shut it down.

http://rickroderick.org/108-philosophy-and-post-modern-cultu...

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

#405

Post by userbinator »

This is one of the reasons why I bought a generic MTK phone: they come with an unlocked bootloader (and at least several years ago when I did this, it seemed to be the case that they even couldn't be locked because the hardware had no such feature), and the first thing I do is a full flash dump for backup purposes. Then I root it, delete the stuff I don't need (surprisingly little comes with these generic phones; they usually don't come with much more than the stock Android install), and customise it to my needs. The fact that Android is Java-based and quite modular helps a lot with the modding too.

(Some of these phones do come with ad/spy/malware, but since they're easily rootable, it's not hard to remove. One could say the relative lack of security means the user is on an equal footing with the crapware authors and the manufacturer, whereas locked-down devices from companies like Samsung trade off user-control for company-control.)

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

#406

Post by dragonwriter »

madeofpalk wrote: post #328
iscrewyou wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well, no, you can just hide the icon on the screen. That’s all that does, just like how you can ‘disable’ Facebook on the Samsung phones.

Disabling system apps on Android doesn't just hide the icon, it stops the app from running (e.g., via intents or other means by which you can run an app without clicking on the icon.) It's in practical effect no different than deleting a non-system app, except that physically the app is still in immutable storage on the device and can be reenabled without being downloaded (barring any subsequent updates to the bundled system version, which would need to be downloaded.)

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

#407

Post by BeetleB »

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.

A common refrain, but not logically sound.

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

#408

Post by habitue »

EpicEng wrote: post #318
habitue wrote: post #213

I'm not a huge facebook fan but this thing about only being able to disable but not delete the app is misleading about how sinister it is. All it means is that the app comes installed by being part of the ROM image. It can be disabled which is essentially the same as deleting it, except you don't get the space back (which is fine since it's the rom, you can't use it without reflashing anyway). Once disabled, the Face…

Agreed, but from what I've been reading/hearing, the primary concern is "can FB track me even if the app is disabled?" These are non-technical people who don't trust FB. It's a valid question.

I can understand nontechnical people becoming distressed by the fact that it can't be deleted. But Bloomberg (and Techcrunch) should not be making a big deal out of those fears. Both articles seem to be stoking the angle "ooh, you can't delete it! Sinister..."

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

#409

Post by pjmlp »

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

It goes all the way back to 8 and 16 bit pack bundles.

The thing is, that back then it was quite easy to just ignore the tapes or floppies that we didn't care about.

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

#410

Post by drak0n1c »

bogomipz wrote: post #193
partiallypro wrote: post #168

I'm no Facebook fan, but doesn't it feel like there is a coordinated media effort to destroy Facebook? It's quite strange. Outside of WSJ, Google seems to get away with it almost the same things Facebook is doing. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Oh the tiresome conspiracy theory. Right, editors from different media publications are "coordinating." They are actively strategizing and communicating with one another in order to "destroy" one of the most powerful companies in the world. Because there's zero possibility that given involvement of FB in everything from violence in Myanmar, Philippines and Sri Lank to fake political ads in US elections, FB's further…

There have been repeated cases of journalists from different media publications relying on shared email lists and private "Hacker News" style forums as a starting point for coming up with stories and angles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList

Of course such practices don't mean there's some kind of organized conspiracy, but it could plausibly explain why the news cycle is flooded with derivative material and many headlines share the same keywords. Here are a variety of outlets using the same unusual adjective "Dark" in non-editorial news headlines covering the same event:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/21/fu...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trumps-da...

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004545647/tr...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-...

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/07/22/a_dark...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/donald-trump-rnc-spe...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/22/donald-trump-pai...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/melania-trump...

https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trumps-angry-dark-s...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-gop-convention-spe...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/07/stephen-milller-...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/07/21/republican-convention...

Post reply on HN