Comment by jkldotio | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jkldotio | Hacker News Reader

Good, Google is beginning to really frustrate me. Why can't I cut and paste from the description box on a Youtube video? Serving up a totally broken Google images page to Firefox for Android may be Firefox's fault but they should test with other browsers. It has a totally broken permissions model, notably for location access which after struggling with its nagging for a year I just gave up and now Facebook et al are all dialing in my location constantly. It has totally broken control over background apps waking up as well.

You are just a consumer on Android. The founders call Google 'the third half of your brain', and when you use Android you realise you don't control that third half, it's controlled for advertising purposes (with access granted or taken for various government agencies). Ubuntu, Jolla or Firefox need to succeed on mobile because Android is actually worse than Windows 95, XP etc for user customisation and freedom. That's stock on a Nexus too, the custom versions from handset manufacturers are a whole different train wreck.

Oh man the Samsung version is the epitome of a train wreck. At some point, without my knowledge, NFL Mobile got installed on my phone and now every time I try to open a link, it completely ignores my preferences and asks me what program to open it with, one of which is NFL Mobile. It's just so nonsensical it's laughable. Nonstock Android is worse than Windows vendor bloatware.

That's quite likely to be your carrier, not that Samsung are beyond reproach (TouchWiz as a selling point?), but a lot of the bundled apps you should blame your carrier for.

Nokia's reputation of old in Europe was based on the fact for a long time they were the only manufacturer to tell operators to [guess] themselves and sell relatively clean devices to end users. In the US they never did this, with the result that they never really got traction in that market. With MMS this started to change, to the point one device whenever you selected send message it actually went to the MMS option in the menu, and you'd have to scroll to text message, because the operators had asked to encourage MMS usage as they charged loads for it.

Samsung: My unbranded German S3 came with shit like delivery-service apps etc.

Nokia: I don't think that the things you say about their reputation is true (for German), in Germany Nokia phones had carrier crapware like all the other phones too.

From about 2002/2003, yes, but by then the operators were messing the manufacturers around. Nokia's golden era was approximately 96-2002 before this and the S60 mess really bit.

Vodafone went as far as commissioning handsets directly from co-operative manufacturers and this changed the game completely as the message was heard that unless you play their game you aren't getting sold.

Only the deal Apple got from AT&T remotely affected this status quo. Android was originally designed for precisely the kind of operator customisation we're complaining about, as is Firefox OS, but it's only thanks to Apple (and I loathe the way iOS has gone) that we have any choice about this stuff at all. The fact it took them to stir things up is justifiably embarrassing to the telecoms industry.

This. I regret buying a Samsung S4 because it is loaded with so much crap. First, Google preloads their crap onto it, then Samsung preloads their crap ontop of that. THEN, AT&T decides that it should also provide you with messaging apps etc, so it preloads it crap ontop of that too.

I am re-asked every god damn day if I want to connect the Samsung whatever the fuck (tm) to Facebook, and I refuse, EVERY DAY. I have no words.

The marketers/business guys won, and the result is an utter trainwreck.

The sad thing is that even though the S4 is super powerful, basic tasks like opening up the contacts list or recent messages, still load sluggish!

Not sure if I like Jolla, but I just need to dump this Android bloatware fast.

Installing a custom rom like Cyanogenmod or AOKP would likely solve a lot of your problems. Both are available for your device and require little more work than establishing root, installing safe strap (or another recovery depending on whether your bootloader is locked or not), and then installing the rom. You'll still need to download and install the Google Apps package if you want access to the app store, but it cuts down on a lot of the bloat and adds a lot of useful features.

Here's a problem: I'm looking for a phone that can do T-Mobile wifi calling, which means I need a T-Mobile phone and a T-Mobile ROM, and I'm struggling to find a T-Mobile phone that has the least amount of crapware on it. If you use T-Mobile wifi calling, you can't flash a new ROM.

Is there any particular reason it has to be T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling? There are lots of free apps that let you do Wi-Fi calling through Google Voice (so you can still use your current number).

I want it to be seamless. I don't want people to have to call one number if I'm on wifi and another if I'm on 4G. I want to be able to make an outbound call and not worry about if it's 4G or wifi. I want to be able to send and receive text messages just like normal.

I want wifi to be just like a cell tower. Are there other apps that can do that (and that aren't a nightmare to set up?)

Oh I would totally do that if it didn't void the warranty. Employer pays for the phone. In retrospect, an iPhone may have been less annoying.

I felt so blessed running Linux on my Thinkpad while all the other civilians got their Windows laden HP laptops from BestBuy, loaded with boatware, and by virtue of being a Windows box, susceptible to Ask-toolbars in IE and other half-legal and fully-illegal software. Hell, I am sure I am not the only one who is doing semi annual spyware removal exorcisms for family and friends PCs.

But now I feel like the sucker, having bought this S4 from AT&T. Maybe I should just allow Samsung MusicHub to connect to Facebook so I can see what it wants to do, probably virally market itself to all my friends.

Good luck Jolla!

Root it, use something like SDMaid to lock out the annoying apps. Done.

No idea if this voids your warranty, but I buy phones upfront and unsubsidised anyway so it's less of a concern.

Other than the principle that the user shouldn't have to wage war on his own phone, rooted phones are usually also blocked from corporate networks.

Until corporate networks stop demanding 8 character long pin every time I need to unlock, I will refuse to have corp mail on my phone.

As the CEO of my own one-man company, I've decided to go with a fairly lenient policy on employee devices...

No need to root since 4.1: http://thedroidlawyer.com/2013/05/how-to-disable-bloatware-i...

You can disable apps (even system apps) without rooting in recent android. Open Apps in Settings, find the app, click disable.

Or did Samsung get rid of that feature?

If you open up settings -> applications and find NFL mobile, you should be able to disable it.

Yeah, I was just upset that it happened in the first place (and obviously, after a carrier update) It's mostly annoying because my phone keeps ignoring my preferences about how to open links from facebook and then one day NFL Mobile shows up and damnit, I can only be ignored so many times!

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