Applications are being pushed/installed OTA without my permission - STOP IT

[fmotta]

OK, I am aware of the plethora of options in managing applications as well as the multitude of individuals who are responsible or not for the applications on the devices.  To cover some of these:

- Phone manufacturer wants to sell phones to Verizon and needs to get the phone, OS, and EVERY application accepted by Verizon (that means that Verizon decides, agrees, and specifies EVERY application that is on the phone when you buy it - NOT the phone manufacturer, not the OS developer, not the application developer).  This is done at the time of phone qualification and Verizon has the last word bar none.

- For Android phones Google manages and owns the marketplace and they have had to make alterations for many entities including phone manufacturers, application vendors (mostly game apps), phone companies (Verizon is the most demanding).  Google has a lot of freedom, but they are not solely responsible for an application "push" (update).

So, when I get a Verizon device (phone or tablet) that includes pre-installed application that I cannot remove then the primary entity involved in this decision is Verizon.  Not google, and other than the choice to allow the applications use it is not the application developer.

Application updates are driven through google marketplace and, for the most part are only updated after the user agrees (or selects "auto update").  Verizon and google decide which of those applications that were pre-installed are "auto updated".

When I get a ton of data traffic on my data plan to auto update a bunch of applications I get concerned that I will be FORCED to accept the abuse of my data plan.  When 90% of these applications are amongst those that I would not take an update by choice, would uninstall were I given the opportunity I am rather upset that my storage, data usage, and system CPU are now taxed to accomodate a worthless endeavor (updating worthless applications).

Verizon is the only organization that had the ability to make and enforce the decision NOT to install nor update these applications so Verizon should ensure there is an option to avoid this waste.

Amongst those applications Verizon should allow me to remove or not take updates for:

- Face book

- cordy

- email

- gmail (both email and gmail are poorly implemented apps)

- calendar

- google goggles

- visual VM

- latitude

- car home

- dungeon defenders

- youtube

- movie studio

- browser (on the xoom the browser sux compared to opera and it crashed for the first few months)

- camera

[vereyezuhn]

What phone do you have? A lot of the pre-installed apps you've listed weren't installed on mine. I have a Droid X

[fmotta]

I have two devices and those listed applications are found on one or the other of a driod or xoom.

In either case, most of them are found on both.

[vereyezuhn]

I mean, the calendar, camera, and browser are things that are found on ALL phones. You can't honestly be upset that you can't delete those??? How would you possibly delete a camera...

[fmotta]

@vereyezuhn

It appears I may not have been clear otherwise I think you may have not responded as you had.

Within this thread I am not proposing removal of hardware (although I have proposed removal of the camera from phones for years). I am suggesting removal of unneeded software and moreover not updating the useless stuff.

Those applications (software) I have listed are generally not used on one of both of my verizon android devices yet I get updates for them despite my desires to have them expressly removed (why update an unused software product?).

(I hacked the non-verizon devices and removed those applications and more and am soo much happier - but they are not warrantied nor supported).  It is good to be root!

No camera-no cry!

[vereyezuhn]

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fmotta wrote:

@vereyezuhn

It appears I may not have been clear otherwise I think you may have not responded as you had.

Within this thread I am not proposing removal of hardware (although I have proposed removal of the camera from phones for years). I am suggesting removal of unneeded software and moreover not updating the useless stuff.

Those applications (software) I have listed are generally not used on one of both of my verizon android devices yet I get updates for them despite my desires to have them expressly removed (why update an unused software product?).

(I hacked the non-verizon devices and removed those applications and more and am soo much happier - but they are not warrantied nor supported).  It is good to be root!

No camera-no cry!

---

You can do the same to your Verizon devices. It cannot be discussed here, though, and I am done with that subject.

[fmotta]

Despite the large amount of memory on these devices they still have their limitations and with the xoom and its kludge for use of external SD card it is not as expandable as if the SD card were visible to all applications.

One can do many things once warranty is expired or violated.  How about the freedom to not have an application update notification 5 times a day for applications that one would prefer to remove - NOT update.

[vereyezuhn]

You can turn off automatic updates. That's what I've done and I don't get any notifications of new updates, and none of my apps update on their own unless I go into the market, search the app, and select update.

[fmotta]

I only wish I had your luck in avoiding update notifications.

I have turned off automatic updates for these apps.  However, since marketplace is nicely checking for updates on all apps I get notification of updates even for apps I do not want (such as those listed).  So, every other hour (at least) I get an indicator telling me to update those applications (that I really want to have go away).

When I get useful updates I cannot use the "update all" option as I have these annoying apps waiting to consume resources by updating rather than uninstalling.  So, yesterday I got to manually accept 4-6 application updates on each device avoiding those applications I do not want updated.

Really Verizon? You really want me to play these stupid video games on my tablet THAT badly!?

[vereyezuhn]

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fmotta wrote:

I only wish I had your luck in avoiding update notifications.

I have turned off automatic updates for these apps.  However, since marketplace is nicely checking for updates on all apps I get notification of updates even for apps I do not want (such as those listed).  So, every other hour (at least) I get an indicator telling me to update those applications (that I really want to have go away).

When I get useful updates I cannot use the "update all" option as I have these annoying apps waiting to consume resources by updating rather than uninstalling.  So, yesterday I got to manually accept 4-6 application updates on each device avoiding those applications I do not want updated.

Really Verizon? You really want me to play these stupid video games on my tablet THAT badly!?

---

Hmm. Nope, deselecting the automatic updates worked for me.

Also, the bloatware really doesn't use that much space. The apps you've downloaded use more space than the ones already on the phone. So much so that you can't even notice them when it comes to memory or battery usage.

[fmotta]

Hmmm,

Seems that the Moto Droid and the Xoom do not behave as your device does relative to the automatic update.  I have the opportunity to get an update notification often during the day (and night).

Should I have the option not to take updates of many items I would have done so.... but if I could remove applications that consume far too much space (as in the string for their name is more than is needed for an application I do not use) then I would not worry as much about the updates to stuff like talkback and kickback and soundback and stabback... and ...

Since most of the space on my xoom is filled with applications and "Misc" (misc is possibly shared libraries and SQL databases for apps). and not data it is a sad condition.

skype:       15MB (one that I forgot to have on the above list)

email:         9.2MB

browser:    5   MB

But, on the other hand, if the builtin browser and emailer were good then I would not have to install over 70MB of applications to make up for their shortcomings.

[vereyezuhn]

---

fmotta wrote:

Hmmm,

Seems that the Moto Droid and the Xoom do not behave as your device does relative to the automatic update.  I have the opportunity to get an update notification often during the day (and night).

Should I have the option not to take updates of many items I would have done so.... but if I could remove applications that consume far too much space (as in the string for their name is more than is needed for an application I do not use) then I would not worry as much about the updates to stuff like talkback and kickback and soundback and stabback... and ...

Since most of the space on my xoom is filled with applications and "Misc" (misc is possibly shared libraries and SQL databases for apps). and not data it is a sad condition.

skype:       15MB (one that I forgot to have on the above list)

email:         9.2MB

browser:    5   MB

But, on the other hand, if the builtin browser and emailer were good then I would not have to install over 70MB of applications to make up for their shortcomings.

---

Personally, I think Skype is just the stupidest invention and I agree it should not be on our phones. The other random apps that they install, however, I don't really care. I can overlook them and they've never caused me any issues with space or battery usage on my Droid X

[fmotta]

GhaaaaH!

Megs of crap!

Ok - I allowed myself the freedom of laziness and now I pay... I had to restore my Xoom from scratch once I allowed cordy and Dungeon defenders to update.

Sad part is I think I have almost no audio nor video content and I still had the Dalvik VM blow chunks because of lack of data/storage as a result of this Megs of bull pocky.  Guess I need to stop manually cross referencing so many specs/documents on my xoom.

Good news, I get to locate or write the content again unaided by my previous effort.

[jroal]

Totally agree!  I sent this letter below to Verizon just a few minutes ago:

Why must you install and lock all those Verizon apps on my Android device?  This is a problem for me as they chew up memory and CPU time, and cause many other problems.  I don't mind so much this stuff is preinstalled but please don't lock it down.  We need to be able to uninstall that stuff.  Specifically I am talking about:
* Back up assistant.  This is the WORST thing you can do to an Android phone.  Google handles this already and backup assistant makes a mess of my contacts.  It duplicates them, scrambles the numbers and fields, etc. 
* VZ Navigator.  This is a great feature on dumb phones but useless on an Android phone that comes with Google Maps and navigation.  The problem is it is connected to so many Android intents that it tries to run when I do anything map related, fighting with Google Maps. 
* Vcast Video.  I will never use this.  I keeps bugging me to update and I want it gone.  I can't kill it.  Very frustrating.
* All the rest the Vcast stuff.  Again, its fine to preinstall it but just let me remove it if I never plan to use it.  Forcing me to keep it on my device only makes my mad and now I will never use any of it.

What do you think you are gaining my locking it to my device?  Most people I talk to have the same feeling.  When stuff like this is forced on us we push back.  You get less users this way not more.  Just let us uninstall it, PLEASE!  I really don't want to have to root the device to get rid of it.

[arborij]

I have a Motor Droid X2. For the most part, I am OK with the phone. My question is basically, there are a plethora of bloatware on the phone. Some of these are necessary evils, however, there are a multitude of applications that I am not interested in, nor would I like them taking space on my phone. I understand that bloatware is needed to keep the handset price down, and keeps carrier profits up, which I don't have an issue with. There should however, be some way to remove them. The Blockbuster application most notably should be among the ones that can, and should be removed. Isn't Blockbuster on the cusp of Chapter 11? That being the case, it is somewhat moot having this app. What I have resort to, is creating a file folder, basically labeled junk, and place all of the bloatware and license keys in. Can somebody help me in minimizing the number of bloatware on the phone?