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Sprint Pushes FPS NOVA With Firmware — and Users Can't Remove It
theodp writes "If you could change the way wireless companies did things, what would you do?' asked Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. How about stopping the use of Sprint's firmware updates to download apps that aren't wanted and can't be removed, Dan? Sprint confirmed to CNET's Elinor Mills that those strange apps she was shocked to find on her Android phone — sci-fi shooter N.O.V.A. and Blockbuster — with a long list of permissions that couldn't be uninstalled had been sneakily downloaded onto her phone during a firmware update. 'Sprint does offer a variety of partner applications that are optimized for use on our wireless phones,' a Sprint representative explained in an e-mail. 'From time to time, we will provide new apps to our customers in conjunction with a software maintenance release. Also, Sprint, in conjunction with Google, is taking steps to develop a technical solution that would allow customers to remove any unwanted applications that have been preloaded or pushed in an over-the-air software update.'" Asking first would be a nice non-technical solution.
And some people still wonder why many phone owners want to root their phone or flash a custom ROM?
I can uninstall or install anything on my G2. Sprint is acting like Sony.
Bad, Sprint! Bad!
You have to build the technology to ask during installation of a patch, which is generally supposed to be an invisible process. That's the opposite of a non-technical solution.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I am a sprint customer, N.O.V.A. is hardly the biggest problem. My main complaint was the stupid sprint sports apps that like to run in the background. I don't like NASCAR, football, or any other of the sports they included apps for that are uninstallable and automatically run in the background. Funny enough, it seemed like the only sport they didn't have an app for was the NHL (something i would have used). The only reason I rooted my phone was do delete all of those apps, and wouldn't you know... I get twice the battery life.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
On my X10-mini I continously get "Roller Rev 99" and "Edge" two games I neither don't want or like.
They can be removed from apps menu but every refresh or minor update reinstalls them.
They are ofcource both trial versions and if you clean out their datastore to get rid of em, your trial licence is gone too, so all you can do is watch the horrible dialogs telling you to purchase fullversion and lock up before allowing you to exit again. The word crapware comes to mind...
You have to be pretty corrupt and greedy as a manufacturer/vendor to bundle this crap.
This is what you get when the gadgets are given away or subsidized. Abuse will ensue to make sure the provider recovers their costs.
On PCs, at least the shovelware is generally removable, and you have the option to buy a nonsubsidized gadget that doesn't have crap installed. In the US phone market, usually the gadget and service are provided by the same party and the abuse includes locking down the OS.
This kind of junk will continue until the carriers realize the phone belongs to the customer, not them.
And this is why you should get a phone that can be rooted and have a custom ROM on it, no wireless carrier is going to be able to install their shitty software OTA just to make a buck.
Actually, I think they'd rather develop something that bundles the firmware updater into the game so you can't apply security patches until you beat level 2.
So who is at fault if a forced app get loaded runs in the background and runes up your txt or data bill. Just wait for some roaming in canada to get a forced Over the air update with a app that runs in the back round at $2.05/MB it does not take alot to run up the bill.
It's pretty astounding that these companies can whine about data usage of their paying customers, and then not bat an eye and upload who knows how many gigabytes of useless games/apps to people who don't even want the crap.
"Unbeknownst to me, my 5-year-old found N.O.V.A. on my phone and was shooting the guns and weaponry and killing enemies in the N.O.V.A. game," someone wrote on an HTC customer forum. "Thanks a lot HTC and Sprint for forcing violence on my 5-year-old! I am protective of my kids and would never install a game like this on my phone, but now you forced this app onto my phone and I can't uninstall it! I'm very frustrated and VERY ANGRY!"
What's needed is an indictment with language like this: "vendor knowingly and with intent to defraud remotely accessed customer's telephone without the explicit permission of customer and installed programs which accessed vendor's network, accumulating charges which accrued to vendor and were charged to customer."
They keep raising prices on a service that gets cheaper every year. They use fraudulent billing practices. They don't compete in prices. They have convinced everyone on the planet they need a cellphone and every child over the age of 4 needs one for their safety. I look at my cellphone bill, and wonder how could they be so desperate for more money they have to resort to this level of depravity? They exhibit the same pattern as coke/crack heads. They will never have enough money, and they will resort to shadier and shadier practices to keep the coke flowing.
The mechanism where you pay Sprint $5.00 per preinstalled app for it to be able to be uninstalled.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
All carriers would do this if given the chance. That is why it's so important to have cell phone MAKERS that are unwilling to put up with this crap.
Apple of course is the first that comes to mind, no crapware at all.
But there's another cell phone maker that does not support this either, I believe Windows Phone 7 also dictates what goes onto the phone, not the carrier.
This is exactly the kind of thing we should be encouraging, independence from cell phone companies. Desiring openness of the platform over this is selfish because while YOU can work around carrier specifics, the vast majority of people cannot and it's not fair nor desirable to have a world where only the technically educated can function well.
Ideally we'd have the best of both worlds, open platforms and no ability for the carriers to dictate what goes on the phones they support. But that is not currently possible.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is part and parcel of the opt-out society that our corporate overlords have created.
Don't want to receive promotional e-mails? Too bad, you didn't opt out.
Don't want your personal information shared? Too bad, you didn't opt out.
Don't want crapware foisted upon your gadgets? Too bad, you didn't opt out.
Don't want to be drugged and kidnapped? Too bad, you didn't opt out.
Don't want your organs harvested? Too bad, you didn't opt out.
Sent from my iPhone
Having worked as a Sprint service technician, if you do brick your phone, just take it to a service center and tell them you want it exchanged. Don't tell them you tried to modify it, but just tell them "well, one day it just started doing that." Get shitty with them if they put up resistance. They'll give in eventually.
The things that will make them balk is if there is physical damage to the phone or if the litmus dots on the back of the phone are smeared, indicating liquid damage. When I worked there, any phone we were going to exchange had to be taken apart and inspected for liquid damage. About 70% of the time or if the customer was a complete bitch we actually did that. We were supposed to charge to send in liquid or physically damaged phones for repair, or refer to the Asurion insurance. However, we never received any chargebacks for sending in a liquid damage (or even physically damaged) phone to the depot in Texas, so I suspect Sprint would like to be strict about things like this but can't afford to given they are not the strongest carrier out there in terms of reputation or coverage.
Quit with the euphemism of 'offering' partner applications.
I would more properly compare it to a rapist that says he offers intercourse that is optimized for women who say No.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Shouldn't the OS already allow users to uninstall programs? What exactly needs to be developed?
Yes, an OS SHOULD allow that. However, neither Android nor IOS allow end users to uninstall "system" applications.
However, if you root or jailbreak (respectively), then the end user IS able to remove those apps. On IOS devices, this also saves you room. On Android it doesn't since those unwanted apps are stored in the firmware. On the plus side, they don't take up valuable user app storage space on Android.
I've removed the unwanted apps on my HTC EVO, not to free up room, but because I didn't care to see them in my list of apps. For instance, it came with QuickOffice. That was nice of them. But I bought QuickOffice Pro and after installation had two QuickOffice icons leading to the two different versions. So the vendor installed version went away.
I doubt that any "reasonable" person would consider anything that I do on my rooted EVO to be illegal. I removed unwanted vendor supplied apps and can now back up my ENTIRE phone including all user settings and data. I don't run pirated software and don't care to try out any custom kernals or even user interfaces from newer phones.
Sprint does not "own" Nascar. They pay Nascar big bucks to sponsor one of the Nascar race series, however.
One would need root permissions, a UI patch, and a script to remove packages installed as part of the operating system. this behavior is by design. i know of no Google Experience certified devices that include this functionality by default. based on my own research (i own one) even the nexus one comes with the Amazon MP3 store pre-installed and is unremovable without access to the recovery and update system "partition". (Like Amon_Ra, ClockworkMod, or a google-signed update.zip)
Now that we have covered what is a Google version of Android with full access to android market, we can describe "pure/unadulterated" android, which is the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) distribution, which also doesn't with defaults have the software removal features you are describing.