Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Antitrust Case Against Google Thrown Out of SF Court

Posted by timothy on from the like-the-swiss-miss-marshallow-scam dept.

Mark Wilson (3799011) writes "Just a few days ago Google was threatened with legal action for anti-competitive behavior in Russia. While we don't yet know if that will amount to anything, there has been some better news for the search giant in the US. A San Francisco judge dismissed a case brought against the firm by two men who thought the inclusion of Google services in Android pushed up the prices of their handsets."

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Inclusion would lower it if anything by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because Google provides Android free of charge (including a free device approval process) under the model that they'll make money back from people using their services.

    1. Re: Inclusion would lower it if anything by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Informative

      They have to provide Google with personal information which could have been sold instead.

      Even if you play it that way, you're still proving my point. If Google didn't figure you using those services into the price of the device, then they would charge the OEM for licensing the Android trademark, which means the manufacturer would charge you more money for the phone.

      Now if you could use the device without creating an account with Google there would be no additional charges.

      You can.

      When you receive a new Android phone it asks you to sign in, but you're allowed to skip that step entirely (there's a button for it.) You're then free to make calls, run apps, etc. So yeah, you very much can use the device without creating a Google account.

      You won't be able to download apps from the Play store, but you'll be able to sideload your own apps if you want (to include downloading the f-droid app store, Amazon app store, etc.)

  2. Re:Operator apps by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Newer versions of Android (I'm wanting to say 4.3 or above, but I'm not certain) allow you to disable those, which includes removing the icon for them and making sure they can't run. Open the app drawer, long press and hold the app icon and drag it to the "app info" (or sometimes just a lowercase i in a circle) and release. On that screen, tap the "turn off" button.

    If you want to remove the app entirely (so that it doesn't use up NVRAM space) then you can use something like Titanium Backup, but you have to be rooted for it to work.

    You can also remove Youtube and Maps, but doing so will probably break other apps (part of the video playback api is included in the youtube app, and any app that uses map services like Endomondo or Gas Buddy will not work if you remove Google Maps. The same is true of any app that uses the sync service API if you remove the gmail app.)