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Apple's Stock iOS Apps Land On App Store, Hints That It Could Allow People To Get Rid Of Them (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the good-riddance dept.

For years, people have expressed their desire to be able to remove apps such as Mail, Stocks, Compass, Calculator, Watch, and Weather among others that come preinstalled on their iPhone and iPad. Apple is finally making it possible, it appears. TechCrunch reports: Apple quietly published these apps to its iTunes website today (some are live now), but has not yet officially announced the change on stage at WWDC. Product Hunt spotted the Mail app in iTunes thanks to a tweet from Owen Williams, leading to speculation that Apple's other apps will be made available through the App Store, as well. As it turned out, they were.This was a big issue especially for those users who go for the 16GB variant of the iPhone or iPad, as it has limited storage capacity, and these apps would eat up a significant part of it. The company had previously commented on the issue, noting that these apps work in conjunction with the core of the operating system, so uncoupling them wasn't so easy. Update: 06/14 04:56 GMT by M : It is certainly happening.

10 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Nice, but a little late... by wikthemighty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is something I've wanted since I got my 2nd gen iPod Touch.

    However, with the addition of folders, this is no longer that necessary.

    I'd happily trade the ability to remove stock Apple apps to be able to open addresses directly in Google Maps...

    --
    "There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
    1. Re:Nice, but a little late... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 2

      I'd happily trade the ability to remove stock Apple apps to be able to open addresses directly in Google Maps...

      Perhaps if you don't have the Apple Maps app installed and you have another app that exposes the same functionality, it will be allowed to be opened by default when an address is selected? (Just like in most other operating systems.)

      Apple will have to be very careful about this.

      It's cool if it's Google Maps or Waze as the mapping application. Not so cool if it's Fandango or Angry Birds.

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  2. Re:2 Little 2 Late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    iOS is dying.

    Facts say otherwise.

  3. Re:2 Little 2 Late by mark-t · · Score: 2

    Did netcraft confirm it or something?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. "hint" ?? Do your research by Chmarr · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's very, very explicit.

    https://support.apple.com/en-g...

  5. Confirmed, not just hinted by k3vlar · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's now an Apple support document on the subject: https://support.apple.com/en-g...

    Of note: Removing these built-in apps only frees up ~160mb, which isn't a lot.

    Personally, I'm just happy to free up the home screen clutter.

    --
    Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
    1. Re:Confirmed, not just hinted by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It also means that Apple can update an app without needing to wait for a new OS version.

    2. Re:Confirmed, not just hinted by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      No. Apple say that to reinstall an app, you download it from the app store. So the original is clearly not just hidden.

  6. These apps would eat up a significant part of it?? by John+Bokma · · Score: 2
    "The apps built into iOS are designed to be very space efficient, so all of them together use less than 150MB. " https://support.apple.com/en-g...

    150MB out of 16GB, yeah, significant part..., less than 1%

    --

    Perl Programmer for hire
  7. All of iOS and its apps less than 700K by perpenso · · Score: 3, Funny

    If any of the listed apps takes up a significant part of 16GB then Apple is doing something wrong.

    I happen to have a freshly reformatted phone, all preinstalled files account for less than 700K.

    That said, deleting non-critical apps is a good thing, but yeah, lets not pretend it is some great difference even on a 16GB device.