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HTC Keyboard Ads Likely an Error, But Damage is Already Done (androidcentral.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Ads in the stock keyboard app on a flagship smartphone added quietly via an app update, which then asks you to pay to remove them. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a more comically villainous thing for a phone manufacturer, or app developer, to pull on its users. Yet that's what's been happening to some HTC phone owners over the past day. HTC 10 owners seem to be worst affected (we're not seeing it on the newer U11 for what it's worth), with the ad bar taking up a good chunk of screen real estate. There's understandable outrage among HTC owners whose phones have started coughing up ads every time they open the keyboard. The consensus, obviously, is that this is not an OK place for ads to be appearing. In a statement, HTC said it was an error, and a fix is underway.
Systemd.
...said every HTC phone owner, ever.
It's way too early in the morning for me to exert this much brainpower trying to decipher such a poorly worded summary.
Better known as 318230.
It's not like you can just 'accidentally' code the framework which would support the ads to be played in the first place.
Obvious flamebait, but the amount of advertising on the Android handset I owned got to be so overwhelming that it was one of the major reasons I am back to iPhone, after having given it up hoping for a more open and functional platform. Turned out, it wasn't.
"HTC said it was an error, and a fix is underway" - With bullshit lines like that spewing forth every other day, is it any wonder people are fed up with the status quo?
Sure. Implementing all the code to display ads within the keyboard app just happened because the cat ran over the keyboard.
Oh, you mean it was an error that this crap got rolled out? Thanks for informing me about how the future looks like for HTC customers, then.
I used to love HTC products, now i avoid them.
The Android is so much cheaper - by a factor of 1/7th the cost or so.
Or you have to sign up for those ridiculous contracts from carriers for a subsidized iPhone and still pay $200 up front.
I paid $119 for a Samsung J1 ACE - it has a removable battery - and it's pretty good.
Although, too many android app developers do not understand that apps do not always need blanket access to every aspect of a phone (I blame laziness and stupidity: not malice). I will not install an app - "free" or not - that requires access to things that it has no business having access to - like why does a guitar tuning app or a weather app need access to my contacts or location information? My iPad allows me to turn-off location and I can still use the weather.com app by just putting my zip code in - a weather app does NOT need GPS locations!!
Ads don't magically appear by dint of the universe being against us (although, the universe is against us). In order for those ads to appear, some poor developer had to be given the task of adding that feature. Then some other poor fools had to test it and qualify it across multiple hardware platforms. Then it had to get bundled into the software update, and then pushed out to users.
My point is, there were many, many very intentional acts required for this to occur, and almost none of which could conceivably have been an accident or "error". This ass-hattery must be roundly called out and ridiculed. Probably there isn't any legal action indicated, but it might be nice for someone to try.
Oops, my finger slipped and accidentally all this code to display ads in a rectangular bounding box and get ads from ad servers and a working payment system that allows removing them!
Any company that pulls this type of crap should quickly dive into bankruptcy as it loses customers*
The reality is that most customers won't care.
* Note: this was deliberate. As others have pointed out, you don't accidentally put ads into an app. Also, why wasn't it pulled immediately? This was a deliberate attempt to test the reaction to ads in the keyboard app.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Wait, there is LESS crapware on iTunes?
Holy shit, now I gotta see what that android variant is like!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
THAT, friends, is why you root the shit out of Android and then use an app like AdAway, which uses the /etc/hosts file to block ads, which is why root is required. I tried other adblockers that didnt use the hosts file and none worked worth a damn.. Before I rooted my phone, it was endless ads in EVERYthing, and of course, this crap was eating up my data like mad, for which I pay for what I use (am on Ting.com). Once I rooted and installed AdAway, no more ads, and my data consumption went down signifcantly...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Buy a Pixel with Project Fi. I don't get ads. I get pure Android.
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Android is only worth a shit if its rooted and has something like AdAway installed, which uses the /etc/hosts file to actually BLOCK the ad servers.
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Funny.
I have no ads anywhere other than in browser on sites that have them. Maybe it is because I choose decent apps and pay for them. Instead of downloading every piece of shit freeware on the face of the planet and then complaining about it.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
and the average Android user can do that?
Really?
That's why it is a crapfest but hey, we put up with it because it isn't Apple.
On Samsung phones, you can leverage Knox to get device administration without root. Adhell notably uses Knox and in addition to ad-blocking, it also allows freezing of preinstalled crapware.
All of that said, obtrusive ads should be subject to similar laws as the "do no call" list. A $500 fine for each infraction of a "do not advertise" list would go a long way.
Yeah, I didn't use it (save a couple of times to check it could actually control my tv) but it did no harm ...until a recent update started creating notifications far too often to get itself noticed. I tried to find an option to disable them to no avail so I just rolled it back to the version it came with the phone and I've been happy ever since.
THAT, friends, is why you root the shit out of Android and then use an app like AdAway, which uses the /etc/hosts file to block ads, which is why root is required. I tried other adblockers that didnt use the hosts file and none worked worth a damn.. Before I rooted my phone, it was endless ads in EVERYthing, and of course, this crap was eating up my data like mad, for which I pay for what I use (am on Ting.com). Once I rooted and installed AdAway, no more ads, and my data consumption went down signifcantly...
The problem with this is you lose access to a ton of apps that rely on "SafetyNet". Everything from Pokemon GO to AndroidPay to SnapChat uses SafetyNet and will refuse to run if it can detect that your system image has been modified or if it can detect that you have root access. (In SnapChat's case it only does this when you want to log in, so you can disable root, log in, then root again.) More and more apps are using SafetyNet, and it's fucking awful. It's a cat and mouse game to get root and still pass SafetyNet.
The subject says most of what I want to say. Consumer level computing is reaching a very sad state of affairs. It's infested with advertising, user spying, walled gardens, artificial limitations and in general, user-hostile "features".
The iPhone popularized the walled garden concept where the manufacturer decides what you can and can't do with your device by limiting what software you're allowed to run. Then Google designed Android to be a vehicle for pushing their services and spying the masses. Then Microsoft got the worst of both and pushed it into Windows 10. To top it all off, software manufacturers are pushing hard for a rent model where you have to pay periodically if you want to keep using the software.
All I really want is the classic model where I pay some money and can do whatever I want with my hardware and software. Right now, the only way to escape is to run Linux
Ads are not OK anywhere. Some places are worse than others, but they are never OK. Advertisements chip away at a civil society. They are a destructive force. Our goal should be to eliminate them from the world.
A survey of search terms is hardly a scientific study. There is a persistent rumor that Apple somehow cripples the OS on older models to make people want to upgrade. To me, seeing the search terms spike is not confirmation of the deed, but rather confirmation of the rumor.
An alternative explanation is just that Apple has chosen to support their newer operating systems on older hardware that isn't necessarily powerful enough to run new features well. It's a real catch 22, where if they chose to only release new features on hardware that could run those features well, they'd be accused of forced obsolescence. On the other hand, by allowing new features to run on older hardware, the older hardware runs slower because it has a hard time keeping up with the new features. And Apple gets accused of forced obsolescence because the old hardware runs slow.
To be sure, a real study needs to be done which compares benchmarks on older hardware between OS upgrades and over time. That would show for sure whether it is in fact just that newer OSes run slower on older hardware and that any apparent slowdown prior to a new hardware release is merely perceptual, or if a piece of hardware running the same OS really does slow down prior to a new hardware release.
APK is that you?
Except the plan is really expensive if you don't actively manage data usage (or would be for me at least).
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
...but you will never get a dime from me to remove ads.
I decided to stop buying HTC when they completely refused to unlock the device. I likewise absolutely refuse to run their (poor quality) stock, and we all see the consequences of their OTAs/updates.
Sunshine appears to do quite the business with HTC.
OMG! The sky is falling! HTC is f***ed! We can never trust them again to fix a minor mistake! It destroys this perfectly awesome phone. I'm crushed.
Tell me what you believe...I'll tell you what you should see.
Funny.
I have no ads anywhere other than in browser on sites that have them. Maybe it is because I choose decent apps and pay for them. Instead of downloading every piece of shit freeware on the face of the planet and then complaining about it.
If your phone vendor "accidentally" put ads into their stock keyboard app...
I guess you need to amend that to choosing decent phone vendors...
Right, meanwhile, Apple won't even let you use a real adblocker because of their locked in Safari browser and you're forced to deal with hell from websites that abuse the crap out of it. Granted it's not as bad as a locked-in Android phone, but it's still quite annoying.
I'll stick to my rooted phones where I can remove all the ads, remove the malware and actually have a real firewall on my phone. Also, I like being able to stream music from youtube with the screen off, where a locked Iphone or locked Android phone cannot do unless you root/jailbreak.
If and when Google wants to go to the Iphone model with their recent Android lockin BS and spying, I'll just go back to a dumb phone. I still have my old Nokia phone that can keep a charge for over a week and works great.
So then I won't use their applications.
My wife is Taiwanese... so Taiwan econ stuff actually somewhat resonates with me. HTC is going down the tubes., Now, you have a vicious cycle... losing money, so lets do desperate stuff, that alienates more people, so we get more desperate...
Bye Bye htc, sadly.
Huawei Y3 also had the default keyboard app showing ads after a few weeks of usage. I had to uninstall the keyboard app to get rid of this nuisance.
Just a note, I have the U11 and started seeing the ads. At first I thought it was the Verizon Message+ app, so I switched the the default HTC one and they still showed up. I couldn't believe they'd make their default keyboard Ad-Ware. The first story I read about this was that the 3rd party vendor made the mistake (They have an adware version of this keyboard and accidentally turned on the ads when they pushed out the update for HTC). It's a pretty nice keyboard, but I had the full Swype version to fall back on, and did. I don't think I'll go back to the HTC one, there's no reason. But, I have to say, this U11 is a nice phone.
the first against the wall will be the Sir^h^h^h HTC martketing department.
You'll be using fewer and fewer applications then as more and more applications require a SafetyNet check.
Everything from online banking apps to games require it. Banking apps make no sense when you can get the full functionality (and often more than the app provides) from a web browser on your phone or a PC with absolutely no "security" checks. Games at least make sense, even if I don't like it. They want to prevent cheating and prevent ad blocking.
SnapChat required it in order to prevent people from saving snaps, but they've backed off from the whole ephemeral thing in the last couple of years. SO I have no clue why they've still got the initial SafetyNet check.
So I have to buy an Android handset, then I have to root it, and then I have to run adblockers in perpetuity?
Or I could just buy an iPhone and I'm done.
I'm not cheap. I'll pay more money for quality software.
Which is why I'm using iOS now.
Because I am capable of making my own decision of what I do and do not want on my phone. I do not need a dead fag with a turtle neck to tell me what I want in a phone.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
...a framework for transmitting and displaying ads above the HTC keyboard. My finger must have slipped. Repeatedly. In just the right way. Thousands of times. And then I accidentally compiled and tested the code.
It's the crappy apps you're installing, not Android itself. When you want something for free, did you really believe that it would be without cost?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Everything from online banking apps to games require it.
Some Slashdot users are so adamant about their freedom that they'll stick to those games that are on F-Droid and even move their accounts from a bank whose app uses SafetyNet to a credit union whose app does not.
The problem with this is you lose access to a ton of apps that rely on "SafetyNet".
I was going to moderate, as what you say is interesting; however, I should point out that you can do without those apps or you can ensure your phone is just a phone and use those apps on a small tablet or something where the constant barrage of advertisements does not directly affect your ability to communicate.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
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Yes, benchmarks should be done on the same hardware+iOS over time. People are asserting that degradation over time, especially close to new hardware releases, is maliciously built in by Apple. But I have yet to see hard evidence that any such degradation even happens in the first place.