SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the if-you-don't-like-it-you-can-keep-it dept.
Samsung is facing a battle with end users concerning its agreements with software companies to set some preinstalled software on Samsung mobile phones to be undeletable. Users have found that applications like Facebook can't be uninstalled, which has caused some distress given the recent data breaches and lack of respect Facebook has shown towards its users in the past decade. Some users have sworn off getting another Samsung phone if apps can't be uninstalled. The argument that users can just hack the phone to get root access, and then force remove the apps does not hold with non-technical users and anyone who can't risk bricking their device. Samsung has refused to comment on this, and specifically will not provide details about agreements it has with software vendors to force their applications to always be installed on Samsung phones. By comparison, the iPhone does not ever come with pre-installed third party applications.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @06:54PM (4 children)
Was able to remove almost all the things I didn't like, google play services are baked into the image so you gotta reflash your device to remove those. So many apps use google services though, wish you could give Uber / Lyft a street corner or that they would support non-google location services.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @07:08PM
Not all phones are rootable, at least not until a hack is found:
https://old.reddit.com/r/androidroot/comments/99zost/why_is_the_usa_version_of_the_samsung_galaxy_s9s9/ [reddit.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @07:16PM
You can use lyft through your browser:
https://blog.lyft.com/posts/lyft-mobile-web-browser [lyft.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 09 2019, @08:08PM (1 child)
First, you shouldn't use Uber. Scum company doesn't deserve your hard-earned (I suppose) money.
Second, it's not that hard to install a GPS spoofer on your android phone, and tell anyone who wants to know your location that you are in Burundi, until such time that you need the GPS to tell the truth.
Third, you really shouldn't use Uber.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @09:21PM
Don't worry, I live in too small of an area for uber / lyft to even operate! On the occasions I go to a bigger city I have wanted to use one of them, regular taxis are awful if you have to call dispatch. I will be using the lyft web portal mentioned above for future rides.