Ad infestation?

[DNRDustin]

Rooting does not void your warranty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YcIHaajda8

What device do you have? What service do you have? As far as my experience goes, it's actually pretty difficult to hard-brick a device. Find your device specific forum, do your research. Read everything twice, maybe even three time, and pull the trigger! Enjoy your new found control over YOUR device.

There are plenty of step by step guides written in the most noob friendly format possible. In general the tools necessary are easy to use, and the instructions are easy to follow. If you still aren't comfortable with the idea of going through the process on your own, find someone in one of these lovely forums to hold your hand. F@!k it, ping me and I'll walk you through it in a hangouts and/or mikogo session. And in the end, if nothing went as planned, you can almost always run a factory update/unbrick tool to bring you back to a fully functional stock rom.

And as far as the proprietary software on pc's comment, there's plenty of software that comes bundled in these newer systems that can't(easily) be removed. Most people just don't know because the average user rarely feels it's necessary to remove. For instance, have you ever tried to remove bundled Norton of Mcafee antivrus. The system doesn't want you to remove it(as far as I'm concerned that crap is an exploit and a virus all in it self); and if you manage to, all of a sudden your system becomes unstable.

So what am I really trying to say here? In the amount of time you've spent dicking around with useless apps to gain control over other useless apps, and complaining about how complicated it is to gain control over YOUR OWN property or hating on corporate tactics, you could have been rooted already and would be way better off for it. System functionality, better security, removal of bloat crap that's taking up you precious space, all things that you could have control over if you took the time and made the effort.

 

[mikedt]

Rooting does not void your warranty. Your Warranty is Not Void - YouTube

What device do you have? What service do you have? As far as my experience goes, it's actually pretty difficult to hard-brick a device. Find your device specific forum, do your research. Read everything twice, maybe even three time, and pull the trigger! Enjoy your new found control over YOUR device.

There are plenty of step by step guides written in the most noob friendly format possible. In general the tools necessary are easy to use, and the instructions are easy to follow. If you still aren't comfortable with the idea of going through the process on your own, find someone in one of these lovely forums to hold your hand. F@!k it, ping me and I'll walk you through it in a hangouts and/or mikogo session. And in the end, if nothing went as planned, you can almost always run a factory update/unbrick tool to bring you back to a fully functional stock rom.

And as far as the proprietary software on pc's comment, there's plenty of software that comes bundled in these newer systems that can't(easily) be removed. Most people just don't know because the average user rarely feels it's necessary to remove. For instance, have you ever tried to remove bundled Norton of Mcafee antivrus. The system doesn't want you to remove it(as far as I'm concerned that crap is an exploit and a virus all in it self); and if you manage to, all of a sudden your system becomes unstable.

So what am I really trying to say here? In the amount of time you've spent dicking around with useless apps to gain control over other useless apps, and complaining about how complicated it is to gain control over YOUR OWN property or hating on corporate tactics, you could have been rooted already and would be way better off for it. System functionality, better security, removal of bloat crap that's taking up you precious space, all things that you could have control over if you took the time and made the effort.

Many phones intended for sale in China come with a real load of ad and bloat crap, and that's even non-carrier ones. We had a post recently "every time it gets wireless connection it tries to download 5 or more adult chineses apps with access to everything in the phone", which was a counterfeit iPhone I believe

 

[grande]

Rooting does not void your warranty. Your Warranty is Not Void - YouTube

What device do you have? What service do you have? As far as my experience goes, it's actually pretty difficult to hard-brick a device. Find your device specific forum, do your research. Read everything twice, maybe even three time, and pull the trigger! Enjoy your new found control over YOUR device.

There are plenty of step by step guides written in the most noob friendly format possible. In general the tools necessary are easy to use, and the instructions are easy to follow. If you still aren't comfortable with the idea of going through the process on your own, find someone in one of these lovely forums to hold your hand. F@!k it, ping me and I'll walk you through it in a hangouts and/or mikogo session. And in the end, if nothing went as planned, you can almost always run a factory update/unbrick tool to bring you back to a fully functional stock rom.

And as far as the proprietary software on pc's comment, there's plenty of software that comes bundled in these newer systems that can't(easily) be removed. Most people just don't know because the average user rarely feels it's necessary to remove. For instance, have you ever tried to remove bundled Norton of Mcafee antivrus. The system doesn't want you to remove it(as far as I'm concerned that crap is an exploit and a virus all in it self); and if you manage to, all of a sudden your system becomes unstable.

So what am I really trying to say here? In the amount of time you've spent dicking around with useless apps to gain control over other useless apps, and complaining about how complicated it is to gain control over YOUR OWN property or hating on corporate tactics, you could have been rooted already and would be way better off for it. System functionality, better security, removal of bloat crap that's taking up you precious space, all things that you could have control over if you took the time and made the effort.

I'm not American, and I'd rather not get into legal disputes regarding warranty. To be honest I don't really feel the need to root anyway. My Asus tablet fortunately didn't come with a lot of bloatware. I think the only non-Google apps it came with were Polaris Office, Super Note, and Kindle ebook Reader (or something like that), all of which are good apps even though I've never used the ebook reader. And I think I can even uninstall them if I want to (not sure though, I've never tried). It also came with a very good email widget and the best weather widget I've seen when compared to the ones I saw on Google Play, but unfortunately it bugs when used with the Nova Launcher so I had to settle with an uglier widget.

Regarding the other comments, the fact I'm not American also means I'm not entirely sure what Verizon etc are. I don't think we use the same system you have in the US here (I live in Malta). But I like that my "rant" brought about all this discussion, I didn't expect much of a response.

On another note, I think the annoying popup ads MIGHT have gone now. Luckily I have only uninstalled a few apps. For some reason I suspect it was Friendcaster , even though it has a very high rating and I think it was an Editor's Choice.

 

[JIMV]

Now if you were willing to pay the full unsubsidised price for a non-carrier phone you wouldn't have to put up with carrier bloatware.

Would you be willing to pay $2,000 for a car rather than $20,000? But with the $2,000 car the radio only plays the stations that the manufacturer gets kickbacks from, and can only use gas from one company.

I do not buy the 'subsidized' argument. I do not deny that the carriers are getting a kick back from the bloatware merchants BUT, the carriers make their money from overpriced plans, not bloatware. The phones cost way less than they charge to make. It is more like getting the $20K car for $19.5K with the restricted radio.

 

[JIMV]

For instance, have you ever tried to remove bundled Norton of Mcafee antivrus. The system doesn't want you to remove it(as far as I'm concerned that crap is an exploit and a virus all in it self); and if you manage to, all of a sudden your system becomes unstable.

The first thing I do with a new PC is remove the loaded Norton/Mcafee bloat and then load my own program. I also get rid of all games and every program that I am not clear as to purpose. If I run into problems removing the Norton crap, I get the latest removal tool and use that. I have never had a stability problem in doing that.


I also do a file search for the key words Norton and Mcafee and delete any remaining files. I find removing the bloat speeds the machine.

 

[Hadron]

The bill of parts often comes to more than the subsidised price (obviously so when the subsidised price is zero , never mind other expenses. And while the carrier doesn't pay what we do for an unlocked phone, they won't get them at cost. So I think you are taking the counter argument too far.

The truth, I suspect, is that the kickback for bloat is an extra for the carrier - you pay through inflated contract charges plus they pocket these payments. And some of the bloat is from the carrier themselves, to push their services.

 

[JIMV]

The bill of parts often comes to more than the subsidised price (obviously so when the subsidised price is zero , never mind other expenses. And while the carrier doesn't pay what we do for an unlocked phone, they won't get them at cost. So I think you are taking the counter argument too far.

The truth, I suspect, is that the kickback for bloat is an extra for the carrier - you pay through inflated contract charges plus they pocket these payments. And some of the bloat is from the carrier themselves, to push their services.

If you think there are $6-700 in parts in any cell phone, well, I must say you are mistaken. The phones are made in vast numbers in low labor cost nations mostly by machines. I would be amazed if the actual construction cost for any phone is more than a couple of hundred bucks.

Carriers make their money not for phone sales and not from kickbacks from bloatware but from vastly overpriced phone/data plans.

The bloatware is simply free money. I do not blame the carriers for taking it. I blame the customers for allowing it.

 

[mikedt]

If you think there are $6-700 in parts in any cell phone, well, I must say you are mistaken. The phones are made in vast numbers in low labor cost nations mostly by machines. I would be amazed if the actual construction cost for any phone is more than a couple of hundred bucks.

Carriers make their money not for phone sales and not from kickbacks from bloatware but from vastly overpriced phone/data plans.

The bloatware is simply free money. I do not blame the carriers for taking it. I blame the customers for allowing it.

Yeh I think customers allow it and maybe kind of expect it sometimes. Sprint is heavily associated with NASCAR. Customers probably know that. And so they might expect Sprint phones to come with NASCAR stuff. Hard luck if you're a Sprint customer who doesn't like NASCAR, and they have occasionally posted on AF asking, how do I remove this crap from my Sprint phone. Even I've heard of "Sprint Nextel Cup" and I'm English, and in China....LOL.

What bloatware and kickback stuff do Verizon Wireless put on their phones?

Although it sounds like you don't have much choice in the States sometimes. If you're on a CDMA carrier, you pretty much have to buy it from a carrier, as it can be quite difficult to find a non-carrier CDMA phone AFAICT.

Even though the manufacturing costs of a top-end phone might only be $200 or something, and the carriers will buy them at wholesale prices. However if you want a non-carrier phone, you have to pay full retail price, which could be anything like $700-$900 upfront, and you still must have a carrier contract to make use of it of course. And so we're back to the $2,000 car vs the $20,000 car...because I do like car analogies.

Anyway it could be worse, you could live in a country where all phones come with "ad infestation", whether they're supplied by carriers or not. If you don't want it, either you import or you root.

 

[Hadron]

If you think there are $6-700 in parts in any cell phone, well, I must say you are mistaken.

I don't. That's why I said subsidised price - you had just compared it to a $500 subsidy of a $20k car, which would imply that a phone with a subsidised price of $200 cost the network $205. My point was that that was taking it too far.

I absolutely agree that they make the actual subsidy back many times over in contract costs, especially since they pay less than the full retail price for the handset. One thing you will not hear me defend is the handset subsidy model!