Samsung has been a malicious bad actor for a while now. It’s not just phones; they also pulled shit like retroactively adding ads to people’s smart TVs etc.
(Also, even their “dumb” products, like appliances, are designed to fail just outside warranty. If you don’t believe me, take a look at my washer’s spider arm, which failed catastrophically due to corrosion even though nothing else in the machine had so much of a speck of corrosion on it. Samsung is clearly capable of specifying corrosion-resistant materials and chose not to on purpose in order to create a failure point.)
Everyone should completely boycott Samsung.
and you might think their TVs would be ok, but search for “Samsung TV vertical shadow” or some variant and find endless results for failed LED strips or power supplies. trash.
So does that washing machine still work, or is that spider arm critical to all useful functionality? Anyways, one part getting way more corrosion than the rest is suspicious design.
The spider arm doesn’t do much: it just attaches the washing drum to the drive spindle so that it can spin to wash clothes. If you’re using the “let your dirty clothes sit still in a heap while the machine makes loud noises caused by the broken remains of the arm whacking and grinding against each other” setting, you don’t need it at all!
Your corrosion issue is due to dissimilar metals which, when in contact with one another, begin corroding immediately. They chose those materials knowing full well what would happen.
Their appliances are absolute garbage and I’ve read that many repair places refuse to work on them because they’re built so poorly.
Straight up gambling apps too
Gotta gamba
I disabled my DNS block-list for 5 minutes to test something, and my Samsung TV used its newfound freedom to immediately go and automatically install the TikTok app from its app store. It no longer gets the privilege of an internet connection.
Shouldn’t have ever connected it in the first place. I spent $30 on a Chromecast that gets plugged in and connected.
Majorly infuriating.
It’s not really your phone if it does things like this. This is Samsung’s phone you pay for their permission to carry for a few years.
True ownership means fully possessing something and deciding how it operates including what software it runs, what data that software can access, and when it can access it. I would not be surprised if those apps had some very invasive default permissions.
There’s a difference between not having full ownership and not bothering to use it. There’s plenty of options from rooting to full custom ROMs, and as far as I know Samsung does nothing to prevent you using those, they just don’t do it for you / provide support and updates.
Stab in the dark…your on tmobile.
It does this to me too. You disable the damn thing, then you get a carrier update and it reactivates and downloads stupid games no one wants.
First time it did it to me, I thought I got a virus. Come to find out…nah it’s just a thing tmobile forces on you for fun.
Assholes
This is the sorta shit that will likely be in the EUs sights soon. Installing applications nobody asked for because of the carrier? That sounds fucking insanely invasive. It’s like Adidas installing a camera in your apartment because you bought a pair of sneakers.
That’s kind of an extreme example lol unless the game is asking for insane permissions. Still I get your point and hopefully the EU acts on it. Especially since they appear to be humanity’s only hope against shit like this
That’s probably because the EU generally isn’t run by a two party system, where both parties are actually just center-right neoliberals. If you want EU style protections, you have to actually fight for it, like pretty much every European country did.
The European Left needs strong support.
The two party system isn’t the only problem though, there’s also:
- Money being a form of speech – EU MEPs aren’t soliciting billionaires for money to spend on TV ads
- The 10th amendment – prevents any national effort where the federal govt uses a power not explicitly granted to it in the constitution. Obamacare tripped up here for instance, and Obamacare is far from national socialized healthcare. It was a feature when people identified more with their local culture, but in an era when every American identifies as American-first, and engages the political system accordingly by only knowing or caring about national candidates and parties, it becomes a bug.
- States that should have never been states – the US Senate took a heavy rural turn in the 19th century as vast, sparsely populated territories were given statehood. Nowadays this means to buy two US Senators you only need to gaslight ~600k people with advertising (the population of Wyoming). The founding fathers never really developed a solid plan for how the west would be settled, and it shows.
- Powerful and unaccountable Court – the Supreme Court is given authority over both other branches, serving life terms, with few guidelines or restrictions. A party with the Presidency and Senate at the right time can gain a majority of the court and undo (or manufacture) precedent at the snap of a finger. The resulting system makes it far easier to capture the court than to pass a constitutional amendment. Think abortion should be legal? Here’s a roundabout legal justification for that. Oh the new majority thinks it shouldn’t be? Okay now it’s gone. It’s a chaotic way to handle bedrock rights like access to healthcare and privacy (neither of which are mentioned anywhere in the US constitution). The constitution should be malleable enough that the court is strictly tasked with interpreting the letter of the law. The US shouldn’t be relying on legal gymnastics to legalize abortion and gay marriage. It’s unstable and undemocratic.
- Electoral College – the leader of the country, not just the Executive but the Head of State, is elected in a way that respects statehood more than personhood. It is more concerned with making sure Wyoming gets a fair vote than making sure John Doe in Queens does.
- First past the post voting – this is another oversight by the founding fathers that many European republics were able to avoid, and it’s the root cause of the two party system. But it also makes gerrymandering possible, which completely breaks both state-level politics and the US House. It makes so many seats into “safe seats” that the “money is speech” briberies become much easier to allocate.
- Racism – almost every dumb thing about American politics can be traced back in some form to slavery, segregation, or racism. Why is every state given 2 senators? Slavery. Why were some of those rural states admitted? Also slavery. Why did White Americans support progressive policies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s? Segregation. Why did the entire Deep South flip from Democrat to Republican in the late 60s? Also segregation. It’s America’s original sin and it’s still playing a role.
Every one of those things plays a role in the US not adopting stricter privacy standards, or leading the way in anything except military might. It’s why American politics is so broken that even a majority of voters wanting to fix it isn’t enough.
This is the sorta shit that will likely be in the EUs sights soon.
You mean the same regulator that unconditionally approved the buyout of Activision-Blizzard by convicted monopolist Microsoft? Yeah, no. Nothing is to be expected by EU regulators.
Verizon does stuff like this too. It downloaded TikTok and other garbage every update. Once I couldn’t take it anymore I got rid of the app downloading it using ADB
Ah, that’s where you’re wrong: it’s not your phone.
One of the reasons that my last Samsung phone was an S5. Can’t reload a custom ROM on them anymore to get rid of OEM shit, as far as I know. Motorolas and Pixels are good for that now.
I did with my S10+, so you definitely could more recently.
Having said that I’m finding the crud much reduced on my S23, like they don’t try to push bixby down your throat every 10 seconds.
At this point I only buy Smartphones with Android One label (Stock Android without anything changed). Samsung especially is full of bloat.
Is Android One still a thing? The Samsung bloat was why I moved to pixel devices. Pixels have never had premium hardware but the software was always 🤌
Xiaomi managed to kill Android One
I switch between the pixel and the one plus
OP’s bloat is provider branding, not stock Samsung. Samsung phones have the second longest support timeframe after Fairphone (who recently announced 7 years of Android updates). Those “stock Android One” phones typically don’t get Android updates for very long.
Just uninstalled this after seeing this thread. If you’re on AT&T like I am the package name for Mobile Services Manager is com.dti.att and it has nothing to do with your actual mobile services. All it does is push and update bloatware. I also nuked every AT&T app that I could. I recommend everyone who has Android Studio do this to their phone its easy.
So it’s AT&T that does this and not Samsung?
Yes. On T Mobile I had to install their voicemail app before it stopped bugging me but no games.
Unbranded Samsung phones don’t have that.
Genuine question here, where are people buying phones that have all of this crap installed on them?
I have only ever bought unlocked phones directly from the manufacturer (pixel, nexus) or from a retailer like best buy and I have never had any carrier crap like this and I started with the nexus one.
I just get the phone and either transfered the physical sim or transferred the sim digitally, at no point has a carrier ever had the ability or permission to install apps on my phone.
I guess maybe because I never saw the point in buying carrier locked phones and always viewed that as a weird arbitrary lockdown(like buying a car that you can only drive on certain highways), I just avoided this? Is that where the bloat ware comes in?
When you buy them from mobile phone companies(T-Mobile, at&t,etc .)you get their bloat ware. This why I also get mine from the manufacturer. Fuck all that bloat ware and it’s unlocked as well.
In US it is common to buy carrier subsidized phones, and those come with their bloatware
Yes, its the carriers. It was extremely easy to remove though as long as you have Android Studio downloaded.
Don’t buy carrier models.
It was hard when they were the only model available at the time, but sure.
So wait. Like gamers waiting for sales
I wouldn’t be able to handle this. Been running GrapheneOS since last year, and I don’t think I could go back to anything else.
Actually started working on a GrapheneOS installation service called SwapMyOS that I think could be helpful to those who wanna install GrapheneOS but don’t how.
I kick a percentage back to GrapheneOS itself to keep the project funded and running (which is the primary motive behind the project).
Same lol, maybe a Linux phone one day so I don’t have to buy another Google phone but unless it runs all the same apps it’s unlikely
The only app I need to work on a linux phone is google maps. Although I haven’t checked how good openstreet map is now. Everything else has a linux alternative
I use public transport a lot and google maps is very helpful so unfortunately can’t live without it, last time I tried openstreet map it was useless for buses etc. As for alternative apps, I’m assuming I’d have trouble with, for example, banking apps, or obscure/niche apps such as my country’s one for booking public transport etc.? Just nice using something that can install all Android apps OOTB
Do you know if it works with an S22?
GrapheneOS only runs on Pixel devices (including the Pixel tablet) because they’re the only ones that meet the strict security standards.
I know LineageOS supports some Samsung devices, but I didn’t see the S22 being supported.
Thanks.
What phone, if I may ask?
GrapheneOS only works on the Pixel line as of this writing.
Samsung is pretty much notorious for this, especially in developing countries where they bundle in every third-party service, PayLater app, shitty mobile game, etc alongside a new device. The only reason they are seen as preferable is that other companies are doing worse (see: Xiaomi).
I don’t know. Samsung seems like a very good company.
And I’m not saying that as they have an army and access to my location.
Blink twice if you’re in danger
Correction: a good hardware company. That is of course if we disregard them turning some phones into bombs. But they also make screens, RAM and so on. I just always hated all their software. It’s utter garbage.
Never again Samsung. Never again.
Never again Samsung. Never again.
Provider branding, not Samsung.
There are basically no ads if you buy Samsung S series without a carrier.
guess its carrier stuff?
Yeah I have a Samsung phone and have never had this problem so I’m guessing it’s carrier stuff and op is unkowongly placing blame on the wrong company here
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I’m looking for a new phone and was eyeing off the pixel, is there no bloatware at all on it??
Pixels run stock Android. If you want a truly minimalist phone that’s not just secure, but private (de-Googled), look into GrapheneOS.
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I bought one unlocked, and unless you consider Google apps bloat, there is nothing on there. Its so clean.
I have had several pixels now and they are amazing, no bloat at all if you buy unlocked.
I would suggest this has absolutely nothing to do with a Samsung update and more than likely some form of malware.
or carrier bloatware. Samsung has it’s thingy like that (only on A series) but it installs TikTok during the setup, nothing else.
Fold 3 here. It tries to do a device cleanup periodically and will try to sneak tiktok and other shit on here.
I only had to tell my A model on first startup that I wanted none of what it was serving and it has kept its word ever since.
Perhaps but the applications displayed by OP would certainly not be installed by a carrier or Samsung. I’ve seen Facebook come pre-installed and other main stream garbage but the above is something completely different.
Look at the title “Mobile Services Manager”…I suppose if you are signed up with some 3rd rate carrier and you hooked up via esim but very sketchy.
US carriers do regularly do shit like this.
This kind of bullshit always comes pre installed on Samsung phones, even the ones from Google that are usually otherwise pretty stock android experiences. If they came in on an update then the responsibility is squarely on the carrier (they manage the OS updates, tailoring them to each device). On the Samsung phone’s I’ve had on Verizon this kind of bullshit has been the worst. I do consider it malware because it installs without user consent, but it’s officially authorized malware. I guess I should just be grateful I can still uninstall them after the updates, but it’s a recurring problem I know I’ll need to address after each update and one day I’m sure they’ll decide you can’t remove those junk apps.
My Galaxy S9 had facebook installed with no way to delete it. You could “disable” it. Super annoying.
Remember when Apple put a U2 song on everyone’s iPhone and people went nuts about it? How dare they do that! That was just a song.
Now companies just install whatever apps they want. And people just accept it.
Now companies just install whatever apps they want. And people just accept it.
That’s because the provider subsidizes the phone and people rather have that than to pay >1000 dollars at retail for an unbranded phone.
