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Forget PCs. The Real Bloatware Problem Is on Android


Reefa

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Bloatware, the crappy and unnecessary software that comes preinstalled on your new computer, has been around since AOL paid PC makers to roll its dial-up service into their machines back in the 1990s. But that era may be coming to a close.

Last week, the world’s largest PC maker, Lenovo, vowed to “eliminate what our industry calls ‘adware’ and ‘bloatware'” from its PCs.

The company was forced to do this when it got caught sliding a seriously dangerous piece of adware called Superfish onto its laptop computers. Lenovo’s pledge is a win in the battle against bloatware. But in 2015, PCs are now a bit of a sideline skirmish. The most important front right now is Android. On phones running Google’s mobile operating system, the forces of bloatware are winning.

Android has a bigger bloatware problem than the PCs, but Google could make it go away. All it would have to do is become its own wireless carrier.

Take Jared Burrows, a software developer with Northrop Grumman who’s written a few Android apps of his own. Burrows runs a custom script that yanks about two dozen unwanted programs off of his Android phone, he says. He hates all that unwanted software, and for good reason. “I do not like things running in the background because it causes my battery to run down, and it’s always using data,” he says.

Bloatware is a bigger headache on Android phones than it is on PCs for multiple reasons, says Irfan Asrar, a researcher with mobile security company Appthority. “Not only is it harder to remove (every time you do a factory reset it will come back), but it’s costing you resources such as data usage and battery drainage as well as pushing the boundaries on privacy,” he said in an email to WIRED.

Fix This, Google—Please!

Tiny margins make consumer electronics a cutthroat market, Asrar says. As a result, bloatware lures device manufactures with a tempting additional revenue stream that comes from asking app developers and publishers to pay up for the privilege of being distributed with the phone. “In some cases this also helps subsidize the price of the device,” Asrar says.

What’s worse, Droidland has not one source of bloatware but two. Handset makers like Samsung and HTC love to pre-install their own apps. Then carriers like Verizon or AT&T do the same thing. My Samsung Galaxy Note, for example, shipped with pre-installed messaging software from Google, Samsung, and Verizon. That’s excessive.

But if Android has a bigger bloatware problem than the PCs, Google could make it go away. All the maker of the world’s most popular mobile operating system would have to do is become its own wireless carrier.

Google’s Nexus phones are already the most bloatware-free Android handsets out there. If Google then becomes a wireless carrier itself—an “experiment” that’s in the works, the company said yesterday—then it could also cut out the carrier-level junk and build a phone that’s completely bloatware free.

Apple keeps its phones largely free of this unwanted software by exerting rigorous control over what can and cannot get installed on its own hardware. Yanking this much control away from the phone companies by delivering a phone unsullied by their crappy add-ons was a big breakthrough. But as a mobile carrier, Google would have more control of the final product than even Apple. It would be the only company to oversee every stage of the mobile market: from coding the base software to building the handsets to controlling the little white boxes that get sent out to customers.

With that much power, maybe Google could give the world the kind of Android phones we really want: the kind that doesn’t come filled with crap from the moment we turn them on.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/forget-pc-real-crapware-problem-android/
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Well if you are a motorola or google nexus user, One wont find any bloat.They stick to AOSP .

Thats why i love moto phones,free of bloat.

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Well if you are a motorola or google nexus user, One wont find any bloat.They stick to AOSP .

Thats why i love moto phones,free of bloat.

You can have any Android phone free of bloat. Just install a custom rom like Cyanongenmod or many of the other AOSP based roms.

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Well if you are a motorola or google nexus user, One wont find any bloat.They stick to AOSP .

Thats why i love moto phones,free of bloat.

It's why I have a Nexus. That and fast OTA updates without waiting for my manufacturer or carrier to release them.

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Root and use titanium backup and and yeah just in case something goes wrong take a Nandroid backup before doin something !!

we can mostly do ourselves why Bother Google?

Also Google or AOSp based phones are closed to vanilla android that is free of BLOAT

Only other OEM companies Like HTC,Samsung,Sony these guyz include BLoat because they get paid for it :P

Regards

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You can have any Android phone free of bloat. Just install a custom rom like Cyanongenmod or many of the other AOSP based roms.

or just root it and remove bloatware that comes in stock rom by yourself.

Root and use titanium backup and and yeah just in case something goes wrong take a Nandroid backup before doin something !!

Normal, average users can barely use all their smartphones' features, let alone root and install a custom ROM.

Bloated, OEM android versions are a problem and to state to install a ROM isn't a solution for masses. It's like buying a car with a powerful but very heavy engine and then being told to just change the engine and get a lighter one.

The better approach, as already stated, would be to buy a moto or nexus phone. I have a nexus 7 and although I might be missing some features compared to say samsungs, I'm more than happy to have a clean OS.

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You can have any Android phone free of bloat. Just install a custom rom like Cyanongenmod or many of the other AOSP based roms.

or just root it and remove bloatware that comes in stock rom by yourself.

Root and use titanium backup and and yeah just in case something goes wrong take a Nandroid backup before doin something !!

Normal, average users can barely use all their smartphones' features, let alone root and install a custom ROM.

Bloated, OEM android versions are a problem and to state to install a ROM isn't a solution for masses. It's like buying a car with a powerful but very heavy engine and then being told to just change the engine and get a lighter one.

The better approach, as already stated, would be to buy a moto or nexus phone. I have a nexus 7 and although I might be missing some features compared to say samsungs, I'm more than happy to have a clean OS.

I dont give a sh1t about average users lol. Our comments were in relation to people who make full use of their smart devices or at least have the capacity or eagerness to learn, not iSheep dweebs.

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Normal, average users can barely use all their smartphones' features, let alone root and install a custom ROM.

Bloated, OEM android versions are a problem and to state to install a ROM isn't a solution for masses. It's like buying a car with a powerful but very heavy engine and then being told to just change the engine and get a lighter one.

The better approach, as already stated, would be to buy a moto or nexus phone. I have a nexus 7 and although I might be missing some features compared to say samsungs, I'm more than happy to have a clean OS.

no it's better for you. there are people that really like/want/need the features that only available in specifics oem manufacture. such as sony xperia z's waterproof, tons of features that samsung stock rom has, etc. if it's just an app, you'll probably find some equivalent app in play store, but if it's hardware feature or drm-protected content, only the specific device has it.

for that, i think you either live with the bloats or learn more about getting most from your device. with rooted stock rom you still can enjoy the specific features that you want, and remove the bloatwares. and beside most devices get root (the exploit to have root access, without unlocking the bootloader) now. some sony devices (especially the Z3) took longer to found the exploit, but they found it anyway. :D

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such as sony xperia z's waterproof, tons of features that samsung stock rom has, etc. if it's just an app, you'll probably find some equivalent app in play store, but if it's hardware feature or drm-protected content, only the specific device has it.

Waterproofing is a hardware thing. It doesn't slow the phone down.

Which samsung features do you have in mind that cannot be represented with a module and/or app? I think samsung's problem is that they run too many background things and also do not optimize them enough. Maybe they should get better at programming.

DRMs also shouldn't slow the phone down, unless they're accompanied with badly written background processes which shouldn't be there in the first place.

for that, i think you either live with the bloats or learn more about getting most from your device.

Why should users be forced to "live" with the bloat? OEMs can offer features without slowing down the whole OS, with unnecessary background processes, etc. They can simply make them un-installable and offer them through the store for everyone who wants to install them again. Users shouldn't be forced to root their phones, just to remove some apps and modules.

We had this problem with windows laptops (although not to this extent, since removing programs in windows is much easier); but now we could get "signature edition" laptops with no extra third-party software installed. If someone wants them, he/she can simply download and install them.

Our comments were in relation to people who make full use of their smart devices or at least have the capacity or eagerness to learn, not iSheep dweebs.

Rooting isn't a trivial or supported thing to "learn". It's a hack, basically, not a feature. No matter how eager or resourceful, most people would not be willing to root and void their warranty.

How's an android user an isheep dweeb? There's no reason to insult people.

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Why should users be forced to "live" with the bloat? OEMs can offer features without slowing down the whole OS, with unnecessary background processes, etc. They can simply make them un-installable and offer them through the store for everyone who wants to install them again. Users shouldn't be forced to root their phones, just to remove some apps and modules.

We had this problem with windows laptops (although not to this extent, since removing programs in windows is much easier); but now we could get "signature edition" laptops with no extra third-party software installed. If someone wants them, he/she can simply download and install them.

Rooting isn't a trivial or supported thing to "learn". It's a hack, basically. It's not a solution.

you can ask the oem manufacturer companies (which is a giant) to remove the bloatware.. good luck though :D

well, atleast rooting is more viable solution rather than only buy moto and nexus series if you dont want bloatwares. other companies might go bankrupt you know.. how many people will be unemployed :(

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you can ask the oem manufacturer companies (which is a giant) to remove the bloatware.. good luck though :D

well, atleast rooting is more viable solution rather than only buy moto and nexus series if you dont want bloatwares. other companies might go bankrupt you know.. how many people will be unemployed :(

That's google's job to regulate the OEMs, not users.

I'm not saying users shouldn't buy other brands. Just saying that OEMs shouldn't just put un-removable stuff on their devices and slow them down.

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