FARK.com: (6839461) Yes Virginia, the Galaxy Nexus phone comes preloaded with Verizon crapware

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		Yes Virginia, the Galaxy Nexus phone comes preloaded with Verizon crapware (gizmodo.com)		37
		More: Obvious

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2397 clicks; posted to Geek » on 22 Dec 2011 at 8:20 PM | Favorite | share:

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Friskya		2011-12-22 07:58:22 PM

If they hold to past patterns, it will also have half of it's capabilities disabled.

ecmoRandomNumbers		2011-12-22 08:05:00 PM

Root.

darwinpolice		2011-12-22 08:24:53 PM

Mine has pretty god-awful battery life. That's a much bigger sticking point than the fact that it comes with one application that I would definitely install on my own anyway.

ChubbyTiger		2011-12-22 08:29:04 PM

LTE: fast, power hungry.

That half-millimeter isn't going to get you much.

Splinshints		2011-12-22 08:34:19 PM

darwinpolice: Mine has pretty god-awful battery life

Worse than most LTE Droid phones or about the same?

I can deal with an 8 hour battery under moderate usage, but that's pretty much the limit. Beyond that, either app efficiency or batteries need to improve. I have a Thunderbolt now and 8 hours is about where the battery is at if I keep it on either 4G or Wifi all the time.

ecmoRandomNumbers		2011-12-22 08:34:39 PM

When I got my Droid 2 it came with Froyo and the battery life was pretty crappy, so I bought two spare batteries through Amazon. Then I upgraded to Gingerbread, re-rooted, and took off all the Verizon crapware. The battery life is much improved, but I hate that I don't have ad-hoc network capability anymore. Farking Verizon.

bravian		2011-12-22 08:40:48 PM

But! But! FREEDOM!

drjekel_mrhyde		2011-12-22 08:42:39 PM

Yes Virginia, the Galaxy Nexus phone comes preloaded with Verizon crapware
Or you can get a phone with a OS that you can remove any carrier or OEM crapware off it within seconds without having to root.
/Did I mention that OS also is way better on battery life than it's cousins in the Android line up

This About That		2011-12-22 08:45:12 PM

WHY THE HELL DOES THE GALAXY NEXUS COME PRELOADED WITH CRAPPY VERIZON APPS

Why is Google the default search engine in Firefox?

Hint: It's all, and I do mean all, about the money.

AlgaeRancher		2011-12-22 09:00:15 PM

and i keep my old fashioned non smart cell phone and recharge about once a week

/shuffles off to put onions in my belt

MrEricSir		2011-12-22 09:00:19 PM

bravian: But! But! FREEDOM!

The freedom to be shat upon; just like we're used to here in the USA!

Biiirdmaaan!		2011-12-22 09:00:53 PM

Backup assistant is useful but not necessary. Whatever. Be pissy about it if you want.

My Verizon Mobile, however, is absolutely vital now that Verizon has data caps. I would be pissed if I had no way to check where I was on my data usage preloaded on my phone.

In short, Gizmodo article is whiny and stupid. But I repeat myself.

Fursecution		2011-12-22 09:01:29 PM

Remember, Google user:

www.adbusters.org

jtown		2011-12-22 09:03:53 PM

OMG, get over it, purists. Why on earth would you be angry about having apps that back up your data and give you access to your account info? Jesus tap-dancing Christ. I'm pretty sure every carrier-branded Nexus has had a small number of apps included. I actually like having the dual backup (Google and Verizon) and full access to my account details. I haven't found anything done to the phone by Verizon that inhibits my use of the phone and I don't consider two carrier apps to be OMG-the-sky-is-falling terrible.

I've had my phone for about a week and I'm pretty content with it. Battery life could be better but it gets me through the day. If you want it to last longer, turn off all the data connection and only activate it when you need it. Sitting idle with data, GPS, and WiFi turned off, (and the screen off), it drains about half a percent per hour. That's with the phone still active and responding to incoming calls and texts. Honestly, if you're sitting in your office, why do you need the phone constantly processing email/tweets/IM/etc.? It'd be nice if the power control widget had a button to toggle the data connection.

At least it has a replaceable battery so you can keep extras handy, unlike those poor RAZR users constantly searching for a USB port. :)

drjekel_mrhyde		2011-12-22 09:16:09 PM

jtown: I've had my phone for about a week and I'm pretty content with it. Battery life could be better but it gets me through the day. If you want it to last longer, turn off all the data connection and only activate it when you need it. Sitting idle with data, GPS, and WiFi turned off, (and the screen off), it drains about half a percent per hour. That's with the phone still active and responding to incoming calls and texts. Honestly, if you're sitting in your office, why do you need the phone constantly processing email/tweets/IM/etc.? It'd be nice if the power control widget had a button to toggle the data connection.

At least it has a replaceable battery so you can keep extras handy
Seems like a lot of work just to get the most out of your phone

darwinpolice		2011-12-22 09:26:20 PM

Splinshints: darwinpolice: Mine has pretty god-awful battery life

Worse than most LTE Droid phones or about the same?

I can deal with an 8 hour battery under moderate usage, but that's pretty much the limit. Beyond that, either app efficiency or batteries need to improve. I have a Thunderbolt now and 8 hours is about where the battery is at if I keep it on either 4G or Wifi all the time.

This is my first LTE phone, so I can't make a comparison from personal experience, but the battery life is not hugely improved by switching to CDMA only. Battery manager largely blames the display. I have been getting about eight hours on a full charge with moderate use, and that's with the extended battery.

darwinpolice		2011-12-22 09:28:55 PM

drjekel_mrhyde: jtown: I've had my phone for about a week and I'm pretty content with it. Battery life could be better but it gets me through the day. If you want it to last longer, turn off all the data connection and only activate it when you need it. Sitting idle with data, GPS, and WiFi turned off, (and the screen off), it drains about half a percent per hour. That's with the phone still active and responding to incoming calls and texts. Honestly, if you're sitting in your office, why do you need the phone constantly processing email/tweets/IM/etc.? It'd be nice if the power control widget had a button to toggle the data connection.

At least it has a replaceable battery so you can keep extras handy
Seems like a lot of work just to get the most out of your phone

A lot of work indeed. I'm willing to keep a spare battery around to swap out when necessary, but I have better things to do than micromanage my phone's data use throughout the day.

jtown		2011-12-22 09:35:35 PM

darwinpolice: drjekel_mrhyde: jtown: I've had my phone for about a week and I'm pretty content with it. Battery life could be better but it gets me through the day. If you want it to last longer, turn off all the data connection and only activate it when you need it. Sitting idle with data, GPS, and WiFi turned off, (and the screen off), it drains about half a percent per hour. That's with the phone still active and responding to incoming calls and texts. Honestly, if you're sitting in your office, why do you need the phone constantly processing email/tweets/IM/etc.? It'd be nice if the power control widget had a button to toggle the data connection.

At least it has a replaceable battery so you can keep extras handy
Seems like a lot of work just to get the most out of your phone

A lot of work indeed. I'm willing to keep a spare battery around to swap out when necessary, but I have better things to do than micromanage my phone's data use throughout the day.

Oh, yeah. It's a real chore to do three clicks. Sorry. Four clicks. Yep. It's exhausting. Just because you don't like a particular method doesn't mean nobody will find it helpful. :rolleyes:

Dealing with extra batteries seems like much more of a chore to me. Gotta keep them charged, remember to bring them, shut down and restart the phone to swap them. Yeah, that's waaay more simple. ;^>

floor9		2011-12-22 09:42:29 PM

ChubbyTiger: LTE: fast, power hungry.

You don't buy a Veyron and complain about the fuel economy. If battery life is your primary concern, there are plenty of 3G and slow-4G handsets out there that put battery life before performance.

For myself, my eight-month-old Thunderbolt spends most weekdays on the charger. I use the built-in 4G hotspot ($30 unlimited data!), which obviously slaughters the battery. On the weekends or days off, it goes a full day with Bluetooth on and background apps like Seesmic / Foursquare / Facebook / OTA sync running.

I'd be happy if it would go for a few days at a time on a single charge, but I'm willing to charge it every day. It's not like I'm never around a USB port.

floor9		2011-12-22 09:44:05 PM

Friskya: If they hold to past patterns, it will also have half of it's capabilities disabled.

Didn't they stop doing this in, like, 2005? I've been doing file transfers / DUN / streaming audio from my VZ handsets since I switched to them in 2006 / 2007 / somewhere around there.

skinink		2011-12-22 09:47:14 PM

Although I would say rooting your phone is really trivial, the two times I've flashed a rom something has always gone wrong. At least I was able to recover my Captivate from a soft brick to make it work fine now, but I flashed ICS onto my Nexus S (original unlocked) and lost my data connections. I sent my phone to Samsung to see if they can fix it.

It is nice to have rooted my Captivate and removed all of the ATT crap from it.

whenIsayGO		2011-12-22 09:53:32 PM

floor9: Friskya: If they hold to past patterns, it will also have half of it's capabilities disabled.

Didn't they stop doing this in, like, 2005? I've been doing file transfers / DUN / streaming audio from my VZ handsets since I switched to them in 2006 / 2007 / somewhere around there.

I'm with Friskya. They shall never be forgiven.

It's my impression that it's gotten better, but I wouldn't know because I left. In the end it wasn't because of that, but because they went through a period (about the same time, 2006-2007) where they didn't release a smartphone -- any smartphone -- for like a year or more.

0Icky0		2011-12-22 09:54:43 PM

jtown: It'd be nice if the power control widget had a button to toggle the data connection.

I've got a widget for that. Easy peasy.

farkeruk		2011-12-22 09:59:57 PM

My Nexus S came with 1 piece of Vodafone crapware. Took me maybe 2 minutes to remove it.

The key thing with Nexus isn't the crapware, it's that they can't touch the OS and lock the crapware.

The big change that's coming to phones is the end of phones being bundled with a contract. We're hitting the same point that PCs and digital cameras hit, where no-one cares about performance because there's something external causing a bigger restraint on performance (in the case of PCs, your network or you). My wife's S2 is faster than my Nexus S but once you're past the menus and into the browser, she's constrained by the same network as me.

Bucky Katt		2011-12-22 11:07:53 PM

So buy a Droid?

BZWingZero		2011-12-22 11:32:29 PM

Biiirdmaaan!:
My Verizon Mobile, however, is absolutely vital now that Verizon has data caps. I would be pissed if I had no way to check where I was on my data usage preloaded on my phone.

Then its a good thing that Android 4.0 (which the Galaxy Nexus runs) has data monitoring and capping built in. You even can set your own warning and cutoff points. Its under settings->Data usage.

Doc Daneeka		2011-12-22 11:33:34 PM

Seems like only the iPhone line is immune to being pre-loaded with carrier-crapware.

I got the iPhone 4S, and it's the first phone I've had in a long line of Verizon phones (both dumb and smartphones) that didn't come with Verizon shiat pre-installed.

Biiirdmaaan!		2011-12-23 12:10:11 AM

BZWingZero: Biiirdmaaan!:
My Verizon Mobile, however, is absolutely vital now that Verizon has data caps. I would be pissed if I had no way to check where I was on my data usage preloaded on my phone.

Then its a good thing that Android 4.0 (which the Galaxy Nexus runs) has data monitoring and capping built in. You even can set your own warning and cutoff points. Its under settings->Data usage.

Oh, that's nice. I did not realize.

Does that setting have some way of knowing what my plan's cap is per billing cycle, or do I have to manually tell it?

Dinjiin		2011-12-23 12:47:49 AM

Fursecution: www.adbusters.org

Hrm, too bad the resolution of that photo is too low. The RedLaser app on my Galaxy S can't lock onto the barcode,

You were saying something about my Precious?

Gig103		2011-12-23 01:07:50 AM

Friskya: If they hold to past patterns, it will also have half of it's capabilities disabled.

Can't speak to half, but NFC (aka Google Wallet) is disabled while VZW & AT&T come up with their own proprietary version. It's what they wished they could have done to navigation 5 years ago.

Meanwhile, that article is a month old. If Verizon wants to preload crap, at least allow users to remove it without rooting.

drjekel_mrhyde		2011-12-23 01:12:48 AM

Doc Daneeka: Seems like only the iPhone line is immune to being pre-loaded with carrier-crapware.

WP is in between but you can completely remove any of it in 2 seconds by pressing and holding down the app then hit uninstall.

0Icky0		2011-12-23 02:15:57 AM

Doc Daneeka: Seems like only the iPhone line is immune to being pre-loaded with carrier-crapware.

The Droid I got in Hong Kong didn't have a bit of crapware loaded onto it.
Maybe our phone companies are a bit less evil.

cmunic8r99		2011-12-23 06:17:26 AM

drjekel_mrhyde: Doc Daneeka: Seems like only the iPhone line is immune to being pre-loaded with carrier-crapware.

WP is in between but you can completely remove any of it in 2 seconds by pressing and holding down the app then hit uninstall.

This is why I wish they were available directly from Google, like the Nexus One was. Even the unsubsidized ATT version was available directly from Google.

Gig103: NFC (aka Google Wallet)

NFC is not disabled on the Galaxy Nexus - it just doesn't come with Wallet installed out of the box. You do know NFC is not a.k.a. Google Wallet, right? That's like saying, "Bluetooth, a.k.a. the music player". One is method of communication, the other is an app - one, among many - that uses that method. .

Also, you can install Google Wallet (new window) on it without rooting.

Gig103		2011-12-23 11:18:56 AM

cmunic8r99: drjekel_mrhyde: Doc Daneeka: Seems like only the iPhone line is immune to being pre-loaded with carrier-crapware.

WP is in between but you can completely remove any of it in 2 seconds by pressing and holding down the app then hit uninstall.

This is why I wish they were available directly from Google, like the Nexus One was. Even the unsubsidized ATT version was available directly from Google.

Gig103: NFC (aka Google Wallet)

NFC is not disabled on the Galaxy Nexus - it just doesn't come with Wallet installed out of the box. You do know NFC is not a.k.a. Google Wallet, right? That's like saying, "Bluetooth, a.k.a. the music player". One is method of communication, the other is an app - one, among many - that uses that method. .

Also, you can install Google Wallet (new window) on it without rooting.

I do realize NFC is the mechanism but Gizmodo made it sound like GW was being blocked. I guess I shouldn't be surprised XDA users have the apk.

Great Porn Dragon		2011-12-23 11:33:30 PM

My worry wouldn't just be on the Verizon crapware, but wondering what ELSE Verizon has farked on the phone--as someone else has noted, Verizon is more than a bit...infamous for crippling default functionality on its smartphones (the iPhone is pretty much ONLY immune because Apple is the sole distributor of iOS; if Verizon could strongarm Apple into forcing Verizon-specific builds with Verizon crapware, you bet your arse they would).

This is the same company, mind, that at one time completely locked out GPS capability on phones it sold so that it would only work with VZ Navigator--if you had a WinMo or Blackberry phone where third-party GPS software was available, no dice, you were stuck. (It literally took a fairly massive class-action lawsuit (in the days where Blackberry had the same market share that the iPhone and Android phones do now) to even open it up at all; even now, Verizon phones are still more often than not "hobbled" in such a way that the GPS cannot be operated when the cell-phone radio is not on. I will also note that this is generally NOT the case with most Android smartphones from other cell providers.)

About the only thing I've seen that's comparable with how Verizon typically hobbles phones is how AT&T used to block sideloading on Android phones--rendering them unable to use alternative app markets like the Amazon App Store (in this case, they were merely THREATENED with a class-action suit and ultimately folded; I can say that at least Android phones in the past six months from AT&T have been unhobbled in that regard).

/got mine from T-Mobile, and pretty much will never do business with either Verizon OR the Voltron Of Suck That Is PacHell And Hellsouth In Death-Star Drag if I can keep from it
//rather hopes either Sprint or Google buys out T-Mobile, if anyone buys 'em out

Friskya		2011-12-24 12:24:04 PM

Great Porn Dragon: /got mine from T-Mobile, and pretty much will never do business with either Verizon OR the Voltron Of Suck That Is PacHell And Hellsouth In Death-Star Drag if I can keep from it
//rather hopes either Sprint or Google buys out T-Mobile, if anyone buys 'em out

Yes.

But how do you really feel?

Great Porn Dragon		2011-12-24 03:06:01 PM

Friskya: Great Porn Dragon: /got mine from T-Mobile, and pretty much will never do business with either Verizon OR the Voltron Of Suck That Is PacHell And Hellsouth In Death-Star Drag if I can keep from it
//rather hopes either Sprint or Google buys out T-Mobile, if anyone buys 'em out

Yes.

But how do you really feel?

I'd post, but suffice it to say I've been outright forbidden to do the Hellsouth Rant in IMPOLITE company, much less polite :D (Suffice it to say that at one point I had SIX simultaneous complaints with the state Public Service Commission due to the massive amounts of fark-ups with Hellsouth alone.) :D

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