Consumerist: Angry Letter to Verizon re: Bloatware

[true]

I suggest people run System Monitor or the like to see how much battery these apps are using up. Hint, it's nothing

my complaints arent that theyre using system resources that should be freed up.

my complaints ARE that the icons are ugly and in my way. i'm very well aware that those bloatware apps dont use system resources until i call on them.

i took care of this issue with launcherpro plus.

 

[gonzoguy24]

I love my incredible...it is an awesome phone and HTC did a great job with it. Learn how to root and remove bloat if it annoys you...there are some really great guides out there that make it really easy i promise!

As for battery issues with the phone...learn to conserve by turning off mobile networks. HTC gives you a great settings widget that allows this and when you are out and about at the bars etc just flip off mobile networks and your phone will last plenty long!

PS the new Sense that HTC came out with for the DESIRE HD will give some more great power saving settings so look forward to us getting this when the time comes! Or root and flash the ROM now! Camera does not work yet on it but will be fixed in no time!

There really is no limit to what you can do with this thing!

 

[KX4SAM]

Simple, Unrevoked 3.2 to root. Titanium Backup to remove bloatware. Safe list are here on the forum.

 

[Member112085]

I think the carriers/manufacturers should only be able to advertise the available memory available for apps on the phone excluding the apps they've loaded that can't be removed. For example...the phone may have 512 MB of app memory, but if there is 10 MB of memory used for apps you can't remove, they should only be able to advertise it as 502 MB.

 

[howarmat]

I think the carriers/manufacturers should only be able to advertise the available memory available for apps on the phone excluding the apps they've loaded that can't be removed. For example...the phone may have 512 MB of app memory, but if there is 10 MB of memory used for apps you can't remove, they should only be able to advertise it as 502 MB.

that would be confusing as hell to most people. And when the phone was initially sold there werent as many programs. They can add programs weekly if they wanted so that number would be a constantly changing number in reality.

 

[DocTauri]

Also complaining to verizon is not the answer. Its HTC that is loading the bloatware on the phone...

If so, it's at Verizon's command. I seriously doubt that HTC took it upon themselves to load VZ Navigator...

 

[DocTauri]

Simple, Unrevoked 3.2 to root. Titanium Backup to remove bloatware. Safe list are here on the forum.

Yep. I did this, retained my stock ROM, and my phone is MUCH faster now.

 

[howarmat]

some are VZW specific and others are on other networks with HTC devices also. So its a mix of both

 

[Big Calhoun]

Here's how I'm looking at it:

All I get from that letter is, "I'm someone who thinks I'm important and has a significant amount of influence to affect the way your run your business."

Whatever.

I'm not saying he doesn't have a valid point, however. I'm not a fan of the bloatware and am thankful that rooting allows me to remove it on my Incredible, and on my BlackBerry, I can at least hide the icons. I'd very much like if Big Red would provide end-users with a mechanism to remove the unwanted software. At the end of the day though, they are a business. There's obviously some level of demand for the products otherwise they'd be gone.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Yep. I did this, retained my stock ROM, and my phone is MUCH faster now.

I did the same thing and noticed no impact at all to my phone's performance. Given the fact that these programs use virtually no system resources at all isn't that the expected behavior?

 

[DocTauri]

I did the same thing and noticed no impact at all to my phone's performance. Given the fact that these programs use virtually no system resources at all isn't that the expected behavior?

Not sure about you, but I noticed that the phone seems more responsive. Maybe it's just my perception, then again, some folks seem to have far worse battery issues than others, so I guess ymmv.

Regardless, turning this crap off should be an option that doesn't require root.

As for them using virtually no system resources being a FACT, I haven't seen an official Google statement to that effect, please provide link.

 

[euph_22]

Not sure about you, but I noticed that the phone seems more responsive. Maybe it's just my perception, then again, some folks seem to have far worse battery issues than others, so I guess ymmv.

Regardless, turning this crap off should be an option that doesn't require root.

As for them using virtually no system resources being a FACT, I haven't seen an official Google statement to that effect, please provide link.

An official Google statement saying WHAT?

"Verizon's city ID doesn't use any resources while in the background."
"Verizon's footprints doesn't use any resources while in the background."

Try
Googling "android process lifecycle"
Googling "androind multasking background resources"
Googling "why don't giant multinationals answer my questions like my kindergarden teacher did?"

How about this, check it out yourself. Get System panel, and look at there cpu and Network utilization (remember that high RAM usage is a good thing, saving battery and cpu).

 

[A.Nonymous]

Not sure about you, but I noticed that the phone seems more responsive. Maybe it's just my perception, then again, some folks seem to have far worse battery issues than others, so I guess ymmv.

Regardless, turning this crap off should be an option that doesn't require root.

As for them using virtually no system resources being a FACT, I haven't seen an official Google statement to that effect, please provide link.

I think it's your perception. I think it's a placebo effect. You expect the phone to be more responsive and faster so it seems more responsive and faster. It's also possible that you removed other apps at the time you removed all the bloatware stuff and those apps were legitimately causing the phone to run slow.

I do agree that turning the stuff off and/or uninstalling it should be an option. No arguments there from me. I know VZW and other carriers get kickbacks for putting this stuff on the phone and those kickbacks let them give us phones without having to charge us $500-600 a pop for them. Putting the stuff on the phones when they ship makes sense financially for everyone. I agree that we (the consumer) should have the ability to remove the software if we don't need it without voiding the phone's warranty to do so.

As for not consuming resources, there's no need for an official press release. You can see for yourself. I'm rooted and have removed all of the bloatware I wasn't using from my phone. I've got a Nandroid backup of my phone before I did all of that and I may flash it this evening just so I can post the results of a phone with everything still on it.

I still have My Verizon and Amazon MP3 on my phone because I use both apps and find them useful to me. Currently on my phone, My Verizon is running as a service, has been active for 4.5 hours, is using 0.0% of my CPU time and 15 mb of RAM. Amazon MP3 does not appear to be running at all. In comparison, the Android System process is actively running in the foreground (obviously) and is using 7.3% of CPU time and 35 mb of RAM. The phone is perfectly responsive. My Verizon is not using up any CPU time and it's using a negligible amount of RAM.

 

[tsandroid]

my complaints arent that theyre using system resources that should be freed up.

my complaints ARE that the icons are ugly and in my way. i'm very well aware that those bloatware apps dont use system resources until i call on them.

i took care of this issue with launcherpro plus.

If bloatware doesn't run in the background unless called on, explain to me why Skype has run in the background from the beginning on my vortex, even though I've never run it myself? They absolutely run in the background!

 

[euph_22]

If bloatware doesn't run in the background unless called on, explain to me why Skype has run in the background from the beginning on my vortex, even though I've never run it myself? They absolutely run in the background!

They aren't using any resources besides ram, which doesn't hinder performance or reduce battery life. If you use some form of system monitor (like system panel) you can see that they are in fact using no processor or network.