OTA Update Gives more Bloatware

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abraxo

Senior Member
Oct 9, 2011
366
20
47MB and gave me yellow pages as well as lookout. I already use lookout but WTF ATT? Bloatware was already a problem but you're actually shoving more down my throat?

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davew41

Senior Member
Oct 4, 2011
97
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GeorgeP

Senior Member
Sep 19, 2007
413
130
The two apps can be disabled, so no biggie to me. There does seems to be at least one bug fix. My recent apps button was a little wonky. It is fixed now.
 

mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
I just updated. Can someone who hasn't post their about device screen with the kernel and baseband and build info?

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frankdogg

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2010
88
19
Louisiana

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mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
Thanks. New kernel, baseband and build. Took 5 seconds to disable the apps. Happy camper

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---------- Post added at 05:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:26 PM ----------

vy8eqyzu.jpg


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bailey37821

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
126
25
AT&T marketing Geniuses....not!

More apps to disable because AT&T must think it's funny to push bloatware OTA and label it as an update. Seriously what are they thinking?
Is there actually some marketing strategist that is so out of touch with the real world as to think that people want this crap?
It boggles the mind really that senior leadership and marketing does not troll XDA for ideas that would actually help them succeed in product management.
The 1st carrier to the gate with a device that comes with nothing but vanilla android, is not boot locked, or in any other way hindered for root would (I predict) gain a 10% market share inside of 30 days. Business 101....cater to the majority ESPECIALLY when no one else is. fu***** idiots!!! Do they not realize that we all may enjoy different apps, but that is what the app marketplace is for? Some my even want At&t's apps ( lol ) but they need to put them on the play store and let people choose. You know...democracy and all that. Maybe they think that their apps give them a leg up on their competition? Really? Seriously? An app is going to make the difference of someone choosing AT&T S5 over Verizon S5? OMG please tell me they are not stupid. (I'm long winded and redundant due to hoping De La Vega is reading this btw) Evidently they need things spelled out. I certainly hope he realizes that most normal people make carrier decisions based on price of service, coverage, speed of 4G, etc. You know; that business 101 thing again. Hey Mr. Vega; how many people do you have writing code for AT&T apps? What are you spending on that? What are you paying that marketing jack ass that told you to hire people to write code for AT&T specific apps and bloatware? I hope you get where I'm going here. My God man, take a breath, sit back, clear your mind of all the hype and confusion of the bubble your in and look at this thing from the outside. Get back to the basics and provide a product and service that people want. We dont want or need to have to take the lessor of the evils (context of who has less bloat if we want a new device). Dont believe me? Attempt to find 0.1% of your customers that just has to have one of your bundled apps. Let me know how that goes for you. In the mean time the other 99.9% of us will only be getting more frustrated.

At any rate here is some contact info for At&t. I suggest we flood them with emails and try to get directly to "ATTN. Randall L. Stephenson, Ralph De La Vega"

randall.stephenson@att.com
Ralph.delaVega@att.com
https://www.facebook.com/ATT
https://twitter.com/ATTCustomerCare
 
Last edited:

mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
More apps to disable because AT&T must think it's funny to push bloatware OTA and label it as an update. Seriously what are they thinking?
Is there actually some marketing strategist that is so out of touch with the real world as to think that people want this crap?
It boggles the mind really that senior leadership and marketing does not troll XDA for ideas that would actually help them succeed in product management.
The 1st carrier to the gate with a device that comes with nothing but vanilla android, is not boot locked, or in any other way hindered for root would (I predict) gain a 10% market share inside of 30 days. Business 101....cater to the majority ESPECIALLY when no one else is. fu***** idiots!!!

At any rate here is some contact info for At&t. I suggest we flood them with emails and try to get directly to "ATTN. Randall L. Stephenson, Ralph De La Vega"

randall.stephenson@att.com
Ralph.delaVega@att.com
https://www.facebook.com/ATT
https://twitter.com/ATTCustomerCare

You do realize the people on XDA are the minority right? We're definitely not the general population. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

bailey37821

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
126
25
You do realize the people on XDA are the minority right? We're definitely not the general population. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

True in the literal sense that "people on XDA". I beg to differ though in that the general majority people would not want things shoved down their throat. All people want choice over the carriers take it or leave it attitude. In addition more and more people are becoming aware of what used to be only "for geeks". My 68 year old father for instance is fully aware of the advantages of having less apps taking up more storage and/or running in the background eating up ram and battery life when he has no need for most of them. The statement "if I wanted them loaded and running I should be able to choose that for myself" or something along those lines is growing among even the "non techies". And lets face it; I would bet that most people on XDA are the defacto come to people in their families for advice on all things electronic. Therefore even a minority can have a large effect on the majority.

BTW, I have no bubble to burst. My age, maturity, and I.Q. puts me well beyond trivial things like that.
 

GeorgeP

Senior Member
Sep 19, 2007
413
130
You do realize the people on XDA are the minority right? We're definitely not the general population. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Exactly. Any company that followed the wishes/preferences of those on XDA would be out of business soon.
 
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bailey37821

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
126
25
Exactly. Any company that followed the wishes/preferences of those on XDA would be out of business soon.

As above. Your looking at the small picture. Those wishes and preferences are not only those of XDA.
It's almost laughable that you are saying that a company that eliminates bloatware and possibly gives an opportunity for root would be out of business soon.
A very small example would be the fact that people are flocking to a carrier with substantially less coverage and reliability (T-Mo) because of wifi calling. A feature that AT&T and Verizon eliminated for seemingly no reason. Why? because a handful of people out of 10's of thousands might only use the device for free wifi calls versus buying service from them? How many people are going to buy a high end device averaging 650.00 to do that with? So your telling me that if AT&T released an update tomorrow that allowed easy rooting or at least got rid of bloatware and turned on wifi calling, that people would not flock to AT&T? Big picture...
 
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mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
As above. Your looking at the small picture. Those wishes and preferences are not only those of XDA.
It's almost laughable that you are saying that a company that eliminates bloatware and possibly gives an opportunity for root would be out of business soon.
A very small example would be the fact that people are flocking to a carrier with substantially less coverage and reliability (T-Mo) because of wifi calling. A feature that AT&T and Verizon eliminated for seemingly no reason. Why? because a handful of people out of 10's of thousands might only use the device for free wifi calls versus buying service from them? How many people are going to buy a high end device averaging 650.00 to do that with? So your telling me that if AT&T released an update tomorrow that allowed easy rooting or at least got rid of bloatware and turned on wifi calling, that people would not flock to AT&T? Big picture...

OnePlus One is the closest thing to an XDA dream phone. Let's see how well it does.

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bailey37821

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
126
25
OnePlus One is the closest thing to an XDA dream phone. Let's see how well it does.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk


There are a few out actually. The biggest issue is they are all pay retail upfront. I am specifically speaking to the fact of major carriers increasing their market share / customer base and customer loyalty through standard channels and current business practices and plans offered.

But i'll bite anyway. Lets look at Oppo. A Chinese company started on a shoe string budget and prayer mostly. I don't have the time or the room to fully explain all the numbers, but suffice it to say that if they were in America they would have set or broke dozens of records concerning initial interest, market share versus time in market, profitability, units sold, % increase in sales versus time, net worth versus initial valuation, etc, etc...
And that was for full price units from an unknown Chinese company in a market full of unknown Chinese companies that all have a low initial trust rating. Multiply their numbers X 1000 for a trusted US carrier to do anything similar with a hot trusted device

---------- Post added at 08:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 PM ----------

PS

Where do you think the one plus came from. That would be from the former VP of OPPO of course. He saw those numbers for the N1 and the Find and knew you don't have to be a marketing guru to see the obvious. He left a lot of money and an incredible future with Oppo to help bring out the one plus.
 

twiggums

Senior Member
Oct 6, 2007
366
46
More apps to disable because AT&T must think it's funny to push bloatware OTA and label it as an update. Seriously what are they thinking?
Is there actually some marketing strategist that is so out of touch with the real world as to think that people want this crap?
It boggles the mind really that senior leadership and marketing does not troll XDA for ideas that would actually help them succeed in product management.
The 1st carrier to the gate with a device that comes with nothing but vanilla android, is not boot locked, or in any other way hindered for root would (I predict) gain a 10% market share inside of 30 days. Business 101....cater to the majority ESPECIALLY when no one else is. fu***** idiots!!! Do they not realize that we all may enjoy different apps, but that is what the app marketplace is for? Some my even want At&t's apps ( lol ) but they need to put them on the play store and let people choose. You know...democracy and all that. Maybe they think that their apps give them a leg up on their competition? Really? Seriously? An app is going to make the difference of someone choosing AT&T S5 over Verizon S5? OMG please tell me they are not stupid. (I'm long winded and redundant due to hoping De La Vega is reading this btw) Evidently they need things spelled out. I certainly hope he realizes that most normal people make carrier decisions based on price of service, coverage, speed of 4G, etc. You know; that business 101 thing again. Hey Mr. Vega; how many people do you have writing code for AT&T apps? What are you spending on that? What are you paying that marketing jack ass that told you to hire people to write code for AT&T specific apps and bloatware? I hope you get where I'm going here. My God man, take a breath, sit back, clear your mind of all the hype and confusion of the bubble your in and look at this thing from the outside. Get back to the basics and provide a product and service that people want. We dont want or need to have to take the lessor of the evils (context of who has less bloat if we want a new device). Dont believe me? Attempt to find 0.1% of your customers that just has to have one of your bundled apps. Let me know how that goes for you. In the mean time the other 99.9% of us will only be getting more frustrated.

At any rate here is some contact info for At&t. I suggest we flood them with emails and try to get directly to "ATTN. Randall L. Stephenson, Ralph De La Vega"

randall.stephenson@att.com
Ralph.delaVega@att.com
https://www.facebook.com/ATT
https://twitter.com/ATTCustomerCare

Haha wow. Not even sure where to start. For one it's a numbers game, throw the apps out there and maybe %10 will use it, maybe even %1. That's still more people putting money in their pocket than previously. Most of the users don't care about bloatware, if anything they view it as ATT offering them more than they got originally and at most a minor annoyance. So long as it doesn't brick their device they don't care, at most they just won't use it. The idea that "if you want it then find it on the market, and then choose ours over the competition" is just silly, why leave it to chance when you can increase your odds by putting your app on their phone directly in their face? %99.9 of users are frustrated by the addition of more bloatware or are infuriated by having it at all? we all know that's not even close to true, I've never heard a friend complain that the update to their phone added more apps. If you really think any of the higher-ups are reading your rant you're delusional. Go ahead and spam them, and again if you really think that goes directly to their inbox, you're delusional. Sure it will be addressed by someone, but it won't be any of the higher ups your trying to contact. Do you really think they're tech savvy enough to even know what you're talking about? They're put in place because they know how to manage multi-billion dollar companies, not because they know the ins and outs of a cell phone.

True in the literal sense that "people on XDA". I beg to differ though in that the general majority people would not want things shoved down their throat. All people want choice over the carriers take it or leave it attitude. In addition more and more people are becoming aware of what used to be only "for geeks". My 68 year old father for instance is fully aware of the advantages of having less apps taking up more storage and/or running in the background eating up ram and battery life when he has no need for most of them. The statement "if I wanted them loaded and running I should be able to choose that for myself" or something along those lines is growing among even the "non techies". And lets face it; I would bet that most people on XDA are the defacto come to people in their families for advice on all things electronic. Therefore even a minority can have a large effect on the majority.

BTW, I have no bubble to burst. My age, maturity, and I.Q. puts me well beyond trivial things like that.

"shoved down their throats" is a bit of an exaggeration. They load the app on the phones, it's not like it cripples the device or stops the device from functioning unless you use it. The S5 is still a rockstar even with the bloat. I do concur that most of us here are probably the people that relatives/family go to for phone advice. However guarantee neither of my parents or any relative for that matter would care about a phone having bloatware. They want a phone that will serve a purpose and maybe they can play some games on it.

As above. Your looking at the small picture. Those wishes and preferences are not only those of XDA.
It's almost laughable that you are saying that a company that eliminates bloatware and possibly gives an opportunity for root would be out of business soon.
A very small example would be the fact that people are flocking to a carrier with substantially less coverage and reliability (T-Mo) because of wifi calling. A feature that AT&T and Verizon eliminated for seemingly no reason. Why? because a handful of people out of 10's of thousands might only use the device for free wifi calls versus buying service from them? How many people are going to buy a high end device averaging 650.00 to do that with? So your telling me that if AT&T released an update tomorrow that allowed easy rooting or at least got rid of bloatware and turned on wifi calling, that people would not flock to AT&T? Big picture...

They are protecting their assets. The more options you have to use a competing service the more money they lose. reduce the ability to use the competitor and you rid yourself of that chance.

That all being said I am not a fan of bloatware, at all. Nor am I agreeing with their tactics. But step into reality. They want to maximize profits and get their users to use their apps so it can be billed to them.

I do have another theory for how much the phones are locked down these days. If anyone has followed the news; they're trying to head off phone thefts, they've spiraled out of control. Easiest way to prevent someone from stealing a phone? make sure that even if it is stolen, it can't be used anywhere because it's locked down like fort knox (pun sort of intended :p )

Sorry for any feathers i've ruffled.
 
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mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
To get back on track this update has made the phone smoother and have noticed no lag where there used to be lag before. Battery life seems better too so far.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

byte9

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2012
1,046
575
192.168.1.1
No OTA method (so far)

To get back on track this update has made the phone smoother and have noticed no lag where there used to be lag before. Battery life seems better too so far.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

I read the AT&T update page- what i can offer. I didn't accept the last weeks security certificate and I've been going into Running apps and stopping the AT&T OTA update process on any reboot(it doesn't seem to auto-restart) and I have not gotten any alerts or been pushed the OTA since.

I'll update if this changes.
 

norbarb

Account currently disabled
Dec 22, 2011
3,784
2,920
I never get any alerts and i agree to security certificates. Also i did not update yet just want to if we can revert back with Odin or if can use Kies to get back ?
 

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