We’ve all been there, you get a new phone, turn it on, and whats the first thing you notice in the application drawer? A lot of useless applications that you will never use, also known as bloatware.
You’ve also probably noticed that these applications cannot be removed without rooting the phone. This makes it difficult for the normal smartphone user to be able to enjoy their Android experience, though, this also happens to Windows Mobile users as well.
Sprint recently pushed out an update for the HTC EVO. Inside of this update, came a few applications that some users just don’t want. One of which is N.O.V.A, which is a First Person Shooter designed by Gameloft.
What a lot of users do not know is this particular application comes with a list of permissions, that would worry the average user.
Permissions:
- Edit SMS or MMS, read SMS or MMS, Receive SMS
- Full Internet Access
- Modify/Delete SD Card Contents
- Read phone state and identity
- Send SMS
- Change network connectivity, change Wi-Fi state, prevent phone from sleeping.
To those of us who let our children play games on their phones, such as Rovio’s smash hit Angry Birds, or the newly ported game from Tapulous, Tap Tap Revenge 4, having a what some call a violent game like N.O.V.A that you can’t remove, and runs in the background without you ever starting the game, is very alarming.
Another issue with this is the 30 day trial applications, such as Tele-NAV or even TMobileTV. We should be allowed to uninstall these applications, without having to void our warranty by rooting our phones just to be free of this bloatware.
So, my question is, when are carriers going to realize, a lot of users just want the basic phone applications on the phone, and not have to worry about applications pretty much using the phone when the user themselves are not.
What I feel should happen is have an option to install these applications. One way I can see allowing this is when a firmware update is ready, have it be just the basic software, then once installed, send a message to the user asking if they would like to install certain carrier based applications, then direct them to a carrier site, and select which applications they would like sent to their phone. This would make it a custom OTA package, fitted for the user, by the user. If they choose to not install any apps, then that is their choice; they shouldn’t have this choice made for them.
According to CNET, and their talks with Sprint, Sprint, in conjunction with Google, are working on a solution that will allow users to uninstall certain system applications without having to void the warranty by rooting the phone. Lets just hope this solution comes sooner than later.
Source: CNET
