{"id":376,"date":"2018-09-18T08:40:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T12:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=376"},"modified":"2018-09-18T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T12:40:26","slug":"android-horrors-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2018\/09\/18\/android-horrors-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"Android Horrors Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post<\/a> I wrote that I would never again have an Android device.\u00a0 That was a bit premature it turns out, as in a fit of (temporary, I hope) madness I thought to myself, “Maybe it was the older version of Android that was the problem, and that Google had improved it.”\u00a0 The Google Nexus 7 I had literally thrown against the wall in a fit of pique was incapable of running newer versions of the Android OS.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I came across a cheap Chinese “phablet” on Amazon running Android 7.0 (nougat) and so I bought it.\u00a0 Made by an unfamiliar company called Irulu<\/a>, it was the same size and form factor as the Nexus 7.\u00a0 It was named the eXpro<\/a> (no, it’s not your browser, the site’s page appears to be completely munged).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not a phone, eXpro is capable of accepting a SIM card and becoming one. I pity anyone who does so, though.<\/p>\n

For starters, the eXpro is very bad at holding wi-fi connections.\u00a0 Sometimes a reboot is necessary when traveling from one physical location to another.<\/p>\n

But the worst part is Android.<\/p>\n

On my Nexus 7, which I completely scrubbed and factory reset, apps have an annoying habit of just quitting in mid-use.\u00a0 Annoying, for sure.<\/p>\n

On the Irulu, there is a piece of malware<\/a> that defies removal. It is called QuickTouch and is installed as “system software,” which means the typical anti-virus\/crap cleaners fail to remove it; some even fail to recognize it as the intrusive infection it is.\u00a0 Searching Google results in only user complaints about it, with the solution being – wait for it – a factory reset.<\/p>\n

There is a QuickTouch on the Google Play store that gets high marks.\u00a0 I can’t tell if it’s the same program or not, but the version on my eXpro installs software without my asking, shows notifications for programs I don’t want, and now having disabled (since I can’t remove) every one of its features I can, starts throwing messages about programs not responding that I never activated.<\/p>\n

I could go on, but I won’t.\u00a0 If QuickTouch is pre-installed by Google\/Android and can’t be removed, then shame on Google for including such a piece of noxious trash in their OS.\u00a0 It’s bad enough that apps spy on us every minute of our lives, but when they take over our devices, I draw the line.<\/p>\n

(I still harbor the dark feeling of satisfaction I might derive by destroying these devices by shattering them with a few well-placed shots from a .45 caliber weapon).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post I wrote that I would never again have an Android device.\u00a0 That was a bit premature it turns out, as in a fit of (temporary, I hope) madness I thought to myself, “Maybe it was the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}