Top Menu

Monthly Archives September 2010

I usually do not mind bloatware to begin with, and I almost never use them either anyways. But after a while, you just want a clean device after having a while to play with it. Especially a Samsung Vibrant for how great this phone is, not just the screen.

I just wanted to take the time and explain to you how you can remove Layar and other “bloatware” applications that either T-Mobile, AT&T or others provide to you with your Galaxy S phone (Vibrant, Captivate, etc) if you want them gone for good. Now you will need root to do any of this. Rooting your phone is extremely easy and safe.

There are many methods to root your phone, you can look over at the XDA forums for easy ways to do it for your device. One quick method to root is by using the One Click Lag Fix app found in the Android Market. Do not let the name fool you, and you do not need to use the lag fix to get root either. You can unroot with this app or any other app, at anytime. Though there is no reason to unless you are sending the device back to T-Mobile or your carrier.

You can remove most bloatware with Titanium Backup which is free in the Market. You could also use Root Explorer however that is not free in the Market. So if you are in this same scenario and do not want to pay for Root Explorer than this easy method will work for you. You can also back up all of these apps with Titanium Backup in case you ever decide to want to use these again and want them back.

When you are removing applications, make sure you know what exactly you are removing. I take no responsibility if you remove something you should not that could lend up to messing up your phone or bricking it.

Use Terminal Emulator if you do not already have it, if not, you can grab it from the Market. Then in Terminal you are going to type of the following:

su
rm /data/app/com.layar.apk
rm /system/app/Layar-samsung.apk

Then there you have it, you have successfully removed Layar. You can actually use this method to remove other apps as well if you are unable to uninstall them in Manage Applications in your phone or with apps such as Titanium Backup.

If you are unsure of the application name, you can use this ‘ls’ command to find it.

su
ls /data/app/
ls /system/app/

Normally I would not even write a post or even announce that I am leaving some sort of site, especially some new site that has only barely even been popular nor around long. But I felt as if I really needed to write such a post.

If you have not heard of Fanvibe, which I guarantee 99.9% of you have not, then just to give you a brief information on them, they are a sport check-in service. This is exactly like how Foursquare and Gowalla are, expect you do not have to be at the game to check-in.

I have been using them for the last few months, I was excited to keep using them still too since the NFL was just starting up it’s regular season and their pre-season had been going on. Prior, I was waiting for it to start as well as the NBA season later on. But up until this past week, that will never happen again. If I had the time, I would actually start my own service as such, and do what Fanvibe did wrong as well as alienate their users. It is too bad I have no time for that at this moment.

They changed something this week that was incredibly stupid of them, which I am sure Art Chang had most to do with this change. They normally have questions during a specific game for an extra XX amount of points. Not a crazy amount, until this week, they changed it to the thousands. One of these questions even led to 9,000 points for you, if answered correctly. Now remember, you must be actively viewing this game to even catch these questions and answer them in a specific time. I did not get to participate in this, nor was there any type of announcement or notice in their (shitty, annoying) daily newsletter either.

But the reason I left because of this, is because they changed nothing else at all on the site in relation to points. If you are going to make such a changes to the points then you need to adjust the points given everywhere else as well so people that are not able to catch the change and/or participate at that time have a chance as well to play the game fairly and earn such a high amount of points too. Be it by new ways of earning points (not going to give out suggestions) or making properly picked games 1,000 points instead of 10 points to whatever you need to do.

I ended up also getting into long arguing discussions with them, what is quite sad and shows how much of a poor team they were to begin with. I do not see this website lasting long while continuing the way they are.

Close