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AlotOfReading parent
Because the link is down:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250506145643/https://smex.org/...

The article leaves out quite a lot about what AppCloud is, but it's essentially how Samsung monetizes their non-flagship device users and can do things like insert installation advertisements into the notification tray, and silently install apps.

Personally, if I found this on my device it'd be the final straw to grit my teeth and finally get a personal apple device.

andrewflnr
Or just don't get Samsung? I guess I don't know for sure that my phone brand doesn't do anything similar, but it at least hasn't hit the news yet.
boramalper
> AppCloud—pre-installed on Samsung’s A and M series smartphones.

Samsung’s A and M series smartphones are their cheapest models so their buyers probably cannot afford better phones. I don’t know of any other brands selling in the region with similarly priced models that have better privacy practices than Samsung either—they’re all the same at that price point I’m afraid.

anonymars
In my case I wanted a damn SD card slot. And more than 2 years of security updates.
lmm
Sony still sells flagship phones with an SD slot. I wish my Xperia was cheaper but other than that I'm very happy with it.
mellow-lake-day
Not in the US.
imp0cat
Ano now you see why Samsung is able to provide all that at an attractive price. The real costs are hidden.
anonymars
The more expensive phones don't have SD card slots!

But yeah, presumably in the cheaper markets the Candy Crush whales are subsidizing the phones. Like with Windows these days. Anyway time to go back to playing Fortnite and Marvel Rivals

more-nitor
hmm have you actually read the article? did you find anything of "substance" other than hand-wavy "this company is from israel, so must be mosad" or "has notorious for its questionable practices" (without even giving actual examples or incidents)?

I mean, if I was the mosad guy planting a deal with samsung, I wouldn't even name the app "AppCloud"

heck, why would you even make it appear to the user?

this is a classic competitor-bashing article -- no substance, only hand-wavy "this guys bad!"

I'm guessing this can be traced to others like xiami/huawei/etc who definitely want to get samsung's slice of the market there

pomian
Motorola. Plus it still has an audio port.
anonymars
I miss the flashlight chop, but at the time I moved away updates were short and migration was "you're on your own"
j-bos
Motorola has well priced excellent phones with minimal bloat.
andrewflnr
I wasn't going to give them a plug but this is in fact where I landed. The ability to install other ROMs was also a factor.
rs186
From first hand experience, I can confirm that AppCloud is installed on certain carrier versions of S series phone as well.
chaosbolt
No there are lots of Chinese phones with minimal bloatware, like the nothing phone cmf 1, sure they only come with 2 years of updates but what you gonna do at that price...

If you're in the middle east, I'm sure you'd rather be spied on by China.

Do you imagine that shit? You're a nuclear scientist, working on a program for generating electricity, your country is open to being audited and complies with the restrictions and has no weapon's program, one day you come home and then a fucking rocket comes right inside your appartment and kils you and your whole family.

Ain't that a bitch? I get Khamas was hiding there too... And since they have all that precise rockets that can take a single appartment down, why did they reduce Gaza to rubble?

The ramifications of this make me sick: evil not only wins but also writes history... And yeah the midwits here will unironically look you in the eye and explain how killing children is ok because of this of that... You being able to explain horrors doesn't make you smart or pragmatic, it makes you have no self respect and makes your personal boundaries weak, and the same mind that finds arguments to cope with the horror his tax money funds will find arguments to cope with a lot more until it's his turn on the grinder and by then it'll be too late.

danieldk
Even if Nothing phones are made in china, it's a UK company.
hedora
Looking around, you can get an A series or unlocked iPhone 13 new from a prepaid mvno for $0.

A refurbished iPhone 13 is $300 on amazon, which is close to the cheapest M ($250). I can’t find new 13’s for sale except via budget carriers.

(Sent from my 12 mini which is better than all that followed it: $200-ish for excellent condition, refurbished.)

bigyabai
You're better off getting a preowned Pixel to flash with a secure ROM in this scenario. Getting an iPhone won't help if you if later down the line Apple decides to push an OTA update that forces the same functionality. A Pixel won't protect you from every vulnerability, but it goes much further towards stopping these sorts of attacks than the iPhone does.

Now hey, I won't suggest that Apple would stoop as low as Samsung has here. But discerning customers might not want Tim Apple's phone if he's been cozying up to a crusty politician that can remember to stay for dinner but can't recall his name.

boramalper
> A refurbished iPhone 13 is $300 on amazon

Is this Amazon US? Because even in Ireland, iPhone 16 costs 41% higher than in the US (979 EUR = 1,128 USD in Ireland vs 799 USD in the US).

beagle3
Half of the difference is likely VAT, which is included in European listings but the similar US sales tax is more often NOT included in listings.

(Some US states have no sales tax, but most do)

aucisson_masque
All Android phone but pixel ones have bloatware preinstalled. Some are worst, like Xiaomi.

If you don’t want bloatware (spyware), it’s either pixel or iPhone.

burnt-resistor
The trick is to define "bloatware". Is that known knowns (stuff that's visible), known unknowns (stuff that's added that's not visible), and/or unknown unknowns (stuff added we are pretty sure is there but can't prove)? Apple adds all kinds of carrier-specific crap on every phone, but it's not readily discoverable. Android mfgrs must also because of carrier contracts and country-specific regulatory approval requirements. There's likely little means of escaping this without a BYOD non-Android, non-overseas, non-Apple phone that may or may not exist. Surely there is an obvious, viable alternative somewhere I'm missing that I hope exists.
scarface_74
What carrier specific crap does Apple add?
Aachen
Wut? Besides that you can uninstall whatever you don't want or even replace the operating system with a bare android or whatever else you want, you're forgetting about Fairphone, Murena, and probably others. I had an apple phone for work once and it's not like it doesn't come with a lot of bloat preinstalled and tries to get your permission to snitch on where you are and what you do. It has toggles for some of the things but you can only do what apple lets you do. Also consider daily use, where you will install third party software to get stuff done: you're not better off with the necessarily commercial software from apple's store than with pretty much anything you can get on f-droid and other open source stores

Recommending Apple for privacy only makes sense for those who don't actually care and just want the feel-good premium brand

aucisson_masque
Just an example. WhatsApp on Android force me to give it the contact permission. Without it, I can’t write to someone or call.

On iPhone, I can use the app without giving it the permission because if meta were to put up the same bullshit, they would get their app rejected from the store.

Now, you say you can install barebones Android ? Ever tried it ? It suck, lineageos and other have security issue, often poor battery, lack features and plenty of bugs.

You could uninstall the bloatware on your stock operating system ? Except that you don’t always know what is necessary and what isn’t. Meta (Facebook) have 3 app preinstalled on Samsung, 1 as user app, 2 as system app. Other are systemized and have extremely convulated name, or even embedded in an actual system app like the antivirus in Samsung device managements that used to send back lot of data to Chinese server.

Fairphone are expensive and not well built, murena ? They run e/os/, exact same issue as lineageos.

No really, it’s either pixel (and I’m not speaking of grapheneos, it got more and more issue with play service integrity being forced everywhere) or iPhone. Pick your poison.

nolist_policy
> Without it, I can’t write to someone or call.

It works just fine with OpenContacts.

Danjoe4
OnePlus has a phenomenal software experience
sabellito
That's incorrect. Zenphone is a bliss.
bobsmooth
I like the Samsung apps on my Galaxy.
hkt
No need to ditch Android. Fairphone exists: https://fairphone.com

Their stock android is fine. If you want more privacy, installing e/OS/ is trivial. It blows my mind that anyone is concluding Samsung stuff is worth buying under any circumstances.

subscribed
Fairphone has astonishingly bad upgrades and patches policy. Very late, very delayed, not all of them.

Sure, better than, say, Sony (and as an ex-Sony user I kind of know what I'm talking about), but far from calling it good.

Aachen
Every vendor waits a month before sending out security patches, including Google. I've never understood this (with Linux desktops as my context) but so if you have a risk profile where the OS needs more frequent updates but still want to use Android, you need to take extra hardening steps such as limiting what you expose the OS to (from the outside (firewall, turn off unnecessary connections like Bluetooth) and inside (potentially malicious apps))
dotancohen
I buy Samsung for the S-Pen. The moment a viable alternative comes along, I'll be the first to try it.
rs186
What about people who are not in Europe?

And for US carriers, you are basically locked out of Wi-Fi calling if you are not using one of the whitelisted devices.

subscribed
GrapheneOS if you can live without Google Wallet and hardened Google Pixel (the only secure Android device family to date).
rs186
I can assure you that they do the same thing with flagship phones, especially carrier versions of the phones -- speaking from first hand experience. I have seen notifications from apps I have never heard of multiple times.

That's what I have been thinking recently -- given that Samsung is quietly doing these shady things with my phone, and other annoyances like Samsung forcing Galaxy AI on me (try selecting some texts in a browser or webview) which cannot be uninstalled and the terrible Samsung Pay interface, I am questioning my device choice every day.

chrisjj
> Samsung forcing Galaxy AI on me (try selecting some texts in a browser or webview)

I did. No Galaxy AI.

rs186
Open an email from any email client and give it a try.
chrisjj
Done (Gmail). Still no AI.
torginus
Just buy a 5 year old iPhone - it's likely to be still better than the cheapo phone, and will get longer support as well, while being sold at rock bottom prices.

I just replaced my iPhone XS, not out of necessity, but I wanted to see what the new ones were like. The 16 is barely better and I was suprised to find just how little the old one was worth second hand, considering it still runs circles around most midrange Android handsets.

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