Sprint Pushes FPS NOVA With Firmware — and Users Can't Remove It 182
theodp writes "If you could change the way wireless companies did things, what would you do?' asked Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. How about stopping the use of Sprint's firmware updates to download apps that aren't wanted and can't be removed, Dan? Sprint confirmed to CNET's Elinor Mills that those strange apps she was shocked to find on her Android phone — sci-fi shooter N.O.V.A. and Blockbuster — with a long list of permissions that couldn't be uninstalled had been sneakily downloaded onto her phone during a firmware update. 'Sprint does offer a variety of partner applications that are optimized for use on our wireless phones,' a Sprint representative explained in an e-mail. 'From time to time, we will provide new apps to our customers in conjunction with a software maintenance release. Also, Sprint, in conjunction with Google, is taking steps to develop a technical solution that would allow customers to remove any unwanted applications that have been preloaded or pushed in an over-the-air software update.'" Asking first would be a nice non-technical solution.
Re:Hold the Pickles Hold the Lettuce? (Score:2, Informative)
Having worked as a Sprint service technician, if you do brick your phone, just take it to a service center and tell them you want it exchanged. Don't tell them you tried to modify it, but just tell them "well, one day it just started doing that." Get shitty with them if they put up resistance. They'll give in eventually.
The things that will make them balk is if there is physical damage to the phone or if the litmus dots on the back of the phone are smeared, indicating liquid damage. When I worked there, any phone we were going to exchange had to be taken apart and inspected for liquid damage. About 70% of the time or if the customer was a complete bitch we actually did that. We were supposed to charge to send in liquid or physically damaged phones for repair, or refer to the Asurion insurance. However, we never received any chargebacks for sending in a liquid damage (or even physically damaged) phone to the depot in Texas, so I suspect Sprint would like to be strict about things like this but can't afford to given they are not the strongest carrier out there in terms of reputation or coverage.