How Carriers and Manufacturers Make Your Android Phone's Software Worse

Did You Know? Medieval moats didn’t just protect castles from invaders approaching over land, but also provided defense underground as well. The moats saturated the nearby ground with water and made it difficult and dangerous to tunnel under the castle to collapse the defenses. Geek Trivia Workers In Which Of These Non-Nuclear Industries Are Classified As “Radiation Workers” By The CDC? Airlines → Asphalt Production → Banana Packing → Port Inspection → Advertisement How-To Geek Recommends Running Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus for Maximum Protection Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That's where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market. And it doesn't just work on PCs — they have a Mac version too. Click here to download Want to Change Your Email Preferences? At some point in the past you subscribed to the How-To Geek newsletter, but if you'd like to change the frequency or unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the button. Change my Subscription (or unsubscribe) Today's How-To Geek Articles How Carriers and Manufacturers Make Your Android Phone’s Software Worse PC Gamers, Give Left-Handed “Gamepads” a Try Today's Review Geek Articles Geek Comic Today's Tech Term WYSIWYG WYSIWYG (short for What You See Is What You Get, pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”) refers to the ability to see text and graphics on a computer screen the same way they will look when printed on paper. What We're Reading This section contains what we're reading from around the web, along with commentary from our editors. Think of it like your daily digest of the most interesting things online. That Game on Your Phone May Be Tracking What You're Watching on TV Facebook is spying on you using the microphone, but these games are. [The New York Times] HQ Trivia Is a Harbinger of Dystopia In case you wanted to spend New Years Eve reading a very long article arguing that a trivia game is a sign of societal breakdown. [The Atlantic] How Carriers and Manufacturers Make Your Android Phone’s Software Worse Android’s openness is a big reason for its success, but cellular carriers and phone manufacturers often use this openness to make the experience worse for its users. Android’s openness gives carriers and device manufacturers the freedom to do bad things. Read This Article → PC Gamers, Give Left-Handed “Gamepads” a Try Keyboards aren’t designed to play games…but most PC games are designed to be played on keyboards. It’s an interesting bit of evolutionary dissonance in the world of PC gaming, from back when people actually worked on computers and games were a secondary consideration. Read This Article → Advertisement How-To Geek Recommends Running Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus for Maximum Protection Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That's where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market. And it doesn't just work on PCs — they have a Mac version too. Click here to download