Meanwhile is completely fine when those corporations avoid paying their taxes in the EU while making billions and billions of profits by abusing their monopoly and data-mining everything they can. Please give me a break. Some of you behave like total fanboys. I guess the anti-EU agenda is hot right now.
Google knows who I am....I use google autofill for ebay ...2 clicks I'm done... Chrome is the fastest browser to. YouTube is the best thing that ever happened to Google ...They done good./great Let's not forget Google Earth/ Maps! .....Gmail for the win! Damn...Google really does own me! ..I love Google...cow milk at Walmart is $0.99 a gallon/ your country is ripping you off
EU regulations are very specific, and despite google being the best search engine imo they should really be afraid of those regulations. It's every country job to regulate the market so monopolies wont take the market hostage of their "good will". Godspeed.
I must admit that when I first saw the above imagery, I thought I was about to watch an old Star Trek episode about the High Commissioner of Talos VI. I don't really have a horse in this race. I don't own a smart phone or use any other Android devices. Nor do I use Google. Now, as an unabashed proponent of capitalism, I would normally want a successful company to have continued success. I don't support the data-mining that almost every outfit is engaging in, but, if Google has become as smothering and pervasive as they really seem to be, it is due, at least in part, to satisfying the needs and expectations of their users. Seems rather unfair to penalize them for jumping in pretty early and being pretty good at what they provide. I just wish people weren't so damn dependent on their phones and such. But, that bit of sentiment isn't really germane to this conversation.
Oh, please...I don't even like Google as a company, mainly because it runs roughshod over free speech American-style, internally. Doesn't permit its employees to express differing opinions, etc. And what about the mindless worshiping of the EU that you seem to want to do?. And what is it with the "we" stuff--you know as well as I do that the EUC doesn't consult you on anything, right? "We" isn't even a factor... I am simply in Equal-Opportunity-Opposition to heavy-handed governments--be they in the US, the EU or wherever. I think the markets are far more intelligent--and honest--than any politician, anywhere. And you can quote me on that...
@Fox2232 The fine isnt just for have apps/stuff installed by default, but also what can be customized by the phone maker. Just the fact that sony had to drop their stamina mode, since it "broke" googles requirements. What a joke, when the os maker tells the phone maker what they can or can't do. Especially when its actually now worse (battery time) and more annoying (notifications etc) than anything on the stamina mode ever was. @others whining about "eu" laws/fines. how about the US, which has a ban on kobe meat (NO imports), yet companies are allowed to sell meat MADE IN THE USA, as Kobe meat (coming from japan). Or the fact that no goes after the company's that sell sparkling crap as champagne, when the legal requirement is (for anything labeled "champagne"), that it not only has to be made with grapes from there, but actually has to be made in the champagne. But as soon as one product from an American company is being cloned/copied (whatever), they sue the crap out of anyone even remotely connected to it...
I know exactly what you mean, I experienced this myself as I have a Sony Xperia Z2 (use an Xperia XZ1 now and Android 8 certainly is better but still doesn't have a patch on what Stamina mode could do) and I remember going from Kitkat to Lollipop, going from 4 day battery life (with use) down to 2.... at best, 1 at worst it was awful - simply because you no longer had control over which apps should be allowed to be active during standby... Wake lock nightmare returned... Worst thing about modern Android software is the notification system used now... with any and every application vying for notification permissions, it's ridiculous... Install an application, run it and close it, then an hour later you get a notification (sound alert and vibration) informing you of a feature you can use in the app or an ad to upgrade to a pro version of the app... It's just so frustrating that apps can have notifications by default now and you have to pro-actively disable these permissions now (really should be opt-in for notifications imo, not opt-out).
When you are speeding, I am not going to put you to prison for life claiming you killed someone. Those anti-trust whatever things are just arti-ficial at best and rarely justified.
I dunno. Several automatic notifications have been pretty useful for me (e.g., severe weather alerts). I would prefer turning off a useless or annoying notification as opposed to the opposite. What worries me about this development is that it might give manufacturers and carriers greater control over the phone and what's installed on it. They could choose to replace Chrome and other Google services with their own bloatware versions by default, which would be pretty horrific. Having a Samsung phone, I'm acutely aware of all the Samsung bloatware that's installed on my phone, and this problem will only get worse with this ruling. The other alternative is a blank slate phone, but they can be troublesome to setup and customize - it'd be like those Android emulators which have initially nothing installed (it can be difficult to figure out what to do, even for experienced Android users). Whether this ruling actually benefits customers is hard to say. I think it mostly benefits Google's competitors.
i am not defending either google ....but google creating a product that for most people dont have problem with, even for some probably comfortable/convinient say they forcing default apps, but if it just bad, people will look/find the alternative, right? just like MS with their browser, MS edge didnt be the most used browser despite most people using windows and edge is preinstalled/default browser, why people pick chrome or firefox ? many of internet stuff is driven by user imho Blackberry BBM once is world popular messenger... now people leaving and switch to others why ? it just people find better one, as simple as that... its natural for a company, that success in finding what user want, it grow and become big and they eat smaller one , in the end monopoly things happens EU try to regulate that... which is good things i guess, so they market can keep healthy, so there is more chance for others but again what dictate the market actually "user" not the company (google) its like toy'r us closing up, while things change nowdays, kids prefer games than toys but also people find easier way to order/buy toys online, like buying things from amazon, rather than waste time go to retail-shop so is it wrong for amazon being top monopoly online store? so to me, i dont think google is "wrong" because they simple successful in creating what user/people like... that those come from many developer that working in google anyway if i EU goverment, i would rather make rule, that a top company need to pay "extra-tax" based % of market-share to goverment for being at the top, thats way safe time and power for both
Oh how I wish this to happen. In China I didn't have to block Google myself. The government did it for me. And still life went on...
In all honesty i don't think it's Googles fault, they said they had competition from the likes of Apple, the EU's response was Apple products are too expensive to compete... well who's fking idea is that? It's Apples they have the resources to compete with Google but they choose not to since they like to sell mid range phones at ultra high prices and have the biggest markup of products of any company, and thats what they like it's a choice they have made. Then you have Microsoft with their closed eco system that has limited services that few people like let alone the way it's OS operates. As for the search engine idk about you i have not found one that works as good as google, ask jeves and bing etc are all total junk, if i do a search for something with google typically the top result is the one i am after not like bing where you may have to go through a number of pages. I guess it is googles fault.... for listening to their customers and bringing the services that they want, while others ignore them. Damn you google!
That's nothing. The E.U has been getting away with murder over the years when it comes to NATO and import taxes, especially Germany which is the strongest economy in the E.U and the largest exporter. The U.S should drop NATO like a sack of potatoes and let them be responsible for their own defense and forge individual treaties and trade alliances with nations which are willing to be more reciprocal.
Actually they did in the past for internet explorer i remember instaling windows and having a shortcut that gives me the option to install ie,firefox,chrome,opera etc was so nice! I did not had to open ie to install my prefered browser even once! And aparently they allow it again ...oh well i guess they will allow google to have it back pre-installed in 4-5 years ? https://www.extremetech.com/computi...gain-set-ie-as-the-default-browser-in-windows
Just noticed on my device there's an icon now for assistant, It would be really great to remove all this Google search/Assistant junk that I never asked to be installed. Hopefully this means Search/Assistant won't come preloaded in future.
Time and time again we see the E.U punishing American companies for making products which people want. Like some people mentioned previously, Google search and Google Chrome became popular for a REASON. If these products and services weren't very good, people would find alternatives, ie Internet Explorer. And consumers always have a choice. I make a choice to use Microsoft Edge and Bing on my desktop, and Chrome and Google on my smartphone. Just because something is bundled by default, doesn't mean you have to use it.
The issue in this case is that a manufacturer isn't even allowed to include a different browser (or won't to avoid confusion because they essentially have to install Chrome too). Because of this they give themselves (google) an unfair advantage. To use their app store you have to use several of their apps which is unfair to competitors. Meanwhile if you are a Microsoft OEM you can essentially preinstall any software. Microsoft used to include a Office but were hit with a similar lawsuit as it essentially forced it on customers leaving little room for competitors. Edge may be included but an OEM can include Firefox/Chrome/etc with the unit.
So the E.U thinks people are essentially stupid and don't know that they can simply download another browser from the app store? I could have understood this a decade or more ago when smartphones were just starting to become popular, but nowadays? No way! I just typed in browsers for android in the google play store, and it came back with what seemed over a hundred hits for browsers other than Chrome. The only valid point the E.U has is that the Google play store is a requirement for Android. But there are serious security concerns for having multiple app stores for an OS. That's exactly the sort of thing that should be tightly regulated (Google is the best candidate as it places security at the forefront), as the potential for abuse by people with criminal intent is extreme.
Not that I blame EU for the fines but why does Apple get to lock their entire ecosystem and get away Scott free? Does Google get punished for allowing any company to build phones for their os? And what if tomorrow they decide to make it a pixel monopoly? I guess it's only okay if apple does it?
