If you needed an excuse to get on your Apple high horse, I got a new one yesterday.

My super old Android phone -- used essentially only when running for... reasons, mostly Pokemon Go reasons -- popped to its last page of apps after I unlocked it today just long enough to show three new apps there before it snapped back to the first page. Real useful ones like Slotomania and some tiles game.

I didn't realize getting apps slammed onto your phone was a thing. But it is! And has been for over a decade!

What the absolute heck?

I've always sort of thought of internet-enabled devices as ecosystems where code fought it out for resources, especially after the Sony rootkit CD scandal. This is similar, I think.

My Android has a TextNow SIM in it now, for which I pay a total of $5 annually [sic] for a static number plus unlimited calls & texts, and, though unlocked now, the phone originally came from Tracfone, which still has a splash screen on startup and an app that I apparently can't erase, or can't erase without a lot of googling I'm not excited to do.

Maybe it's Verizon, since they bought Tracfone and they apparently install stuff without asking? Maybe?

But what a dumb, invasive, short-sighted way to squeeze a few more cents of revenue out of your users. I don't think iOS lets this happen. That it can happen on Android is "low key" (as the kids say) an argument against 3rd party app stores, which these carrier apps have essentially become.

Ultimately I don't know where these stupid apps came from, but at least I'm not hallucinating?

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