Uninstalling default applications?

[FlutteringBy]

Thanks very much frapshake.......that does indeed do the trick!!.....

Enjoy the rest of your weekend..........

 

[scubaboyc]

I've been meaning to ask. After getting ICS, the A500 let me uninstall Nook. Should I reinstall it to get any further OTA or is it no longer considered part of the "image"?
I know that putting back on just to be safe isn't going to hurt, but free space is free space
Thanks,
scoobs

 

[Mrhelper]

I've been meaning to ask. After getting ICS, the A500 let me uninstall Nook. Should I reinstall it to get any further OTA or is it no longer considered part of the "image"?
I know that putting back on just to be safe isn't going to hurt, but free space is free space
Thanks,
scoobs

If you look in the list of disabled vendor/system apps, you may find that it was never uninstalled, but merely disabled, so the .apk and dalvik cache files are probably still on your system. To see what you have disabled, go to Settings > Apps > All (tab) and scroll to the bottom of the list to find disabled items. B&N Nook should be there unless you removed it as root.

 

[scubaboyc]

If you look in the list of disabled vendor/system apps, you may find that it was never uninstalled, but merely disabled, so the .apk and dalvik cache files are probably still on your system. To see what you have disabled, go to Settings > Apps > All (tab) and scroll to the bottom of the list to find disabled items. B&N Nook should be there unless you removed it as root.

Nope, just checked and it's gone. I do not have root, nor ever did. Icebike pointed it out right after the OTA. I went on a frenzy to "clear" the bloatware and have been wondering ever since if I should have uninstall B&N Nook.

 

[Greg_E]

I wouldn't worry about it until you read reports of people getting updates and decide that you missed the opportunity because something was disabled or uninstalled.

 

[Mrhelper]

Nope, just checked and it's gone. I do not have root, nor ever did. Icebike pointed it out right after the OTA. I went on a frenzy to "clear" the bloatware and have been wondering ever since if I should have uninstall B&N Nook.

That's interesting. I've never had the option to uninstall the Nook app, but only to disable it. I did have the option to uninstall the updates from Nook, but when those were gone, the Uninstall updates button changed to Disable. When I look now, I see B&N Nook in the list of disabled apps (bottom of "All" tab, marked by "disabled" on the right). If I select it , I have the option to Enable it, but not to uninstall it.

I'd guess that this difference in what you and I see is possibly caused by a difference in ROMs, but it seems likely that we have the same OS build because of the region we are both in (US). Maybe not.

If you are interested, here's the build info from /system/build.prop on my a500:
# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=IML74K
ro.build.display.id=Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CUS1
ro.build.version.incremental=1333727375
ro.build.version.sdk=15
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=4.0.3
ro.build.date=Fri Apr 6 23:50:30 CST 2012
...

Back to your original question... I really doubt that it would make any difference, because if a system update is pushed at some point, it seems unlikely that it will affect that specific app, and would likely be a full update anyway, which means that the partition containing the vendor apps would merely be replaced in full, and any changes you had made there would be irrelevant.

 

[frapshake]

That's interesting. I've never had the option to uninstall the Nook app, but only to disable it. I did have the option to uninstall the updates from Nook, but when those were gone, the Uninstall updates button changed to Disable. When I look now, I see B&N Nook in the list of disabled apps (bottom of "All" tab, marked by "disabled" on the right). If I select it , I have the option to Enable it, but not to uninstall it.

I'd quess that this difference in what you and I see is possibly caused by a difference in ROMs, but it seems likely that we have the same OS build because of the region we are both in (US). Maybe not.

Well now, this is very strange. You guys made me curious so I checked on my A500 and I don't have the Nook app. I am completely stock, ICS and know for a fact that I never did uninstall it. It wasn't included in my upgrade to ICS. So what you wrote sounds like it's true, that there are ROMs out there with different configurations.

 

[FlutteringBy]

I'm also in the Pacific Northwest frapshake & I too do not have the Nook app & I know I didn't uninstall it.....instead I have the Kobo app, which I have disabled....

 

[Mrhelper]

Well, there it is... it appears that you've solved that mystery. My tablet has never had the Kobo app installed, and came with Nook as one of the Acer installed apps. I can install and remove Kobo at will (from the Play Store), but cannot uninstall Nook. You were able to remove Nook, but apparently can only disable Kobo. That suggests that Nook was not included in the vendor apps in your ICS ROM, just as Kobo was not included in mine. If you originally saw Nook as a vendor app on HC, it seems possible that it was related to where you bought the tablet. Mine was shipped from a company in Northbrook, IL.

 

[frapshake]

Well, there it is... it appears that you've solved that mystery...

Not so fast, Mrhelper. The mystery isn't solved to my satisfaction yet. I don't have either of the Nook or Kobo apps and know for sure either one wasn't included in HC or ICS, and I know I would never uninstall any that came with the tablet for fear that I wouldn't get OTA updates any longer. My tablet was a pre-order from Best Buy, and I have no idea where it came from.

FlutteringBy said: I'm also in the Pacific Northwest frapshake & I too do not have the Nook app & I know I didn't uninstall it.....instead I have the Kobo app, which I have disabled....

Great weather we've been having up here in the great Pacific Northwest huh? Did you also get your tablet from Best Buy?

 

[Mrhelper]

Not so fast, Mrhelper. The mystery isn't solved to my satisfaction yet. I don't have either of the Nook or Kobo apps and know for sure either one wasn't included in HC or ICS...

What you have added here may just confirm the solution further. There are numerous builds out there, and it seems likely that I have one build, FlutteringBy has another, and you have yet a third, each with slight different flexrom vendor packages. To prove or disprove the theory, you could post your build information as I did for comparison. I suspect that yours is different from mine.

 

[frapshake]

What you have added here may just confirm the solution further. There are numerous builds out there, and it seems likely that I have one build, FlutteringBy has another, and you have yet a third, each with slight different flexrom vendor packages. To prove or disprove the theory, you could post your build information as I did for comparison. I suspect that yours is different from mine.

I believe you are right and it only makes sense. I posted my build prop in the "ice cream sandwich bug on a500" thread to compare yours, mine and Douvie's having to do with the screen rotation problem, and mine looks the same as yours.

FLEX Ver/Build No: Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CUS1
ro.build.date=Fri Apr 6 23:50:30 CST 2012

# begin build properties
# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh
ro.build.id=IML74K
ro.build.display.id=Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CU S1
ro.build.version.incremental=1333727375
ro.build.version.sdk=15
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=4.0.3
ro.build.date=Fri Apr 6 23:50:30 CST 2012
ro.build.date.utc=1333727430

 

[Mrhelper]

I believe you are right and it only makes sense. I posted my build prop in the "ice cream sandwich bug on a500" thread to compare yours, mine and Douvie's having to do with the screen rotation problem, and mine looks the same as yours.

FLEX Ver/Build No: Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CUS1
ro.build.date=Fri Apr 6 23:50:30 CST 2012

I just looked back at what you had posted. We have the exact same OS build! Well that blows the theory that we had different builds. Now I wonder what you would find if you looked under /system/vendor/app. I've listed mine below. Note that the modification times on each .apk file match the 4-6-2012 build date from build.prop. My tablet has a Nook.apk file included in the vendor apps as shown below. At this point I wonder if Nook was not installed on yours but installed on mine because the setup script installs fewer of the vendor apps on a 16GB model vs. a 32GB model. Mine is a 32GB model. Interesting little puzzle...

app_102@android:/ $ ls -l /system/vendor/app
-rw-r--r-- root root 239725 2012-04-06 12:30 AcerClock.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 337881 2012-04-06 12:30 AcerDLNA2.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 6021570 2012-04-06 12:30 AcerMedia.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 1020110 2012-04-06 12:30 AcerRegistration2.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 69665 2012-04-06 12:30 AgendaWidget.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 5570998 2012-04-06 12:30 DTG.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 200011 2012-04-06 12:30 DigitalClock1.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 5843442 2012-04-06 12:30 DigitalClockWidget2.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 6603264 2012-04-06 12:30 MusicA_Picasso.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 3131650 2012-04-06 12:30 MyLocationWidget.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 4767767 2012-04-06 12:30 Nook.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 6953522 2012-04-06 12:30 SocialJogger.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 1449577 2012-04-06 12:30 TegraZone.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 3329837 2012-04-06 12:30 WeatherWidget1.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 7050055 2012-04-06 12:30 WeatherWidget2.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 6643419 2012-04-06 12:30 ZinioReader.apk
-rw-r--r-- root root 14657 2012-04-06 12:30 ZinioSettingsProvider.apk

 

[frapshake]

Alrighty...I must have looked in /system/vendor/app several times over the months and I'm sure I must have seen this, but it didn't register because I had my mind on something else, but I do, in fact, have the Nook apk in there! Apparently it wasn't installed for some reason. Ok, mystery solved. No idea why it wasn't installed though. Thanks for helping to clear that up.

 

[Douvie]

Alrighty...I must have looked in /system/vendor/app several times over the months and I'm sure I must have seen this, but it didn't register because I had my mind on something else, but I do, in fact, have the Nook apk in there! Apparently it wasn't installed for some reason. Ok, mystery solved. No idea why it wasn't installed though. Thanks for helping to clear that up.

Just to add further to the various builds, I have KOBO and not NOOK so I just wondering if there are others with completely different ebook standard readers?

And as for the weather here in South eastern Australia - it has been wild and woolly.

Update:

I just looked at the vendor list and saw that Zinio was the standard ebook app on my A500. But I do have KOBO as well - maybe I had downloaded it at some time.