In case you might be wondering why your browser's default page changed on the Samsung S2 Tablet: I Got a notification for a system update on my Samsung S2 and noticed that Samsung will set your browser's default page to www.samsung.com
Posted Jan 17, 2017, 12:41 PM UTC
Interesting, IIRC Chrome for Desktop will detect any such changes made by third-party apps and block them. I would expect Chrome for Android to do so as well, but perhaps they didn't think it was necessary since it would require a system privileged app (I think?) to do it. If this indeed forces Chrome's home page to change I think the Chrome team would consider that a bug and want to fix it if possible.
Given its Samsung, I'd expect that change to be to their Samsung Browser and not Chrome.
Ah. That actually makes sense they'd be changing the homepage, then. At least, more sense than Chrome.
But man, if that change is to Chrome too, I'd be pissed.
Honest question: How pissed would you be? Annoying, sure, but nothing (as far I know) permanent and super simple to change.
I mean this happens all the time, even with carrier locked versions changing the homepage to their website.
Actually Android has a configuration point in its build.prop where you can set the landing page to anything you want. And Chrome will abide that URL, though you can overrule it in its settings.
Not a bug. They added an API for it. In chrome settings, disable "home page"
Chrome seems to have found its match in Windows 10. No matter what I do, I can't choose Chrome as my default browser. Windows seemingly refuses to do it.
You have to use the Windows Control Panel / Settings mechanism to set it as default. If you just try it through the app itself Windows blocks it (because too many apps have abused setting themselves as default in the past).
Not sure if you had tried that or not. If that doesn't work there's likely something broken with your Chrome or Windows install.
Thanks! Control panel worked for me; was having trouble because the normal settings app wasn't working.
No biggy. I'll just change it back.
Excuse me but this is a place for bandwagon rage-posting. Get out.
369 Mb for that....?
Those are just the user-facing features that the user will actually notice. I'm sure there are security patches and other bug fixes included in the update, but they know that most users don't care.
Also the timezone in Turkey.
Still an insanely large update size.
Big timezone.
Well, Tukey is a big country.
I know, right?
369MB of diff patches for the whole monthly security update, possibly kernel update, and various other factors (Samsung often updates its integrated apps through OTA too, so that it won't take more space on the data partition).
I just realized that I've never been to Samsung's website 😶 I own several Samsung devices including my tablet and I've been to Apple's website even though I don't own an Apple devide. Oops...
Man they better do something to increase traffic...
Hey, are you me
Went to visit my grandma, who always has a few questions for me about her tablet. One of them was why her "main page" was set to Samsung and not Yahoo anymore. Great job Samsung.
Change it on their Samsung browser, not every browser. Who on earth would even use that browser.
I use it over chrome. Honestly it's much more smoother, faster, ad blockers and I'm loving that it stores your password with your fingerprint.
And theres a number of adblocking extensions for Samsung's browser, while Chrome still doesn't support extensions.
It's so much better than Chrome, if they could make it sync with Chrome/Safari on desktop it would be perfect.
There is a chrome extension for that. I was not able to make it work before, but it may have been improved since.
Same spot with Windows Edge. People give it shit and not gonna lie there are some bugs that need to be sorted out but it performs so much faster
Anyone who uses Samsung because it's infinitely better than chrome? Fast, lean, supports ad blocker extensions, fingerprint for password entry etc. Why the fuck would anyone NOT use it?
Sync between your Google account?
You can sync by getting the Samsung Sync chrome extension. It'll sync your bookmarks and you can see what tabs are open on other devices but it sucks and most of the time, even with a force sync, I don't see what I need.
syncs with firefox account.
You probably have data on Chrome desktop and Chrome Android syncs those data.
Its a hell of a lot better than Chrome at least on my phone. While Chrome feels laggy and drops frames on some sites Samsung's Browser is usually extremely fast, responsive and has some nifty features like fingerprint login or fingerprint/password lock for private mode.
I only miss having my bookmarks and password synched with my desktop browser (Chrome) but everything else is better on S Browser TBH.
I use it. I find it better than any other browser on Android.
its optimised for Samsung's devices, so it usually runs better than Chrome
Syncs with firefox. Has extensions, does everything chrome does, and incognito mode has password/biometric authentication.
and incognito mode has password/biometric authentication.
Wow, really?! Didn't know that.
It's arguably the best browser on Android.
Curiously a lot of people seem to now. In the last month it was the fifth most popular browser visiting our web site, beating Firefox BTW. And this isn't a site particularly aimed at mobile (rather the opposite in fact).
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The app drawer icon says "Internet", so the people would be my grandparents, mother, and all other people I know who use a Samsung phone.
Actually, it changes on every browser. Your main system config file (/system/build.prop) contains an entry for default search engine and landing page - most browsers obey this, as this is a way for the manufacturer to create a pre-loaded experience (albeit a shitty one).
See, Android is about being able to customize stuff. But it also goes for the manufacturer, they need to be able to customize shit too.
This only happens in the Samsung Internet browser.
Oh no, I'll have to take an extra minute to switch it back to spankbang.
A minute? It would be faster if you used both hands.
Get a load of Mr. Non-compulsive masturbation over here.
When i was on my gs6edge they did it every update and i had at least 4-5 updates that year believe it or not. This is bs and no one should defend it.
This is why I posted this. But like you, I'm pretty surprised that people will defend Samsung's action when it serves no benefit to the end user.
You're better off switching browser then
This was the same sort of thing that made me avoid every using oneplus again, I'd set the search engine used for invalid URLs to duckduckgo, then one day after an update it had been changed to bing with no warning.
I sent them a complaint and got told it's not their problem(cyanomod was apparently responsible, but I never got any progress with them either).
Honestly if someone wants to change a default for anyone who's never changed it that's something I can understand, but when I've customised something changing it is about as anticonsumer as you can get.
OnePlus changed a lot since COS gave them the crappy finger. Ever since OOS came out, it's only been improvements, rarely taking away features.
And they are right, it was COS fucking around, as they just made a deal at that time with MS, and updated their OS accordingly. Though it shouldn't have changed or overwritten user settings.
is this really a big deal? at least they let you know in the changelog
this is like complaining that the default Chrome page of a Pixel phone is Google.
and yes, i don't default to google btw
Updating doesn't reset your homepage to Google, so no, it's not really like that.
WOW! I am more surprised that such an issue is being discussed.
How is this not illegal... this is MY paid for property.... how would you feel if suddenly your car was a different color, or all your radio stations were changed,l? we need consumer property laws. Fuck auto updates. Fuck changing my setting's and bookmarks. Fuck being at a cafe for lunch and all of a sudden "now updating, please do not leave WiFi coverage or turn off your phone for the next 2 hours!" Fuck you. Gimme my fucking phone back! I have to go back to work.... and I can't even call in late because my phone decided to download 300Mbs on a 128kbs connection. Fuck Fuck fuck
I found that by doing a factory reset and then updating, I was able to delete most of the bloatware. Facebook, Flipboard etc.
For what it's worth, i just updated my S7 and neither Chrome or stock browser were set to Google.com.
Fuck Samsung forever. Nexus S ha nonstop problems, S6 had about 2 hour of battery and the 2 times I had to return my Note 7 sealed the deal. Never again.
Sony or Pixel is all I'd go with now.
On a side note, how's the tablet?
I actually like it a lot. I got it on sale for $300, great screen, has microSD slot for all my offline movie needs, very light so I can use it as an ebook reader without getting tired. No real complaints.
Oh nice. I might look into getting one
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This is a pretty terrible thing to do, especially from an accessibility point of view.
Then hold onto your hat for this: I bought an unlocked s7, but Samsung apparently has some kind of deal with t mobile on my country, because after inserting my sim card into it, the phone downloaded extra shit from t mobile: the boot animation is now a bright pink t mobile animation, some apps were downloaded (luckily I could uninstall them), but worst of all... It erased all my chrome bookmarks, and replaced them with sponsored bookmarks (Twitter, Facebook, local ebay competitor, etc), and my homepage was set to a landing page from t mobile.
It's cancer.
Don't get lg or Samsung. Guaranteed bloat lol
My g3 didn't have very much bloat
My V20 has Instagram and Facebook tattooed all over it, there's even an Instagram button baked into the camera app, it's disgusting.
Yep, learned my lesson. I swore off Samsung after hating my s2, but now all reviews said the s7 is basically the best phone ever, and people on here said touch wiz was actually good now.
Well, it is a good phone, but touch wiz is still shit, so Samsung is on my shitlist again at least for another 5 years.
Could you please elaborate why? All I hear about the S7 is how TouchWiz is awesome now, how there's no lag any more, how there's very little bloatware and if you want a stock-Android experience all you have to do is change the Launcher and theme.. Is this not the case?
alli want is a god dam pixel. but apartly they didn't make enough.
I know that really sucks. I picked up a Robin for $150 tho lol and it's a steal.
Broke
My S7 wasn't too bad. The only bloat I had to uninstall was the Microsoft Office apps.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I am intrigued about your local Irish new age singer.
Auto correct, I meant ebay ;)
That is enough for me to boycott an OEM.
There's is nothing more egregious then inconveniencing the user.
I'd say the phone catching fire is worse... oh wait.
Burning phones doesn't seem inconvenient?
The same happened with me. I got the phone initially unlocked (it definitely still is because Three don't network lock phones), but now it has the shitty Three boot animation and it pre-installed the Three apps. Just because I worked there didn't mean I wanted that shit on my phone.
Seems very iPhone-esque - in the UK it comes unlocked out of the box, but the first SIM card that gets inserted into it will be the network it locks to (with the exception of Three and GiffGaff).
The sim card itself can hold things to be installed when you set up your phone the first time.
Not that much though, there memory is tiny. Even that boot animation would probably be more than then memory available, by a lot.
It doesn't have to hold the entire app/video/etc on it. All it has to do is say to the OS "yeah, install these when you check for updates on setup"
If that's the case, my previous phone ignored it, because I used the same sim in my previous nexus 6p, which didn't do any of that.
Therefore I'm pretty sure it's the Samsung phone that rec ignores it as a t mobile sim, and then downloads the stuff.
I feel like that might be a deal with the carrier.
I bought an S4 and my dad got a G2 and they both had the same preinstalled stuff like some random games, some radio and news thing, and NFL mobile.
A lot of phones do this now, the BlackBerry Priv would download carrier customizations based on the SIM put in the phone
Weird, I bought an unlocked S7 and put in the chip from my previous phone. No sign of any T-mobile apps or anything. Maybe they're putting it in the new SIM cards?
Get a aosp rom
Doesn't exist for the s7
Holy shit. If that happened to me, I would just return the phone and never buy a Samsung phone for years.
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