How not to update firmware + solution.

I own a Galaxy S3 smartphone, which I’m quite happy with. Android has its issues but the hardware is very good and samsung rolled a few apps to compensate for the OS shortcomings. However today I was really disappointed. They rolled out a new update. Updated 2014-05-06 with a solution.

Take a look at the change log:

Added new feature.

Really? Is this worth 50+mb of firmware update to add a feature? And then, take a look at the incentive for me to update:

Some settings will be reset or data erased after this upgrade.

OK, so I thought - updates are good, let’s go for it. And the result? I do not know if something was fixed or any new features added, but I got three new apps, which I did not ask for and can’t uninstall.

The apps are:

• SkyCash (mobile payments),
• Rzeczpospolita (a Polish newspapers),
• E-kiosk (no idea, but “kiosk” in Polish is a place where you can buy newspaper).

Two newspaper apps and one which sounds like a virus or scam, but apparently it is a legit mobile payments company. Good job, Samsung, please put more ad/bloatware app on my phone with the next update - for sure I’ll buy S5 :-).

Update 2014-05-06

Miki in the comment below asked how to cope with this problem. While there is no way to uninstall the apps, they can be easily disabled. A disabled app stays in the device storage but does not use memory and is not present in the application launcher. Please follow the steps below.

1. Go to Settings -> More -> Application manager
2. Go to ALL tab
3. Click the app you want to disable, e.g. “Rzeczpospolita”
4. Click Disable (sometimes you need to click Uninstall Updates first, before you can see the Disable button)
5. The app is disabled