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Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

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daddydave:
I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer :-*
-f0dder (February 22, 2011, 01:08 PM)
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I use that with my Android phone just fine, so that opens a load more phone choices for you in future.
-Eóin (February 22, 2011, 02:55 PM)
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Since this thread is a year and a half old, I am reopening it to ask if either of you have installed MyPhoneExplorer (the desktop client) lately. It is the subject of my first ever Google Play review

Malware alert: avoid like a sharp stick.

To use this app, you will need to install the desktop client. It also installs at least two unwanted programs: snap.do and InfoAtoms. After having spent the day cleaning this up, I re-downloaded the Windows client to run the setup again twice to make sure there was not a custom install option where I might have avoided it. There definitely is not a custom install option, but when the Terms of Service comes up, you are actually seeing the InfoAtoms TOS. I believe most users will expect MyPhoneExplorer's own TOS to come up at that point, and just click Agree. If you click Cancel, you will get another TOS prompt for TranslateGenius. If you cancel that one, the install continues. So possibly you might be able to install MyPhoneExplorer for Windows without installing "potentially unwanted programs," but this was enough to keep me from trusting the software.

InfoAtoms puts ads everywhere, even Wikipedia and YouTube. If I had not been giving AdBlock Plus, a break, I might not have seen it. snap.do hijacks the browser's home page and default search. TranslateGenius, to my knowledge, did not get installed, and I have no opinion of it.
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In fact, InfoAtoms put 3 ads inside of f0dder's post on this forum, and I'm still not sure it didn't insert the words "nice unbloated" and the  :-* in f0dder's post.

And yes, I am admitting to not reading Terms of Service (I guess End User License Agreement is a better phrase -- I'll probably change that in the review) when installing software.

Shades:
Yeah, it sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. Add printer and scanner drivers to the bunch - they've always sucked, but it's gotten extremely bad in the latest years, where printer drivers have started advertising for printer cartridges.

Phone connectivity... several hundreds of megs installed, whether it's Nokia or Sony/Ericsson or whatever. I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer :-*
-f0dder (February 22, 2011, 01:08 PM)
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After a good deal of searching for software to regain the ability to manage my phone (Nokia 5530) after the latest update made it enter into an locked-in environment almost equal to the Apple crap (both on the phone and the Nokia Suite software), I was on the verge of buying a new Android phone.

However, I did find some old beta software from Nokia and that gives me the access I need. The installer says it only runs on Windows XP SP2, but Win7 still has that compability setting and it even works under Win 7 x64. I would say it is similar to the uncluttered interface you get from MyPhoneExplorer.

So, if you (still) have a Symbian S60 phone, search for the following: PCPhone_install_1.2.2078.exe (I couldn´t find it on the Nokia webpage anymore).

f0dder:
Since this thread is a year and a half old, I am reopening it to ask if either of you have installed MyPhoneExplorer (the desktop client) lately. It is the subject of my first ever Google Play review

Malware alert: avoid like a sharp stick.
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-daddydave (November 04, 2012, 08:38 AM)
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I actually did, and ended up with some crap on my system as well (apparently some "IM smiley pack" thingy, can't remember the name) - only noticed it because Skype started crashing - I assume the crapware hooked into IE, and Skype uses the IE rendering engine... or something.

It's piss-poor behavior to bundle crapware with your application, and the underhanded tactics used in the MPE installer to get you to install the crap is infuriating. I'm still using MPE since I haven't found any better alternative (I'm a bit worried whether if there might be something nasty hidden in the Android client?), but from now on all updates are done in a VM where I can copy the files safely from. Also, I had considered donating a few bucks to the author, since it's a good program - but no way in hell that's happening now.

Jibz:
I have always had this idea it is because the software developers who are employed by hardware companies are of a different breed. For most of their work they have to focus on not making any irrecoverable errors. If you write a desktop application and you make a bug, it might crash that one application and annoy people, but they can just uninstall it -- if you write a hardware driver and you make a bug it could irreparably damage hardware or require a somewhat complicated process to get the machine going again.

I assume this is why desktop software is fancy looking, sleek to use, and full of bugs, while driver software is usually ugly, a pain to use, but generally doesn't blow up your machine ;D.

It has gotten a lot better though in many cases -- I think perhaps some companies are employing a bit of a mix.

tslim:
I assume this is why desktop software is fancy looking, sleek to use, and full of bugs, while driver software is usually ugly, a pain to use, but generally doesn't blow up your machine ;D.-Jibz (November 05, 2012, 08:18 AM)
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Few days ago, I try to update my OCZ Agiity 3 SSD firmware. Very carefully I follow the instruction to be sure I will make no mistake but the update fails with no apparent reason... it ends up damaging my SSD (BIOS no more detects it).

Ugly bugger!

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