“iOS 8.2 is here! Hurray!” Greg Kumparak reports for TechCrunch. “It’s got bug fixes! It’s got stability enhancements! It’s got… an app that you can’t delete that currently does nothing but play promotional Apple Watch videos!”
“Joining the dozen or so perma-apps that Apple includes on the iPhone is ‘Apple Watch,’ an app that doesn’t actually do anything yet,” Kumparak reports. “Have you already seen plenty of stuff about the Apple Watch? Don’t intend to buy one? Too bad! You can’t delete it.”
“At this point, the list of undeletable apps is getting a bit silly,” Kumparak reports. “Weather! Clock! Maps! Notes! Reminders! Stocks! Passbook! Newsstand! iBooks!”
Apple's latest iPhone update includes Apple Watch app you can't delete http://t.co/fvNn4NgSi0 pic.twitter.com/oahBm5gvnW
— CNET (@CNET) March 10, 2015
I really hate this mandatory Apple Watch app that I can't delete
— Shareef is the magic number (@ShareefJackson) March 11, 2015
Auw #Apple, why won't you let me delete the unwanted #AppleWatch app? Not cool.
— Aoife (@AoifeMhaith) March 11, 2015
One more app for the Useless folder. Can't delete them but have to stick them somewhere. #applewatch https://t.co/XuPoTxduiD
— Chris Vacher (@heychrisvacher) March 11, 2015
https://twitter.com/fishjourner/status/575154276663590912
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s going to be okay. With any luck*, we’ll all survive this. No, seriously, we will. Really. Deep breaths.
*Or even with no luck at all.
I just have a home page to collect all of the unremovable apps that I never use. I just avoid going to that home page. Problem solved.
Then it’s not a Home page…
Put all the unremovable Apps that you don’t use in a separate (how about last) page that you never have to get tonor look at…?
Anyone going hysterical abot this has way too much time on their hands and should get a life.
Of course if you know idle lawyers who have too much time on their
incompetent hands too, SUE and waste eveyone’s time amd money too. There should be a law that losers of frivolous lawsuits pay all legal costs…
Surely some of those apps are pretty integral to the workings of the phone and it’s services and could cause issues if they were deleted and couldn’t be called upon when wanted. Maps in particular but also weather, notes and others.
Created a folder names “Unused” and put it on the last page. No big deal.
Why would you make an entire homepage instead of just making a single folder?
I don’t like folders. If I truly do want to run something, I’d prefer it on a home page. Home Pages are a bit easier to work with in iTunes too.
But… quoting you:
“apps that I never use.”
So now you want them somewhere that they are easier to use and manipulate? Doctors can help with that, and the drugs are fairly inexpensive.
“Solved”, except for the inconvenient truth that they’re still eating up **my** device’s storage space, which is quite finite.
But I’ll be more than happy to let you swap your 64GB devices for my 16GB ones…just to convince me that it really is no big deal.
-hh
I have a 16 GB iPad Mini. I knew the limitations when I bought it. I got the 64 GB iPhone 6. I knew 16 GB wasn’t enough coming from a 32 GB iPhone 5. Just go to your carrier and upgrade your phone. No big deal. You can fix poor planning!
You might have a valid point regarding “poor planning” if Apple had a prior history of forcing their customers to make room on their devices for Apple’s marketing material..but since that isn’t the case, this isn’t a case of poor planning.
And while one can upgrade phones at pretty much the cost of an additional 2 year contract, this “no big deal” attitude does not apply to replacing iPads…please send me a check for $1121.36
Why do you think I should pay for your poor planning?
Apple has a history of using up more space for OS updates. I have a number of Apple devices stuck on lower versions of operating systems because they don’t support newer versions. They become music players or WiFi phones.
Open your wallet and upgrade or wait until your contract is over and upgrade. By then, the minimum flash should be 32 GB.
“Why do you think I should pay for your poor planning?”
First, because it wasn’t “poor planning” on my part that Apple has chosen to blindside their customers with a self-serving “Marketing TAX” built on my property.
Second, since you’ve been on insisting that this isn’t a big deal, then you should be more than willing to back up your mouth with your wallet.
“Open your wallet and upgrade or wait until your contract is over and upgrade” …
Except that iPads aren’t eligible…and this isn’t only about just iPhones.
Now this is the second time I’ve pointed out this fact to you…how many more times does it need to be repeated before you finally “get it”?
FYI, if you don’t have the cash to pony up the $1121.36 upgrade cost, I’m also open to receiving your payment in alternative forms. For example, if you have a good set of high performance summer tires for a Porsche 911, I’ll take a set of four.
You’d really be far more productive with owning up to your own character faults.
Yes, it does suck sometimes to be a discerning customer.
But what’s far worse is to be a drank-the-koolaid fanboy where you believe that your company can do utterly no wrong.
Well, that’s the strawman of the day. If you don’t like the way Apple does business, please feel free to take your business elsewhere.
I may very well walk, but the fallacy with your suggestion to just quietly sulk away is that doing so means that I’m not providing customer feedback for *why* I’m walking. Keep in mind that regardless of the company or product, without customer feedback, the product development process becomes random instead of focused on actually adding value to the product.
BTW, go check Apple’s website: you’ll find that they’re still selling iPhones with as little as 8GB…and specifically the business case reason why is so that Apple has a product to be the ‘Free Phone’ on a 2 year service contract. This also means that Apple is effectively responsible to make sure that said 8GB iOS device be fully supportable over all of the OS upgrades that they elect to roll out over — at least — the next two years.
These 8GB devices does not bode well at all in the context of how there’s existing customers today with 16GB devices who are already unhappy with its “obsolete” storage limitations.
Not an issue for me because I will be buying a Watch. But, Apple really should make it an optional download. Feels like bloatware.
I agree. It’s the thin end of the wedge. I hate clutter. Place the functionality in settings – it doesn’t warrant a whole app.
I have a folder on the last page called ‘Never’. Into it goes whatever I, yup, never use, but are ineradicable. It ain’t full, and those apps that are there ain’t that big, so, no big deal.
Since you can include emoji icons in IOS folder names, you may want to include the scull face in your “Never” folder name.
Never 💀
Weather ☀️☔️
Writing ✏️
Surfing 🌊
Banking 💰
Business 📌
Utilities 📐
Fitness💪
Family 😱
I did not know emojis worked in folder names. Thanks! 😍💥😃
Me too, except I call my folder “Fuck Off, Apple”. With the comma and everything.
I bet that every single one of these Android switchers had nothing to say about the multiple screens of unremovable apps from Google, the device maker AND the carrier on their Samsung flavor-of-the-month stylus having idiotphone.
Those willing to sell their lives for free phone tend not to complain of being forced to see Ads and their data collected, collated, analyzed, and stolen…
So, you’re arguing the Android is crap, so Apple should be more like Android?
I believe that his comment was a satirical one, which he made by pointing out how Apple is now copying how Android foists crap on its customers.
And in that regards, I agree with him 100%.
–> This is the “Free U2 Album” all over again <–
And as such, whover it was at Apple who quite obviously did not learn their lesson the first should be publically named … and then fired. And then fed to the wolves.
What's Tim Cook's email address again?
Unbelievable. People will fact to ANY stupid little thing.
If this is all it takes to make you flip out just go join the rest of the baboons on android.
On the contrary:
If as customers, if we DON’T provide Apple with negative feedback for when they ‘fail to delight’ (or more importantly, when they downright piss us off), they’ll think that their actions were okay and feel free to do it again.
The U2 Album stuff prompted Apple to admit that they made an anti-consmer mistake in its implimentation and promised to not forcefully shove stuff down customers’ throats again.
But Apple has now pulled the same “shoving” stunt a second time. Quite obviously, they did not learn from their U2 mistake … and that’s why some customers have finally spoken up (what you tried to trivialize with ‘flip out”).
But this incident has revealed that Apple did not indeed learn from their mistake, despite the fact that they did acknowledge that mistake and promised to learn from it.
Since you’re choosing to complacient, it begs the queastion of just how many more times does Apple have to screw up before you will finally be willing to complain about their anti-consumer activities?
Specifcally, will you not speak up until it has happened Three times?
Or will you be silent until the pattern has happened Five times?
Please be specific and pick a number to quantify how much latitude you’re willing to give them, because otherwise, the ramifications are that you’re in the “Apple is Infallible and Can Never Do Wrong” fanboy camp.
-hh
Nope. They just root the phone and install firmware without bloat ware or use a root-only app to Uninstaller system apps.
If your phone rooted, how can you use it? 🙂
I never use accessibility features either, but I don’t moan about not being able to remove them from the settings menus. I did find it odd that rather than being placed on the last available slot like any other new app would be, it was placed in the middle of other apps on the front screen – that is a little presumptuous.
Interesting. The app appeared on my iPhone at the end of things. YMMV.
Mine appeared at the end of the last page; definitely NOT on the home page.
Good God: make a folder, stick all the unwanted apps in that folder, put it at the very end of all the stuff you have so you don’t have to go there. Done and DONE.
Takes 5 minutes, at the most, to set it up, and 30 seconds to add a new app there. Really it’s silly you can’t remove some apps, but the watch one is important: if you don’t have it and buy a watch eventually, you’ll blame Apple for not being able to use it right away. This one makes sense, and is SO easy to hide for now. Wow people….
So it is hysterical or somehow unreasonable to want to decide for yourself what apps you want, how much storage gets used on a device that is price tiered by storage volume?
Once again MDN being the apologist for heavy handed corporate policies….
Get a life dd
Truth or Troll, you want the older Samsung plastic pop open back phone with the removeable battery, sd card, and fully customizable software.
you know, the one with all the back doors left wide open for virus attacks cause you guys like to play with stuff so much. 🙂
No dipshit, I do not want Samsung anything. I want the ability to remove unwanted APPS from my device, so I can use the storage space they are taking up as I see fit.
Apple phones differ by 1. Model & 2. Storage capacity. I buy the the top tier phone, with the maximum capacity, when Apple decides to load it up with apps, I would prefer they give me the option to remove them. Like for example Newstand, never used it, not ever going to, yet I have to let it sit there because …why?
Why are some apps (Find my friends, Remote, etc) downloaded only by user request, and others pre-lowed with no option given to me to remove them and reclaim the storage space?
Nothing hysterical about my stance, in fact it is quite reasonable seeing as I seem to be paying per gig. Seems heavy headed, and stupid to force crap on users. I can sure recall “Takes” on this site about windows machines being pre-loaded with carper. This is marginally better than that at best.
No it isn’t life or death, just like a few silly tweets doesn’t mean there is or isn’t an issue. Painting anyone who isn’t thrilled that Apple decided to foist an app they do not want on them as hysterical or silly isn’t an accurate, nor reasonable assessment of the practice. It is bullshit to force a watch app on every iPhone users, it reeks of smarmy corporate policy and a general disregard for your users. It is arrogant to assume everyone will be buying a damn watch. If you can’t see that, just being willfully ignorant.
1. “Nothing hysterical about my stance…”
2. “No dipshit, I do not want Samsung anything.”
3. “It is arrogant to assume everyone will be buying a damn watch.”
Is it just me or are more and more people become mentally unhinged?
No freaking wonder there are so many murders and general world instability if people can get THIS wound up about an icon on their phone’s screen.
It is reasonable to want to decide for yourself. The “hysterical” part is a description of the reactions that some people have over a free U2 album (that they can remove) or an app and associated icon that they cannot remove from a mobile device.
Apple may have a valid reason for locking these apps and icons into iOS. i doubt that Apple is doing it on a whim, or just to inconvenience people.
I just have a folder called Apple Junk that I throw everything into I don’t use. Sucks you can’t remove it and install it later if needed, but would rather have that than Verizon junk and other third party crap on my phone!
Two opinions:
1) Apple should let everyone delete ANY app they don’t want and have it available on the App Store should they change their mind in the future (except, of course, the App Store app :-).
2) Is it really such a big deal to stick the unwanted/unused apps in a folder hidden away somewhere?
Personally, I would prefer option 1, but option 2 works as well. The issue isn’t so much about getting it out of the way as it is the Fandroids who use this to demonstrate Apple’s totalitarian ways (“Apple knows [or thinks they know] what’s good for you much more than you do.”). Control Freaks (aka Fandroid users) hate this “condescending and paternalistic” attitude that doesn’t let you do whatever you want with your phone. I can’t say that I blame them (at least on this one issue), but it really doesn’t bother me. I plan to get the 42 mm Watch Sport as soon as possible (although I loathe 1.0 versions of anything, this one is just too hard to pass up because they got so much of it right [the only thing really missing is waterproof to 3 meters]).
Or they provide a functional, logical option for the app under the Settings to turn it on or off. Really, it should be completely optional to download from the App Store, not forcibly installed wasting precious space for anyone who has a 16 GB iPhone.
I will assume that the list of undeletable apps, as mentioned in the article, is complete.
Weather
Clock
Maps
Notes
Reminders
Stocks
Passbook
Newsstand
iBooks
Apple Watch
Out of ten, I use eight, some of them daily (the two I never use are Stocks and Apple Watch). Some of them are on my home screen (Maps, Weather, Clock, Newsstand).
If I am your average user, then more than likely, vast majority uses most of these apps.
But as with the U2 free album, there will be annoyance and complaining, as there always is. And eventually, it will blow over, as it always does.
Hmmm, See I use daily
Stocks
clock
maps
notes
Passbook
So I guess we are all different. PS, I have put the weather on my last page and use the weather channel as my mail weather, which I use every other day.
🙂
For a while, I used the Weather Channel one, but eventually, I abandoned it for the built-in one. The information I need from it is all available on the Apple’s Weather (current, hourly, daily forecasts), so the Weather Channel app, as pretty as it is, just takes up unnecessary space. With 16GB device, I could use the extra space for a few more music tracks (of a few more photos).
Here in the Northeast, it was helpful to get snow estimates going out a week so that we could decide on whether or not to clear the snow off our roof. So weather.com is my go to for weather.
I use
Weather
Clock
Notes
Reminders
Passbook
Newsstand
iBooks
(Kept your list order to make reading easier)
I will be getting a Watch so have not put it in my list of used apps yet.
macman1984 i agree with item 2)
its not a big deal to just put the items people don’t want to use in a folder #FirstWorldProblems
Game Center?
Don’t forget Podcast, Music, Messages, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Safari, Settings, Mail, and of course . . . Phone!
I use the Apple essentials everyday to make a living. No complaints here.
Big F%^%ing deal. Put the unwanted apps in a folder. The space they take up is minimal.
It is much better to have the apps already installed than having to find the app and install it. For some customers that will cause confusion and result in unnecessary tech support.
As for the listed Apps:
Weather! Clock! Maps! Notes! Reminders! Stocks! Passbook! Newsstand! iBooks!”
The only one I don’t use is Newsstand.
Some people are just wankers. lol
Before I go anywhere near it.
How much space on the iPhone does this app consume ?
Does it infect iPhone 4s ?
I have the iPhone 4s running iOS 8.2 and there is no Watch app.
It’s becoming like an Android phone: Full of bloatware that occupies storage. You cannot delete it unless you root the phone, which voids the warranty.
Precisely another reason not to update right away. Remember the iOS 8 update train wreck?
My iPhone 4S still strong and running fine, slower I agree but I don’t really see any reason to upgrade it.
This has kept me away from the Apple Watch app problem. I guess iPhone 4S users don’t matter anymore, and we didn’t not receive the unremovable app.
Hasn’t appeared for me.
Maybe got to do with the fact that the 4S can’t connect to the watch anyway.
Before I could make use of the watch (beyond what my current watch does: telling the time) I’d have to buy a more recent iPhone first.
I can see that it’s a psychological problem for some 😉
Messages cannot be deleted individually, and this is troublesome because I need to delete PIN numbers used in my e-banking.
Click on the individual message, hold until “Copy\Speak\More” comes up. select “More” click the trash can to delete it.
This works on iPad Air 2, but my iPhone 6 with iOS 8.2 does not show the trash, only camera icon.
I hard reset the iPhone 6, and now the trash icon shows up. Thanks for your response, friend.
This is to be expected. Apple thinks of people as customers even if they haven’t heard of Apple yet. It’s part of their very inclusive way of defining the word “customer”.
It’s not a surprise that they would consider all iPhone owners to be Watch owners, whatever the current circumstances look like. If someone is disinterested or opposed to Watch today, that just means they have a temporarily low level of customer loyalty.
It would be treated as temporary.
Simple, press and hold until the icons shake. Then move the Apple Watch iCon to the very last page and you don’t have to see it or use it. Or you could make a folder and label it not used and put any apps that you can’t delete in there on the last page. Bunch of whining cry babies over nothing.
See its attitudes like this that piss me off. It’s not nothing. How would you like if I came to your house and took a big shit in your front yard, and when you complained, I’d say, it’s nothing. Just clean it up if you don’t like it. You wouldn’t, and I am for one tired of Apple foisting shit on me that I don’t want, taking up precious resources (I.e. Space on my iPhone)
There’s clearly less shitty ways Apple could have done it.
Forcing every iPhone user to populate a home screen or folder with useless apps is just stupid. The annoyance is minor, but it’s mirrored by millions of iPhone users, and it’s cause is pure laziness on Apple’s part.
Some better alternatives I just came up:
1. ‘Do want to enable the Watch App?’ pops off after install. Curious users get the app, people don’t care never see it again. Settings adds an option to change this decision later.
2. No useless Watch app gets installed automatically, ever. Anyone who buys an Apple Watch must spend 5 seconds downloading it. Every Apple Watch owners gets the app, millions of other iPhone don’t even have to know it exists.
My bigger concern is the inability of any of my apple devices to connect to the app store, iTunes or the Mac app store.
After i updated to 8.2. I can’t update any apps or install.
Yes, it can be frustrating, especially with each update getting bigger and only so much room on the iPhone. It is Apple’s OS, there will be core apps installed. Make a folder and hide them, but let Apple know that you’d like the option the delete them.
To help make your point when you contact them, be concise, polite and include your name. Companies listen to adults, not anonymous whiners.
I still see their using that God awful font for Apple Watch. I guess years of beautiful aesthetics jades a person. 🙂