
HTC 10 keyboard suddenly starts showing ads, fix is on the way - basicplus2
https://androidcommunity.com/htc-10-keyboard-suddenly-starts-showing-ads-fix-is-on-the-way-20170717/
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ge0rg
Original source (with screenshot):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/6nhyur/t...](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/6nhyur/the_standard_keyboard_on_the_htc_10_has_begun/)

That absolutely reminded me of the "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"
Futurama scene:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPGgTy5YJ-g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPGgTy5YJ-g)

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richdougherty
A while ago my HTC phone started showing full screen ads whenever I unlocked
the phone. It was a bundled app called Peel Remote which changed its behaviour
during an update.

I took some detective work to figure out which app was causing the issue since
there's no visible clue on the ad itself, and since I have never used Peel
Remote. I eventually figured it out somehow and disabled the app. I imagine
that lots of other HTC users are still dealing with this.

HTC should really protect their users from this abusive behaviour by their
partners.

EDIT: Mention that I've never even used Peel Remote, which makes the ads even
more annoying!

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gideonparanoid
For some context: Peel Remote is an app for using the IR blaster to control
your TV/DVR. HTC used to have their own app for it, but it got discontinued so
they put up Peel Remote as the replacement.

I was about to consider this a shame, as HTC's own app was pretty good, but
not sure if I would trust them not to put ads in it anyway now.

~~~
JohnTHaller
Samsung pulled the same thing years ago with the S4. They bundled "Beaming
Service" to handle the IR blaster made by a third party company called MoBeam.
MoBeam decided to start doing push ad notifications for their crappy coupon
clipping app. After I was woken up after midnight by one, I decided I'd never
buy a Samsung phone again. It couldn't be uninstalled or disabled. And this
was before you could turn off notifications from a single app in Android.

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fiblye
I highly doubt this is unintentional like they claim. They were testing the
waters for backlash. I can count all the times I accidentally put ads in my
software on one hand, using zero fingers.

~~~
yladiz
Highly doubt should be changed to don't believe. There's no way you add an
advertisement "unintentionally" into something as integral to a phone as the
keyboard and not realize it when doing basic sanity testing. I can believe
that it was unintentional that the ad was shown by default (it may have been
an option to display ads which was enabled by default) but the fact it is
present is absolutely intentional.

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basicplus2
My Google keyboard on android showed me a red dot within the keyboard. When i
touched it, up came an add effectively from within the keyboard

~~~
robocat
Same here - standard gboard. Red dot on the emoticon -> advert for new make
your own emoticon functionality app (not Google owned).

Extremely disappointed in Android today.

~~~
pjmlp
I am starting to think that in spite of being more expensive than a desktop
gaming computer, going iPhone is starting to be the only viable alternative.

Either that or back into feature phones, because I don't see any other mobile
OS alternative winning over Android, regarding general public.

~~~
Yetanfou
There is no need of nor no sense in going to Apple to be rid of corporate
control, Android can be tamed to serve the device owner instead of its
manufacturer and distributor. Make sure to get a device which is supported by
one of the AOSP-derived distributions, install said distribution and use one
of the alternative repositories (FDroid being a good choice). Don't install
any Google-specific apps, don't install - or remove - Google Play Services, in
short don't play along with Google's game plan. This way you can have a device
which serves you and your needs instead of those of Google or Apple. You might
need to forego on the latest app craze because those are not available on
FDroid but that just gives you so much more time to do other things instead of
search for virtual fame and fortune by herding virtual sheep or finding
virtual friends.

~~~
pjmlp
Which part of the "regarding general public" did you not understand?

Of course as I geek I can do all of that, but I rather sponsor someone that
cares about the joe and jane on the street can do with their devices.

~~~
Yetanfou
The general public part of the problem can be solved by offering an
alternative Android-based distribution which can be installed by 'the general
public' in a way similar to that which they install updates to the stock OS.
For some devices this process is already available, for others there is more
work to be done.

~~~
majewsky
I have a certain amount of hope in that direction because of Project Treble.

~~~
pjmlp
Leave all hope ye who enter.

Project Treble[0] only enforces a certain level of hardware requirements.

There are zero requirements for OEMs or carriers to actually push updates to
their devices, and they are still allowed to customize their forks. [1]

Also it requires consumers to buy a new device running Android O, hoping that
the OEM will actually push updates, because even those getting an update from
Android N to O won't have any guarantees of further updates.

[0] -
[https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/treble](https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/treble)

[1] -
[http://androidbackstage.blogspot.de/2017/08/episode-75-proje...](http://androidbackstage.blogspot.de/2017/08/episode-75-project-
treble-for-hal-of-it.html)

~~~
majewsky
I don't count on OEMs in any way. However, if my understanding is correct,
Treble should make it far easier to install an aftermarket ROM on a Treble-
compatible device.

When I shop for my next phone, "Treble-compatible" will be the top
requirement.

~~~
pjmlp
Assuming the boot loader is unlocked.

~~~
Yetanfou
There are alternatives to unlocking the bootloader. My current device (a 2011
Motorola Defy) can not be unlocked yet still I'm running it with Android 4.4.4
on a custom kernel. The trick here was to subvert the update process, other
ways exist to do the same.

~~~
pjmlp
Which is something non-technical users can't do.

~~~
majewsky
Which is a business opportunity for technical users.

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Al-Khwarizmi
It's long been fixed (it was fixed a few days after it happened).

~~~
huhtenberg
"Resolved", not "fixed".

You can't "fix" an obviously intentional decision of having an ad panel in a
keyboard widget.

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
The explanation they gave is that TouchPal ads are disabled in HTC phones
since the app comes bundled by default, but erroneously, an update installed
the generic version with ads instead.

Since they reversed it very quickly, I find it believable.

~~~
Kuraj
I agree. For all the backlash this has received, it does sound like a
reasonable explaination. I can think of much worse fuck ups than this.

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JohnTHaller
This is the keyboard that has a T-Shirt button on it that users accidentally
hit that takes them to TouchPal's T-Shirt store. Seriously.

~~~
pilif
Reminds me of the feature phones in the early 2000s that all had an 'online'
button that would bring up the mobile operator's WAP portals.

The only reason why you'd ever press that button is by accident (these WAP
pages had no useful content at all) and each accidental button press would
cost the equivalent to $2 due to outrageous mobile charges.

The placement of these buttons was always such that you'd likely hit them
accidentally.

~~~
majewsky
Ah, I remember these. You could not disable them, but on my phone, I could
adjust the hostname it would connect to. I chose the much cheaper 127.0.0.1.
:)

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amq
HTC 10 comes with a TouchPal keyboard. I think it was a mistake on the
TouchPal side, rather than HTC testing the waters.

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vesinisa
Interesting.. Isn't Google Pixel also made by HTC? Will this "feature" be
landing on Pixel as well?

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moviuro
Pixel only holds Google Code + maybe some HTC firmware, but that's it.

I sure hope the "pure" Android experience doesn't include ads.

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synicalx
Pixel owner here, since the Oreo upgrade I've had a red dot on my Google
keyboard (on the emoji button) and when you tap on it you get what is
basically an add for some thing that lets you make your own emojis or
something. Haven't looked at it in much detail but it doesn't seem to be a
Google owned app.

Lets face it though, Google is an ad company which tells you two things about
them;

1\. To them, you're a wallet with opposable thumbs.

2\. Everything they do is done with the goal of propagating their advertising
network into more places.

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cm2187
Am I the only one to suspect that the ad is related to what you type, i.e.
That this is a key logger?

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basicplus2
Who flagged this submission?

