Google getting too big for its boots

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Man i am annoyed this morning.
Google last year went ahead and purchased an App called Quickoffice.
Then they decided they had integrated its features into their google docs app and obsoleted the app.
I had paid for this app at its time and purchased the pro version.
It continued to work and i refused to update to Google docs, i dont like being coerced into doing something , especially by a big corporation with its own idea of what is good for me.
Well wake up this morning and their control over our lives is evident again. The app whileshowing as existing as a ghost icon is supposedly uninstalled.
The same goes for a bunch of other apps i have refused to allow to update after my initial install.

So i had two choices. Do without my apps or submit to using google play to redownload and reinstall the ghost apps.
Except for Quickoffice no can do have to choose to use Google docs which i DO NOT WISH TO USE Google.

My whole likeing of the QuickOffice app was that my docs were saved local and did not end up online in the hands of Google or some other corporate.
I do not wish to be forced to use the cloud.
So this "smartphone" is rapidly becoming a dumb phone.
Where do these Corporations get off.

Imagine someone coming into your home and removing tools you have paid for. Or rearranging your closet or workshop and deciding what you can and cannot use. I am fed up with this tech, mostly with the total lack of control that we have over it.
Apologies for the rant but man there has to be a line in the sand. I paid $16 for that app to have my own software as a tool on my phone. So no it was not a "free app".

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I would say they illegally removed something you owned from your phone. The app worked stand-alone didn't it? It should continue to work forever if that was the case, I wouldn't expect to get updates or upgrades, but it should at least work in it's last form if you weren't agreeing to update it. I think you have grounds to demand it back.
 
Yeah Darren thats my feeling and those of many hundreds of other users but again its big brother google. All one can do is boycott them but they have a monopoly hold over the android os.
Some people paid $30 for this app. Despicable business practice to uninstall/disable it on a phone without user permission. Someone started a petition a year ago but too few knew and took part.
Enough to make a monkey bite its mother. Lol

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Welcome to the annoying new world. There have been a few things like this that really annoyed me. No idea what to do about it though, mostly I end up using pen and paper for a lot of stuff but it's not quite the same for a bunch of uses so it's still annoying.
 
I agree. You paid for it and they intentionally destroyed what you bought. Maybe you need to make social media go viral on this kind of action to bring it into the public's awareness - that the seller of a product for which you paid, destroyed the functionality of said product without your consent on your devise.
 
I would say they illegally removed something you owned from your phone. The app worked stand-alone didn't it? It should continue to work forever if that was the case, I wouldn't expect to get updates or upgrades, but it should at least work in it's last form if you weren't agreeing to update it. I think you have grounds to demand it back.

"Illegally"? Maybe not. Those agreements we check automatically without ever reading contain some scary provisions. I will agree, we have lost control of our own intellectualy properties.
 
I'm with Frank on this. I'm willing to bet the licensing agreement you agreed to when you first installed the software stated that you never owned the software, you only had a license to use it. Still doesn't change the fact that you no longer have the use of something you paid good money to use, but I don't think you have any legal recourse.
 
Iron tools made the rock you bought obsolete. Wagons made the travois you bought obsolete. Automobiles made the buggies (and buggy whips) you bought obsolete. Adding machines made the abacus you bought obsolete. Pocket calculators made the adding machines you bought obsolete. We've been living with Microsoft making our software obsolete every time they come out with a new OS for as long as there has been a Microsoft.

Technology changes things and not everything can keep up. I've got a drawer full of obsolete software I need to go through and dispose of. We complain about evil corporations that change things we like, but I doubt many of us are ready to go back to rock tools and walking.
 
I would agree on the licensing, but there is some kickback as well. Amazon got in trouble a while ago, for removing books that people had paid to read on their reader. They ended up refunding all those purchases.

There may be another reason it isn't working as well though (security/library issue with the OS, etc). So more facts are needed.

That isn't to say Google doesn't do evil, I know all too well they do from a friend they wanted to hire.
 
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