The ghost of future Apps.

[Capt. Brigg]

I;m not a Scrooge, but I seem to be seeing the ghosts of future apps that Motorola has loaded on my new Droid Razr Maxx. When I go to "Manage apps>Downloaded" I find many apps that I haven't downloaded and don't need or want like Verizon Tones. When I open the tones icon I see the storage as 0.00 and data as 0.00 and nothing runs. I also see that I can only uninstall updates and not the downloaded app ghost. I've heard complaints about not being able to uninstall things that Motorola has pre-loaded. Do we have to live with this?

 

[bradenfontaine]

yes unless you root sadly

 

[B. Diddy]

You can disable most of them, so that they don't show up in your menus or take up any CPU cycles.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

 

[bradenfontaine]

You can disable most of them, so that they don't show up in your menus or take up any CPU cycles.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

I wouldn't say most. The ones i really wanted to get rid of, didn't allow the option.

sent from the fingers of a madman
BradenFontaine@gmail.com

 

[B. Diddy]

Really? The main one I couldn't disable was Backup Assistant. These are the ones I have disabled:

Amazon Kindle
Verizon Apps
Home screen tips
MOG Music
MOTOACTV
Music Store
Netflix
Slingbox
Smart Actions
Sync Service
V CAST Tones
Verizon Video
Video Calling
VideoSurf
VZ Navigator

 

[bradenfontaine]

Cant recall, haven't been stock in a while

sent from the fingers of a madman
BradenFontaine@gmail.com

 

[Capt. Brigg]

B. Diddy
So how did you disable the above list of ghost app icons?
A simple step by step would be appreciated.

 

[B. Diddy]

I assume you have ICS, because you can only disable apps if you have ICS.

To to Manage Apps->All, select the app you want to disable. You should see a button that says "Disable." If you've updated a system app from Google Play, you'll have to Uninstall Updates first--after you do this, the Disable button will replace the Uninstall Updates button.

 

[Capt. Brigg]

Thank you B. Diddy,
Now is there a reliable way of telling what these apps are actually suppose to do?
When I click on the icon it gives me the storage, cache, share, & permissions, but not what the darn thing actually does.

 

[B. Diddy]

Verizon Apps--Verizon's app store, which is useless, because you can find the same stuff on Google Play. In addition, Verizon Apps has always been slow as mud.

Home screen tips--A widget you can add on the homescreen that cycles through 9 or 10 tips on how to set up home screens. Once you've learned them, there's absolutely no reason to keep it active.

MOG Music--Subscription streaming music, check Google Play for description

MOTOACTV--intended for use with Motorola's MOTOACTV fitness watch. Clearly not needed if you don't have it.

Music Store--The music store that shows up under Motorola's stock My Music screen. Useless because all the tracks come from Amazon's MP3 store, so just use the Amazon MP3 app.

Netflix

Slingbox--only useful if you own a Slingbox, which hooks up to your TV and allows you to watch TV on your device anywhere.

Smart Actions

Sync Service--I believe this is the service that syncs with Backup Assistant. Unfortunately, you can't disable Backup Assistant as well.

V CAST Tones--Verizon's useless store to buy ringtones. You can get a lot of free ringtones from Zedge and other sites, and you can also make your own by using apps like Ringdroid.

Verizon Video--Verizon's useless streaming video store.

Video Calling--Verizon's video calling app. Not sure if they charge you to use it, but I never do video calls.

VideoSurf--Mind-bogglingly useless app that will identify a music video if you point the camera at the TV. Like Shazam, only for music videos.

VZ Navigator--Verizon's turn-by-turn nav app. Useless, since you get Google Maps with navigation free.