The app automatically installs Bing Visual Search and includes code to decrypt cookies saved in other browsers, Rivera said, and it also brings a “free” geolocation web API to the system.
The developer discovered “many” nasty tricks Microsoft integrated in Bing Wallpapers, which include trying to change the browser’s settings and set Edge as the default system browser. If the default browser isn’t Edge, the app will open the default browser after some time asking to enable the previously installed Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome extension.
Every time I see stuff like this it makes me slightly glad they got laughed out of the smart phone game. Can you imagine if a Microsoft mobile OS became a serious third between Android and iOS? I mean, those two aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination (and are probably doing or planning similar shit), but Microsoft is just going gloves off at this point.
If there was more competition they (probably) wouldn’t be doing this stuff as people would leave.
I was actually a fan of Outlook for Android. Followed system dark mode before it was cool, had real multi account inbox, good wearos app, and other useful features. Then they started inserting Bing search into my long press menu system wide. And also recommending Edge when I clicked links. This kind of horizontal integration is just too baked into the company DNA. They can’t help themselves, even when it actually harms them
What’s the difference between horizontal and vertical integration? (I know a few business words but usually not enough to be intelligent, this is a genuine question of confusion)
Vertical would be if MS owned the carrier, the manufacturer, the operating system etc. Horizontal applies here where they own many interconnecting parts of the same layer of the market. Search, browser, email, etc, all being used to promote each other at the expense of competitors
I’m up to buy a new computer and I’ve never wanted a Macbook but with all the negative changes Microsoft is making I feel it is the time to make the switch.
Microsoft seems to think that we are the product and harvesting data is the default business model moving forward.
Apple is no better, they just have a better PR team.
Why do people need an app for wallpapers? Just find some nice photos on Flickr, DeviantArt, whatever, save them all to a folder, and configure the OS to change it once per week.
Reminds me of the “free smileys” and “free mouse cursors” apps from the 2000s. I thought we had evolved past that.
How do you save a picture? Where is Downloads? How do you apply a saved picture as a wallpaper?
These are confusing questions to boomers and Gen Z.
Why not have a simple app which “automatically” does all the hard work (just in exchange of a little of your data)?
As a “boomer” myself, I do know the secret of the ‘right click: Save as’. Who do you think thought up the idea-- that’s right, a Boomer. And we taught Gen X about it. Not my fault they didn’t pass on the ancient and now arcane knowledge to future generations. But I suppose you need to know how to use a mouse before you can right click anything. Having attempted to teach 3D CAD to high school students, my first job was to show them how to use a mouse and why fingers and CAD don’t mix. And do it before we could actually move on to the subject matter they were supposed to be learning.
Still I do use an app for rotate my backgrounds and quotes. The app Variety works well with KDE Plasma with a large selection of repositories to choose from with beautiful backgrounds without taking up extra space on my drives. But what do I know, I’m just a boomer.
As a millennial myself, I have immense respect for “tech boomers”. They walked so that we could run during the 90s tech boom.
I have seen young people not knowing any other directory other than
Downloadsand not understanding that there is a filesystem inside their phone.
The file is not in my downloads
Me: Have you checked other directories?
Other directories?
Me: Okay, open your file manager.
What’s a file manager?
Me: Okay, do you have Google Files (an application which I detest but I know is pre-installed in Android phone)
Umm…have to check.
Those are the lazy people. Lazy people refuse to learn new things. You don’t sound lazy.
Don’t be like them. Hang out with those people that piss excellence.
They are trying so hard to push everybody to linux. The only thing that has kept me using windows is game development tool chains, but even that isn’t gonna be enough to keep me on windows much longer.
The Godot Engine is getting better every day.
That is until they kicked everyone out for being “nazis”
As a general rule, I support the removal of nazis.
Nobody is against the removal of nazis.
Wow. Looked at you comment history and you are not well liked. Later gator.
Yes, I get downvoted a lot on Lemmy, yet nobody seems to be able to say why I’m wrong on these issues. Users of Lemmy resort to downvoting when they can’t defend their arguments. It is a fact that humans are more eager to show their disapproval than approval for something, like in restaurant reviews, where the only people who bother to leave a review are those with bad experiences.
Also, I’d be wary of basing your opinion explicitly off what other people think. You need to formulate your own thoughts if you want to retain some sort of identity.
🤡
Well said, pornpornporn
