Ah yes, and to old stick-in-the-muds like me, who are perfectly happy with the software as it came and don't want the phone's memory loading up with all sorts of unnecessary rubbish, this is a damned nuisance. What I have done (mixture please look away now) is to download everything I want and then deleted the giggle playstore and set the phone to "do not update". EVER. ANYTHING.
There are some nifty bits of App software which enable you to override the phone's own settings without rooting it, but frankly having done what I said in the first para my tablet is now just tippy-toppy.
Incoming text messages are read aloud, I get warnings of meteorite showers, maps, music and books, I get both US and UK news feeds, K-9 mail and gmail, local and international weather and nothing ever ever updates and I have huge amounts of phone memory (plus 32gb on a card) and the whole caboodle is advert-free.
Even makes and receives calls, too.