I was excited until it asked me to login with my Google account. If it doesn't need an iCloud account why does it require my Google one?
Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
711–720 of 902 posts
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know what you mean by “common good” in this context, but if a company has a dominant market position and uses its power to cripple competition, then it falls within antitrust laws. iMessage is so important today, especially to young Americans, that its exclusivity to iOS has become a significant barrier to Android or other operating systems from being competitive. It’s up to regulators and the court system to…
I feel so old. What is it that I'm missing out in iMessage that is so important? Honest question, I've been texting since t9 and have never owned an Apple device.
It provides a much better group messaging experience than SMS (you can see who’s in a group and add and remove people), delivery/read receipts, better image quality, is encrypted (although that gets somewhat negated by automatic iCloud backups), and is free as long as a data connection is available.
Of course many other messengers offer most of these features too, but for some reason, no alternative has been able to establish itself in the US.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know what you mean by “common good” in this context, but if a company has a dominant market position and uses its power to cripple competition, then it falls within antitrust laws. iMessage is so important today, especially to young Americans, that its exclusivity to iOS has become a significant barrier to Android or other operating systems from being competitive. It’s up to regulators and the court system to…
I feel so old. What is it that I'm missing out in iMessage that is so important? Honest question, I've been texting since t9 and have never owned an Apple device.
It’s really nothing special. I personally use WhatsApp with most of my friends.
The problem is when you have one person in a group that is on Android when everybody else is on Apple. This causes the iMessage conversation to use SMS instead. To signify this in the app, texts appear as green bubbles instead of blue, so it’s obvious when it happens.
This is bad because SMS is totally obsolete. It causes images and videos to be shared in extremely low resolution, along with problems of messages not getting delivered reliably and other missing features.
So effectively to the iPhone user, Android users very visibly cause group chats to be super crappy in iMessage.
This is not the fault of the Android user really, because it’d work way better if Apple supported RCS like Android phones do, but many people have a very strongly negative impression of Android due to this.
In fact, some iPhone users put social pressure on people with Android devices due to this in the form of excluding them from group chats or complaining about how they cause problems.
Apple has been perpetuating this problem because it suits them. People know this, but it’s Android and Android users that suffer regardless due to Apple’s dominant market position.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#714Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#715First they require email and personal info. Then they tell you it's a monthly subscription. Felt like a terrible onboarding experience and a bit of a dark pattern.
If you scratch around enough they do say it's a paid product. Pretty cool yes,"show hacker news"? Dunno.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#716Earlier quoted context omitted.
The massive prevalence of physical junk mail would refute your argument that even a significant per message cost would dissuade abuse.
Scope and scale is important here, the amount of junk mail from business interests outside of my immediate region is not very high. If physical mail were free and you could send it from anywhere in the world, junk mail would be so much worse than it is. You couldn't run a lot of internet scams at the costs of physical mail and be profitable.
Probably not because even if the postage is free the paper, printing, envelopes, etc. are not.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#717Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple can break Beeper without relying on the secure enclave: If Apple devices just send their serial number (IMEI for their GSM products), their servers can refuse to talk to hardware they didn't manufacture.
Non-Apple devices could just lie
Beeper will know only a small number of valid serial numbers
If it ever becomes popular, there will be a lot of duplicate serial numbers. That's easy to detect and ban.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#718Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you run the binary if that's not OK? In order to install it, The binary gets copied from the installer (dmg/zip/app store/CD install media), and then to run it, it gets copied from your hard drive to RAM, so that's clearly okay in some circumstances. Furthermore, once it's on my hard drive, I can copy it over and over again in random places on my hard drive for funsies and the operating system will gladly coop…
In my very limited understanding, distribution is the key. It’s legal for Apple to distribute Apple binaries. It is not legal for someone else to distribute Apple binaries. Copying a binary from installer to app folder: not distribution Putting the binary on a USB and giving it to your buddy: gray area, not worth prosecuting, but maybe technically distribution Uploading the binary to a GitHub repo titled “Apple binar…
Which is weird if you think about it. If I buy a car, give it a paint job, mount some LEDs, and a new sound system, I'm totally within my rights to sell it. I can't say that I'm Ford or Honda when selling this modified car, but I'm totally allowed to sell it.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#719I've had a lot of trouble getting dates, women see the Android-colored bubbles when I message them, then they typically blow me off. I'm sure it's the Android-colored bubbles.
Re: Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my very limited understanding, distribution is the key. It’s legal for Apple to distribute Apple binaries. It is not legal for someone else to distribute Apple binaries. Copying a binary from installer to app folder: not distribution Putting the binary on a USB and giving it to your buddy: gray area, not worth prosecuting, but maybe technically distribution Uploading the binary to a GitHub repo titled “Apple binar…
Which is weird if you think about it. If I buy a car, give it a paint job, mount some LEDs, and a new sound system, I'm totally within my rights to sell it. I can't say that I'm Ford or Honda when selling this modified car, but I'm totally allowed to sell it.
Yes, and this analogy is even more valid than usual, because unlike most software where each binary is an exact copy of all the others, in this case each binary is actually unique to a device.
But it's more like a ticket, or an NFT. It's a unique blob that was sold to you. You should be able to transfer it.
Apple's best argument here might be that the blob is meant for one person, and distributing it this way is like sharing a ticket to the cinema between multiple people. I can't enter the cinema, then come outside and pass you the ticket so you can enter it too.