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Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#641

Post by Kab1r »

lxgr wrote: post #545
russelg wrote: post #336

Where is the hacker spirit here? The number of Apple apologists that have crawled out to say "see? I told you so!!" is saddening. It is a bit dicey when you're charging for it, but since Mini was entirely client-side it would be feasible for a free version to exist. Apple claims iMessage is E2EE, do we have proof they aren't siphoning the messages from the client once it's been decrypted? The level of trust we have t…

> since Mini was entirely client-side it would be feasible for a free version to exist. It uses a server for bridging APNs to GCM. Sure, that could be maintained on a donation basis, but it’s not completely infrastructure-free in any case.

I wanted to implement my own notification bridge and patch the app to use my self hosted instance. Now of course there may not be much point

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#642

Post by somenameforme »

rezonant wrote: post #540
toastercat wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

youtube-dl, NewPipe, and uBlock Origin exist solely for the purpose of empowering the individual, yet they are constantly attacked on HN as being tools used unfairly to harm Google's profitability. Open-source projects like Matrix, PeerTube, Mastodon, are built to be free and open-source for the benefit of end-users and lack of vendor lockin. Yet each is derided on HackerNews for not being enough like their corporate…

The tools should exist and Google shouldn't fight them. But at least for me, I'm usually trying to remind people that the ad money is a large part of how the content creator survives too. If you block the ads, then please consider donating to your favorite creators Patreon or using YT premium (which is actually typically more lucrative for content creators than ads are). I don't care about Google's profits but I figu…

If it was literally impossible to profit from digital video content creation, there'd be still be countless videos, and the overall quality (in terms of content value, not production value) would also probably be higher. People like sharing content, even for free - hence sites like this one, which we've all probably spent far too many hours on, and I've yet to receive a single payment from Dang!? And Google will never scrap YouTube because they gain immense profit just from profiling you, regardless of how many ads they can force you to watch. And perhaps even scarier from their perspective is the rise in marketshare that'd give to competitors.

In many ways it'd probably be far better for the world if making videos was not perceived as being profitable. The number of children who now want to be 'streamers' or 'youtubers' instead of astronauts, engineers, and scientists is not a good direction for society.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#643

Post by simondotau »

cdata wrote: post #273
treyd wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. I don't follow this logic at all. Shouldn't supporting thirdparty clients be desirable if security is a primary feature in the interest of transparency? Especially if the reference client is proprietary and undocumented.

We've really done one over on ourselves by adopting the mental model that only a vertically integrated corp can deliver privacy and security to users. This rigid tendency towards homogeneity is bound to suffer a tragic systemic failure before too long. It would be healthier to assume multi-polarity and lean into it.

> We've really done one over on ourselves by adopting the mental model that only a vertically integrated corp can deliver privacy and security to users.

Who is saying that? Certainly nobody anywhere in this HN thread. It is, however, fair to say that the only guarantor of privacy and security is a network of trust. There are plenty of examples where trust is partially decentralised, the most notable being the system of certificates used for establishing trust in HTTP over TLS.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#644

Post by [deleted] »

russelg wrote: post #336

Where is the hacker spirit here? The number of Apple apologists that have crawled out to say "see? I told you so!!" is saddening. It is a bit dicey when you're charging for it, but since Mini was entirely client-side it would be feasible for a free version to exist. Apple claims iMessage is E2EE, do we have proof they aren't siphoning the messages from the client once it's been decrypted? The level of trust we have t…

[deleted]

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#645

Post by eiiot »

garysahota93 wrote: post #580

What if they create a version of Beeper Mini that spoofs an apple device you own? For example: I don't want to own an iPhone, but I do have a MacBook. So rather than use a randomly generated device that tricks Apple's servers to allow me to connect, I can just use a device a legitimately own (and just trick apple to think my phone is my laptop). I know this won't work for everyone (especially folks that don't have an…

This already exists!

https://airmessage.org

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#646

Post by vachina »

Analemma_ wrote: post #479
vachina wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, I used to receive spam on iMessage with blue bubbles. In fact the only blue bubbles I receive are spam.

[flagged]

I’m not lying. Also not sure why I’m downvoted. I occasionally receive spam messages from iMessage users, not conventional SMS. I do not know how these spammers manage to send them, but the senders are always identified with an email in the app, that’s how I could tell it apart from conventional SMS.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#647

Post by MBCook »

yellow_lead wrote: post #208
MBCook wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure is something. The fact the developer had the chops to do this is now on the public record. That could be very valuable for getting a job or a college scholarship (since they’re in HS).

Are you referring to the developer of the GitHub project they bought or the Beeper Mini devs?

Were they not the same person? You’re right that doesn’t make sense.

The GitHub developer I guess. Still his project got noticed because of all of this so it still sort of fits.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#648

Post by MBCook »

iKlsR wrote: post #344
MBCook wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure is something. The fact the developer had the chops to do this is now on the public record. That could be very valuable for getting a job or a college scholarship (since they’re in HS).

I did something similar, built an entire app around an undocumented developer api, got a lot of users and then ended up in a good enough position to find out there was a "hidden" official api for sale and it opened a lot of doors as well even to the same site had gotten it from. For someone as young as that with nothing but time, I'm sure they knew the outcome and it blowing up was probably more than they could ask f…

Anyone who has paid any attention to Apple knew this was gonna happen relatively fast.

Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be an awesome project to do. I don’t blame them one bit. It’s an awesome achievement.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#649

Post by simondotau »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #414
sdfhbdf wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't compromise the security of iMessage as a whole, it just exploited a way to get people into the system that was not planned. Imagine there is a theme park that has normal ticket booths and some requirements there to get in. Then there comes a Beeper that finds a hole in the fence on the perimeter and sets up their ticket booths there. It's in theme park's best interest to close that hole and cut off the reven…

Except they charge a thousand dollars to enter and then let everyone else in for free but they have to wear a badge and the pictures they get from the roller coaster photo booth are 240p.

> Except they charge a thousand dollars

A Lamborghini Urus costs $230k so I guess it's morally acceptable to break into a dealership and steal it.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#650

Post by code_duck »

russelg wrote: post #336

Where is the hacker spirit here? The number of Apple apologists that have crawled out to say "see? I told you so!!" is saddening. It is a bit dicey when you're charging for it, but since Mini was entirely client-side it would be feasible for a free version to exist. Apple claims iMessage is E2EE, do we have proof they aren't siphoning the messages from the client once it's been decrypted? The level of trust we have t…

You can use iMessage on your MacBook, right?
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