Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#691

Post by zucker42 »

simondotau wrote: post #643
cdata wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Who is saying that?

There is a quote in the top level comment of this thread that says that.

> It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#692

Post by ed_elliott_asc »

dzikimarian wrote: post #605
crazygringo wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where is the hacker spirit here? The hacker spirit is the fun of reverse engineering. The hacker spirit is about personal use. It's not expecting to be able to turn it into a business , or a popular app, that wouldn't quickly be shut down. That's just common sense. > Myself for example owns a Macbook, but an Android phone. Am I not allowed to use iMessage? I paid the toll. Of course you can. It's sitting there on y…

No. Hacker spirit is owning your machine to its full extent. For fun, for profit or just for mayhem. Apple using instant messaging, where no meaningful innovation happened for decades to build their moat is pathetic and disgusting.

This is a bit strong, “disgusting” conjures up other things for me.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#693

Post by jaktet »

gabeio wrote: post #662
mintplant wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the link between this repo and Beeper?

> What's the link between this repo and Beeper? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531759

I might be missing it but still don’t see how that answers the question about how that repo is related to beeper mini. Did they use this directly or the same methodology?

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#694

Post by [deleted] »

oneplane wrote: post #562
tcfhgj wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't, if they have extreme market power, mich like Microsoft can't do anything they want with Windows

And that's where that 'if' is important: iMessage isn't very relevant outside of the US. Worldwide it doesn't even reach the top 5. Inside the US, even Facebook Messenger is apparently used more than iMessage.

[deleted]

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#695

Post by newaccount74 »

martimarkov wrote: post #629
s3p wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Of course you can. It's sitting there on your Mac As I am sure we all understood, OP meant on their Android.

The the OP should read what he is buying. I have a TV from 95 am I not allowed to watch Netflix? It runs on my phone. Yes the limitations are different but you know them beforehand you just go and say it’s unfair I can’t have everything just the way I want it. You don’t like iMessage - we have plenty of alternatives.

That's a pretty defeatist take. What if I want Android because SyncThing works better on it than on iOS? Then I can't have iMessage?

If you told people in 1995 that operating system vendors and service providers would arbitrarily block certain apps to lock you into their ecosystem people wouldn't have believed you.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#697

Post by kyrra »

verst wrote: post #465
seanp2k2 wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yearly reminder that a long time ago, chat services used XMPP and we were on the verge of having GChat interoperability with FB messages and I think Yahoo or something similar at the time. None of them really wanted to do it for business reasons, so they could “add value” (and charge for it)….same reason RSS has fallen out of favor (no good way to inject ads and tracking). IRC and Matrix still exist.

On the Google side the XMPP federation got killed when Google Hangouts and Google+ became the core strategy. The company wanted to focus on "social" (but their own social network) and didn't care about other chat. Back then I worked on the App Engine team which had a XMPP Chat API. When GChat killed XMPP Federation that API lost the majority of target users as a result. I tried to make the case for maintaining XMPP s…

You forget that Google was worried about other XMPP services stealing user data. If I remember right, some services (maybe it was FB) was not sending out all data to Google in the federation system (I forget if it was names or friends lists or something). So it would allow other services to ingest data Google was sharing, but the sharing wasn't reciprocal.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#698

Post by dwaite »

bee_rider wrote: post #234
MBCook wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The CFAA prohibits intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or in excess of authorization, but fails to define what “without authorization” means. - From the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Other way around. If anything, it sounds to me like Beeper Mini was acting illegally by accessing Apple’s servers in a way they didn’t give permission for. The CFAA is ripe for abuse. I’m not say…

Wouldn’t it be the users, rather than Beeper Mini, that are doing the accessing?

Beeper mini includes a hosted service to receive APNS notifications (meant for Apple software)

So I would summarize it as the corporate entity connecting to an Apple API and using it in undocumented ways that they reverse engineered, intercepting messages meant only for Apple software, doing so without prior permission, for purpose to selling access to services which would normally be covered by an Apple EULA.

It is not quite like a smaller word processor wanting to be able to import Word documents - without tying into Apple's service, Beeper Mini has zero value.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#699

Post by jaktet »

eiiot wrote: post #645
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

I was using this before beeper and switched to beeper since I could also use WhatsApp on my iPad. Worked just fine on an old otherwise unused MacBook Air I keep in my garage. I only used airmessage for iMessage on windows

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#700

Post by FoeNyx »

jaktet wrote: post #693
gabeio wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the link between this repo and Beeper? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531759

I might be missing it but still don’t see how that answers the question about how that repo is related to beeper mini. Did they use this directly or the same methodology?

In https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531759 its OP states "A team member has published an open source Python iMessage protocol PoC on Github: https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush."
Post reply on HN