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Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

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Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#931
post #440
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.

No need for transparency here. Just know that no one has broken the encryption is all you need. Also you likely will not know if beeper sends a copy of your messages to their servers to sell, but who would you trust more won’t sell your info, beeper or Apple?

apple

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#932

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Apple deliberately screws with messages to non Apple users. Every video my family sends to me is low res heavily pixelated trash, to the point that you can't even recognise faces.

That's cellphone carriers. MMS messages generally have to fit within 300-600KB[0] so they are horribly, horribly compressed. https://m.gsmarena.com/glossary.php3?term=mms

sending MMS in 2023 is a crime. what next, WAP?

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#933

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His first sentence about privacy and security is nonsense, but his second sentence hits the nail on the head. If the richest company in the world wanted their chat app to run on Android, it would by now. It's strange Apple doesn't sell an iMessage Android app, but I'm sure they've had somebody do the math and found out that it's more money for Apple in the long run if they don't.

Because there are people that buys iphone just to get a blue bubble, why would Apple want to stop that?

you’re talking to a forum that is probably 50% iPhone and has very good technical reasons to do so, this is insulting and it’s absurd that it’s so casually normalized to directly insult people in this fashion

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#934
post #907
post #65

As usual, Gruber was right on the money. Via Threads yesterday: "My prediction is that Apple will make changes—fixing bugs and/or closing loopholes—that break Beeper Mini. It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. It’s a very nice app, remarkably clever, and for now works like a charm, but if Apple wanted an iMessage client…

> It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. What a stupid take on the situation. At most it's untenable to Apples short term financial interests. A well designed protocol and implementation would be even better at protecting user privacy and security especially from a privileged attacker like the service provider and anyone…

this sounds like proof of stake to me

yes, you can indeed build a secure system on the basis of increasing the economic cost of attack beyond reasonable levels and by forcing attackers to repeatedly slash their stake to perform an attack

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#935

One thing which is really confusing is why are Android users obsessed with iMessage? Android users can send text messages to iPhones, the can call iPhone users, and they can use third party messaging apps to communicate with iPhone users. It really isn’t clear to me why so many people are so angry they cannot use iMessage on Android.

You've heard from plenty of others on this thread, but here's another anecdotal data point:

I'm in my early 30's and have been told to my face by friends I'm hanging out with that they excluded me from group chats because I have an Android phone. Sometimes there'll be two group chats where the second one is just the iPhone users subset. Some photos only get shared in that second group chat. Some messages get sent giving people a heads up about things and the sender sometimes forgets that a few people are being left out of the loop. There are real social segregation issues that happen.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#936

Techcrunch is an absolute abomination of a website. For those using uBlock and/or uMatrix, have a look at the list of third-party domains the site uses. No less than 18(!) of them: * ads-twitter.com * bizzabo.com * dscg1.akamai.net * facebook.net * google-analytics.com * googlesyndication.com * googletagmanager.com * mrf.io * oath.com * sail-horizon.com * twitter.com * twitter.map.fastly.net * typekit.net * vidible.t…

TechCrunch runs on WordPress, so at least wp.com is a legit domain to have on this list.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#937
post #907
post #65

As usual, Gruber was right on the money. Via Threads yesterday: "My prediction is that Apple will make changes—fixing bugs and/or closing loopholes—that break Beeper Mini. It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. It’s a very nice app, remarkably clever, and for now works like a charm, but if Apple wanted an iMessage client…

> It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. What a stupid take on the situation. At most it's untenable to Apples short term financial interests. A well designed protocol and implementation would be even better at protecting user privacy and security especially from a privileged attacker like the service provider and anyone…

On the money, but unsurprising. Gruber is an Apple fan-boy through and through and it doesn't take much of a guess to posit the exact "prediction" he made. It was clear Apple was never going to put up with this, but it was likely accelerated by all of the media attention.

Apple is, however, nothing for "privacy and security" beyond what they need to do to be marginally better, and that's a stretch these days. If Gruber really believes what he wrote he's full-on living in Apple's orchard behind the walled garden that Tim Cook splendidly gatekeeps. But because Apple puts marketing dollars behind ads that say "privacy" and "security" it must be so!

This is why it's always funny to me when the trope of the hour is the mass privacy failures of Signal through use of phone numbers. And then the author turns around and types out an iMessage to a blue-bubble friend. I really hope we can move beyond the Apple reality distortion machine and move to truly user focused platforms that aren't designed to steal user data or make the board richer.

Apple has become rotten.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#938

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Safari as my daily driver on Mac because it syncs nicely with my iPhone and iPad (I don't see any point using a browser besides Safari on iOS/ipadOS), and is better on battery life. I also regularly use Chrome on Mac for things like front-end development.

I’m the opposite. The only reason I ever use chrome on my iPad to s because I need to use my password manager (since I use chrome for everything on my desktops). Even my non techie wife uses chrome on her MBP (and I didn’t set it up for her).

You really should use a password manager that is separate from your browser.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#939
post #65

As usual, Gruber was right on the money. Via Threads yesterday: "My prediction is that Apple will make changes—fixing bugs and/or closing loopholes—that break Beeper Mini. It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature. It’s a very nice app, remarkably clever, and for now works like a charm, but if Apple wanted an iMessage client…

To be fair, that was an easy prediction.

Re: Apple cuts off Beeper Mini's access

#940
"If it's Apple, then I think the biggest question is - if Apple truly cares about the privacy and security of their own iPhone users, why would they try to kill a service that enables iPhones to send encrypted chats to Android users?"

"Why force iPhone users back to sending unencrypted SMS when they chat with friends on Android?," he asked."

Thought experiment: What if Apple trains an "AI" on peoples' text messages. What laws could stop them.

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