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iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

blog.benjaminste.in

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Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#111

Post by comex »

ac29 wrote: post #93
derefr wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it would have to run on... an open mobile OS, which would in turn require open hardware. I'm not 100% clear on this: why can't there be an open mobile OS that runs on (bootrom-exploited) iOS devices?

Curious: has this even been tried? I would assume Apple SoC's require binary drivers, so even though they are similar to Android phones on a hardware level it might be difficult or impossible to even get an Android port to boot. Hell, it can be difficult to get an unsupported version of Android to work without major bugs on an Android phone.

It was tried a few years back: http://www.idroidproject.org

They had to rewrite the drivers, of course.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#112

Post by SeoxyS »

A fairly simple solution would be to get a Google Voice number, that would forward to your real number - and have people text you via Google Voice. However, if anybody calls (or sends an old-style SMS to) your old number, it would still come through.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#114

Post by 10feet »

SeoxyS wrote: post #112

A fairly simple solution would be to get a Google Voice number, that would forward to your real number - and have people text you via Google Voice. However, if anybody calls (or sends an old-style SMS to) your old number, it would still come through.

This is not a solution if you live outside of the USA.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#115

Post by smtddr »

hablahaha wrote: post #108
MehdiEG wrote: post #65

Same problem here and I know quite a few people who've had these issues as well. iMessage is a huge mess - even if you're still using your iPhone. Back in December, when I was still on iPhone, I went in a month-long trip abroad. Since data roaming still costs a fortune, I had data switched off most of the time. I'd just connect on wifi whenever possible and occasionally switched on the data connection when I really n…

I know of a relationship that ended because of iMessages. They had had a fight and he texted her to apologize and then he never received any responses (they went straight to his computer) and then she got more upset, he thought she wasn't talking to him, etc.

There needs to be a blog about this.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#116

Post by MereInterest »

lukeschlather wrote: post #94
shurcooL wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a good idea. But it's an extension of "stop relying so much on a non-free, proprietary 9-digit number as your id only to be at the mercy of your phone carrier". Personally, I use a data-only plan and feel much better than when I had a carrier-provided phone number.

This has nothing to do with the phone carrier. In the US phone numbers are much more open than any other means of identifying someone you want to contact. "non-free" is a bizarre thing to say in this context. No identifier is going to be free as in speech - that would defeat the purpose. If you want to have assurance that you can keep the identifier it had better not be free as in beer either - the provider of the id…

>No identifier is going to be free as in speech - that would defeat the purpose.

I would say that a public key would work well as a free as in speech identifier. It uniquely identifies an address-holder, and the full software necessary to send messages using that key can be obtained and held on one's own. The problem comes when expecting an identifier to be associated with a person, since there you need a trusted authority to relate between names and keys.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#117

Post by 10feet »

hablahaha wrote: post #108
MehdiEG wrote: post #65

Same problem here and I know quite a few people who've had these issues as well. iMessage is a huge mess - even if you're still using your iPhone. Back in December, when I was still on iPhone, I went in a month-long trip abroad. Since data roaming still costs a fortune, I had data switched off most of the time. I'd just connect on wifi whenever possible and occasionally switched on the data connection when I really n…

I know of a relationship that ended because of iMessages. They had had a fight and he texted her to apologize and then he never received any responses (they went straight to his computer) and then she got more upset, he thought she wasn't talking to him, etc.

Texting an apology is never the best idea anyway, even without Apple messing it up.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#118

Post by psychometry »

SeoxyS wrote: post #112

A fairly simple solution would be to get a Google Voice number, that would forward to your real number - and have people text you via Google Voice. However, if anybody calls (or sends an old-style SMS to) your old number, it would still come through.

How does that solve the author's problem of other people texting him via iMessage?

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#119

Post by psychometry »

sneak wrote: post #43

Preventative step: set your outbound iMessage "caller id" to your email address instead of your phone number. Do this now, before you're bitten by the bug. (Apple's degraded QA as of late on iOS means you'll also have to change it back on ALL your devices on the account any time you add or remove any devices or numbers to iMessage or FaceTime on that Apple ID, too.) This way, all your contacts are iMessaging with you…

Disabling an Apple ID would also disable its use in the online Apple Store and the OS X App Store, though. Seems that you might as well just disable iMessage. It's not like it provides that much added value over text messages.

Re: iOS holding my phone number hostage = the worst bug I’ve ever experienced

#120

Post by rosser »

RyanZAG wrote: post #30

Just think, if you hadn't used a proprietary messaging solution as your default contact method, you'd be able to easily control how you receive the messages. Maybe stuff like this happening is a good thing as it drills home the point the 'crazy free software lunatics' have been going on about for some time. Having this kind of thing happen to someone makes the stuff FSF+co says a bit more relevant and ultimately help…

Yeah, other peoples' misfortunes are totally "a good thing" if they help illustrate the motivations for one's own political agenda.
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