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Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

appleinsider.com

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Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#61

Post by troupo »

isatty wrote: post #44
cosmin800 wrote: post #17

I don't understand the obsession with imessage, what is so special about it?

It just works. You may think that this is a meme, but it really is not. Let’s say you and someone else that you wish to communicate with has an iPhone (parent, SO, friend, whoever) and things just click into place. - Extremely responsive, native, fast app with no clutter whatsoever, on both phones and on desktop devices (personally, I highly dislike web/electron apps) - Close to no spam (whatsapp in particular seems…

That "no clutter whatsoever" results in every action requiring two-three more clicks than necessary.

As for "fast", just the animation in the main action menu would like a word. And then try to select stickers

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#62

Post by rchaud »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #4

My take on this whole thing is that this is basically an elaborate plan to eventually use this in court against Apple to prove its anti-competitive practices. If not for court, then at the least this is a press strategy orchestrated by someone with an interest in opening up the iMessage monopoly. I’m sure the founder realized early on that the prospects of this becoming a valuable company on its own merits were slim…

An elaborate plan by who? If Apple opens up iMessage to RCS as promised to EU markets, Beeper Mini becomes obsolete overnight.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#63

Post by troupo »

larubbio wrote: post #52
dghlsakjg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an average consumer perspective (not a HN user perspective): It just works. As soon as I log into my Apple account on any Apple device I can access all of my messages, and seamlessly carry on a conversation on whatever device is at hand. It works with SMS as well, and I just don't have to think about it. I know that WhatsApp is similar, but their desktop app, especially authentication, kinda sucks (I need my pho…

> It works with SMS as well, and I just don't have to think about it. I have a mac laptop and an android phone. My son has an iphone. Half of his responses to my text messages go to my phone, the other half go to my laptop and I miss them. This is a major problem, imessage shouldn't be greedy about grabbing messages, especially when replying to an SMS. I've missed picking him up from places because I didn't get the r…

The fact that the iMessage team still can't figure out how Apple's own sync works is mind boggling.

Messages are always lost, or marked as read when they are not, or marked as unread even if I deleted them on other device, or...

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#64

Post by TillE »

ryanwhitney wrote: post #37
cosmin800 wrote: post #17

I don't understand the obsession with imessage, what is so special about it?

Let's open WhatsApp… It's recommending that I follow channels. Do I want to follow Man City, Real Madrid, or FC Barcelona? I watch zero sports and want nothing to do with any of this. I've used the app a handful of times over the years, yet I have three threads/groups from December that are cryptocurrency, investment, and market insight scams. To me, the interface also looks bad—and it's a Facebook product. Signal is…

> It's recommending that I follow channels

That's a slight annoyance but it's extremely new, and doesn't reflect the typical WhatsApp experience over its many years of explosive growth. It's just a simple cross-platform chat app that, as the de facto standard in most of Europe, nobody has trouble using.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#65

Post by FireBeyond »

crazygringo wrote: post #53
ericzawo wrote: post #16

Went from "Here's to the crazy ones" to "we'll punish our customers for not jumping how we say" in 30 years.

I highly doubt they're "punishing" customers or even "retaliating" like the article says. They've always banned iMessage access that they determined to be compromised. It's part of security and preventing abuse. It just probably took a couple weeks for their automated system to detect. Hopefully affected users can get it working again on their Macs via customer service, if they even care.

> Hopefully affected users can get it working again on their Macs via customer service, if they even care.

I'm going to go wayyyy out on a limb and guess that people who were enthusiastic adopters of Beeper Mini, AND who own a Mac ARE probably going to care about getting their access working again.

I'd actually say the bigger thing would probably be "via Customer Service, if Customer Service even cares, and doesn't tell them to just create a new Apple ID".

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#66

Post by rustcleaner »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #56
rustcleaner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In all honesty, this kind of discourse is insulting to the target audience, and not going to win over anyone to your cause. If you call the people you are trying to convince "idiots, rubes, and otherwise "consumer"-personality types" then they stop listening after that point. Which is probably fortunate since you called for a "digital 9/11". Call me crazy, but I don't want a repeat of an event where thousands of peop…

>You are associating your cause with superior attitudes, insults, and unfriendliness.

Pent up frustration at the hidden injustice of the whole thing and the apathy I am constantly met with; sue me.

>You know who hasn't called me an idiot or a rube? The makers of iMessage.

Their marketing methods are way more pernicious, but one example among myriad: https://www.reddit.com/r/datingoverthirty/comments/b6w9iu/oh...

Social shame is very powerful.

(addendum: my google searches for green vs blue bubble today seemed to filter examples like there's a blanket tossed on it, duckduckgo showed examples more readily.)

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#67

Post by bscphil »

crazygringo wrote: post #49
kevingadd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you call it other than retaliation? Punishment? Surprise behavior?

It's just banning. It's no different than if you get caught running cheat software in an online game. The company isn't "retaliating" against you, or even "punishing" you -- they're just banning you. You broke the rules and that's what happens.

This site rightly has a different attitude when, say, HP remotely bricks working printers because someone used unauthorized ink. We don't sit back and say "you broke the rules and that's what happens."

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#69

Post by rustcleaner »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #56
rustcleaner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In all honesty, this kind of discourse is insulting to the target audience, and not going to win over anyone to your cause. If you call the people you are trying to convince "idiots, rubes, and otherwise "consumer"-personality types" then they stop listening after that point. Which is probably fortunate since you called for a "digital 9/11". Call me crazy, but I don't want a repeat of an event where thousands of peop…

Also I get to be mad. I get to show that frustration. Other people who feel as I do see me get mad and maybe they get mad too. Maybe I flutter my wings and some storm clouds appear over Redmond down the line.

Re: Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network

#70

Post by stalfosknight »

63 wrote: post #32
cosmin800 wrote: post #17

I don't understand the obsession with imessage, what is so special about it?

In the US, it's mostly a network effect I think. It was the default on half of people's phones and it managed to be good enough over time (unlike sms defaults on Android) to stay entrenched. Also, imagine this scenario from the perspective of a non-technical user: You buy an expensive but high quality phone that's easy to use and has a great camera and great apps. Most of your friends have the same phone and everythi…

This is exactly what it's like for us iMessage users.

iMessage just works:

• It works beautifully on watchOS, iPadOS, macOS, in addition to iOS

• there's no ads

• E2EE by default

• You can send media at full quality and the recipient receives it as as you intended

• No bullshit whatsoever

My Android friends though are never able to standardize on any one app, some of them want you to use WhatsApp, some want Telegram, some want Signal. None of them have watchOS clients, they either can't be bothered with iPadOS at all or their desktop "client" is really just an lazy Electron disaster that they expect you to put up with. And when you try to explain how all of these third party alternatives are inferior, Android people look at you like you're an alien and don't understand.

It's frustrating and I wish they would just get iMessage already.

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