this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I am Jack's COMPLETE lack of surprise.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Right? I tried it out with a friend of mine that has an Apple device, I have Android, and we were joking about Apple shutting it down within a few days. Lo and behold it took only 3 days.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I think I need a macro for that.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This was predicted on the post about Beeper

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm just curious as to what Beeper's response will be.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Something something monopoly, something something gatekeepers. They don’t need a war chest big enough to sue Apple, they just need to convince the EU to do it. I’m sure they saw this coming from the start.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Apple will respond with something something RCS coming soon I guess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

No doubt, but MagSafe turning into the Qi 2 standard is… interesting. It may or may not be part of a broader shift.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The status of Apple as gatekeeper in the messaging app ecosystem is not yet clear. Remember that iMessages is not really popular in Europe, and Europe wont name Apple as a gatekeeper because of imessage's popularity in the U.S. The EU does seem to be inclined to define them as gatekeeper, but that is not yet final. and if Apple implements RCS that might get them out of the hook. see section 5.4 of this document https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/202344/DMA_100013_215.pdf

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

You were absolutely right! It’s been a while, huh? WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are gatekeepers and WhatsApp is supposed to open up based on the Signal Protocol. I guess we’re settling on that.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fucking apple and it's greedy service.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

At this point it's not even just that, it's actually very petty and childish.

[–] Michal 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to see a game of cat and mouse until Apple fucks up and breaks their own imessage app

[–] onlinepersona 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If Bleeper were opensource, I imagine there'd be more contributors willing to reverse engineer iMessage.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

https://github.com/mautrix/imessage https://github.com/beeper/barcelona these are the core processes used to connect to the iMessage service

[–] spikespaz 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought it was. What a missed opportunity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Then they'd have a harder time charging $2/month for it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

With the original Beeper app you made an Apple ID through Apples website to use for setting up iMessage. This does require folks having the email in order to use iMessage, so definetly worth setting up an alias. It still works, while Beeper Mini doesn't apparently.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It still works

Yes and allowing beeper to MaInTheMiddle your messages does not present any security issues at all.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Their Matrix bridge is open source, and (at least they claim) everything is E2E encrypted. I love Beeper, and as unstable of a service as it is, it's still really great and I fully trust it with my messages. Waited 2 years for this service and I'm gonna use it lol.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

It is end to bridge encrypted. I trust them too but I still prefer to self-host this stuff.

https://www.beeper.com/faq#how-does-beeper-connect-to-encrypted-chat-networks-like-imessage-signal-whatsapp

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

everything is E2E encrypted

not really. an E2E encrypted message is decrypted on their server, and then reencrypted before they sent it to the recipient.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why? As the article states this actually lessens security for everyone (including iPhone users).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Imagine that! The founder of the company that was denied access to Apple for creating an app that essentially copped an app that is part of their proprietary OS, says it would have increased their security!

Well gosh!!!! let them in then!

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't really understand your argument.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is nothing to do with the OS.

He has a point though, you haven't refuted that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

iMessages is part of iOS. How is this not common knowledge?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because you're confusing the difference between an OS, an application and a protocol.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I didn’t say it WAS the OS, I said it is part of it. Stop arguing semantics. We’re done here.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

creating an app that essentially copped their proprietary OS

The OS hasn't been 'copped'. They emulated the protocol, and your lack of understanding and confusing the two has led us to having this conversation.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Stop arguing semantics. We're done here.

Compare to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master——that's all.

Yeah, if you want to make up your own definitions to the words you use, and then order those around you to stop arguing semantics, then you're basically not having a conversation at all.

Your comment was confusing because you don't seem to understand what is or isn't part of an operating system, and the mere mention of the operating system was pretty far removed from any relevance to your own point.

It's a proprietary service, and if you want to argue that companies can run proprietary services in a closed manner, denying access to third party clients, cool, that can be your position, but it would be an incoherent position to claim that only OS developers should have that right.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

and if you want to argue that companies can run proprietary services in a closed manner, denying access to third party clients, cool, that can be your position

Can it really? Cool! Thanks! That’s my position then.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summaryBeeper, the startup that reverse-engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users, is experiencing an outage, the company reported via a post on X on Friday.

Asked if possibly Apple found a way to cut off Beeper Mini’s ability to function, he replied, “Yes, all data indicates that.”

Migicovsky, who previously founded the smartwatch Pebble, has argued that Beeper Mini wasn’t just beneficial for Android users who wanted to finally join their iMessage friends’ group chats, but that it increased security for iPhone users, too.

In an interview ahead of Beeper Mini’s launch, the founder explained that green bubble texts were unencrypted.

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

Because the startup was no longer using a middleman — like a Mac server relaying messages, as other iMessage-to-Android apps employ — it would essentially appear to Apple’s servers that Beeper Mini’s messages were coming from a device that runs iMessage natively.


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