this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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I recall some pretty bold statements being made that Apple couldn't stop this reverse engineering from working ever in the early days of tech reporting on this.
Even as a Android user I thought this was pretty bold claims to make as this whole walled garden is a big part of the Apple brand and they will need to protect this as they really don't have leading software inovation and they are no longer ahead on tech advances or specs that made the first couple of iPhones ground breaking.
Since they are a couple to a few years behind the Android features and specs, they need to protect the special brand identity above all else so I expected them to tweak things to break anything they don't want to have happen to their systems.
I can't blame them at all from a business prospective. While I don't like or enjoy their products, they had built a great brand that sells itself for those that "want to be different" but actually the same as all of their friends.
Yeah. I mean, the actual reverse engineering is something Apple wouldn't be able to stop them from doing. But anyone who thought Apple couldn't stop them from using that reverse engineering to connect to iMessage was delusional. And if it had become more of a cat and mouse situation where Beeper was able to keep gaining access, Apple would have sued the pants off them. Apple, as shitty of a company as they are, have every right to control access to their own APIs.
No matter what the technical reality of Beeper was, this was like claiming God couldn't kick you out of Heaven if they wanted to.
Apple has army of devs, a bottomless wallet, and is extremely petty and controlling about their garden. If you found a hole in the wall, they'd go as far as to build a whole new wall just to stop you. And they can do that, because it's their garden. You have no power there.
I support what Beeper tried to do, but it was never going to work. Apple's garden needs regulation to crack open, you can't do it with software.
Don't talk about your fantasy religion
Like Microsoft had every right to control access to their operating system?
Oh wait...
ikr internet Explorer? but safari a ok
Depends on the context about which you're talking.
I'm talking about accessing a service which Apple is in control of the infrastructure and has specifically put in place access and authorization controls.
In this instance, if Beeper wanted to reverse engineer the API, make their own implementation, and offer their own messaging service that's fine. More power to them generally.
But unless Beeper comes to some sort of agreement to allow interoperability with Apple's iMessage (or Apple is forced to allow it by government action) then they can't take it upon themselves to use exploits or spoofing to gain access without authorization. You might think it sucks that Apple has kept their API closed and that it's a bad idea, but that's their prerogative. It's just like when Twitter closed their API or when Reddit priced everyone out of using their API, except Apple never had it open to start with.
Saying you've put access controls in to a public service isn't an argument. It's a confession. Anti-competitive behavior is illegal. And forcing the traffic through infrastructure you set up specifically to wall it off is Anti- Competitive. Just because neo liberals got in control of things does not mean we need to normalize corporate governance.
Everyone using Beeper was authorized to access those APIs. Apple didn't like how they were accessing those APIs.
Behind in specs? Depends on which specs I guess
but CPU/GPU performance is AFAIK pretty great? https://www.tomsguide.com/features/iphone-15-pro-benchmarks
Features, yeah, depends on what you're looking for. AFAIK iPhones are the only mainstream phone to offer satellite texting though.
I have both an iPhone (work) and an android (personal), and they both...kinda just work 🤷
Maybe one of the features they thought about is how some Android phones install Facebook and other crapware that you may not be able to delete.
That's pretty cool.
It's been awhile since I last used a iPhone 13 Pro Max for work but I do recall the constant announcements there with previous models when Apple would announce yet another great "new" feature for iPhone that Android users already had for a year or two at that stage.
Samsung also made some good media campaigns on the announcements and used the lineups for new iPhones fairly well in their advertising.
I will say I thought the iPhone 13 camera was pretty goof, the battery life was too, and within the Apple walled garden the texting of videos was nice. The overall user experience for me wasn't a good fit. I like to browse the web without ads and watch videos without them too. Some of that can be done with a iPhone but it's clunky and the web browsers are just safari.
There's other customizable options I prefer that I can do with Android that isn't an option yet for Apple but I do know they will be able to at some stage.
Overall the whole apple vs android has been great for consumers. If it wasn't for the competition between Apple and the Android products neither group would be as far along.
They technically didn't stop the reverse engineering from working. They threatened users with bans and scared them into not using the reverse engineered software.