• bassomitron@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I think people are ignoring looking at this through the lens of anti-competitive behavior. Right now there is an alternative, yes. But Apple continues to grab the marketshare in the US (and some Asian and EU markets). However, there is no guarantee that will be forever. Sure, they support SMS now, but again, no guarantee that’ll continue to last.

    Apple has displayed on numerous occasions that they do not care about interoperability with other platforms and have even been outright hostile and aggressive against them. Just look what happened when some kid figured out how to make iMessage work on any other platform. Sure, that kid’s solution was hacky, but he was 16 years old. If one kid can do it, then there’s absolutely no justifiable reason seasoned software engineers can’t figure out a secure solution.

    It astounds me that there are so many people defending any company that not only encourages walled gardens, but in some cases aggressively enforces it. Yeah there are alternatives, but people are lazy and seek convenience. iMessage just works by default, and so many folks get annoyed or even sometimes confused when non-Apple users ask them to use a 3rd party app to communicate with modern features instead of being stuck with SMS’s severe shortcomings.

    That’s why I think the DOJ is justified in this. Because it is anti-competitive behavior.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Apple has displayed on numerous occasions that they do not care about interoperability with other platforms and have even been outright hostile and aggressive against them.

      Which, as a Mac user who lived through the 90s, is some bullshit. Apple wouldn’t have survived if they couldn’t reverse engineer Microsoft stuff to get it to work with Macs. They relied on open standards to survive, and now they’re being assholes about other people wanting open standards.

      I’ve been a fanboy for decades and even I’m looking forward to the DOJ taking them down a peg.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      Reminder that Apple has a well documented history of intentionally slowing down devices, reducing battery life artificially, and bricking jailbroken or even just lightly repaired phones. They’re a malicious company that deserves to get reigned in.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Last Apple product I owned was an iPhone 3. It forced installed the Version 4 software and bricked my phone. The folks at the Apple store claimed the only solution was to upgrade my device.

        I went Android after that and never looked back.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    They’ll roll over and offer an encryption backdoor, DOJ will offer a token fine, everything goes away and consumers get a deep, hard, dry anal fuck.

  • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    Ignoring the users in here who obviously don’t understand how critical SMS actually is and how fucking awful it is from a security standpoint because they’d rather be armchairs than actually learn anything useful or true…

    Wondering if this sudden move is at all to do with Apples announcement of their quantum encryption. US govt intel complex is probably seething rn

      • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        Unfounded paranoia, google on the other hand has a history of this. Not to mention the audio recording from chrome browsers.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              i mean they are part of the PRISM program like google, microsoft and others, as revealed by snowden back when he leaked it. they are doing some questionable mass image hash scanning in the name of “protecting the children” now too. i’m sure you can find more bullshit by simply reading their TOS.

              honestly its very safe to assume every single stock firmware, on every device is compromised unless its FOSS. this includes cars, tvs and everything in between.

              the single major advantage of android in this respect is that you can change the OS that comea with it. i think its the only real way to use phones semi privately now.

    • Philippe23@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      If Apple cares about protecting privacy they’d use an open, interoperable, cross-platform standard instead of just making cracks like, “just buy your Mom an iPhone.”

      • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        But android does this exact thing and has far more vulnerabilities

        Open source doesn’t magically make things more secure unfortunately, no matter how many people seem to think this

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          8 months ago

          AOSP Development was almost completely separated from the commonly distributed Android OS around version 2.2 in like 2010-ish, if I’m not mistaken. If you do get an OS built upon the old open source versions, they are usually quite secure and value privacy heavily, such as CalyxOS.

          So no, Android is not Open Source nor is it free, but yes proprietary Android software has more potential vulnerabilities.

          • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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            8 months ago

            Last year android had 1400 vulnerabilities to iOS’ 482.

            402 of androids were above a CVSS score of 7 & 221 for iOS.

            Android is less secure than iOS on average and Apple is widely known to be more secure than android. That’s not to say I’m a fan of things apple does. I’m purely speaking vulns for one OS to another.

            • 0xD@infosec.pub
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              8 months ago

              You can’t compare those two. First of all, Apple’s walled garden makes it significantly harder to perform security research. Second, Android has a way larger ecosystem and is not a monolith, so of course there’s gonna be more.

              Apple = Apple, but Android ≠ Android.

  • iquanyin@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “The one that really jumped out at me was this idea that parents don’t want to get their kids Android phones if they have Apple phones" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 i’m sorry, but who came up with that, google? i can’t even imagine parents with apples buying androids for their kids, nor vice versa. how silly.

    i do agree that texting and other basic phone functions should of course be interoperable.

    • derf82@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      There are a lot more cheap Android options. I wouldn’t want to get a kid a pricey iPhone for their first smartphone.

      • capital@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Cheapest iPhone is $430.

        Being tied into FindMy is probably worth that, especially for parents.

        • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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          8 months ago

          Cheapest iPhone is $430.

          A ruggered Android phone cost about 200 € and there are also under 100 € android phones.

          As a first phone for a kid is more than enough, given how it will be treated

        • derf82@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You can get a new android under $200. And google has their own feature to locate their phones.

          • capital@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Ok. Which is a current iPhone owner more likely to buy.

            1. The thing that ties into their current services and is a device which they are familiar with to help their kid when questions arise.
            2. Save ~$200 to deal with another service and have to do more work to support the device when questions arise.

            The juice isn’t worth the squeeze before we even get into how many years of updates that $200 phone is gonna get vs the cheapest iPhone.

    • TurtledUp@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      You mean green bubble Chad’s? I hope they didn’t take away the green bubble it’s the only way people know you’re not in a cult.

      • TherouxSonfeir@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Aww are you sad it’s green too? Clearly you are uneducated. The green bubble appears when the message has to go through the SMS protocol. Messages from iPhone to iPhone can be green too.

        But don’t let me stop you from spreading your lies like a Christian.

    • Shouted@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      But you don’t understand. It’s Apple’s responsibility to make iMessage work across all platforms instead of users making informed decisions and using WhatsApp/FacebookMessenger/Whatever nth version of chat app Google is offering. /s

      Bunch toddlers demanding equal playtime with a toy they don’t own and then ranting to their mom, who instead of buying the toy for their kid, sues the neighbor to force them to let their kid play with the toy.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        SMS is hilariously insecure, and messaging is a critical piece of infrastructure. I’m shocked that the government has taken so long forcing Apple to play nicely with other platforms, considering international data security.

        • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          What are you asking for? For iMessage to become the standard for messaging?

          It’s the telcos fault SMS sucks and it’s the telcos fault RCS is a joke unless you use Googles implementation on Android.

          • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            No, but API interoperability with literally anything else would be a damn good start. Right now Apple sues anyone who tries to make a bridge between iMessage and other standards.

            • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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              8 months ago

              How would a third party client guarantee e2e encryption with iMessage?

              And by what mechanism was that company enabling that bridge? Did that mechanism store iCloud credentials? Did it encrypt the drives the users iCloud data could have been downloaded to? Did they have access to iMessages in clear text before forwarding them?

              • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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                8 months ago

                I’m not a programmer, but this doesn’t seem hard. The API could specify a cryptographic standard. Third party clients don’t need access to iCloud data, just the API to pass message and attachment content in encrypted form with a standardized handshake.

                What am I missing?

                • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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                  8 months ago

                  And what data would this client be handling via the API?

                  Even Signal discourages third party apps for this reason you are indeed missing.

            • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Why? iMessage is a proprietary platform that Apple invested billions into. Expecting them to have API inter-op is idiotic. It’s not like you can’t text people outside of iMessage. There’s SMS, and people are free to use it. Expecting a “bridge” between two standards for the sake of having a bridge tells me people do not know how any of this works and are just parroting the same stupid arguments put forth by people that, again, do not understand how a technology is planned for, developed and maintained.

              If there’s such an appetite, ask the fucking government to set a standard and ask every smartphone operating in the country to comply. It’s really that simple.

              • Shouted@programming.dev
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                8 months ago

                Don’t bother mate. Lemmy is a dumpster fire filled with angsty teenagers who hate their green bubble. It’ll be another couple decades before they understand how the world works.

                • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  True. I’m fine with the likes of Lemmy/Reddit users not getting it, but in this case, we have a DOJ that thinks this is somehow for them to solve. Law making via litigation is just lazy and moronic imo.

              • iquanyin@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                upvoted for you last paragraph. bingo. and i’d love that. all the basic functions should be done to a standard, and a good one to boot. save time, money, and bullshit baby games on all sides.

          • Shouted@programming.dev
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            8 months ago

            People forget the state of SMS before Apple decided to tell telcos to go fuck themselves and rolled out iMessage.

            Americans would still be paying per-text message without Apple.

            • gorgori@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              All fine and dandy. Kudos to Apple for the innovation! But then they decided to keep it strictly inside Apple.

              That’s not how communication works. Imagine if Bell kept the telephone to themselves… Oh wait… They tried… Got sued for it… Company broke up and the whole world got interoperable telephone system that is alive to this day.

              Innovation is great, capitalizing on innovation is also great. But eventually it needs to reach everyone and the answer cannot be “then everyone should buy Apple”.

              Imagine if DARPA kept the Internet as “Americans only”

              • Shouted@programming.dev
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                8 months ago

                So you’re saying iPhones are as important to humanity as the internet and should be equally regulated as such?

                • gorgori@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  You missed the entire point. Typical Apple fanboy.

                  The iphone isn’t at all important to humanity and that’s why it should be regulated. Especially when something so unimportant gets such a large market dominance.

                  Anyone should be able to buy anything and expect things to be interoperable.

                  I like the airpods. They don’t work properly on android. Why?

                  They could easily license out the tech and other companies will pay billions for it. and Apple will get their ROI.

                  Intel was forced to license x86.

                  Face it. Apple’s behavior is visibly monopolistic. It wouldn’t have landed on DOJ’s desk if there were no good reason.

        • Shouted@programming.dev
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          8 months ago

          Nothing is stopping people from downloading whatever chat app they want to use. EU has done that.

          • nymwit@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Something is stopping another messaging app to have sms fallback and be the default messaging app on iOS. It’s iOS.

            • Shouted@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              But does it work? Can you, as an Android user, send text messages to and from people with iPhones?

        • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          SMS works. iMessage works. Both work in tandem on a device and there’s a distinction which is which, therefore you get full access to and from when communicating with a device. I’m shocked that there’s this lunacy around conflating the two or expecting two different standards to work because people want to.

          I want to have flying cars and breathe underwater without any equipment next, guess lets file a lawsuit forcing sub makers and car makers to go make that happen.

          • Shouted@programming.dev
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            8 months ago

            Ah, I see a comment with downvotes here and I know it’s a rational one I should be paying attention to.

            Things work, but they feel entitled to forcing Apple to dedicate their resources to offering the same experience to people who don’t do business with Apple.

            Forcing a business to operate better with another competitor for no benefit of their own is a dangerous precedent to set.