News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by logfromblammo on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @10:19AM (#22054908)
I once heard my spouse complaining about Signal, and how they only had it loaded on their iPhone so they could talk to me. I asked why Signal was not their default SMS application, like it is on my Android phone. And that's when I discovered that Apple hoards certain core phone features for itself.

Signal for iOS cannot send or receive ordinary SMS messages. This is a significant impediment to adoption of end-to-end encryption, because checking two applications to receive different kinds of messages is inconvenient, and inconvenience is the death of mobile applications.

And here I note that Apple is effectively punishing users for apostasy. If you leave the Apple ecosystem, you are excommunicated from your former chat contacts. I, having never entered the Apple ecosystem, have no problem being included in group chats with iPhone users. (I occasionally have problems receiving media attachments, though.)

This makes me even more wary of ever buying in, knowing that trying to leave later will cause all manner of problems as I try to reclaim functions that Apple will take over. Entering the walled gardens make me afraid of being locked in.

Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by bmarquez on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @12:03PM (#22055920)
Another issue with Signal -- you can't backup your chat logs on iOS like you do on Android (chat logs are encrypted btw).

I'm not sure if that's a Signal issue or an Apple restriction.

Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by pseudalopex on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @10:44PM (#22061512)
It's Signal.
Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by dpkonofa on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @02:36PM (#22057641)
>Signal for iOS cannot send or receive ordinary SMS messages.

That's not an iOS limitation, though. I can send and receive SMS messages through Google Voice on iOS without any issue.

Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by thekyle on Thursday January 16, 2020 @12:03PM (#22066418)
Google Voice doesn't use the SIM card in the phone to send SMS so it can bypass any of Apples API restrictions.
Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by dpkonofa on Thursday January 16, 2020 @07:57PM (#22070797)
How does that matter? Signal doesn't have to use the SIM card either.
Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by thekyle on Thursday January 23, 2020 @10:29PM (#22135152)
Because most people probably want to use their existing phone number which is tied to their SIM card.
Re:Apple’s “monopsony” power, and the woman who named it by dpkonofa on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @08:02PM (#22060666)
I don't really understand why I got downvoted for a 100% accurate and truthful statement.