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
There certainly is a history of attacking Apple over their use of encryption. I wonder if they’re still mad they didn’t get that iPhone backdoor they wanted.
Exactly what i was thinkin
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.”
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.
I hope something significant happens because of this, but somehow I just see Apple walking away with a slap on the wrist before continuing to engage in anti-consumer practices like nothing happened
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rather than focusing on two or three illegal acts, the complaint alleges that Apple engages in a pattern of behaviors that further entrench consumers into their ecosystem and make it harder to switch, even in the face of high prices and degraded quality.
“They’ve written a complaint in a way that seeks to avoid weaknesses that I think the judge might have seen in that case, to add additional material so it’s not simply a reprise of Epic v. Apple.”
Rather than going after one or two discrete harmful actions, the DOJ looks to establish an interlocking pattern of illegal behavior that is epitomized by five examples, like the “green bubble” non-interoperability in messaging between iPhones and Android phones.
“DOJ has stepped back from the details and simply asked and answered the question, what are all these about?” says John Kwoka, professor of economics at Northeastern University who recently served as chief economist to FTC Chair Lina Khan.
In that case, the appeals court found that the denture manufacturing company violated anti-monopoly law by using “exclusive dealing arrangements to prevent rivals from getting inputs they need to succeed,” according to Kovacic.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the state AGs who has joined in the DOJ lawsuit, tells The Verge that the enforcers “are focused on injunctive relief.”
The original article contains 2,022 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 89%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Sue every US corporation with over 100B market cap please.
“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.
DOJ is blaming Apple for the failure of the Windows phone and the Amazon Fire phone. It feels a bit silly.
Edit: lotta windows and fire phone fans on Lemmy it seems.
No, you are talking out your ass so people downvote you. Simple as that.
Huh. Well it certainly would make sense to blame Apple at least partially if that information is correct. Which then means that the article is real but you fail to actually understand it and it’s implications.
Green bubble cry babies. It just means SMS. 🙄
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
The entire web is built on standardized e2e encryption schemes fought for by techie nerds so that we don’t have these problems there.
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?
And what data would this client be handling via the API?
Even Signal discourages third party apps for this reason you are indeed missing.
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.
Nothing is stopping people from downloading whatever chat app they want to use. EU has done that.
I’m saying this is a national security issue. The government has a vested interest in killing off SMS as soon as possible.
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.
