Being grandfathered in actually would last forever.
The origin is, during racist bullshit, that one of the ways they "equally" opened extremely restrictive signups to vote was that, if your grandfather could vote, you could vote without dealing with the process designed to make it impossible to actually register. Being grandfathered in would pass to subsequent generations just as easily.
I have Argentina, I used a VPN to create the account (windscribe) and used a virtual card from Capital One to pay using a random address I found in Buenos Aires using Google maps. It’s been going for almost a year without issues
This price hike is for people who signed up for YouTube premium early (before it was combined into YouTube music). These people weren’t promised a low rate for life when they signed up, their price was always going to increase eventually even if the service didn’t merge.
I think the $8 Play Music All Access was advertised as a lifetime price, that it would be what we paid forever. I really hope that’s the case.
I think it’s too late for this to be useful. Number spoofing is ultra-common these days and most of the unwanted calls I receive are from spoofed numbers that appear to come from local areas.
If we start blocking the spoofed numbers then eventually we’ll just be blocking every possible combination of digits that can exist.
What we really need first is better detection and blocking of calls using spoofed numbers.
since STIR/SHAKEN protocols started to roll-out, the number of 'spoofed' calls coming in here have fallen-off considerably. down to only one, maybe, a week on a cellular line; and one every day or two on the office pots. nearly all bogus calls coming into a cell phone are marked by verizon as 'potential spam' alongside the reported cid number--some of which don't even ring through at all.
if you get more than that on your phone, you need to get on your provider's case about their STIR/SHAKEN implementation, or lack thereof.
I’d never heard of STIR/SHAKEN…but after looking into it, supposedly T-Mobile was one of the first mobile carriers to implement it…and I’m on T-Mobile…but for the past several years, I keep getting unwanted spam calls to my cell phone that appears to be originating from very regional local numbers (area codes and number prefixes that are local to my area)…because of that I just assumed that they had to be spoofed since the calls are always an unwanted telemarketing robo call and never involve an actual business that is local to me.
So I don’t know how they are still doing it, but somehow telemarketers are causing calls to route through exchanges that are completely local to me.
It might not be very useful for spoofed calls, but I can see the use to block harassers. You block once, and they are block in the phone and messages app, and also are blocked on your other or next devices.
Also, I think the block list is not shared between users, only between your own apps and devices.
If it’s that Beeper then it’s not just about imessage, but facebook messenger, whatsapp, instagram, telegram, viber and a few others too. Beeper supports all that, by using Matrix bridges.
Interesting. I just checked and found the information. It sounds like they want to rebuild the whole app and just add one service at a time. They are starting with just iMessage.
Edit: I wonder how long this will last. They aren’t using a Mac to log you into your iCloud account with this. They have found a workaround.
“This is now possible because the iMessage protocol and encryption have been reverse engineered by jjtech, a security researcher.”
Edit 2: I’m really curious about this. The researcher has some Python that can run anywhere and let you send iMessages. It seems like something the Apple would shutdown, but, on the other hand, I wouldn’t expect Beeper to introduce an app that might get disabled.
Its a new version they called Mini because it only supports iMessage natively. There is a research who reverse engineered how iMessage works that’s how they manage to make it work without an Apple account and just your phone number.
But why the obsession with iMessage and apple product?!? Cannot every people at least send a SMS to others and that’s it? We don’t care about the colour of the bubble!!!
It basically copies the best of every other messaging platform. I was at my in-laws where everyone on my wife’s side has an iPhone and we’re talking about a LOT of the features.
can tell if notifications are turned off on phone
read receipts
higher quality limit on video/pictures sent
messaging that can be done in wifi-only areas (imagine having a few group threads/people you CANT talk to while at home because you live in a dead zone)
Any other big feature of any other messaging app I was able to think of (Signal/Whatsapp, discord, slack) is all there (except public chatrooms and private servers obvs), WITH OS integration
I still like my pixel, but I get it now.
Still holding out hope that Google allows for RCS features to come to Google voice.
Definitely going to look into this when I have the time. If it’s not using your Apple ID for authentication (like the article says), what’s to stop anyone from spoofing anyone else’s phone number?
The pypush readme doesn’t have a lot of details so I guess I’ll just need to try it to see.
Edit: Looks like he’s distributing “a framework from an old version of macOS, in order to call some obfuscated functions”, which the script pulls from his GitHub. This is likely a copyright violation. If Beeper Mini is doing the same thing, I’d expect them to get sued into oblivion the second Apple takes notice.
It’s not clear which version of macOS he pulled this from. There’s always the risk that Apple will simply axe support for it. I don’t recall them breaking support for older OSes with iMessage in the past but I haven’t followed that closely so I’m not sure.
Update:
Just ran it on my desktop. It immediately prompts for a username and password, presumably for an Apple ID. I didn’t continue because I don’t want to use my real Apple ID. The article says Beeper Mini doesn’t need an Apple ID at any point. After a little searching, it looks like iPhones actually don’t need an Apple ID to use iMessage. I was not aware of that. So I guess Beeper is not using the exact same mechanism as pypush.
Beeper has been working in this space for awhile - there’s no way they would publish an app with a copyright violation. I assume they have a workaround for that aspect.
tbh, I don’t like where this new product seems to be taking Beeper. I was a giant fan of Beeper because they were a huge contributor to the matrix project. But with them creating an entirely new app that doesn’t rely on matrix at all, it looks like they may be looking to pivot away and create their own client-side implementations rather than use matrix bridges. It would be sad to lose a contributor to the matrix space.
Yes. Hopefully they’ll continue to maintain the mautrix bridges they already have.
Also it’s sad to see Beeper misusing the term open source for the source available SSPL [1]. Beeper is free not to use an open source license. But an open source “license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor” [2], so it’s misleading to call their demo [3] open source.
I do believe supporting the different messaging services client side could be a better experience than relying on a server to translate between different protocols.
In the future, we are planning to add Matrix network support back in, along with support for the 15 other chat networks in Beeper Cloud. Read more about our roadmap.
I’ll happily jump ship when a better alternative is available, traditional taxis are not a better alternative. I’ll happily vote to implement any regulations covering them, even if it means that an Uber ride gets more expensive. Like I said, I’ll continue taking Uber/Lyft even if they end up being more expensive than a taxi especially if it’s that cost to pay the drivers a proper wage
Uber drivers don’t regularly leave me waiting for hours with the promise of being “Just 10 minutes away”
Uber drivers can’t go “This guy isn’t local, so I’m going to go the longest way possible to rack up charges”
Uber doesn’t leave me guessing where the car is with my only way to find out is to call dispatch (Who will constantly tell you a car is on the way “just a couple minutes”)
Uber drivers don’t just stop 2 or 3 blocks away and expect me to walk
Uber cars have been far cleaner and better maintained than the best taxi I’ve been in
I’ve felt far more unsafe and uncomfortable in a taxi than any Uber ride I’ve been in
It honestly sounds like you are describing exactly what’s wrong with Uber, but instead you are saying all that about taxis? Taxis are usually cheaper now and I have had less issues with them especially if you flag them down in person.
An Uber driver once kept talking about setting the mood and wanted me and my girlfriend to make out or something. No taxi driver hardly even spoke to me, which is what you want.
…how? The things I listed are all things various taxi services have done to me, many times in various combinations. Out of all the taxi experiences I’ve had I think like 2 were decent
especially if you flag them down in person.
This tells me you’re in a major city like NYC where there is actually decent taxi competition and this is the norm. Short of being in a major city, you’re likely being serviced by 1 or 2 taxi companies and they give no shits, because they’re the only game in town (Until Uber/Lyft comes to town anyways).
Taxis are usually cheaper now
Too little too late, they’ve burned me way too many times, you couldn’t pay me to take a taxi again
No, I’m primarily talking about being at an airport or other location where taxis normally are just hanging out.
What’s weird is that some of this, if you said 15 years ago, I would’ve gotten. But now, after Uber has come along and essentially slowly turned into everything taxis are except worse, it’s an interesting comment to me…
The one area where Uber will never compete is with driver knowledge. To compare – my last Uber experience was a highly stressful one where the driver basically got lost and did not know how to get to my location. The road the navigation app took them on was closed, but it’s a regular thing. Something I didn’t know but likely a cab driver would have.
By contrast, I got home from a trip a couple of months ago and the driver asked my address. I told him, he didn’t write it down, didn’t use a gps. Barely spoke English. I was skeptical he knew where it was. He drove right to it and saved me waiting time and $15. I didn’t live on main St or anything like that…
The main advantage used to be that Uber was cheaper and more convenient. I never see it cheaper any time I check, and as far as convenience goes, I’ve had some of the most insane experiences with drivers cancelling after 20 minutes, getting mad at me for being outside where they normally drive, all sorts of weird shit… Weird awkward political conversations… Also it really irks me that when I use Uber, I normally see an ETA on the app of something like 3 minutes. Guaranteed, it will take at least 10 every single fucking time.
An Uber driver almost made me late for a medical procedure recently. I had an hour and a half to get there, it was a 50 minute drive. They took a bizarre route that was bonkers traffic, an accident or something. I said nothing, but the whole time my phone and their GPS was telling them not to go that way. They were just maximizing their fare. Instead of being half an hour early I was like 2 minutes late.
Apartment complexes, package deliveries, medical shit, people locked out of your house who need to get in to feed pets, your neighbors to shut off the water when your pipes burst when you are on vacation, etc.
This happened to me. I got a very angry call from someone asking why I was spamming them and had to explain that someone was spoofing my phone number to call similar phone numbers, and that it could be happening to his number or anyone else's as well. I look forward to being globally blocked. :(
This doesn’t read as a global Blocklist for all Android phones in the world. It reads more as a local database/API for blocked numbers on your phone.
So blocked numbers would theoretically be applied to your messages apps and other “telephony” based apps that use phone numbers such as WhatsApp (should said apps implement the API).
Google already seems to have a spammer database for numbers, though I’m not sure if that applies to just Fi users, Pixel users, or anyone who uses the Google Phone app. If I have call screen disabled, I’ll see numbers on an incoming call have a red background with a “likely spam” description.
But based on the comments on this post, I feel as if I’ve overlooked something in the article here (I’ve just woken up so it wouldn’t surprise me) - is there a mention of it being a worldwide list?
No after reading the article, you’re definitely right. I just assumed Android already had that functionality, because that’s how it works on iOS, and usually iOS doesn’t have any features Android is missing.
I don’t use it for its intended purpose, but as a school bus driver it’s great for keeping track of where the stops are without maps trying to direct me.
I can set up a route in Google maps, but it insists on directing me and I can only put in 10 stops before having to start a new route.
I don’t need directions, I just need to know if it’s this corner or the next one.
I’m not really sure what to say about Nothing as a company, after two generations of devices so far.
The price isn’t right, the quality isn’t really there, the entire back panel is a massive gimmick, and even the 2 is still missing features, which I won’t buy a phone in 2023 without.
What’s worse, is that they’re trying to stand out quickly by offering potentially groundbreaking things, while in reality they’re built on something fundamentally broken, like Sunbird.
In the case of the Nothing 2, specifically, the lack of a high IP rating is a huge dealbreaker. The latter will be personal preference, but I did not like the camera performance. That can be improved with software upgrades, but when we spend this much money on a device, I just don’t want to drop money on a promise of something
I believe the ip rating they are referring to has to do with the level of waterproofing in the phone. Like how the iPhone has an IP68 meaning that it is water resistant up to 6 meters for 30 minutes in fresh water.
In this case it’s “Ingress Protection” rating - as in how well it prevents water and dust from getting inside the phone when exposed.
Edit: since I’m on hold and bored, here’s the Bard description of the rating system
The Ingress Protection (IP) rating system is a two-digit code that tells you how well an enclosure is protected against dust and water. Here’s a quick breakdown:
First digit: This is for solid objects, like dust, fingers, or tools. It goes from 0 (no protection) to 6 (dust-tight).
Second digit: This is for water, like splashes, rain, or immersion. It goes from 0 (no protection) to 9 (protected against high-pressure water jets).
So, an IP67 rating means the device is dust-tight and can withstand being submerged in water for a short time.
Here are some real-world examples:
IP44: Splashproof phone, suitable for light rain or spills.
IP65: Dustproof camera, good for outdoor use but not submersion.
IPX7: Waterproof smartwatch, can survive a dunk in the pool.
IP68: Rugged phone, can handle being underwater for extended periods.
Remember, IP ratings are just guidelines. Always check the manufacturer’s instructions for specific usage advice.
Do you own one? i bought the phone 1 to use as a work phone and its been pretty stellar tbh. Not something to use as a daily, I’d prefer a flagship for that but the phone has been really good to me
The phone is great for someone who wants a phone that still feels premium while being willing to sacrifice some of the frills like a slightly better camera, higher water resistance, etc
Eh, imessage isn’t worth paying a subscription for. Not a monthly one for sure. Like, I’m glad people have the option now, but I just don’t see the benefit being high enough to warrant a subscription.
androidauthority.com
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