A game of cat-and-mouse

In last week’s newsletter, I included a section about Beeper Mini bringing iMessage to Android and ended that section of the letter pondering when and how Apple would respond. Well, not 20 minutes after I clicked send on Substack, Beeper Mini stopped working. Apple took action, effectively shutting it down. Over the weekend, Apple issued a statement, confirming Beeper Mini’s downtime was due to steps Apple took to “protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage.”

Apple taking actions to protect its users, which is factual, is warranted and expected. Apple had every right to fix the workarounds that Beeper was taking advantage of.

However, Apple has to be feeling some pressure about keeping iMessage inside its walled garden. Senator Elizabeth Warren chimed in over the weekend, accusing Apple of putting profits over user security and stating “chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure.” She’s not wrong. I promise you the last thing Apple wants is politicians getting involved here.

Earlier this week, Beeper Mini came back online, but with a few changes. You can no longer register your Android phone number with iMessage through Beeper Mini. Instead, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID. Also, Beeper is no longer charging $2 a month for Beeper Mini. At least for now.

By the end of the week, Apple started to make changes to break Beeper, again, with many users claiming they could no longer send or receive messages through the service. It’s only a matter of time before Apple fully cripples Beeper again, and then the Beeper team will work around the clock to fix it… and the cat-and-mouse game will continue.

Do you care about iMessage on Android? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts - just reply to this email.

Where to find me on the socials

As much as I‘d love to walk away from all social networks, I’ve come to terms with the fact they’re a necessary evil. The general rule of thumb is I’m usually @MrCippy on all the things, but to make your life easier, here are direct links to where you can follow me:

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mrcippy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrcippy/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrcippy/
• Mastodon: https://mrcippy.xyz/@mrcippy

If you follow me, please say hello!

What I had published this week:

This week was a lot of work, but it’s all work for the coming weeks with the holiday break and whatnot. So, I didn’t have a lot of work published this week… but that’s alright.

• Apple released iOS 17.2 this week, and with it came a bunch of changes and a new Journal app. I spent some time using it over the last few weeks during the beta program and found some beauty in its simplicity.
• With the launch of iPadOS 17, Apple added the ability to use an external webcam or microphone to its tablet lineup, and with that, there’s now a way to connect anything that uses an HDMI cable to your iPad and turn it into an external display, so you can do things like play your Nintendo Switch on your iPad. Of course, it’s not that simple and you’ll need a few pieces of hardware and an app.. but I covered everything you need to know about it here.

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