The best Hacker News stories from All from the past day
Latest posts:
AI and Mass Spying
iMessage, explained
Show HN: How did your computer reach my server?
YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash
Polish trains lock up when serviced in third-party workshops
Firefox on the brink?
Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
Hi HN! I’m proud to share that we have built a real 3rd party iMessage client for Android. We did it by reverse engineering the iMessage protocol and encryption system. It's available to download today (no waitlist): <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima</a> and there's a technical writeup here: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works">https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works</a>.<p>Unlike every other attempt to build an iMessage app for Android (including our first gen app), Beeper Mini does not use a Mac server relay in the cloud. The app connects directly to Apple servers to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. Encryption keys never leave your device. No Apple ID is required. Beeper does not have access to your Apple account.<p>With Beeper Mini, your Android phone number is registered on iMessage. You show up as a ‘blue bubble’ when iPhone friends text you, and can join real iMessage group chats. All chat features like typing status, read receipts, full resolution images/video, emoji reactions, voice notes, editing/unsending, stickers etc are supported.<p>This is all unprecedented, so I imagine you may have a lot of questions. We’ve written a detailed technical blog post about how Beeper Mini works: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works">https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works</a>. A team member has published an open source Python iMessage protocol PoC on Github: <a href="https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush">https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush</a>. You can try it yourself on any Mac/Windows/Linux computer and see how iMessage works. My cofounder and I are also here to answer questions in the comments.<p>Our long term vision is to build a universal chat app (<a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/were-building-the-best-chat-app-on">https://blog.beeper.com/p/were-building-the-best-chat-app-on</a>). Over the next few months, we will be adding support for SMS/RCS, WhatsApp, Signal and 12 other chat networks into Beeper Mini. At that point, we’ll drop the `Mini` postfix. We’re also rebuilding our Beeper Desktop and iOS apps to support our new ‘client-side bridge’ architecture that preserves full end-to-end encryption. We’re also renaming our first gen apps to ‘Beeper Cloud’ to more clearly differentiate them from Beeper Mini.<p>Side note: many people always ask ‘what do you think Apple is going to do about this?’ To be honest, I am shocked that everyone is so shocked by the sheer existence of a 3rd party iMessage client. The internet has always had 3rd party clients! It’s almost like people have forgotten that iChat (the app that iMessage grew out of) was itself a multi-protocol chat app! It supported AIM, Jabber and Google talk. Here’s a blast from the past: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/k6rmOgq.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://i.imgur.com/k6rmOgq.png</a>.
Show HN: Beeper Mini – iMessage client for Android
Hi HN! I’m proud to share that we have built a real 3rd party iMessage client for Android. We did it by reverse engineering the iMessage protocol and encryption system. It's available to download today (no waitlist): <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima</a> and there's a technical writeup here: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works">https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works</a>.<p>Unlike every other attempt to build an iMessage app for Android (including our first gen app), Beeper Mini does not use a Mac server relay in the cloud. The app connects directly to Apple servers to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages. Encryption keys never leave your device. No Apple ID is required. Beeper does not have access to your Apple account.<p>With Beeper Mini, your Android phone number is registered on iMessage. You show up as a ‘blue bubble’ when iPhone friends text you, and can join real iMessage group chats. All chat features like typing status, read receipts, full resolution images/video, emoji reactions, voice notes, editing/unsending, stickers etc are supported.<p>This is all unprecedented, so I imagine you may have a lot of questions. We’ve written a detailed technical blog post about how Beeper Mini works: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works">https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works</a>. A team member has published an open source Python iMessage protocol PoC on Github: <a href="https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush">https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush</a>. You can try it yourself on any Mac/Windows/Linux computer and see how iMessage works. My cofounder and I are also here to answer questions in the comments.<p>Our long term vision is to build a universal chat app (<a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/were-building-the-best-chat-app-on">https://blog.beeper.com/p/were-building-the-best-chat-app-on</a>). Over the next few months, we will be adding support for SMS/RCS, WhatsApp, Signal and 12 other chat networks into Beeper Mini. At that point, we’ll drop the `Mini` postfix. We’re also rebuilding our Beeper Desktop and iOS apps to support our new ‘client-side bridge’ architecture that preserves full end-to-end encryption. We’re also renaming our first gen apps to ‘Beeper Cloud’ to more clearly differentiate them from Beeper Mini.<p>Side note: many people always ask ‘what do you think Apple is going to do about this?’ To be honest, I am shocked that everyone is so shocked by the sheer existence of a 3rd party iMessage client. The internet has always had 3rd party clients! It’s almost like people have forgotten that iChat (the app that iMessage grew out of) was itself a multi-protocol chat app! It supported AIM, Jabber and Google talk. Here’s a blast from the past: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/k6rmOgq.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://i.imgur.com/k6rmOgq.png</a>.
A study of Google's code review tooling (Critique)
Django 5.0
A decade of Have I Been Pwned
A decade of Have I Been Pwned
Switch off bad TV settings
Switch off bad TV settings
Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta
Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?
I'm curious to see what projects members of this community have worked on that contributed to them getting a job.<p>What's the project?<p>How did it help you land a job? Did the project itself get you the job or did it help in the interview process? Was the project work related to the job at all?<p>Edit: Ya'll hirin'?
Harvard gutted team examining Facebook Files following $500M Zuckerberg donation
Show HN: Simulate 3D plants in the browser
The worst thing about Jenkins is that it works (2019)
OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman