BlueMail Creators to Apple: Let us back in to the Mac app store | Hacker News Reader

BlueMail Creators to Apple: Let us back in to the Mac app store

wired.com

28 pointsmistersquid14 comments

> He said the company doesn't want to distribute BlueMail over the internet and bypass the Mac App Store because Apple's MacOS software prevents downloads from "unidentified developers" unless a user tweaks their MacBook settings.

But all they need to do is notarize their software to get around that? Considering that they’re already distributing their app on the App Store, this would be less onerous.

This seems like an almost unreasonably charitable story. Their app was apparently kicked out of several app stores for sending mail service user credentials to their servers. It's entirely unsurprising the app was launched towards the raging thermonuclear heart of the sun. Now they hope to make up for this catastrophic mistake by... patent trolling? Perhaps I'm missing something here but it's very hard to sympathize with this lot.

Yup. Keep it out of the app store. I ran into BlueMail awhile back when assisting a non-profit. A number of the staff members were using it so I figured I'd take a look. It wasn't long before I found it was exposing email service authentication credentials in clear-text network communication and was sending those credentials to their own servers. I advised everyone to stop running it and banned the BlueMail agent from connecting to our mail service. I reported the vulnerabilities and never heard back. I never followed up because the app was subsequently removed, which I hope I played some small part.

I'd be really curious for anyone who's experienced at reading patents to take a look at their patent and figure out just how broad it is, because the idea of patenting "creating different fake emails for different services that all proxy to your real address" seems quite ridiculous. The reason other third-party signin providers don't do that isn't because it's a novel idea but because they have no incentive to do so (and typically do the opposite, sharing even more data about you with the service you're signing in to).

> Without a presence on the Mac App Store, we cannot continue forever,"

I'm interested in how prevalent the MAS actually is to most people. Everyone I know with a Mac barely opens it and downloads most of their software (generally enterprise file sync software and game stores eg. Steam) via the internet anyways, or just uses almost exclusively websites since a lot of software isn't made for Mac.

I basically installed my new macbook pro, yesterday. besdes two apps I downloaded pkg/dmg files from websites. well most of these apps have their own update infrastructure and would not work when published through mas. like vmware fusion. also Chrome/Firefox have their own auto update. funny enough the only two apps that came from MAS where from microsoft (RDP and OneDrive).

How was a patent granted for throwaway email address creation? We wrote scripts to generate them back in 90s to get signup bonuses at e-commerce sites.

Spamgourmet has been around since at least 1999.

The patent office grants obviously invalid patents constantly, unfortunately.

I wish these guys' app gets back into the Store (although given it's the Mac App Store why not just distribute it directly?) but I don't like how they want to patent & litigate over the simple concept of a proxy server for e-mails that substitutes real addresses for aliases.

> The pair are suing Apple for patent infringement, but they’ve also just published an open letter to Tim Cook, asking the Apple CEO to restore BlueMail to the Mac App Store—despite the ongoing litigation—so they don’t lose their business.

Well this takes the meaning of despicable into new heights, given how any allegation towards this tech giant can lead you to being financially suffocated if you exclusively depend on their platform.

It is beyond pointless to sue Apple for copying you and they know that BlueMail depends on them on the App Store and also know that they will be embarrassingly reduced to begging them (Apple) to go back on the App Store to survive.

> Without a presence on the Mac App Store, we cannot continue forever,"

As far as Mac Developers are concerned, they can distribute without the Mac App Store, if they don't use in-app purchases. But for Mac/iOS-only app companies who use In-App Purchases however have to ultimately sign an unavoidable deal with the devil and your better hope that he doesn't take your idea soon!

"Dan and Ben Volach told WIRED their company doesn't have the resources to pursue the lawsuit if their MacOS app isn't back on the App Store, considering the litigation can take time. It doesn't help that Apple's legal team has allegedly asked for an extension to prepare its defense."

Hmmmm....sounds like this was the intended result....so not sure how writing a nice letter to Apple would help.

> not sure how writing a nice letter to Apple would help.

Tim might say yes. It certainly can't hurt to ask.

He says yes to China and Russia, so why not?

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