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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

A lot of Apple's previous attempts at "web apps" have been pretty half-arsed. Including Apple Music currently. Let's see if this is any different.

I'm currently using Signal on Windows/Android/iOS and apart from two annoyances it is fine.

- No gif support on Windows (Android/iOS only)

- Cannot add a second phone but can add a tablet. As soon as it detects a SIM card slot (with or without SIM in it) it only allows you to set it up as the primary device, rather than a secondary like a tablet.

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>- Cannot add a second phone but can add a tablet. As soon as it detects a SIM card slot (with or without SIM in it) it only allows you to set it up as the primary device, rather than a secondary like a tablet.

This is so infuriating. I can have Signal with the same account on my phone, my macbook pro, and my windows desktop, but not my iPad Pro. It doesn't even have a SIM card in it. Just an empty slot.

Strange. I have an iPad Pro with 4G data and tablet mode works fine.

Weird... I've had two generations of iPads with cellular, and Signal has worked for me, in linked mode, on both devices (both with and without a SIM present).

Maybe this is a bug that only affects certain models or something?

Agreed - I got a second phone and can't have Signal on both. It's a weird and off-putting limit that had me rethinking my use of Signal in general. Now I'm using Matrix with a Signal bridge, so the second device is a Matrix client. It's frustrating that messaging is so fractured. I feel like there's no go-to service that avoids lock-in and respects privacy.

> Including Apple Music currently.

Oh god. The Apple Music web app is so incredibly bad. Hands out the worst web experience I've ever had. It flat out cannot do its function (play music) reliably at all. I’m so confused why they thought it was shippable - they should be embarrassed that this is something they released to paying customers. It’s terrible.

It made me switch to Spotify.

Identical experience. It was so buggy that clicking the play icon on a song would play a random other song in the same list. As well as being insanely slow. Switched to spotify and it has worked well.

You want half assed? FaceTime when it was announced by Steve Jobs, he himself up on stage said it would be open source. The developers in the front rows looked at each other and said, “did we say it would be open sourced?”

It’s still not open sourced to this day.

You want half assed?

Not Apple's fault. See other replies in this thread that it was killed by a patent troll.

Why would Apple be afraid of patent trolls? If they wanted to release it as an open-specification, they could.

Why do you think Apple is immune to patent lawsuits? They have frequently had to settle them.

It would obviously be useless if they released the spec for it but you couldn't use it to connect to existing FaceTime devices.

That's the problem. They cannot because one of the technologies they're using is covered by an existing patent that doesn't allow them to open it up. They would have to re-engineer how the whole system works to make it different enough to not be applicable to that patent.

To be clear, the patent in question is reaaaaaaally generic so there's really nothing they can do to get around it while still keeping a video-calling system that allows people to call with an Apple ID.

A very lame excuse.

Apple is already on the hook for about a billion dollars to VirnetX. That's not a lame excuse at all.

VirnetX Market cap: 356.004M

Apple could offer every shareholder ten times the market value and end the problem.

What makes you think they would sell when it is more profitable to milk their patents?

It is.

You are correct that the idea to make it open source was a spur of the moment that took the developers by surprise. But the reason why it never happens can be spelled VirnetX

> VirnetX has been described as being a patent troll, accused of marketing no actual products or services and instead earning its revenue through licensing patents

I'm so glad we have the patent system around to promote innovation and protect creators!

TBF he said it would be an open protocol, not open-source. That being said, obviously Apple still never followed through...

Apparently it's some variant of SIP. I'm surprised that it's been a decade and no one has RE'd it all and written an open-source client (or have they all been threatened by lawyers...?)

http://blog.krisk.org/2013/09/apples-new-facetime-sip-perspe...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1509717

> Steve Jobs, he himself up on stage said it would be open source

This seems to be the quote you are referring to:

“FaceTime video calling. Now, FaceTime is based on a lot of open standards — H.264 video, AAC audio, and a bunch of alphabet soup acronyms — and, we’re gonna take it all the way. We’re going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we’re gonna make FaceTime an open industry standard.”

Note Jobs promised open industry standard and not open source. They are not the same thing. But you are correct that we are still waiting for Jobs' promised open standard!

This CNET article also misconstrues "open industry standard" as "open source" and also blames VirnetX:

https://www.cnet.com/news/steve-jobs-promised-to-make-faceti...

> I'm currently using Signal on Windows/Android/iOS and apart from two annoyances it is fine.

A third one would be that they require a phone number?

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