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Big fan of Jane's overall approach. Since the profile focuses on the leaks themselves, here's something the HN crowd might find especially cool - disclosures f

Big fan of Jane's overall approach. Since the profile focuses on the leaks themselves, here's something the HN crowd might find especially cool - disclosures for the reverse engineering methods behind many of the leaks: https://wongmjane.com/ https://wongmjane.com/ Jane, since you're on: I'm curious how you feel about the red-team/blue-team dynamics of what you're doing. If companies get better at hiding tests and under-development features, is that a Good Thing? Or, does reverse engineering demonstrate that they should be more transparent about dev in the first place? Or, is the frontier of reverse-engineering / hiding stuff itself something productive?

wongmjane 8y ago
As a user, I am curious and excited to know the future of the apps I use. Reverse engineering allows catching a glimpse of the future without having to wait for launch events or press releases. Often times, this kind of scoops could be beneficial to companies. Product teams at companies could look at public opinions and take that into the consideration of product decision. It functions similarly to "focus groups" or "soft launch", except it's free. According to my profile on CNN, a Twitter spokesperson mentioned [0]: > the platform wants its users to be part of the process, and these types of discoveries help it learn That's not to say companies encourage users to reverse engineer their apps. However, if they make it completely impossible to find any unreleased features whatsoever, it will kill off this free channel of unofficially gathering public opinions (or hype) before launch. It is understandable there are competitors out there in reality. Getting better at hiding tests and under-development features could help preventing the competitors from knowing the company's upcoming strategies. To hide or to not hide, they both have pros and cons. It really comes down to how companies balance their priorities. If their priority is to hide everything until launch, even if it means getting rid of the free QA and focus groups, go for it. I personally hope companies will choose the transparent route rather than being a sealed black box. I believe users deserve to know what is changed in the apps installed on their own phones. Being more specific than the vague "bug fixes and improvements" will provide a sense of assurance to users. [0]: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/tech/jane-wong-app-features/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/tech/jane-wong-app-features/i...

wongmjane 8y ago

As a user, I am curious and excited to know the future of the apps I use. Reverse engineering allows catching a glimpse of the future without having to wait for launch events or press releases. Often times, this kind of scoops could be beneficial to companies. Product teams at companies could look at public opinions and take that into the consideration of product decision. It functions similarly to "focus groups" or "soft launch", except it's free. According to my profile on CNN, a Twitter spokesperson mentioned [0]: > the platform wants its users to be part of the process, and these types of discoveries help it learn That's not to say companies encourage users to reverse engineer their apps. However, if they make it completely impossible to find any unreleased features whatsoever, it will kill off this free channel of unofficially gathering public opinions (or hype) before launch. It is understandable there are competitors out there in reality. Getting better at hiding tests and under-development features could help preventing the competitors from knowing the company's upcoming strategies. To hide or to not hide, they both have pros and cons. It really comes down to how companies balance their priorities. If their priority is to hide everything until launch, even if it means getting rid of the free QA and focus groups, go for it. I personally hope companies will choose the transparent route rather than being a sealed black box. I believe users deserve to know what is changed in the apps installed on their own phones. Being more specific than the vague "bug fixes and improvements" will provide a sense of assurance to users. [0]: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/tech/jane-wong-app-features/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/tech/jane-wong-app-features/i...