7 ms·

iMessage is reliable, ‘free’ and encrypted. Beeper mini is unreliable, paid, and encrypted. I wouldn’t recommend it anymore to my Android friends.

by graphe 3y ago

unshavedyak 3y ago
Is it free? I have it bundled as part of my hardware purchases. Is there somewhere to get it without paying?
- bear141 3y ago
  The quotations would indicate that he is using “free” facetiously.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  They put free in quotes because it is bundled in, I’m pretty sure. It is, from a user point of view, free if you are already buying an iPhone anyway. I have no idea how to compute the actual price. It really isn’t any better than SMS anyway, so I put the value at $0.
  - wharvle 3y ago
    > It really isn’t any better than SMS anyway, so I put the value at $0. Depends on what you do with it. You can send much higher-quality photos and videos over iMessage than SMS/MMS. You can also do things like play games (chess, for example) entirely inside iMessage. If you're just sending short messages of plain text, yeah, it's not much of an improvement.
- MissTake 3y ago
  It’s free. The fact it’s only available on Apple devices doesn’t change that fact. You can only get Apple Fitness on Apple devices, but you also have to pay for it.
  - unshavedyak 3y ago
    Seems a silly distinction. So you're saying Beeper could make paper clips, sell them to you for $2/m, and then give you Beeper Mini for free and you'd consider it free? Imo the only thing that should be done here is only valid Apple IDs should be able to use this service. Then paying customers are the ones using it. Problem solved, right?
    - wokwokwok 3y ago
      Come on, you can make arbitrary analogies until the end of time but it doesn’t change the facts: 1) you have a device 2) you have software If you buy the software, it is paid. If you do not buy the software, its free. If the software is not available for your device that does make it not free; you just have an incompatible device. Any other take on this is subscribing to some bias. Paper clips, are not relevant. There is a distinction, to be fair, between “free open source software” which is free and you can take it and port it to your device if you want. …but no one is claiming iMessage is FOSS, and when someone says it is “free”, that is not what they mean.
      - sterlind 3y ago
        Is Windows free because it comes pre-installed on your laptop when you buy it?
        MissTake 3y ago
        No. Windows is not free - the manufacturer prepays for the license and it’s built in to your hardware purchase price. Look up “windows oem” using your favorite search engine.
        sterlind 3y ago
        Right, I know Windows isn't free. My point is, it's the same situation with OS X, and with iMessage. Just because OS X is made by the hardwae developers doesn't change it. Windows still isn't free on Surface laptops, believe me that the OS team gets a cut of hardware sales. Maybe it seems confusing because OS X isn't sold as a standalone product, but consider how Apple cracks down on Hackintoshes. They definitely consider it stealing.
- lancesells 3y ago
  It is free even without purchase. I could give someone an old iPhone and they can use it without issue.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    Even if old iPhones were free: There’s still a significant issue for people not wanting to carry two phones.
  - Tommstein 3y ago
    "Cars/TVs/insert-other-thing-here are free, because I could just give an old one to someone!" That ain't how it works bro . . . .
    - frumper 3y ago
      One would say you can watch stations for free over the air even though you have to buy a TV.
      - lxgr 3y ago
        A better comparison would be a free over the air station that only works on a particular brand of TV.
        claytongulick 3y ago
        Or XM Radio "free" stations that you can only listen to if you have XM radio subscription and hardware.
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  Is Linux free? I have a computer that won't run it.
  - stavros 3y ago
    What kind of computer is this that Linux doesn't run on, and can't you just make Linux run on it?
hayleox 3y ago
Read the post; they've made it free now. They said they'll consider charging again if/when things stabilize.
- graphe 3y ago
  They said they made ‘beeper’ free, not ‘beeper mini’ free. Unless they combined them since the last post. But maybe they should say beeper mini is free.

iMessage is reliable, ‘free’ and encrypted. Beeper mini is unreliable, paid, and encrypted. I wouldn’t recommend it anymore to my Android friends.

by graphe 3y ago

iMessage is reliable, ‘free’ and encrypted. Beeper mini is unreliable, paid, and encrypted. I wouldn’t recommend it anymore to my Android friends.

unshavedyak 3y ago

Is it free? I have it bundled as part of my hardware purchases. Is there somewhere to get it without paying?

bear141 3y ago
The quotations would indicate that he is using “free” facetiously.
bee_rider 3y ago
They put free in quotes because it is bundled in, I’m pretty sure. It is, from a user point of view, free if you are already buying an iPhone anyway. I have no idea how to compute the actual price. It really isn’t any better than SMS anyway, so I put the value at $0.
- wharvle 3y ago
  > It really isn’t any better than SMS anyway, so I put the value at $0. Depends on what you do with it. You can send much higher-quality photos and videos over iMessage than SMS/MMS. You can also do things like play games (chess, for example) entirely inside iMessage. If you're just sending short messages of plain text, yeah, it's not much of an improvement.
MissTake 3y ago
It’s free. The fact it’s only available on Apple devices doesn’t change that fact. You can only get Apple Fitness on Apple devices, but you also have to pay for it.
- unshavedyak 3y ago
  Seems a silly distinction. So you're saying Beeper could make paper clips, sell them to you for $2/m, and then give you Beeper Mini for free and you'd consider it free? Imo the only thing that should be done here is only valid Apple IDs should be able to use this service. Then paying customers are the ones using it. Problem solved, right?
  - wokwokwok 3y ago
    Come on, you can make arbitrary analogies until the end of time but it doesn’t change the facts: 1) you have a device 2) you have software If you buy the software, it is paid. If you do not buy the software, its free. If the software is not available for your device that does make it not free; you just have an incompatible device. Any other take on this is subscribing to some bias. Paper clips, are not relevant. There is a distinction, to be fair, between “free open source software” which is free and you can take it and port it to your device if you want. …but no one is claiming iMessage is FOSS, and when someone says it is “free”, that is not what they mean.
    - sterlind 3y ago
      Is Windows free because it comes pre-installed on your laptop when you buy it?
      - MissTake 3y ago
        No. Windows is not free - the manufacturer prepays for the license and it’s built in to your hardware purchase price. Look up “windows oem” using your favorite search engine.
        sterlind 3y ago
        Right, I know Windows isn't free. My point is, it's the same situation with OS X, and with iMessage. Just because OS X is made by the hardwae developers doesn't change it. Windows still isn't free on Surface laptops, believe me that the OS team gets a cut of hardware sales. Maybe it seems confusing because OS X isn't sold as a standalone product, but consider how Apple cracks down on Hackintoshes. They definitely consider it stealing.
lancesells 3y ago
It is free even without purchase. I could give someone an old iPhone and they can use it without issue.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Even if old iPhones were free: There’s still a significant issue for people not wanting to carry two phones.
- Tommstein 3y ago
  "Cars/TVs/insert-other-thing-here are free, because I could just give an old one to someone!" That ain't how it works bro . . . .
  - frumper 3y ago
    One would say you can watch stations for free over the air even though you have to buy a TV.
    - lxgr 3y ago
      A better comparison would be a free over the air station that only works on a particular brand of TV.
      - claytongulick 3y ago
        Or XM Radio "free" stations that you can only listen to if you have XM radio subscription and hardware.
rootusrootus 3y ago
Is Linux free? I have a computer that won't run it.
- stavros 3y ago
  What kind of computer is this that Linux doesn't run on, and can't you just make Linux run on it?

hayleox 3y ago

Read the post; they've made it free now. They said they'll consider charging again if/when things stabilize.

graphe 3y ago
They said they made ‘beeper’ free, not ‘beeper mini’ free. Unless they combined them since the last post. But maybe they should say beeper mini is free.