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378 points nkko | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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pixelmonkey ◴[] No.42480134[source]
This looks great. If this Python implementation of the FindMy API actually works, it would be a major technology quality-of-life improvement for me. I hope Apple lets it stay alive.

Everyone who shares location with me does so over Find My, and my family insists on using AirTags. As a 100% desktop Linux and mobile Android user, it is one of the few things that I always need to remote in to my Mac Mini to access because there are no x-platform FindMy apps and the FindMy iCloud web app does not have feature parity to the macOS and iOS apps. One of a long list of offenses where Apple refuses to make things easy for x-platform friend groups and families. Very annoying.

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BeefySwain ◴[] No.42480401[source]
What does "x-platform" mean in this context?
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pixelmonkey ◴[] No.42480469[source]
Cross-platform. There are 3 major desktop operating systems (Windows, Linux, and Mac) and 2 major mobile operating systems (iPhone and Android). Every single OS has a huge marketshare worldwide (including Linux, if you count servers).

A truly x-platform app is one that works well on all 5 of these platforms, e.g. Signal. A moderately x-platform app is one that works well on the two mobile operating systems and on web as an alternative to desktop, e.g. WhatsApp. A single-platform app, like Apple FindMy, only works properly on e.g. Mac + iPhone. Apple tends to be the only major industry player that produces these sorts of apps, e.g. iMessage, FaceTime, Final Cut Pro, Keynote. Although with Keynote you can often get by with the iCloud web version, which has a useful 80%-or-so of the desktop app's features. Even apps like Meet, Zoom, and Teams -- run by rival companies -- are more x-platform than major Apple apps.

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stavros ◴[] No.42480780[source]
I think the GP knows what cross-platform means, but is confused by using "X" as shorthand for "cross". In my opinion, it's not widespread enough for the four-letter saving to be worth the confusion.
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1. jpc0 ◴[] No.42481471[source]
I didn't directly interpret it a cross-platform but more as (x) platform... Asin variable x which is not Apple... Which is semantically the same I guess but not entirely.

Just to add to the different ways that that exact grouping of letters can be interpreted.

Maybe because I see an API as being able to be accessed from anywhere, so you could query it from a home automation device to trigger something when you are withing X meters of your house, which even if Apple truly released a cross-platform version of Find My that wouldn't be possible.