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376 points nkko | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.201s | 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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pixelmonkey ◴[] No.42480808[source]
That's a good point, well taken. Especially now that "X" is the name of a social media platform :-)
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marzell ◴[] No.42481026[source]
Long before the richest man on earth bought Twitter to be his personal megaphone to help him prepare to become president in order to boost all his personal endeavors, the letter X has been used as a sort of contraction to replace common morphemes like "cross", "trans" etc, in places where the physical representation "x" likens to a cross or crossing of some sort, or in reference to the Greek letter Chi. Must we change our use of language to support this guy, too?

Xtian Xmas xfer tx/rx xor...

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1. alehlopeh ◴[] No.42481692[source]
You pretty much listed all the examples where that’s done (x-ing is also a big one, on signs), but there are way more cases where no one would ever use the letter X like that. I think parsing that kind of “syntax sugar” takes more cycles than a lot of people care to spare just to understand what a stranger is saying online. It’s too loose to be commonly applicable. Things like “Xmas” are accepted on a case by case basis.

The argument wasn’t made out of principle, either. If it were more widespread, it would be worth the potential confusion. It’s just not. I agree with that.