Hacker News Reader

If you're a Linux user, "KDE Connect" is actually by far the best desktop interface for texting and more. It's changed how my phone and my laptop interact and I think might be my favorite open source project. You can use your laptop as a keyboard, reply to messages from any app that sends a notification, and so much more. The file sending functionality is also far better (and faster) than anything else I've used. It's everything open source software should be.

A bit late but I had completely forgotten about KDE Connect. Back when I last tried it, it did not filter out spam messages (though maybe Google Messages' spam filtering operates on its own layer and thus spam classifications are not reflected back in the OS SMS store, making it impossible for KDE Connect to know about them). Regardless, I get much less SMS spam these days, so maybe that'll be a viable option once more.

I broke down and bought a prepaid SIM and a small dumb phone which I use solely for 2FA. Its about the size as old-school 2FA systems like crypto cards. My original motivation in getting it was my wife was always taking my real phone to get security codes for some shared accounts (on sites that don't have an option for linked accounts). But I also like that it provides small OPSEC improvements over using my real telephone number.

That's a great idea for a shared 2FA device

> For the second SIM option, that requires a dual-SIM device

Or a device that supports an eSIM, which is every iPhone since 2018, for starters.

The eSIM is going to be more expensive than a regular SIM since no MVNO I'm aware of in the US supports eSIMs

Almost all of them do now, since iPhones don't have SIM card slots in the US anymore.

Thanks. Apparently my info was out-of-date; I last checked in early 2022.

I'm also not aware of any but that's less about whether they're actually available and almost entirely because like 7.6 billion other people, I don't live in the US.

Considering how we were talking about how dual-SIM phones are niche in the US, I think my comment was rather relevant.

Dual-sim phones aren't just a niche in the US either.

But regardless: using your existing 5 year old iPhone with an eSIM that isn't "cheap" is still going to be cheaper than buying a new dual-sim phone.

I use Visible and Mint via eSIM

Mint.

I guess dual SIM is different from having eSIM+physical SIM. Dual SIM typically allows both SIMs/phone-numbers to be active and when you receive a call, you will know which number is being called. With eSIM+physical SIM card, only one can be active at a time. The other has to be disabled. At least, this is what I found few years back.

Nope, eSIM plus physical SIM in an iPhone or in a Pixel or any other phone work just like 2 physical SIMs. It's been supported in mainstream Android for a few years now. Previously it was supported only on devices with 2 slots and each vendor had their flavor in Android.

I know that iPhones with SIM+eSIM can have both active at the same time, and iPhones with just eSIM can have two eSIMs active.

Yeah I found this out the hard way when travelling recently. There are some great apps that let you buy cheap data-only eSIMs in dozens of countries. You can even buy an eSIM before you travel. It’s crazy convenient and much cheaper than roaming fees.

My girlfriend could keep her home phone line enabled while using the eSIM but I couldn’t, even though we have the same model of phone! Turns out her home line uses a physical sim, but mine is set up using an eSIM and the iPhone 12 can only have 1 eSIM enabled at a time. You can do 1 physical + 1 eSIM, but not 2 esims.

I couldn’t get texts or calls from home without noodling with my phone settings each time. And FaceTime kept enrolling and unenrolling my number.

I’m currently traveling internationally with an iPhone 12 and I can confirm the single eSIM + single physical SIM limitation. Although, in my case, I'm using a physical international SIM and a US eSIM.

I would love to turn off my US eSIM when not in use (I think it uses more power connected to two cellular networks) but that would require unenrolling my US iMessage number and I can’t do that. Definitely the most annoying part of the whole thing.

I considered using a spare iPhone to host a physical SIM with my US number because that would allow the number to stay bonded with my Apple ID and potentially forward SMS over iCloud, but I decided not to because in my experience the SMS part is too flaky to be relied on.

> but that would require unenrolling my US iMessage number

It nags you but you don't have to agree to remove the number. I routinely replace my SIM card when traveling outside the EU and my iMessage number still works for green-bubble people. I ignore/refuse the phone's occasional suggestions to "update" the number.

> iPhone 12 can only have 1 eSIM enabled at a time. You can do 1 physical + 1 eSIM, but not 2 esims.

IIRC this is a limitation that only applies to iPhone <=12.

I am pretty sure that newer iPhone models all support dual-active eSIM, irrespective of whether or not you have a physical SIM slot model or not.

Good news, with the elimination of the SIM card slot, they fixed this bug and you can have two eSIMs active with no chance of ever getting a physical travel sim to work! /s

Bleh physical sim swapping when travelling is such a pain. I used travel data only esims all through the US, Europe and Egypt. All set up through a single app. I didn’t need to talk to dodgy airport phone shop people a single time in 3 months on the road - which, iPhone limitations aside, I consider a massive win.

(I used the Airalo app. No association. It worked great.)

For the five minutes it takes to get a physical SIM card, I'll take the much cheaper and typically faster service I get with local carriers vs eSIM MVNOs.

eBay doesn't block Google voice numbers. The only site which seems to is Discord in my experience.

Personally I prefer to use a non-obvious dedicated email per account e.g. ebpnw@mydomain.com, so the attacker has to guess the email as well.

> Personally I prefer to use a non-obvious dedicated email per account e.g. ebpnw@mydomain.com, so the attacker has to guess the email as well.

Should I stop doing my obvious, ie hackernews@mydomain.com, account emails?

If you want to increase your security, generate a random string for the "account" name.

If you are using a password manager, then this shouldn't be too difficult.

It can be a hassle when registering for something in person, though.

Bitwarden has a setting for doing exactly this. Create a random email and a random password on the fly during a new service signup

Also possible to create 2-3 fake Personas in app (Name, DOB, address,…) to scatter your online footprint. Fills forms with the right one at button push.

Google voice numbers can be detected, even you have one ported from say AT&T. Twillio's API marks it as Google Voice.

And for dual SIM phones:

> An iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR,

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

That's 6 generations of iPhone that have dual SIM, in which there is at least 1 eSIM.

Windows phone link is pretty nice for sending and receiving texts through your phone on a desktop.