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Apple Error Leaves iPhone Developers In the Lurch
canadacow writes "iPhone developers enrolled and active in the iPhone OS 2.0 beta program got a nasty surprise today when Apple inadvertently 'expired' the recently released version. While for a beta program this typically would not be an issue, Apple has yet to release a new deployment of the iPhone OS. So developers like myself who use their iPhone for both actual phone and iPod use are bricked. Of note, this particular expired build is just 11 days old."
They tried to call you and apologize but you didn't answer your phone.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Let's complain about BETA software!
This is the problem with being a beta tester of something which is seen as cool - you want to test it, and you want people to know and see that your testing it, hence when it goes wrong - you look like a bit silly.
"Man your iphone is cool"
"Yeah - I am a beta tester too!!"
"Wicked can I have a go"
"Sure"
"hey this thing is fcuked! - you suck"
They did it because 2.0 was already unlocked. I honestly expect them to end the beta program and release something quite different that's only been tested internally to prevent this same thing from happening. (it'll fail, but they'll try)
It is not a brick. It's a perfectly functional device with a software problem. That is not "bricked".
Couldn't they just re-release the exact same beta OS but fix the expiration date? They must know about this by now, and it doesn't seem like it'd even take that long. Maybe they are having a day off or something.
I know this will be the theme for the whole slashdot story, but I have to say that if MS did this, I think there'd be public burnings, see-I-told-you-so's, etc.
But, I guess that getting on the front page of slashdot is more important.
Username taken, please choose another one.
Consider the open source alternative, OpenMoko No worries about some sudden "change in corporate direction" screwing you over.
I am an apple fanboi, it's true...so you can stop reading now if you wish...
But I also used to develop for the Blackberry, and I bricked that thing three or four times in the first month just loading custom software onto it (bad USB chipset or something in my motherboard caused it to fail mid-transfer)....
Apple screwed up on this one, but I think those Devs learned a valuable lesson about handheld development...
-phil
have you been seen on slash?
Is anyone else getting tired of the sensationalist misuse of the term "bricked" around here?
Unless it's nigh unrecoverable, your hardware isn't bricked.
If there's anything more important than my ego around here, I want it caught and shot immediately.
"Bricked" is unrecoverable.
"Bricked" is permanent.
"Bricked" is having absolutely no way, ever, of interacting with the object in a manner that is inconsistent with interacting with a brick.
This, on the other hand, will be fixed by tomorrow.
But I hear that when Windows Vista CE comes out, it'll be like, way more secure. And it'll make your coffee in the morning!
Rumor has it that there's a linux distribution that's had those features for years, but so far only Linus Torvalds has been able to figure out how to install and use it so far.
Have I left anyone out yet? Oh yeah, BSD sucks.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Yes it is, but some still refuse to admit it, it seems.
Beta testers were notified by e-mail of the software expiration that night. A new copy was available immediately from the AppleSeed site.
My phone is fine and probably a lot of other beta testers who have a clue have a working phone as well.
Maybe people who beta test software should have a good understanding that it is a BETA test and Apple highly recommended that the BETA software not be installed on personal or business-related phones that need to have 100% accessibility and reliability.
How many beta testers in this program understand how to use a web browser to go grab the new release? If you're gonna be a n00b about it, don't sign up to be a tester.
"Is anyone else getting tired of the sensationalist misuse of the term "bricked" around here?"
Yes, and not because I think there's a "right" and "wrong" term. It's just that I have no idea what they're talking about anymore when they say "bricked".
I've bricked stuff before. When that happens, you throw it in the trash. If we want to use "bricked" to mean "I have to restore from backup", then somebody come up with another term for "permanently inoperable".
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Now you know what Radio operators feels like when we geeks talk about "bandwidth". Perhaps it's karma ;)
And this is why you don't use Beta software in a production environment.
"Bricked" is permanent. ... This, on the other hand, will be fixed by tomorrow.
So it's a werebrick.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Not that I suspect there was any question about the matter, but Apple is in control of your destiny not only as an iPhone developer, but also as an iPhone user.
The expectations of developers are being shifted from the norm by actions such as these... Apple has effectively halted or paused development for the iPhone.
The expectations of end users haven't been completely altered yet, but there's strong potential for that sort of thing to happen at Apple's whim... and it's probably already in the EULA that Apple can and probably will enable, disable and remove features at their leisure with or without the end users' consent. Some of the initial shocks have already been felt, though, where battery replacement isn't a simple matter and is instead a costly and inconvenient one. Other examples are that a user can't save attachments like pictures into the phone and cannot do even the simple things like copy and paste.
I expect to see more things coming down, but what I cannot predict is end user response. Apple devices seem to cause reactions among their users not unlike a drug that yields a minor high combined with caffeine and nicotine. I am often surprised or awed at how much nonsense today's consumers will accept and the limits are constantly being pushed to new extremes. But generally speaking, Apple users both old and new routinely accept abuses that PC users wouldn't tolerate from a vendor... so I expect there to be a lot more user abuse without backlash.
I don't get it - My "friend's" iphone expired at midnight but guess what, there was an email from the Apple beta program in my "friend's" email telling my "friend" to update their iPhone. Update, start using the phone again.
This is just a sensationalist article using the Dvorak Method (TM) to get more hits.
How else are you supposed to test something thoroughly than to use it as your primary device?
I can understand perfectly why devs would use the iPhone as their primary. It's hard to catch the bugs unless you're regularly testing your software in a real-life environment... or do you really want the bugs (usability or functionality) to show up when the customers start using the tool in a real-life way.
Oh, and that probably affected more users than the iphone beta expiration.
does anyone else also feel that companies should not be legally able to remotely alter or even disable a product once you have fully paid for it, without your express agreement each time?
There are a few things wrong.
1. Apple specifically told you not to use it on a iPhone. You decided it didn't belong in the SDK emulator, unlocked it, and put on your iPhone. The fact that this didn't work out well for you is your problem.
2. You can put the proper firmware for a phone, and not the one designed for development, on your iPhone at any time using iTunes.
3. A new firmware is available. The SDK program specifically states that if you don't download the newest SDK from time to time, you will have the old one stop functioning.
Burn Hollywood Burn
Suck it the fuck up, and use the emulator till there's a working firmware release.
People buy shirts for $400. People buy purses for $2000. It's a fashion statement. It's to the taste of those people who buy it, and if it makes them happy, good for them.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
It's become /.'s version of "series of tubes", and perhaps should be tagged with that or 'tedstevens'. No /. editor should ever misuse it, or let it be misused as a story lead.
canadacow claiming to be a developer yet misusing the term should have led to an instant deletion from the story queque.
Folks, don't tell him the phone isn't bricked, it just encourages him. Instead of going to a forum and asking "hey, what happened to my iPhone with this devkit installed?" he comes to Slashdot and hyperventilates about a bricked phone. And whaddya know, several people already gave him a solution (rollback firmware through iTunes - hey, great idea!) I propose we no longer act as Apple Technical Support for the Un-Bricked.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
For most of us the new 5A240d software wasn't a problem.
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
People bother with the iPhone because it's sleek-looking, it has a great, very usable interface, and it doubles as an iPod.
This whole thing can be fixed with ziphone. I was able to restore my phone back to 1.1.4 in less than a minute. simply downgrade you bootloader and you're golden.
Beyond its inherent features, people (like me) bother with the iPhone because of their experiences with other phones, which have opaque manuals that attempt to explain how the phone would actually work had the carrier not installed their custom OS on it and disabled the useful features to force you into their pay-per-use services. Oh, and some people (like me) were already with the carrier in question.
I hope that cleared that up for you.
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
How can we blame this on Microsoft?
Take off every 'sig' for great justice.
So it's a fashion statement for people who hang out in the middle of nowhere, where they only get GSM? Or is it a fashion statement for people from ten years ago, before modern mobile phones were invented?
My current phone doesn't have 3G either. I'm no longer under contract, but I have service through AT&T anyway, and I have no particular desire to switch. I haven't heard of Apple "just shutting them off" - this particular incident seems to involve a beta version of the new firmware that is only available to registered developers, comes with lots of warnings about how unstable it might be, and can't even be installed on an iPhone unless you hack it first.
There are several things that I need my phone to do, that the iPhone doesn't do. But the things the iPhone does do, DAMN. The user interface on my current phone is horribly counter-intuitive (for example, if I want to view the calendar, it's under Settings). Some features, like e-mail, work so poorly that I usually don't bother. The iPhone is actually usable - everything it claims to do actually works, and works well enough that you can use it.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
A "man-brick"?
Or do you mean yet another clueless submitter crying to
Just put up on the iPhone dev site, go get it.
"Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers..."
I've never understood why people, dev's especially, made fun of Ballmer for that. It would be nice if other companies had the same dogma...*ahem* apple.
Part of the shock that some people are feeling comes from the fact that 'beta' doesn't carry the same weight it used to. While others have jumped on the bandwagon, Google has been the big one for devaluing the term. Beta is supposed to mean a potentially unstable build released for testing and feedback purposes. It is labelled beta precisely because it might have some show stopping bugs lurking inside.
However, many people are now used to Google's beta software, which means a functional, polished release that happens to be missing some of the blue sky features that are planned. Oh, and it might get a UI redesign at some point.
The two uses are very different and anyone expecting one should be quite shocked to find the other.
I would like to see one of these posts where they mention their $800 phone. Of course you don't have a link do you? I wonder if you come across like such a jerk in person as well.
The iPhone is actually usable
It doesn't have 3G. It's not usable, unless you're living in 1998.
Apple doesn't do development, doesn't get development and doesn't support developers. There has been ample evidence for that for some time now, and yet, we still get some braindead twonks telling us we all should have read the EULA! Unbelievable. How much would it cost Apple to fix this for the people who are developing software so Apple can sell more iPhones? Errrrrr...............
...and go download the new version: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
Nice, I say Apple is fallible and I get modded flamebait. I've lost all faith in the Slashdot Moderation system.
People with cell phones have friends, and even people "in the middle of nowhere" in America see a lot of people every day. Even if there were no one else around, fashion-based decisions are about overcoming personal insecurities, and maybe seeing the iPhone every morning makes the user feel important or special in some way.
Yes, it's a hole down which you can throw money, but so are a lot of other things, and this hole has as good a chance as any of giving a placebonic sense of fulfillment.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I was looking into the iPhone SDK and found that you cannot install any applications without a $99 certificate which they refuse to issue to companies outside of the US.
Also, the SDK is really in beta with no OpenGL ES support on the emulator yet.
Maybe it's better to wait?
No.
I downmodded you simply because I tend to downmod anyone who uses the word "fanboy", no matter against whom the label is applied. It's a cheap rhetorical device used by people who have next to nothing intelligent to say, and I have grown extremely weary of it.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that the new SDK is available, which should rescue any iPhones or iPod Touches from the Pink Screen of Death.
It's surprising to see Apple drop the ball like this. You should probably post a new SDK before the old ones expire and prevent developers from working. This is an amateur mistake.
How else are you supposed to test something thoroughly than to use it as your primary device?
You buy a second device? That's what I'm going to do, whenever I finally get the cert...
Then I'll carry two phones to test. Or, a touch and an iPhone depending. I mean, how else are you going to have a stable platform for calls and other mobile uses wile also performing tests on your development mobile?
I can understand perfectly why devs would use the iPhone as their primary. It's hard to catch the bugs unless you're regularly testing your software in a real-life environment...
You have a great understanding of why you test software on an actual device. You have a lousy understanding of reasons why despite explicit warnings from Apple that your phone may face varying degrees of status from "buggy" to "not working at all" a person who needed the phone to work every second would not buy a second phone (or Touch) to test with.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple users aren't (necessarily) stupid. They just have completely different expectations. When Mac people buy something they expect it to make them cool. Any other functionality is just icing on the cake.
Knee-jerk Apple critics (KJACs) aren't necessarily stupid. They just have completely different expectations. When they make up stories about "Mac people," they expect them to either not be present, or to respond in a manner that would make an inert gas envious to wild speculation about why they purchase and use products KJACs exhibit chronic misunderstandings about.
Tweet, tweet.
If it was 'bricked' it would never be able to be a phone or an ipod again.
It's just temporarily not working.
Huge difference.
Android has the backing of Google.
Who's backing OpenMoko? Or Qtopia?
Which one are we more likely to actually get a usable version of, anytime soon?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
So it's a werebrick.
A "man-brick"?
Yes! (For sufficiently smartphone-like values of "man".)
Time to consult the shade of Alan Turing...
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No thanks, Apple. iDON'T.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
"It's not Apple I have a problem with, it's the smug users" is a favorite quote of mine. I can't stand Apple users because they think they are better then everybody else and refuse to believe their "god" can be fallible. I was pointing out Apple's fallibility. It needs to be said because some people don't get it.
It's a feature!
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
I suppose it's possible that you are the arbiter of usability, but I'm going to go ahead and suspect that's not the case at all.
(with apologies to Dr. Evil)
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Yes Beta 2 exppired today but Beta 3 was also released today. There was a gap of a few hours. This software is for DEVELOPERS and has not effect on end users.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
er, does "fanboi" count? Do you still have mod points?
As an iPhone developer, and not an Apple beta/seed tester, I was not notified by Apple until 6 PM today that the new firmware was up. The AppleSeed site is not generally available to iPhone developers--we go through a different website. The updated firmware only appeared on the iPhone developer center at about 4 PM today. There were no notices or anything on the website this morning. I'm assuming others had the same experience. It was not at all obvious that the failure was due to expiration, especially since at that time there was nothing new on the developer site, and it was supposed to be a longer expiration period.
Obviously in an ideal world Apple should have released the new version *before* the expiration instead of 8 hours after, but the fact that they didn't bother to tell us is what is very irksome, so likely many people like me wasted time trying to debug the problem this morning. Lame. It would have taken someone at Apple five minutes just to post a notice to the iPod developer site saying what was going on. It's also ridiculous that there are still no developer newsgroups (as far as I know) for iPhone development. Every console maker has private newsgroups (where everyone who has access is under NDA, so you can talk about the tech), and that is always a great resource, and you can avoid making the same mistakes that others did.
Apple has just posted a new beta (beta 3)
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
And that's a fine philosophy. Unfortunately, this particular incident isn't an example of it. Hence the down modding. Although I suppose off topic might have been better.
In case you're not getting why: some devs were using their main piece of hardware as a dev platform with beta software. It had problems (that were 100% reversible with very little effort - i.e. connect to iTunes and switch back to the release firmware) and that blew up into "bricked" and other false claims.
Unfortunately, around here there's also a problem with trying to correct people's FUD resulting in being called a "fanboi", etc.
Cue being called a "fanboi" in 3, 2, 1...
Then don't buy one. There are plenty of other alternatives. Why do people bother wasting time posting messages about something they don't want?
I'm curious - given the feedback generated on this article - what, exactly, is canadacow developing?
Or is canadacow just another kid who, like one of my cow-orkers, likes the beta versions so much they lie cheat and steal to get the bug-ware versions of apps for bragging/crashing rights.
This can't speak well for whatever is being developed...
http://Communityville.com - A free place for new and old neighborhood webmasters to hang out.
because of the angst that just about oozes out of the screen when anything negative about apple is posted.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
It must be great to be Apple.
/.ers regularly point at the world isn't on top of this one. What has happened to you guys? Where's the slashdot of yesteryear?
Look at the posters in this thread. You know you're on top when you can get Slashdotters defending your bad software release that breaks developer's phones. ESPECIALLY considering that the SDK that broke it is based on a completely closed software distribution model, all DRMed to hell! Steam. Comes. Out. Of. Ears.
I find it kind of disheartening that the laser-beam cynicism that
Soviet Russia? Bizzaro-Slashdot? This is it.
On the bright side, it never tells the wrong time, and I receive absolutely no SPAM.
-- thinkyhead software and media
"you can still use it" -- key phrase!
How about -5, Too Lazy To RTFA. Or -5, Troll.
What a fucking dumbass - and you too, dumbasses, who modded this dumbass up.
I'm afraid Google uses the term beta correctly - they just have higher standards than Apple.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
That's easy. If Microsoft had made a decent smart phone OS in the first place, the market opportunity for iPhone never would have existed, and this br1kd00d wouldn't be here spawning this absurd discussion.
Give me a tougher one.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I propose we setup a slashdot iPhone 'recycling' program for all the 'bricked' iPhones. Just send them to a 'processing center' (my house) and we will make sure they are properly 'disposed'.
;) nudge nudge
Anyone else want to help me out to make sure these toxic devices don't end up in the landfill?
;)
It's relative. What's bricked for one person might be JTAG-able or TFTP-able for another. Hence the term 'unbricking' (Results 1 - 10 of about 55,800 for unbricking. (0.17 seconds) ).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Didn't they just fix this? There is a post on Products on this (also a cool post on the rumored iPhone 3g chip from infineon).
And the "issue" was solved later in the day that it was posted. Oh, God, the agony! How arrogant and abusive Apple is!
What's bugging me even more than the misuse of the term 'bricked' is the people using unlock and jailbreak synonymously. These aren't the same thing, folks.
Unlocked refers to the gsm restrictions limiting your phone to one cell network (cingular/at&t) and 'unlocking' the restrictions to allow the phone to work with other gsm networks (t mobile, for example).
Jailbreaking simply refers to lifting the software restrictions, to allow 3rd party software to be installed. You can still have a phone locked to cingular that has been jailbroken.