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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."
But, I guess that getting on the front page of slashdot is more important.
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Consider the open source alternative, OpenMoko No worries about some sudden "change in corporate direction" screwing you over.
"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.
It's only bricked if you cannot get it to work again without cracking it up and digging into some special programming connector or replacing some chips. That is, the device can serve no other purpose than to be a brick without highly technical intervention. The fact that you can update the software back to the non-expired non-beta version seems to be completely overlooked.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
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.
If you RTFA, you'll see that at least one person tried to buy a phone to use just for testing -- and no one had any to sell. So what do you do -- not do the stuff your $99 entitles you to do?
i am a soviet space shuttle
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.
Oh, and that probably affected more users than the iphone beta expiration.
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
His point was you don't put the beta firmware onto an iPhone you need for day to day use. You put it on an iPhone(s) reserved for development work knowing that it is a beta firmware and things could go wrong.
In general many developers don't even need to use an iPhone to test on given the simulator (granted some applications do need an iPhone to fully develop).
Corporations who do serious mobile phone development do not have their developers use personal phones for development and testing. They purchase separate phones for them.
Independent developers can order a separate line with a cheap phone and have their calls redirected. Then if their development platform breaks they still have a usable phone. It's the cost of being a beta tester.
Developers: We can use your help.
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.
There is no "official beta release" of the 2.0 firmware. There is a version of the pre-2.0 firmware that comes with the emulator in the SDK. In order to get that on your iPhone you need to unlock it, against Apple's say, then put it on your iPhone.
Burn Hollywood Burn
Just put up on the iPhone dev site, go get it.
...and go download the new version: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
Actually there is an Official 2.0 beta release of the iPhone software available for the iPhone (current build 5A240d), however you have to be a registered iPhone Developer to download it from iPhone Developer Portal. The software in the simulator is not the same Beta software which Apple makes available for the physical phone.
iTunes will choke at the end of the restore process if you try to 'restore' to 1.1.4 (the latest public version). When it chokes, it leaves your phone in restore mode, unusable.
It is however, not bricked.
The solution is relatively simple. You restore to 1.1.4 and let the process fail, which will leave you with an error 1015 at the end of the process.
At that point you use one of the jailbreak apps to put your phone back in normal mode, which will allow the old software to work with the new baseband. I found this out the hard way myself this morning, but after being rather upset, a little googling for the 'pink screen of death' pointed me at the solution which is:
- 1. Put the phone into restore mode by holding the power button and the home button down until the phone shuts down.
- 2. Release the power button and wait for it to boot into restore mode
- 3. Plug the phone in and iTunes will tell you it needs to be restored, restore to the latest software iTunes will give you (1.1.4).
- 4. The restore will fail with Error 1015. The software was however restored, just not the baseband, and iTunes leaves the phone in DFU mode wanting to restore completely.
- 5. Use one of the jailbreak apps to set your phone back to normal. I used ZiPhone, worked fine first try.
- 6. Restart iTunes and restore your backup.
Working phone, new baseband, but it works all the same. Am I pissed off? YES. The first thing I thought was that it expired (which Apple warns you about during the development setup process on several occasions), so I went and checked for new firmware to find that I was indeed using the latest build. Since this is my primary phone its partially my fault, but Apple certainly screwed the pooch by letting this happen when they put in such anal measures to make sure people update the software.If it wasn't for the fact that my company wants to port one of our products to the iPhone, at this point I would be done with iPhone development due to this mistake, there is no excuse for a company the size of Apple allowing this to happen.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
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.
It's not "bricked".
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
1. XB360 with XNA Creator's Club membership (it would be PS3 running Linux, but that doesn't support gamepads).
2. GP32 / GP2X
3. Unlocked HTC Tytn II
-]Phreak Out[-
Well, jeez, how long did it last? Four or five hours before the new version of iPhone 2.0 became available? My God! The humanity!
No, it's not illegal. But unlocking involves using a hack to get root. That's called a bug. If Apple left it, people would be justifiedly angry. When they fix it, it will break the unlocking hack. There's a simple way out of it: refuse the updates from iTunes. No problems then.
There are very useful things called haxies on the Mac, but every other new version of the OS breaks them, because it involves putting in an interrupt that Apple warned would break often. Then you wait a few days, and the company brings out a new version. The horror!
Tag this story "idonotthinkthatmeanswhatyouthinkitmeans".
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