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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."
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Yes but who really expected the software to *expire*? It's not like it couldn't have just kept going if Apple weren't such control freaks.
Well sure, it's not good business. It was most certainly a mistake, and it's in Apple's best interest not to make many mistakes. But still they'll happen, they happen to everyone and every company. A developer working with beta software should be extra aware of the good chance they'll stumble upon some of these mistakes. This particular incident is a bit more unusual than your standard programming bugs, but I see nothing that suggests disrespect from Apple towards developers.
Your original post seemed to imply some sort of evil intent to Apple, as if they did this on purpose, trying to screw over their consumers. If that's not what you were trying to say, then I apologize for not correctly interpreting your words.
As for your hardware vendor line of thought, again I think it's not an issue of malice or even disrespect towards their customers, but rather Apple just choosing different priorities for their platform than what others have done. If those priorities don't make sense to you, then you are free to purchase a different phone. Sure, you can't get one with Apple's OS on it, but that's Apple's choice to make as the designer of both the hardware and the software. There's trade-offs to be made in whichever direction you decide to go, but Apple has always been pretty "open" about their "closed" nature.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
It's called open source, and it's taking over. Anybody can download a beta of Ubuntu 8.04 and run it forever. They don't have to worry about it expiring and Canonical cutting them off.
This kind of stuff that Apple is pulling may still be somewhat acceptable now, but times are changing.