iPhone 3.0 betaphiles upset the Apple cart
At least I have an excuse. Running pre-release operating systems and firmware in production settings is part of my job description. I accept that "beta" items are exempt from expectations of day-to-day stability, backward compatibility, performance and feature completeness. When I took the iPhone 3.0 OS as my one and only system software for the device, I was fully prepared that existing apps would break, some software on App Store would prove incompatible, the device would freeze up, and in any imaginable way on any given day, the beta firmware would show itself as less than firm.
That's the point of a beta. It's the price that admins and developers pay for the privilege of knowing what's coming next. In the case of the iPhone, that's essential knowledge. iPhone 3.0 is a platform overhaul: new OS, new APIs, new SDK, new tools and new rules for App Store approval. Apple is dramatically changing the game. In the next three months, every iPhone owner will have a brand-new phone.
