Honestly, after reading Jobs comments on hacks made at the London event, I'm more convinced than ever they are smashing hacks. I think they care a lot less about third-party native applications than they do anySIM -- I mean, you know, brick your phone, that's your problem; but use on a non-contract carrier, no way. I'm sure AT&T is all up and sideways with them about anySIM; it's the contractual exclusivity. Everyone is trying to be cool about for PR reason but from my experience in business AT&T is raging mad and screaming at Apple to fix this since there is no way they can do it. (I've even heard that AT&T is considering legal action against *Tmobile* if they allow iPhones to operate on their stateside network; and due to some federal interference with trade laws, I they could at least get the case a ways past summary dismissal.)
In fact I'd bet right now it's anySIM holding up the update release. anySIM was released rather late in the development cycle for this software and they'd have not been able to get at it until the firmware update was mostly or all done. anySIM is a real problem. I make these statements having worked in the past for several years with software and media companies compelled to or just prone to keeping their internal processes under wraps.
Even the currently known version number is suspicious. 1.1.1 That's a release version number. In fact that's a release version number plus a dot-rev bug fix. I don't know anything about Apple's current internal dev. numbering scheme for hardware firmware; but I did know in officially capacity Apple's past internal dev. numbering scheme for hardware firmware. That looks nothing like it. These things usually look almost like a hex string. It is conceivable that a dev. build, call it X, was QA certified, released to distribution and assigned release version number 1.1. But then it was held up -- I opine, by anySIM -- and they continued to revise 1.1, probably to fix bugs they caught late or break anySIM, and then the new dev. build that was based on 1.0, call it Y, was certified and released to distribution, then assigned release version 1.1.1 because release version 1.1 had already been used, and in good version control you *never* use the same internal build or release version numbers twice, even if they were never actually released. My point is that since this is currently 1.1.1, there was a release 1.1 that was skipped, and now there is a release 1.1.1 that has been noted in the wild but has not been released.
It certainly could be just because Apple isn't damn well ready to release it. There's a good argument for that: the longer you hold people off the later they expect yet another feature upgrade. But it is my opinion that it was Apple's plan to release version 1.1 when the WiFi Store went live, only a few days after the 5th Sept. announcement, well in advance of the touch shipping, so the iPhone customers had the WiFi Store first, but due to something, again in my opinion anySIM, they had to scuttle that and Jobs made his "later in the month" announcement about the iPhone store. So 1.1.1 sits. Why? I think it's because it either doesn't break anySIM or no one is yet convinced that the anySIM developers wouldn't maybe change two lines of code and be rolling all over again.
But why was 1.1.1 on not only the London iPhones but on the photos for $100 store credit? There was no reason to show an iPhone in London with any feature set other than the current set in the States. The thing doesn't even go on sale until 9th Nov. In fact it is counter to Apple's behavior to show a product with unannounced, unreleased features -- they gave away video-out, home button config, other things -- so as to they themselves sort of officially leak what is coming. The new A/V out cables were at first listed on the online Apple Store as compatible with the iPhone and then they took that down within an hour. There was no reason to other than it leaked a future feature, because the cables won't even ship until well after video-out should be available. They took it the iPhone off because they didn't want to leak the future video-out feature. So they leak it all over the place today? Makes no sense at all.
It is to me pretty obvious that firmware revision 1.1x was already supposed to be out, and I can think of only two possible reasons it's not: one, there's some monster, catastrophic bug(s) in there in which case they took a big, big risk showing something that could brick on them in the middle of a press event when they could have just as easily showed a stable 1.0.2 model. Or Apple is not convinced they've nailed anySIM. Obviously my contention is the latter.
The deal is with the iPhone that you accept certain terms when you buy one. I didn't like the terms at first myself and waited almost two months to buy an iPhone, when normally although I wouldn't have lined up to get one I would have likely bought one in the first couple days, while I mulled over whether I thought the device was worth accepting the terms. I had numerous conversations with AT&T to suss out their customer service level. I spent quite a bit time with testing out the iPhone as best I could with display models. I made the decision to buy and accepted the terms. Honestly, I still don't like the terms on their own merits and declare them fairly consumer-unfriendly. But I decided that for me it was worth it.
You don't have to accept the terms. You don't have to buy an iPhone. In some cases you may not be able to buy an iPhone. A poster above mentions that he lives in Idaho with no current or announced AT&T service in his region. So he says he doesn't feel bad about violating the terms of the deal, no matter how that negatively affects me. But there are things I can't do or make use of because I don't live where he does. Does that give me the right to restrict the use of the benefits of his choice of place to live? Can I tell him just how many weekends a season he may snow ski, or how long he has to wait into the season to go skiing just because I can't ski where I live at all? Obviously, that's ridiculous. But he's telling me it's not. He's telling me that it's okay for him to make use of something, anySIM, that is the cause, in my opinion, of damage done to my ability to enjoy the experience and benefits of something that happens to be accessible to me but not to him. He's telling me I need to wait extra time for what I want so he can have what has not yet been made available to him. Give me a break. And the argument makes no sense, because so what if I wait a few weeks, Apple breaks anySIM an then he *still* can't use an iPhone.
Anyway, my defensiveness to some of the arguments presented against me was more due to the manner in which they were presented to me, even though I had carefully labeled this thread as a speculative rant. Not so much because I refuse to hear a dissenting opinion.
(Pardon any typos, I have to run.)
OK, I made a funny earlier in this thread, but I figure that I need to add my two cents since this is a topic that is important.
First off, sanford, while I like that you are quite capable of holding your argument in a well-organized fashion, there's a main point I think you're missing here. First off, if you are simply speculating, you should probably not be so admissible and defensive to the arguments of others, no matter how silly or base their comments might be. Be open to the idea that Apple is still ironing out a few last bugs in the release. Simply because SOME phones you've seen in the UK Apple Store and Apple demo web pages are running the 1.1.1 firmware DOESN'T necessarily mean its right for the everyday user here in the USA. Perhaps there's a bug with AT&T's EDGE network with 1.1.1, perhaps there's a bug when used with the rumored video out feature, OR perhaps it IS the cause of third party apps that is delaying the release. The point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't fuss about when it comes out; after all, you bought the iPhone without even thinking there was going to be a wireless music store on it, so why worry now? Be blessed that Apple generally doesn't release, buggy, half-assed software updates that people have to live with like M$ does.
/rant
