When will Apple get this really right. Yes, iMessage (and other iCloud services) work fine most of the time, but with all the resources and talent of Apple, they just don't seem capable of creating a 99,99% uptime online services.
But I'm optimistic things will improve. I'm sure Apple is absolutely not happy about these outages.
Did Apple really say the system was down from 3:35 to 4:11 EST when we are currently in Daylight Saving Time rather than Standard Time in the U.S.? I would have expected them to say it was down from 3:35 to 4:11 EDT.
I got my iMessage working on iOS 7 beta 3 by clicking on the far left of the iMessage slide bar under settings>messages. then moving it to the right. Had to try this multiple times but it worked for me. Good luck to those who are trying and I hope this helps.