Readers report that update 5A240d is now available on the Dev Portal

Reports are streaming into TUAW that official iPhone developers have been hit this morning by the Pink Screen of Expired Release. Their beta licenses for the current 1.2/2.0 firmware distribution have expired as of 12:01am April 8th. Both iPhones and iPod touches now display the pink-backgrounded "This device is expired. Please install a newer version of the OS" activation screen and will do so until Apple issues a firmware refresh.

You can easily downgrade your iPhone or iPod touch from the PSOD. Just restore your iPhone or touch to an earlier firmware release. You will not be able to use your unit for development until Apple updates the developer release but you should be able to make phone calls.

iPhone hacker Nicholas "Drudge" Penree reports that you can bypass 1.2/2.0 activation using the dev team's pwnage tool. He writes that he is aware of 1.2/2.0 iPhones that are still working today.

[Via iPhoneDevHelp]

Thanks everyone who sent this in.

Update: Straight from our blue & green super-sekrit source: "I got bricked as well. Called ADC and they told me there was a new SDK. They said it was still�labeled�as the old SDK but that if I hovered over the link would show the new one. Not sure how the SDK would fix it vs. a new firmware but I'm downloading it now." I personally can't see any updated SDK material. Perhaps its only available to those accepted into the dev program. Other readers report that they do not see any updates--in the dev program pages or the general iPhone dev center ones.

Update 2: Another blue and green birdie sent us this, which has apparently been posted since the developer program opened: "Important note: Once you install the pre-release iPhone OS on your device, such device may only be used for development and testing purposes until the final (GM) version of the iPhone OS is released. In addition, you will need to install new versions of the software from time to time throughout the beta period. Failure to install the most current version will, after a period of time, put your device in a de-activated state. Updating to the most current version will re-activate your device so that you may continue testing."

Update 3: Apparently the new (possibly 5A240d) firmware seed has only been released to Enterprise developers so far according to yet another blue & green birdie. This birdie tweets that the seed note is quite extensive and includes "unsettling" details. It looks like a lot of device hangs and system restores are in developer futures.

Seth Scoen, an EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) staff technologist, has an interesting blog post in which he analyzes some of the arguments surrounding DRM, Apple's role and how DRM affects the market in more ways than simply locking down content. He also hopes to remind those who have gone astray from the meat of the topic that getting caught up in the Mac vs. PC (and Apple vs. Microsoft) debates in the DRM world only serves to muddy the issue, much like many political debates get too caught up in 'Democrat vs. Republican' rivalry.

One of the more important arguments that Seth examines in terms of DRM as a whole and how it affects market competition is that of 'it's the record labels, not Apple who are to blame for the use of DRM'. Seth cites an EFF post from May, 2004 in which their own Fred von Lohmann wrote about his chance to ask the iTMS head lawyer as to whether Apple would stop using DRM if the record labels got really drunk one night lifted their requirement of it. The lawyer reportedly answered "no", which prompted Seth to remind us that DRM clearly isn't just about protecting content - it's also about protecting profitable and closed products like iTunes + iPod, and, perhaps even more importantly, Apple isn't the only one trying to do this.

Seth's post offers some interesting perspective on these DRM arguments, and it refreshingly delves deeper than the "Apple's solution is terrible which means you should use Microsoft's" banter. Check it out.

[via BoingBoing]