Just minutes ago, my iPhone 5 just updated itself without asking, and it got locked with an "Activation Error: This device is not registered as part of the iPhone developer Program.". I was still using the ios7 beta 3, and it is/was registered. Why and how the hell is apple doing shit like this without any prompt?
Did you read the beta TOS? I'm not an iOS developer, but I'll bet you a dollar there's some vague language in there that allows this. Not defending Apple (well, not too much), but I doubt they updated your stuff illegally. Which also answers your other question - if the device had WiFi or any other sort of data access, you probably gave it permission to do updates over the air when accepting the TOS. Or, maybe it was timebombed, as most commercial beta software is.
This same thing happened to me - I searched Twitter to find a few having the same problem, but not enough for it to be everyone. It makes sense for it to be linked to the developer program for iOS 7 betas, as I'm on one too.
My iphone 4s was running the iOS7 betas. The last update was the GM beta and it never asked to update again (apparently 7.0.2 has been out)?<p>I was listening to a podcast and the audio was still playing when it locked my screen and demanded activation. Trying to activate, it says "can't connect to servers". Connected to itunes, it says "this software is out of date...". Backup, sync, and restore both give "cannot connect to iphone" messages. I'm currently downloading the 7.0.2 firmware on a 1mbit connection (3 hours to go!) and hoping a DFU boot and alt+restore will work.<p>Last time I run my podcasts on a device that can disable itself.<p>Edit: Twitter complaints here:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=iphone%20activation&src=typd&f=realtime" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/search?q=iphone%20activation&src=typd&f=...</a><p>Judging by the amount, I don't think it's a few devs having this problem.<p>Edit2: Booting to DFU or Recovery mode seems to let you start the restore process. Clicking on restore didn't give the same "can't connect to iphone" error, but oddly said it was going to download 6.1.3 for me. Good sign that alt+restore will work.
iOS 7 beta 3 expired August 29. It should not be surprising that continuing to run a beta version long after it's supposed to stop working will lead to things breaking.
I upvoted, because I find it funny and the blame is on us, because we don't complain about mad enough.<p>Apple just goes along with this, like with many other "technical errors", do you sincerly believe that it's technical error that they collect data of every move you do and sync it with itunes, or that they accept nothing but credit cards, or that they update your phone without asking, or even remove an app that you bought? I could find references to each of these claims, but it's not worth it, because you decide.<p>But don't get me wrong, as much as I was amused by this, I'm that much sorry for you too on the other side. Because you dear Hackerfriend are getting treated like shit [1] by Apple so much that even cartoons start joking about it. The bad thing is that you can't do much about it other than buying into the other "do not evil" Android phone.<p>––<p>[1] <a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e01-humancentipad" rel="nofollow">http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e01-humance...</a>