IST has been testing the AirBears app with beta versions of the iPhone 3.0 developer software for the last few months with no problems — the AirBears app was created for the iPhone by IST's Russ McBride and Jay Bryon.
Unfortunately, while the beta versions of iPhone 3.0 worked fine with the AirBears app, the production release is now behaving differently, which is a bit of a blindside for us.
The new behavior is due to iPhone 3.0's new feature "Automatic WiFi Login", which is not optional in this release. As it currently operates, it is now impossible to stay associated to the AirBears WiFi network without using this feature instead of the AirBears app.
The "Automatic WiFi Login" feature essentially tries to do the same job as the AirBears app, but more generically and without the features or integration. If you attempt to cancel Automatic WiFi Login, it disassociates you from the WiFi network, at which point the AirBears app cannot function as you are not on AirBears anymore.
Given the restrictions that Apple has placed on us, it may prove difficult or impossible to elegantly solve this issue until Apple responds to our request for a means to turn off the feature or make it optional.
The new authentication system for AirBears we are working on (see New captive portal system in development for AirBears) may also solve this problem in a more permanent fashion, obviating the need for an app entirely. The additional benefits of the new authentication system are that there would be multiple platform support for other types of devices, as well as overall simplicity.
In the meantime, IST apologizes to the roughly 3000 users of the AirBears app. We did our due diligence to see that it would work under the new iPhone 3.0 software, but Apple failed to be consistent between the beta and production software behavior.
While the AirBears app is currently broken for iPhone 3.0 (it still works for previous versions of iPhone software) and is likely to stay that way for some time, we are working to resolve this issue and make AirBears more usable with devices like the iPhone.
Thanks for your patience as we strive to make the network better.