Beware! A weird bug is breaking iPhones, and trolls on
the Internet are trying to get users to spoil their own
phones.
If you change your device's date to 1st January 1970, you will
crash it.
According to Independent, doing so confuses the iPhone and
forces it to break, and it is only possible to bring it back by
going to an Apple Store.
Apple has officially acknowledged the bug, stating that
setting your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch anywhere before May
1970 will effectively brick it.
The Coverage reports that not only does this
bug exist, trolls are even getting iPhone users to break their own
phones by encouraging them to change the date.
A 'official-looking' poster, that was modelled to look
like it was from Apple, persuades users to change their phones'
dates to get a 'retro theme'.
Not only will you not get that retro theme, you will find that you
have single-handedly destroyed your own phone.
The 1 January, 1970 bug was discovered last week, and it isn’t
entirely clear why it happens. Apple has said it will be fixing it
in an upcoming software update soon.
The message on Apple's support site reads:
"If you changed the date to May 1970 or earlier and can’t restart
your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
"Manually changing the date to May 1970 or earlier can prevent your
iOS device from turning on after a restart.
"An upcoming software update will prevent this issue from affecting
iOS devices. If you have this issue, contact Apple Support."
This apparently also caused a big headache for Apple
Store employees in the past week, as people intentionally set the
date back on demo iPhones and iPads in retail stores
to break the products on the benches.
stomp
