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ChrisCW11

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2011
1,037
1,433
I wonder how many people just bricked their iPhones after reading about this.

This could actually turn out into a huge issue if Apple is forced to replace everybody's bricked iOS devices unless there are some DIY recovery options.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458

kagharaht

macrumors 65816
Oct 7, 2007
1,407
955
More proof that quality has tanked at Apple. Shame on this. Get back to basics and clean up the mess.
 

doelcm82

macrumors 68040
Feb 11, 2012
3,737
2,757
Florida, USA
You wouldn't but perhaps a techy jilted lover or nerdy bully would do this to your phone…? Don't laugh, they're out there.
Apple should fix this problem, but it won't stop jilted lovers or nerdy bullies from doing bad things to your phone. If they can't brick the phone, they can still drop a brick on it.
 

American Hero

Suspended
Jan 25, 2016
564
593
I think Maps was a bullet for the gun.

I believe there was more to it than that, even before the maps issue came under fire from the customers. Scott was known for being an ass. In my opinion, Tim doesn't like guys like that on the team, and I think Apple has negatively been affected by that.

Cook made the decision to go live with an app that was not ready

He makes decisions to do everything before it's ready. Like with Apple Pay. Could've waited until more merchants were ready and waited until all of the card networks were signed on first. Same with third party keyboards, buggy as heck--while that's not all Tim's fault, he could've sent a few out with the BETA programs before releasing the capability to the public first. It seems like the software in general doesn't go through enough testing anymore in the BETA programs.

I really don't trust Cook. I have a much higher opinion of Forstall. I am a shareholder so obviously not pleased with Cook's performance.

I most definitely understand where you're coming from. I don't hold stock anymore, but I have experience and knowledge into trading it, and I also know people, if you know what I mean. The lack of exciting new products would make me lack confidence in the CEO of a company I'm investing in.

I'm more unhappy from the end user standpoint. I loved Apple products pre-Cook. Now my purchases are much less frequent. A significant part of my buying decision is will it be fun or another headache? Before Cook was CEO my budget was the only limiting factor when contemplating a purchase.

I agree, it used to seem like Apple products were above and beyond what other companies offered. Now it seems like other companies have caught up. Apple went from the reputation of being an innovative company, to now being a company that likes to milk products while adding a new chip or faster WiFi band every year.
 
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ChrisCW11

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2011
1,037
1,433
You're joking, right? It's a UNIX issue. Other UNIX based OSs would have had this exact bug at some point. Though it was just now discovered in this current version of iOS, they probably had this issue for a while.

Nope. This is not a bug in UNIX, this is a bug in how Apple is supporting a UNIX timestamp. Other UNIX based OS'es and devices that use them are NOT bricking after implementing this date/time, only iPhone so far. In the least, Apple even allowing you to set your time back to 1970 is pretty lame.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
15,807
18,310
US
Seems like the article mentions that it only affects 64-bit devices.
I believe it does as well and I edited my original post to reflect that.
Highlighted the below for clarity.
In any case, some people have also tried to rope users in with various graphics claiming that setting the date to January 1, 1970 will unlock an Easter Egg within iOS and set a "classic Macintosh theme". Although this bug won't do anything on non-64-bit chip iOS devices, anything from an iPhone 5S to the most recent 6s Plus, as well as all iPads starting with the original Air, and recent gen iPod touch will get "bricked" if you apply one of the problematic dates. In terms of operating systems, the flaw has reportedly been confirmed on all versions of iOS from 8.0 up to 9.3.
 

koa

macrumors 6502
Jan 8, 2005
410
221
Hawaii
I wish Apple would find a fix for the gravity bug, a far bigger issue and affects all Apple devices. Every time I let go of my phone it falls to the ground. Apple refuses to fix it for free. The only way around the bug is to constantly hold onto the phone or set it down (and even then you need to be sure it's not too close to the edge of the table or countertop). And yes, I'm well aware of the temporary fix with the helium balloons. Come on Apple, is it going to take a class action to get this fixed?
 

sudo1996

Suspended
Aug 21, 2015
1,496
1,182
Berkeley, CA, USA
Speaking as a programmer, one of my jobs is to ensure users cannot either accidentally or deliberately enter values that break the systems I develop. I would in fact say that checking and validating user input is probably the most time consuming part of development as you have to anticipate and mitigate so many different scenarios.

So while it is clear this bug takes quite a lot of effort to trigger it is Apple's fault for not protecting against it, especially since it can brick your device. If someone else gets hold of your iDevice and manually changes the time or if someone spoofs an NTP server and sends your device a fake time it shouldn't result in a broken device. The system should detect an valid value and reset to a safe default.
Good point about the NTP server. I hadn't thought of that. Wow, someone could make a "free wifi" network that bricks every iPhone that joins it!
Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/458ao3/discussion_changing_time_date_settings_to_jan_1/
 
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jm001

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2011
596
123
why would anyone set their phone to the wrong date?
Initially people were duped into doing it being told that doing so would replace the current Apple logo on the startup screen with a retro rainbow Apple logo. So of course they would set the date to Jan. 1, 1970 and then they had to shut down and reboot in order for the changes to take effect. Once they reboot it was too late and the phone gets bricked.

Then you had those who heard about the issue and for some stupid reason decide to duplicate the issue to test it out finding that yes indeed their iPhone was now bricked. I have heard that allowing the battery to totally drain makes the date reset and all becomes well again, although I'm not totally sure about that.
 

Designx

macrumors regular
Mar 15, 2012
194
209
I find it funny that we continue to have such large issues related to something that seems as benign as the date/time of a computer. I think back to all of the hullabaloo around Y2K. Just curious and a little amusing to me.


I think there is a lot of "old code" in the OS. I think the software designers are too lazy or it's too impractical to rewrite 20 year old code that they plagiarized from some other source.
 

jm001

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2011
596
123
Why are people blaming Apple? First of all there is NO reason for anyone to be setting their date that far back. It makes no sense to do so. I don't think a fix is necessary as common sense says don't set the date to Jan. 1, 1970 and the other half of your brain should be questioning why do it in the first place. That said if a fix was needed then why not just make Jan. 1, 1971 the oldest date or even Jan 2, 1970. That way no one could ever set it to Jan. 1, 1970 if they even wanted to.
 

sudo1996

Suspended
Aug 21, 2015
1,496
1,182
Berkeley, CA, USA
Why are people blaming Apple? First of all there is NO reason for anyone to be setting their date that far back. It makes no sense to do so. I don't think a fix is necessary as common sense says don't set the date to Jan. 1, 1970 and the other half of your brain should be questioning why do it in the first place. That said if a fix was needed then why not just make Jan. 1, 1971 the oldest date or even Jan 2, 1970. That way no one could ever set it to Jan. 1, 1970 if they even wanted to.
https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/458ao3/discussion_changing_time_date_settings_to_jan_1/
Also, maybe someone could just be curious to see what happens? Maybe a little kid? I remember messing with my Mac's time settings in fourth grade.
 

pat500000

Suspended
Jun 3, 2015
8,523
7,515
Wrong. Under Settings > Date & Time, simply set "Set Automatically" to On.

With respect to fixing the bug, it has been acknowledged and will be pushed out soon in an update. So when you say "incapable," what are you talking about?
Not responding to the problem ASAP. This time bug had been going on for a long time...and now they just responding with a fix?
 

doelcm82

macrumors 68040
Feb 11, 2012
3,737
2,757
Florida, USA
I think your crazy.

Firstly, why should anyone have to start providing reasons to Apple, the point is it happened. If they changed the rules to 'Free repairs for those who can come up with convincing stories' would that keep you happy?

Secondly, the point is, its not fixed now, its still happening to people now, it could happen to people who don't even change the settings via man-in-the-middle network attacks

Finally, your throwing a brick at comment is pointless. This is a FLAW with Apple software and THEY alone are responsible for it, the bug can occur through normal use of the phone. People always love a joke, others don't know what their doing. Put it this way, if you had an app on your home screen put there by Apple and it said DO NOT OPEN, and opening it bricked the device, would you blame Apple if a friend of yours opened the app?
I don't think Apple would put such an app on my phone. But I would blame my friend first, and I would trust that friend less. It's not the kind of thing a real friend does.

Apple should certainly fix this problem in their OS going forwards. If you think I'm saying they shouldn't then you're as wrong as you can possibly be. This will protect you from the friends who you have given access to your phone. And also from MiTM attacks using this exploit.

You don't need to take this personally. Chances are very good that you first heard about this via a news story that said setting your clock to a certain date would brick your phone. Do you have so little self-control that you're afraid you'll not be able to keep yourself from doing it? Chances were extremely slim that you would have set it to that date to begin with, and now that you've been warned, they're even less likely. You can sleep soundly.

And if you have friends who would do this to you, you should change your phone's passcode immediately, and work on protecting yourself in other areas. If your friends don't get you with this, they will get you some other way. Chances are you won't see it coming.
 

nxent

macrumors 6502
Nov 7, 2004
331
7
seattle
No. HELL no. You did this to your phone by your own volition. You knew from the beginning that it would brick your iPhone but you went ahead and did it anyway. This is totally on the ignorant, stupid users who went and did it just to see what would happen. It would be the same truth if this had been an Android phone. Stupid is as stupid does.

I really hope that's not the attitude/approach software engineers have during design.
 
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simbo123

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2013
94
228
Anyone know what happens if this is done on an iPhone connected to an Apple Watch and then the watch is restarted? I dread to think
 

mariana888

macrumors regular
Feb 10, 2010
141
43
UK
Probably the same reason that people set their clocks to the wrong time. It might be some weird placebo effect that comes from it.

I would say young kids (as my son did) who are told something cool would happen......
 

subjonas

macrumors 603
Feb 10, 2014
5,528
5,847
I find it funny that you refer to this as a “large issue.” This is a bug that has gone unnoticed for years until some OCD type figured it out accidentally. It’s a SELF INFLICTED bug that is easily avoided. Simply don’t do it! But the stupid ones did it anyway and you call it a major issue?

Wow. I think by "large issues" rdlink was simply referring to the fact that the phone is bricked, which is a large issue compared to, say, if the phone simply restarted once on its own. Issues relating to something as seemingly trivial as a computer's date/time setting seem like they would be much much smaller, so it's funny/interesting that they're actually large. That's all I got from his/her post, and I agree with him/her. As to the frequency of this particular issue or whether or not these people are justified in getting their phones fixed by Apple for free, I don't know what rdlink believes because it isn't apparent from his/her comment.
 

mariana888

macrumors regular
Feb 10, 2010
141
43
UK
O


It doesn't really matter, a setting easily available in the UI shouldn't be able to cause this kind of problem.

When I was in the Apple Store to get my sons phone exchanged (couldn't be fixed of course) the genius mentioned that they were looking into the possibility that this would void the warranty. I told the guy that this is different to putting your phone in the microwave or something like that, and I understand that that voids it. However This is a setting issue, a bug with the software and therefore not something that would void anything. Apple should fix it. He agreed.
 
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