Apple Will Fix 'January 1, 1970' Date Bug in Upcoming iOS Update

[C DM]

Those that experienced it, either did it to themselves because they found out about it, or had someone did it to them; that's a quasi certainty. So... Apple should do what? If someone has a crappy 4s and did this to get a new one (a 5s, the oldest phone they sell), Apple should give them what exactly? This is not something you stumble on by accident.

As for "bricking"; as that been actually confirmed or is it another urban myth related to Apple.
Another of the hyperbolic nonsense that surrounds everything Apple.
[doublepost=1455586323][/doublepost]

A functionality that's NOT DONE ACCIDENTALLY. Why we know that, because we haven't heard of it until morons posted about it even though this bug is likely 4-5 years old. So, 800M devices sold and well it just comes out now... And suddenly everyone does it? Why? Because they are morons and can't help themselves being that way; they see some idiocy and have to do it or do it to someone else.

If someone tells you doing something disables the airbag (the Ford issue), will you do it and drive dangerously just to see if it is true?

Apple should figure something out, whatever it is that would make sense, as it is an their own issue that caused this through regular change of settings without the user doing anything that Apple didn't want them to do or wanted to prevent them from doing (given that the setting was there available to be selected).

Again, dividing by 0 makes no sense on a calculator and most people wouldn't run into that under normal circumstances, but it doesn't mean that it would be OK for a calculator to just completely stop working and the manufacturer just tell the people who run into that (again, whatever the reason) that it's too bad for them. That's rather silly.

 

[Superhai]

It's never acceptable for a programmer to blame the user. If the user (or another programmer through your API) interacts with your code in a way you allow and causes your code to behave unexpectedly, you're at fault.

It is the user who needs to be responsible for his/her actions. The programmer should do what he/she can to avoid unnecessary hazards from the code/design. This is valid not only for programmers, but for designers/manufacturers etc. as well.

A person putting a cat in a microwave should not be able to blame the designer.

Unfortunately Apple has been on the protective side, and because of this we have the so called "walled garden" of iOS. But humanity may be already at loss, and when we are not able to protect us from ourselves, lets find someone to blame.

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[Pakaku]

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.

No, people who knew this would brick their iPhone would (usually) not do it.

Most people who did it were probably unaware and tricked into doing it. Maybe they saw a convincing image and didn't think twice?

 

[ParanoidDroid]

Oh great! First "tests" bricking an iPhone in an Apple Store are on YouTube... *facepalm*

 

[SarcasticJoe]

Good grief...

I actually frequent the place where this thing is from, the /g/ or "Technology" board on 4chan and I remember a couple of weeks ago when they came up with this hoax. First it was some guy who had found out about this bug, then they suggested that they should make some official looking picture advertising this as a feature that'll make the phone do something special and then someone made the pictures that have been making the rounds on twitter. If you're wondering why this all feels so familiar to the microwave and waterproofing hoaxes that also spread in a similar fashion, it's not coincidental as both of these hoaxes stem from exactly the same place as this hoax.

I for one don't see any reason why Apple should fix phones people have broken themselves by doing this. There's really no reason why anyone would do this and thus for Apple to put in another warning to stop people from breaking something themselves. In terms of warnings we're talking stupidity on the same level as the "do not put live animals into the microwave"-warning makers of microwaves had to put in after some old lady microwaved her cat.

If you're wondering what kind of place spawns this kind of crap, it's basically a place overrun by very rabid Android fanboys who hate people using Apple devices with a passion. The whole picture about them being manchilden does actually fit in absolutely perfectly with this community.

Why do I go there? Because you can occasionally have half decent conversations on programming languages, hardware architectures, API's and actual technology along with the merits of Computer Science degrees vs Computer and Software Engineering or being self-taught rather than the usual consumerist circlejerk that it usually is.

 

[goobot]

Those that experienced it, either did it to themselves because they found out about it, or had someone did it to them; that's a quasi certainty. So... Apple should do what? If someone has a crappy 4s and did this to get a new one (a 5s, the oldest phone they sell), Apple should give them what exactly? This is not something you stumble on by accident.

As for "bricking"; as that been actually confirmed or is it another urban myth related to Apple.
Another of the hyperbolic nonsense that surrounds everything Apple.
[doublepost=1455586323][/doublepost]

A functionality that's NOT DONE ACCIDENTALLY. Why we know that, because we haven't heard of it until morons posted about it even though this bug is likely 4-5 years old. So, 800M devices sold and well it just comes out now... And suddenly everyone does it? Why? Because they are morons and can't help themselves being that way; they see some idiocy and have to do it or do it to someone else.

If someone tells you doing something disables the airbag (the Ford issue), will you do it and drive dangerously just to see if it is true?

Actually at maximum it is 2 years and change old.

 

[tdiaz]

Pretty sure if the + volume button is held (until you see slide to unlock) will get past this.

 

[boo-boo-butt]

At my work I often find iPods that haven't been used for a long time will reset the date to 1970 and I have to connect them to the internet(or scroll for ages) to get the current time/date but they always work fine regardless.

I can't remember the exact date but I'm pretty sure it's 1970/1/1 00:00. Also, there are other forum posts mentioning this same date/time reset so I find it interesting that setting that date/time manually causes this boot loop.

I guess that also explains why reconnecting the battery can solve the problem because that would also reset the time.

 

[Col4bin]

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.

Or throw it against a brick wall (same outcome). Seen it once. Terrible.

 

[Haanscee]

This isn't a bug. If you don't know what something will do, don't try it. So many idiots blaming this on Apple when in reality the date doesn't need to be changed back that far for any reason. Not even for program/programming testing. It's so silly to find people crying and moaning over something that they caused but they blame Apple as a company.

 

[Cwolk]

lol its not like this is a common problem. Only people who do this deliberately will suffer the bricking
[doublepost=1455595771][/doublepost]Have people tried other smartphones?

 

[NotJamesCameron]

The epoch date/time for iOS and OS X is 00:00:00 UTC Jan 1 2001, not 1970.

And timestamps are typically represented as double-precision floats in iOS and OS X.

 

[HVDynamo]

Strange.

Just for fun (weird, I know) I decided to do this on a spare iPad here at work. After resetting the time/date to 1/1/1970, I powered down and successfully rebooted; no bricking. Oddly enough, the time and date was still on 1970 and I was able to put it back to normal.

Which iPad was it? Only those with 64-bit processors are affected, i.e. iPad Air and newer.

 

[heimo]

I bricked my iPhone using iPhone bricking instructions and now my iPhone is bricked! I'm so mad at Apple they did this to me! Now I'm going to let a toddler play with time settings on my iPad Air 2.

 

[APlotdevice]

Silly people. You need to set your clock to January 24, 1984 in order to get the classic interface!

 

[gumbyjunior1]

Hmm....I can only say that "Stupid is as Stupid Does" on this one.

I can only say that one would really do this if they were to test out a certificate that was purposely signed by the CA authority with it's time set the 1970. Why....why not....I can only say that it if quite the irreversable prank to pulll on someone's 64-bit device....

I am surprised that the DFU method does not do anything with the time on the iOS device...that should be addressed.

Image now until the fix is released on how many school kids will purposely brick their device now just by setting the time.

Dr. Emmet Brown would definately do a "Great Scott!" on this one.

 

[dampfnudel]

How would anyone get access to my phone? Are people in the habit of unlocking their phones and just passing it around to everyone???

People are in the habit of being careless by not locking their phones, letting idiots handle them, trusting them, etc. You and I apparently don't fall into that category.

 

[C DM]

This isn't a bug. If you don't know what something will do, don't try it. So many idiots blaming this on Apple when in reality the date doesn't need to be changed back that far for any reason. Not even for program/programming testing. It's so silly to find people crying and moaning over something that they caused but they blame Apple as a company.

Sorry but setting the date should just change the date and nothing else, it certainly shouldn't just make your device useless. And an outcome that is anything other than the date being set would be a bug, as that is what bugs are. To pretend otherwise is just silly.

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[doelcm82]

I bricked my iPhone using iPhone bricking instructions and now my iPhone is bricked! I'm so mad at Apple they did this to me! Now I'm going to let a toddler play with time settings on my iPad Air 2.

Just let your toddler play with the lock screen.

 

[Gudi]

If you watch the original video of the guy resetting his iPhone, it took him several attempts before iOS would register all the way back to 1970. There's no reason for anyone to set their device to that date, and the OS makes it difficult to do that, so I don't understand all the outrage at Apple over this bug. It seems like people are latching on to any excuse to slam the company these days.

Yeah, that's another bug. It should be easier to set the date to whatever you want. Using the date picker is a hassle. Several attempts to brick your phone is unacceptable, it must just (not) work the first time.

 

[MentalFloss]

why would anyone set their phone to the wrong date?

Because there are emails and Facebook posts going around, saying that if you set your phone to that date, something amazing will happen - like one where it stated that it activates some retro mode and makes the phone look like mobile phones in the 70s (which is not that far from the truth). Some even have pictures of the iPhone with the old rainbow Apple logo.

It's interesting to see how many people here immediately assume that people who do this are dumb. There are a lot of "easter eggs" on websites, in electronic devices or in computer games. People are used to this kind of thing. So they think it's probably something funny, and then they do it.

For example, go to Google and type "do a barrel roll". Funny result, isn't it? Ha. Ha. Did you do it? Yes? If so, then what if this simple innocent little thing had bricked your computer or your mobile device? Then you'd be just as "dumb" as those people who set the date on their iPhone to 1970.

 

[MentalFloss]

Are you saying there's not a problem with iOS being bugged filled lately?

If it were only iOS, I'd be happy. Last week, I updated my OS X version, because Final Cut Pro didn't want to start with my old version anymore. Fine. Then it asked me to also update Final Cut Pro. Fine. Then Final Cut Pro started, but crashed reproducibly in one of the first steps of creating a project (when importing media files). Reproducibly. It's unusable now. Well, fine then. Used Adobe Premiere. But here's the real kicker: On the next startup, OS X got stuck with the progress bar at 50%. No way to start my Mac anymore. I think for the vast majority of users, this would have meant a trip to the next Apple Store (for me, it was a boot into safe mode - but that is not something I expect an average user to know about). Great job there, Apple. A broken Final Cut Pro and a broken Mac within one day. And no, this kind of thing didn't happen five years ago. That's not nostalgia. There is a clear decline in quality.

So I definitely see that decline in quality not only with each iOS release, but also with each release of each bit of software Apple is releasing. And I don't blame Tim Cook. Steve "You're holding it wrong" Jobs presided over goof-ups as well. I blame the Apple strategy of having a new iOS version each year, a new OS X version each year and then new versions of their software to match these new OS versions. That. Does. Not. Work. And that's not Cook's fault. That is Jobs' legacy that Apple can't get out of now, because if they announce a delay in any of this, the share price will tumble.

 

[Makale.Helvetia]

Oh great! First "tests" bricking an iPhone in an Apple Store are on YouTube... *facepalm*

that's the zorlu center apple store in istanbul, turkish loser young trolls are on the action..