iPhone Prank
A customer holds an iPhone 6s during the official launch at the Apple store in central Sydney, Australia, September 25, 2015. Reuters/David Gray

In a prank that originated on 4Chan last week, a user made a poster with Apple logo and font, enticing viewers to change their iPhone dates to Jan. 1, 1970. The poster claimed that changing the date and rebooting the iPhone would activate the original Macintosh theme. It encouraged users to seek out an iOS “easter egg” that would apparently put a retro Apple logo theme on the display.

Many iPhone users tried this and ended up having bricked phones. What they failed to realise was that Apple never existed in 1970. It came to existence in 1976.

“To relive the magic of the past on your iPhone change the date to 1 January 1970. Press and hold the power button to reboot your device and prepare for a wild ride,” read the poster.

The error apparently occurs only on devices with 64-bit processors. Thus users of iPad Mini 2, iPad Air and iPhone 5s are at risk. Users complained that after trying the prank, their phones got stuck in a boot-loop, writes The Huffington Post.

It is still not clear why the crash occurs, though it is almost certain that a bug is causing the crash. The newly-discovered bug renders the iPhones useless. The bug is so strong that even restoring through iTunes does not help. An actual physical fix is required or a possible new phone.

This Apple iPhone prank is very much similar to the Unix glitch that made Facebook wish people happy 46 years on the service. In fact, the date Jan. 1, 1970 has an internal value of zero on a Unix system that leads to a software breakdown.

Apple has recently faced criticism over its Error 53 message that shows up when a user gets the home button replaced from an unauthorised repairer. Error 53 makes the device unusable.

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