Tomas Chlebek [su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY-ahR1R6IE” width=”640″]
Two days ago, a post appeared on one of the Reddit forums informing that anyone with a little free time can turn their iOS devices with 64-bit processors (iPhone 5S and later, iPad Air and iPad mini 2 and later) into a static design object. Just turn off the automatic date setting in the settings, manually change it to January 1, 1970, and then reboot the device.
In this case, the restart will never complete - the device will be stuck on a white screen with the Apple logo. Restoring from backup or factory reset will not help. People who took their iPhones and iPads to the Apple Store in an attempt to make them useful again received a new device after a few minutes of watching the confused faces of Apple technicians.
Although this bug may seem rather trivial (how many people have the urge to set this exact date on their iOS device?), it can be used to mass-produce useless design objects. Automatic time setting when connected to Wi-Fi in iOS devices takes place through NTP (a protocol for synchronizing computer clocks in the network) servers.
Anyone who has access to the NTP server of a given Wi-Fi network can send an instruction to change the date to all devices connected to it. This scenario has not happened yet and it is not certain that it would be possible. However, NTP data is sent unencoded and unverified, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what such an initiated mass data change would cause.
The problem probably has its source in the way Unix operating systems determine time. This is because it is stored in them in 32-bit format as the number of seconds that have passed since the beginning of Unix time, January 1, 1970. According to current speculation, 64-bit iOS devices do something strange with system times close to zero, so their settings cause a loop during system startup.
The only way to reset the set time is to completely discharge the battery or disconnect and reconnect it. The user is therefore able to get a malfunctioning device back into proper operation by simply waiting for it to be completely discharged, but this does not change the need to pay attention to the problem. On the Mac, users fear does not have to, because the computer system has a built-in protection where it warns you when you try to change the date to the aforementioned date to avoid possible problems.
Hello, is it really enough just to wait for discharge?
Erm…I preferred not to try it myself, but sources do say that completely draining the battery will fix the problem. But a full discharge is not the same as turning off the phone due to low battery power. The battery will drain completely after a few days after the phone does not turn on.
What does it mean to "address the problem"?
Apple guys, if you're translating something from a foreign language and you don't know what a word means, take a look at Slovník.app, where in the third point next to the verb "address" you can find what it is. In Czech, this verb is translated as "solve".
Of course, I know what "address" means in the given context, but it didn't occur to me that the same turn of phrase is not used in Czech. I understood "addressing the problem" as a more rhetorically sophisticated version of "addressing the problem", "dealing with the problem".
Signals in, for example, the print head are addressed. The problem is not addressed. The problem is reported, reported, reported, forwarded for resolution, or resolved. Let's think in Czech, let's write in Czech. Let's translate and not spoil.