By: Nick Gambino
Featured Image Attribution: howtostartablogonline.net/tech
Apple has always prided itself in making products that are near virus-proof but as a new phone-crashing video circulating the internet proves, they are only NEAR virus-proof.
As the YouTube channel EverythingApplePro demonstrates, this mp4 video looks harmless. In fact, the video is cheery and inviting. You can make it through the 3 seconds without experiencing any glitches or issues but within about 30 seconds after hitting play the Trojan Horse springs to life.
At first things look normal, you can continue with whatever you were doing on your phone with little more than curiosity about what that short video was all about. After only a few moments your phone begins to slow down to a death crawl and eventually freezes altogether.
Nothing works at this point, not your home button, power button, screen, nothing. The whole thing has been turned into a worthless brick.
Luckily there’s an easy solution to undo the harm. Just try a simple hard reset. Here’s what you do: If you have a new iPhone 7 you want to hold down the power (lock) button and volume down button at the same time until the Apple logo appears. You phone will restart and you should be good to go.
Tests by both EverythingApplePro and The Verge suggest that this temporary phone-crippling video affects not only the newest iPhone and iOS but is damaging to devices all the way back to those running iOS 5.
So if you’ve got anything earlier than an iPhone 7 then again just perform a hard reset. This is how you do that on an iPhone 6S and earlier: Hold down the power button and home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears. Your phone will boot back up and voila!
Now it doesn’t seem like there are any long-lasting effects on your phone other than a bruised ego for falling for an immature prank. But honestly, we don’t know if that’s all there is to it either, as it seems like “What’s the point?”
How exactly this thing works is also a mystery. It’s suggested that maybe it’s a virus that triggers a memory leak.
Now you may have arrived at the end of this article hoping I’d share the link where you could find the video. Sorry, can’t help you there, pal. I know others are suggesting you should send it to your friends as a prank but we still don’t know if there’s deeper damage being caused.
Hey, call me overly cautious (paranoid) but at least I’ll know I didn’t play a part in inserting a global multi-network virus in every smartphone as part of a bigger doomsday scenario.
If you’ve watched the video let us know any effect it had on your phone in the comments below!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.
