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if you get this message, DON'T open it: New iOS bug that displays an Indian character can crash iPhones and disable access to iMessages and WhatsApp
• The character is from Telugu, a Dravidian language spoken in India
• Apple gadgets running iOS 11.2.5 or macOS are susceptible to the bug
• Opening a message containing the character is enough to crash the system
• A fix is expected in iOS 11.3 which is due to be released in the coming months
A devastating 'text bomb' that crashes Apple devices has been uncovered by researchers.
It works by sending iPhones, iPads and Macs into a frenzy thanks to a single character from a language used in India.
Opening a message containing the character is enough to crash iOS Springboard, the system app which manages the device's home screen.
Apple gadgets running iOS 11.2.5 or macOS, are susceptible to the bug, which disables access to iMessages.
Other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Outlook for iOS, and Gmail, are also cut off.
News of the bug emerged after reports in Italian blog Mobile World and has since been widely replicated, with numerous confirmations posted online.
The character is from the Telugu language, a Dravidian language spoken in India by about 70 million people, roughly five per cent of the country's population.
As apps try and fail to load the character, users can get trapped in an endless loop of crashes.
The only way to escape this cycle is to get someone else to message you and delete the thread containing the malicious message.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5396271/Indian-character-crash-iPhones-latest-text-bomb-bug.html#ixzz57GnB0YKd
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Apple software ,is unsafe for any task ( but it looks cute ).
Manufacturing software or a mix of software embedded in electronics chips and system / appklication software is just the same as making anything else from a light bulb to a jet engine.
Now hard experience and plenty of disasters have given manufacturers in general plenty of reason to cooperate and work with methods and materials standards at the same time as looking for competitive edge. Even now some try to take a short cut e.g. Volkswagen or whole countries (India, China ).
Original mainframe software was tightly controlled from the get go by people such as the formidable Admiral Grace Hopper inventor of COBOL.
Microcomputer software was not it grew up like a mould in the back of California garages (Apple) and the labs at Ivy League university drop outs (Microsoft).
Well of course users went for a oretty face every time and soon enough Apple and Windows dominated the users desktop and sought to wriggle into other devices such as laptops and mobile phones. Along the way there were non stop mega disasters and near disasters where the root problem was undisclosed software errors.
These errors came pretty close to killing off Microsoft. In the end it let go a raft of senior people eg Steve Bulmer and moved to a different way of doing things. These days although you cannot buy a copy of Windows source code in Waterstone's the company is far, far more open with its software when working with hts business partners. The result has been much tighter code, better quality and a very sig improvement in profits.
Although Steve Jobs is no longer physically with us his shadow most certainly is. Google's motto is "Do No Harm". Apple's was and is "Apple Can Do No Wrong".
The result has been that although it's current software is built on top of linux ( as is Google ) unlike Google acces to the source code is as tight as a ducjks ass. No peer review. The inevitable result is serious security errors, Apple deliberately killing your battery and so on and on.
Apple makes a lot of money out of not much largely using a business model based on looks not functionality or performance. That is one reason why it makes sudden 90 degree changes on specs for connecting kit, even its own.
Unless and until Apple change the way to work the best advice is to look elsewhere. There is plenty of choice.
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thanks for that Rollo (I think)
:-S
But for those of us who already have and are happy with Iphones and Ipad etc follow the original post. :-)
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