Rare iOS bug can cause text messages to crash your iPhone

Rare iOS bug can cause text messages to crash your iPhone

But the message must contain a specific series of Arabic characters, so you're likely to receive it only as a prank. And there are ways to resolve the problem.

A bug in iOS is causing certain text messages to crash your iPhone.CNET

A quirky bug in Apple's iOS can crash and reboot your iPhone if you receive a certain text message.

First revealed by a Reddit user on Tuesday, the bug works as follows: Someone texts you a message with a specific string of Arabic characters. If your iPhone is locked, and you receive a notification of the new text, iMessage crashes and your iPhone proceeds to reboot.

iOS bugs are nothing new. Since its release last September, iOS 8 has been beset by glitches that have forced Apple to continually issue updates to resolve certain issues. But this latest bug is much more random and rare than others, so it's not something that would affect a wide audience. And it's one that users can resolve themselves without waiting for Apple to issue a fix.

What's the cause behind this newly-discovered bug? It's not the Arabic characters per se but the way iOS tries to handle the full text string, as described by AppleInsider. The Unicode characters that attempt to render and display the string chew up too many resources when your phone is locked and the notification of the message appears.

The folks at AppleInsider sent the same text string during a normal iMessage conversation, and the iPhone did not crash or reboot. That test suggests the glitch lies more within iOS's notifications process and not within the iMessage app.

Several iOS users have chimed in on Reddit and Twitter to report the problem. But it's not one likely to affect most people. First of all, you'd need to be texted that specific string of characters while your iPhone is locked. That means you're not going to receive it accidentally but rather from someone who knows your mobile number and is purposely trying to crash your iPhone for some reason.

What if you do bump into this particular bug? There are a few ways around it.

You can always turn off notifications for text messages, but that's hardly an ideal solution. Instead, you can simply trigger another text message. You can ask the person who sent you the original message to send a new one, assuming that person didn't send it maliciously. Otherwise, you can send yourself a text message easily enough by telling Siri to do it or using an iOS app that lets you share content via iMessage. The new text message essentially supercedes the older message, so you can use iMessage again.

Apple knows about the problem and is working on a fix.

"We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update," an Apple spokesperson said.

Apple didn't say when the fix would roll out, but it could pop up as soon as the next iOS update appears. Developers are currently beta testing iOS 8.4, so Apple may have time to squeeze in a fix before it rolls that latest update.

Read More

Apple's envisioned multitouch keyboard could kill the trackpad

Apple's envisioned multitouch keyboard could kill the trackpad

Described in a newly-published Apple patent filing, the so-called Fusion keyboard could pick up multitouch gestures from your keystrokes, potentially eliminating the need for a trackpack.

Could trackpads one day be obsolete?Apple/USPTO

Your future Apple MacBook may not need a trackpad for you to move around the screen.

Published on Tuesday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed simply "Fusion keyboard" describes a keyboard with keys that can both insert characters as well as deploy touch gestures.

Why create a laptop that doesn't necessarily need a trackpad? Size is one major reason. The trackpad on MacBooks as well as other laptops take up a fare amount of space, increasing the overall size of the device. A laptop that dispensed with a trackpad could shrink in overall size or allow greater space for the keyboard so the keys aren't as scrunched together and are therefore easier to type on. You'd also be able to work faster since your hands would never have to leave the keyboard to move to a trackpad.

How would a Fusion keyboard work? You'd be able to swipe your fingers across the keys to move across the screen, just as you can with a trackpad. The touch-sensitive keys would provide all the functionality of a trackpad, giving you the ability to point and click, select items, zoom in and out and scroll around the screen, all without leaving the keyboard.

Each key would also have two levels, so you'd be able to perform different tasks based on how hard you press the key. For example, pressing the key softly to the first level could input a character, while pressing it harder to the second level might register a mouse click.

Further, you'd be able to type and swipe at the same time. So your left hand might be typing away on the left side of the keyboard, while your right hand would be swiping across a set of keys to move around the screen.

In the patent application, Apple describes the drawback with current keyboards:

There have been numerous attempts made to introduce an alternative to the standard keyboard. The changes include, but are not limited to, non-QWERTY layouts, concave and convex surfaces, capacitive keys, split designs, membrane keys, etc. However, while such alternative keyboards may provide improved usability or ergonomics, they have failed to replace or duplicate the commercial success of the conventional mechanical keyboard.

As always, a patent application by itself doesn't mean the invention will ever hit the real world. But by adding touch sensitivity to the standard mechanical keyboard, the Fusion keyboard could succeed where other alternative keyboards have failed.

Read More