With rumors about an iPhone date bug circulating freely on the Internet, and various videos demonstrating how people could virtually "brick" their device by resetting its date, Apple has finally stepped in to address the issue. Importantly, the company also outlined that people who wanted help with the issue could contact them and how a fix will be rolled out soon.

Referring to the so called "January 1970" date bug, which had been noticed on 64 bit iOS devices, Apple stated in its support site that the bug affected devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. This particular bug comes into effect, if devices' dates were changed to any time prior to May 1970 and they are running iOS 8.x or iOS 9.x. The company went on to add in the official statement that an upcoming software update would include a fix for the issue.

As soon as Apple admitted the existence of the bug and indicated that it would be fixed in an upcoming update, many assumed that the fix that Apple was referring to will arrive when the iOS 9.3 arrives but the company could release it sooner. However, the "January 1970" date bug is not something serious and this could be one reason why the company took so long to acknowledge it. Also, users have to take a lot of effort to manually change the date back to Jan. 1, 1970 which will automatically result in the device not rebooting. This results in the iPhone, iPod or iPad turning into a brick.

Even as a number of videos emerged with people deliberately bricking their iOS devices with the aid of this particular bug, others have suggested fixes for it. One particular fix involves opening the device and removing the battery from it which once replaced will help it restart. As for people who have already disabled their iOS device using this particular bug, they need to contact Apple Support for a fix as they will not be able to download the update when it arrives.