A five-second video is causing a stir for crashing iPhones and iPads that run on both old and new versions of Apple's iOS. The effect does not take place instantly: it takes about 10 seconds after the mp4 video is played for a device to slow down and freeze.
After playing the video, iPhone or iPad users can still exit the player and browse through their device. The screen begins to freeze after a few seconds, The Verge reports. A YouTube video by EverythingApplePro illustrates how it all happens.
It is not clear what causes an iPhone or iPad to malfunction after playing the video, which appears through a hyperlink. It is possible, however, that the short clip is a corrupted file that the iOS cannot properly handle, leading devices to crash, TNW explains.
While reports mostly came from users of the iPhone and iPad, a MacBook Pro user running on MacOS Sierra reported that his laptop crashed after he watched the clip on the laptop's Safari browser. Android users, meanwhile, have reported being able to watch the video without glitches.
Fortunately, the glitch is not permanent and does not seem to have long-lasting effects. To allow for a recovery, tech sites said iPhone and iPad users should simply reboot their devices by pressing and holding the power and home buttons at the same time. Everything will then go back to normal.
It's not the first time for a glitch to cause problems among Apple devices. Early this year, a string of text messages disabled the iMessage app. Apple has since fixed the bug.
Apple is expected to do something about the latest glitch affecting its iPhones and iPads. Until then, however, experts are advising users to be careful what links they open and videos they play.
