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Rotten egg: Setting your iPhone's date as 1970 will not activate a retro theme

There's an Easter egg in the iPhone operating system that will give your phone the same retro-cool Apple Macintosh Computers theme from 1970.

The problem: Apple Computers did not exist in 1970 and hunting for and hatching this egg will do nothing but brick your phone.

In a master troll prank believed to have originated on the 4Chan message board, the "Blast from the past" troll graphic told curious iOS users that setting the phone's date to January 1, 1970, will give it an old-school Macintosh theme.

Retro-cool Macintosh theme Easter egg will only brick your phone.
Retro-cool Macintosh theme Easter egg will only brick your phone.


"With this Easter egg, warp back in time with a classic Macintosh theme to relive the magic on your iPhone," reads the graphic that mimics the look and feel of an Apple advert.

However, the date change only trips a bug in the operating system that breaks the phone almost beyond redemption. A hard reset will not work, nor will the iTunes reboot.

Apparently the only way to save the device is to have a technician disconnect and reconnect the battery or for the battery drain itself completely flat, a wait of about two weeks.

Did not hold water: Software update suddenly makes your hardware waterproof.
Did not hold water: Software update suddenly makes your hardware waterproof.

The Macintosh date-bug can affect iPhone 5s and anything released since and most iPads.

It's not the first time 4chan's master trolls have struck gullible iPhone users.

Plenty of bright sparks were caught by this prank that convinced them their iPhones could be charged in the microwave.
Plenty of bright sparks were caught by this prank that convinced them their iPhones could be charged in the microwave.

Other pranks include the "Wave" function released with iOS8 which told users they could charge their phone in a microwave and the iOS7 software update that suddenly made their phones waterproof.

Plenty fell for them and it seems many have not learnt from others' mistakes.

News break – February 15