Mysterious email sent from 1969 plagues some iPhone 4 users. WTF???

As if the iPhone 4 didn't have enough troubles, a mysterious software issue has been plaguing some users. There's a flurry of discussion on the Apple forums about blank email messages appearing on the iPhone that can't be deleted. Even more strange is the date that appears on those messages: December 31, 1969.
Almost as soon as iOS4 became available, some users began seeing emails appear in their MobileMe or Gmail accounts with no sender, no subject, and no content. The date on the messages was shown as 12/31/69 (though some users saw 1970). Weird, certainly, but not that inconvenient — until they discovered that, like the poncho, these unwelcome visitors from the 1960s couldn't be deleted permanently.
A number of forum members have suggested fixes ranging from the simple (just go to your Sent folder and go back) to the laborious (one user posted a 34-step process). Some have even been successful at fixing the problem, but it's often temporary. We contacted Apple to see if there's any official word on this email-from-the-'60s problem. If we hear anything we'll update this post. In the meantime, we suddenly have a hankerin' to listen to some Hendrix…

A screenshot of the reported email:

IMAGE ( [link to dvice.com] )


[link to dvice.com]

Apparently, it's a UNIX glitch. On UNIX systems (which is most servers), time is counted starting from Jan 1, 1970 (that's when times begins according to UNIX). IMO, these dates are too close to be mere coincidence (< 1 hour, could be time zone differences or even daylight savings). I'm not sure if OS4 is based on UNIX but I know that the flagship Apple operating system, OS X, definitely is. Regardless, the servers that process the emails are most likely run on UNIX. Again, this is probably due to a glitch with UNIX, seeing how the UNIX clock begins with that date.

As far as Apple being glitch free with their ground-breaking gadgets, I wouldn't go that far, though they are usually very good at getting them fixed, quickly.

--airspoon

[edit on 21-7-2010 by airspoon]

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