Apple is expected to reveal iOS 12, which is the next version of the mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad, and iPod at the WWDC 2018 event due to be held next month. The California based conglomerate is expected to announce fewer features this year and instead focus more on the stability of the operating system. If some of you are wondering why Apple is taking such a calculative step, it may be due to the latest bug that has hit Apple devices globally.
A new Unicode bug has appeared recently called the ‘Black Dot’ bug that is crashing Apple devices across the world. The bug first appeared on Whatsapp for Android making the app to crash in an infinite loop and also affected the Android operating system. It has now spread to iOS devices as well and nearly all iPhones and iPads running on iOS 11.3 and iOS 11.4 beta has been affected.
Apparently, the black dot bug works by exploiting the string that contains thousands of invisible Unicode characters that churns through the CPU cycles as the system tries to process them. This causes the system to overload and crash. This particular bug is being forwarded through messages and when a user tries to read the message, it causes the app to crash repeatedly.
Apple users can temporarily prevent their device from getting affected by not opening the message containing the black dot bug. They can do so by force quitting the Messages app and then use 3D Touch to open a new message pane. Then they can go back to the Messages app and delete the message containing the bug. Another process is to delete the particular message remotely by using another iCloud synced device.
Apple is usually quick to respond to these bugs so we are expecting a word from the company and a fix to address this issue soon.