In the most incalculably ironic twist of fate ever devised by the computer gods, the iPhone 5S with iOS 7 is afflicted by a bug that results in a random Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and then a complete reboot. While the iPhone BSOD lacks the mumbo-jumbo of mostly useless information that's present on the Windows BSOD, the similarities between the iPhone 5S/iOS 7 and Windows BSODs are shocking -- even the shade of blue is virtually the same.
The iPhone BSOD appears to be exclusive to the new iPhone 5S, which comes with iOS 7 and the iWork suite of productivity apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote). While there are a lot of BSOD reports(Opens in a new window) on the official Apple Support forum, they mostly seem to revolve around the iWork apps. It's hard to nail down the exact issue causing the BSOD, but it looks like it pertains to exiting iWork apps, or switching from an iWork app to another app.
It appears that the bug in iWorks/iOS 7 isn't merely restricted to throwing BSODs, too. "If I open a document in Numbers, then press the power button, the phone seems to power itself off almost instantly instead of just going to sleep," wrote one Apple Support user. "Now is stuck on the loading screen!!! wont boot up!! Sad for me since I got my 5S just today and its already completely unusable!" wrote another.
iPhone 5S BSOD Some users report that the BSOD can be mitigated by disabling iCloud sync for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, though there are also reports that the BSODs and buggy behavior still persist. It's also worth noting that the iPhone 5S BSOD bug has existed since the phone's release last month, and yet Apple did not (or could not) fix it with the latest iOS 7.0.2 patch.
The iPhone 5/iOS 7 BSOD is ludicrous for two reasons. First, of all the colors that Apple could've chosen, why did it pick almost exactly the same shade of blue as Microsoft? A software engineer at Apple either has a fantastic sense of humor, or completely lacks any kind of foresight at all. Second, it's insane that a normal user-space (non-root) app has the power to crash and reset an iOS device. This either hints at a vulnerability in iOS's (usually strong) sandboxing, or Apple is being naughty and using elevated, non-user-space functions. (It's telling that it's in-house Apple apps causing the BSOD, not third-party apps that wouldn't have access to any special, but dangerous, features.)
Apple is yet to respond to any requests for comment, and we wouldn't be surprised if it remains that way. Apple will likely fix the bug in an upcoming release of iOS, and that'll be that. Delicious iron aside, in the mean time, we should probably pay more attention to iOS 7's battery life and nausea-inducing issues.
Now read: The iPhone 5S sensors are dangerously faulty: How did Apple mess up?
