Apple's mysterious 'Error 53' is back and killing iPhones repaired by third parties

An old bug called Error 53 is back and is troubling iPhone 6 users who have complained that their devices repaired by third-party repair shops are breaking.

The bug resurfaced when a journalist, who broke his phone screen while covering a refugee crisis was forced to get it repaired in a third-party store. While the phone initially worked fine after the repair, a subsequent update of the iOS produced the Error 53 bug making the device useless.

A report on The Verge notes that this isn't the first time the issue has popped up. However, the problem arises when the iPhone repaired by a third-party store gets a new version of the iOS. Once a phone is met with the error, there is nothing to do but send it back to the Apple headquarters.

Following consumer complaints, Apple acknowledged the issue and in its statement said that the Error 53 was the result of security checks performed after installing an update, especially the ones that pair the TouchID to the internal Secure Enclave chip.

The tech giant said if the iOS finds a mismatch between the TouchID sensor and other components of the device, the check fails and the sensor, including for Apple Pay use, is disabled. It further noted that if the consumer encounters Error 53, they should contact Apple Support.

While it is true that the Secure Enclave chip is central to the iPhone's overall security, without a verified connection between the TouchID sensor and the Secure Enclave the iPhone's fingerprint system could be vulnerable to any attack. Without a verified connection, the payment systems like Apple Pay would not be possible.

However, many of the reported issues do not seem to be related to the TouchID at all. For example, one of the iPhone users got the device repaired for a simple screen crack at an unauthorised dealer and yet encountered the Error 53 after updating to iOS 9 months later.

Apple says that faulty screens may cause the check to fail, leaving users with no way to recover from the predictable issue.

Virtual reality set to transform filmmaking

Chris Milk stepped onto a TED Conference stage and took the audience on an awe-inducing trip into the future of movies. While much of the early attention on virtual reality has focused on use of the immersive technology in video games, Milk and his US startup Vrse are using it to transform storytelling and filmgoing. "We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," Milk said. "It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way... I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world." He had everyone in the Vancouver audience at TED , which ended Friday, hold Google Cardboard viewers to their eyes for what was billed as the world's collective virtual reality experience. Google Cardboard gear is literally that -- cardboard

Explained: Camera Improvements in the New HTC 10

With the HTC 10, the Taiwanese company is promising to undo the past wrongs in the cameras of its previous flagship phones. The camera has long a weak point in HTC devices. At first, HTC sacrificed image resolution in the M8 and made the size of individual pixels larger to capture more light (what HTC called Ultrapixel). But the resulting 4 megapixel images were often fuzzy, especially when cropped or enlarged. To fix the issue, in its next flagship - the M9 - HTC went with smaller individual pixels in a 20-megapixel camera last year, but it still underperformed in extreme situations, such as indoors and close-ups. In the HTC 10, the company attempts to strike a balance with larger individual pixels (1.55µm), but not as large as before and a 12 megapixel sensor in its camera coupled with a ƒ/1.8 lens. HTC accepts that in the imaging performance in the M9 was not up to the kind of spec of what they really like to see in a flagship. HTC is giving a slight boost to the selfi...

Freedom 251: 30,000 Units Sold, Components for Up to 2.5 Million Will Be Imported

Ringing Bells, the makers of the Rs. 251 smartphone - the Freedom 251 - confirmed to Gadgets 360 on Tuesday that it has still only accepted payments for 30,000 units of the phone. It also added that the components for these phones will be imported, and only assembled in India, not made here. Ringing Bells stopped accepting orders on February 19, and claims to have received over 70 million registrations. The company President and Director both repeatedly stated that the price of the phone would be made possible through economies of scale, and making the phone in India to cut out import costs. Economies of scale? However, in a discussion with Gadgets 360 the company revealed that it had only sold 30,000 units of the phone on day one. The company has now confirmed that it has not sent out the payment emails to anyone else who registered - "we were working out details of cash on delivery, which we are announcing now, so we will be sending emails to the first 2.5...

IntellectBeat

Search This Blog