A message is circulating the Internet advertising an apparent new feature to the latest Apple mobile operating system iOS8 called “Wave” that allows users to charge their mobile phone in any household microwave.
The messages often come attached to an official looking infographic (below) that introduces “Wave” as the “Next Big Thing” and an “iOS8 exclusive”.
In reality the messages are nothing more than a potentially damaging hoax, presumably with the objective of duping more gullible readers into irreversibly damaging their phones, which is exactly what putting it in a microwave and trying to charge it will do.
The popular infographic – which has been spreading prolifically through Twitter – claims that “iOS8 contains new drivers that interface with your devices radio-baseband allowing it to synchronize with microwave frequencies and use them to recharge your battery.”
Whilst it may sound plausible enough to the non-technically inclined, to anyone with any kind of technical or engineering background it can easily be dismissed as nonsensical jargon that makes no sense whatsoever.
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A microwave will destroy a mobile phone and a software update cannot prevent that from happening. This isn’t the first time rumours have circulated the Internet that claim you can charge your mobile phone in the microwave, which have spread on and off for over 7 years now.
A startlingly similar rumour about iOS8’s predecessor, iOS7, circulated this time last year that claimed that software made the iPhone waterproof and that – once installed – iOS7 would allow a user to submerge their phone in a container of water without any permanent damage.
Of course this rumour was equally false as a software upgrade can’t make a device waterproof just like it can’t make a device immune to being “charged” in a microwave.
Bottom line – don’t try and charge your phone in a microwave. Your warranty is unlikely to cover that, and you might get some odd looks when you take your phone to the Apple store and explain what happened.
