It’s long been known that getting an iPhone repaired by a non-Apple technician invalidates your warranty. But now it seems there’s another price to pay for leaving the company’s hermetic hug.
According to what reports suggest are 'thousands' of user testimonies, the latest iOS 9 version of Apple’s operating system is capable of determining if a third-party shop has carried out repairs to an iPhone in the past.
Worse still, images, videos, contacts and music stored on the phone are erased too, without hope of retrieval unless you backed up the data or use Apple's iCloud cloud storage service.
The problem, which has been dubbed Error 53, appears to be restricted to iPhones equipped with TouchID fingerprint recognition technology in the home button.
But it’s seemingly only come to light once users have updated their phones to the latest iOS 9 version of Apple’s iPhone operating system.
As is the way of such things, some have speculated that Apple has installed the ‘bricking’ mechanism in iOS 9 as a cash cow, effectively forcing customers into an official Apple Store. Where, of course, repairs are usually much more costly than at your friendly, neighbourhood phone repair shop.
