iPhone 5S plagued by ‘Blue Screen of Death’ issues

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple’s iPhone 5s handsets are reportedly suffering “Blue Screen of Death” style crashes that are forcing users to reboot their devices.

The so-called Blue Screen of Death is an error screen displayed by operating systems after a crash. It is generally associated with older versions of Microsoft’s Windows-based operating system.

However, numerous iPhone 5s users are reporting that their screens are turning a solid blue for a couple of seconds, just before the device crashes and reboots, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The error has been reported on Apple support forums and on Twitter. Only the new iPhone 5s seems to be affected. A video showing the problem has been viewed almost 900,000 times:

The crashes are thought to be triggered by Apple’s own iWorks apps that come free with all new iOS devices. One way to stop the reboots is to disable iCloud syncing for Apple’s Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps, according to The Verge.

Meanwhile, mobile application performance management company Crittercism claims that apps on the iPhone 5s are crashing twice as frequently as they do on the 5s or 5. The crash rate for the 5c and 5 are both under one per cent, but the crash rate for the 5s is about two per cent.

“Anytime there is new hardware or software release, we see issues,” Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy told AllThingsD. “Inevitably, over time, those issues get resolved.”

He added that Apple is “certainly aware” of issues and has already pushed out two updates for iOS. “Apple is doing a really good job of addressing these issues as they come up,” he said.

Several problems have been reported since Apple released its latest mobile software update, iOS7, including a glitch that prevented texts sent via iMessage from being delivered. Experts are expecting another patch to solve ongoing issues in the coming weeks. AGENCIES