Apple has issued a warning to owners of some iPhones and iPads, advising them to update their operating system within the next two weeks. The company warns that devices that do not upgrade iOS will experience problems with GPS and incorrect date and times -- which in turn could cause problems with iCloud, email and other services.

Apple does not promise those users who splash out on new gear that it will be able to tell the time either, but this is the first time we have seen Apple’s inability to write essential software which was part of a six form computer studies course in the early 1980s, is being used to pressure users to upgrade.

The cut-off date is midnight UTC on November 3, 2019, and Apple is eager for users to upgrade as soon as possible as when the date rolls around it may not be possible for affected devices to receive OTA updates.

The issue affects iPhone and iPad models introduced in 2012 and earlier, and Apple explains that it is not specific to just its devices and claims that other manufacturers are facing the same problem. The same problem started to affect GPS-enabled devices from other manufacturers at the beginning of April this year.  The GPS satellites had a flavour of the Millenium bug which most phone companies fixed with a few lines of code.

Unfortunately writing a few lines of code that fixes the clock software on old iPhones is too much for Apple developers apparently and Jobs’ Mob wants users to upgrade to the latest version.

The affected devices are as follows:

iPhone 5
iPad (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular
iPhone 4s
iPad mini (1st generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular
iPad 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular (CDMA models only)
iPad (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular

If you have one of the devices listed below, it's especially important to update your device's software before November 3 to make sure that its GPS, date, and time continue to work properly.