Readers, a friendly heads up: No matter what you see or hear on the Internet, don’t cook your iPhone in the microwave.
Pranksters associated with the notorious message board site 4chan created some slick-but-fake promotional materials for the so-called “Apple Wave,” described as a new feature for the iPhone 6 that allows users to charge their battery by heating it like a TV dinner.
To be clear, the method is about as effective as banging it with a sledgehammer, but that didn’t stop hundreds of 4channers from promoting the gag on Twitter under the hashtag #AppleWave.
Believe it or not, it’s not the first time a 4chan stunt targetted a new Apple innovation: Last year, pranksters sent around a similarly fake ad that claimed downloading iOS 7 would waterproof your iPhone, though if you fell for that you probably didn’t really deserve to carry around a smartphone in the first place.
For what it’s worth, here’s what actually happens when you put a cell phone in the microwave. Granted, this is an iPhone 5, but the general principle still applies:
