The link to a prank website includes a character string that can cause the Safari browser for iOS devices and Mac computers to crash and likely require the user to reboot the smartphone, tablet, or PC. The crashsafari.com link not only affects iPhones and iPads but also Chrome on Android devices and laptops/desktops, but the effects are less severe and certain.

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The text string appears on the address bar. After around 20 seconds it causes the Apple smartphone to reboot and heat up as the iPhone tries to process the website's code likely due to the machine's memory being affected.   

Desktops and laptops are affected by the prank website to different degrees. This is based on how much processing power they have.  

The website does not seem to involve any malware, and restarting the Safari or Chrome browser, or device seems to solve the problem. However, security experts point out crashes are required for some hack attacks, according to Engadget.

Another method that hackers use is to include an URL shortener to hide the real link, and one shortened link to the trick website has been clicked more than 100,000 times. They then launch a hack when unsuspecting visitors are directed to a site.

The newest Apple device prank follows the "effective power" iPhone text bug. A bug in Apple's iOS allowed hackers to crash an iPhone by sending a particular string of characters in a text message, according to The Guardian.  

The OS bug was discovered by many Reddit users. When iPhone devices received the message they automatically crashed and reboot.

The glitch involves how Apple's iOS mobile operating system displays Arabic text. When a text message is shown in a banner alert or notification the system uses an ellipsis to abbreviate the text. When it is placed in the middle of a group of non-Latin characters such as Arabic or Chinese, the system crashes and the Apple phone then reboots.

Apple's Safari web browser was first released in 2003. A mobile version was bundled with IOS devices following the launch of the original iPhone in 2007. The web browser includes a  plugin blacklist that blocks all versions of Flash and Java.