Why Do Apple Products Reset To January 1st 1970 ?

Apple's software and operating system is based on the unix framework. So when the batteries drain out or if the device is reseted, almost all Apple products be it Macbook's, iPhones, iPads, iPods etc. reset to the beginning of unix epoch time or POSIX time: 12:00 AM UTC 1st January, 1970.

Unix time calculates the number of seconds elapsed since that date. But here comes the problem. The standard Unix time_t (data type representing a point in time) is a signed integer data type, traditionally of 32 bits. This means maximum amount of seconds that unix time based devices can calculate will eventually run out on 19 January 2038 ! Think of it as the next Y2K bug, some even call it the UNIX millennium bug. Its such a big problem that xkcd even made a comic on it :

Courtesy : xkcd

This problem could effect unix and unix like (linux) devices. Including many modern apple, android and linux based devices. The most vulnerable are embedded system devices like GPS, communication devices and transportation safety systems in air crafts, automobiles, ships etc. The embedded devices cannot be easily updated and pose a huge risk for failure.

Fortunately modern 64 bit system use signed 64-bit time_t integers which enable them to display time approximately 292 billion years from now. So you won't have to worry till they year December 292,277,026,596. Check out more information on the Year 2038 problem here.