Is anyone really drilling earphone jacks into their iPhone?

Please - don't try this at home

Got a new iPhone 7 already? Or are you hesitating because Apple lost that headphone jack and everyone's complaining about it?

Fear not, apparently you can just drill a hole in the phone, plug in your old headphones and you're good to go.

Of course this won't work - seriously, don't do it - but a hoax video on YouTube appears to have convinced some of the 10 million people who have now watched it that it will.

Tech explainer videos are a big thing on YouTube, and more appear whenever Apple launches a new gadget or software update.

Don't know how to switch this or that thing on or off anymore? Most likely someone has already made a close-up instructional film, with a friendly voice talking you through the process.

Complaints about the absence of the headphone jack in the new iPhone also made it to Youtube in no time, and TechRax responded with "a very simply tutorial" - just drill a hole in it.

Comments galore

If the phone starts flashing "this is perfectly normal," says the friendly voice as he clamps his brand new iPhone into a vice.

"This means you're on your way to getting a brand new headphone jack," he says, taking a power drill to it.

He then plugs in headphones in the new hole and music begins to play, though rather obviously, through the speakers not the headphones.

The man behind the video is a California-based Ukrainian called Taras Maksimuk, who says he specialises in "smashing technology for your pleasure".

In other recent videos he has tested whether the iPhone will survive in a microwave (it doesn't) or five minutes in a bowl of nitrogen (also no).

But his earphone jack video, posted on 17 September, seems to have been taken seriously by some of its 10 million viewers, with Maksimuk saying on Twitter: "Legit people complaining to me about them drilling the iPhone 7 for a headphone jack."

On the YouTube video itself, there are plenty of comments - some too rude for a BBC screenshot - from angry users saying they ruined their phone and how much they hate the prankster.

Comments like this might be a joke, but there's a chance that just maybe some of the outraged people are serious, and actually did drill a hole into their devices.

'Drill a second hole to share'

There are also those who appear to be in on the joke, and claim it worked just fine...

... to others who give specific advice on how to improve the hack if you want to, say, drill a second headphone jack into your phone.

You could then share your music with a friend or listen in stereo (don't even ask how that would make sense).

Hand-crafted HDMI

Why stop at the headphones?

A common complaint about iPhones is that you can't expand the storage with an external SD card as you can with many other phones. So why not just get out a proper blade and and hand craft that slot - problem solved?

With a bit of careful carving skills you might even be able to add a full fledged HDMI port to connect the phone with your giant TV set.

The debate on the video goes back and forth on whether you could also use a gun to shoot the hole into your device, whether you should maybe wash the phone in bleach afterwards to clean away the metal dust, to ironic speculations why the phone won't switch on after the operation.

The endless string of comments sucks you into something of a vortex.

So let's give a last few words to a voice of reason, trying to tear into that delicate postmodern tapestry - by pointing out that it's maybe not that funny if some people actually ruin their phones as a result of that prank.

And once again, please don't try any of this at home.