Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro has been placed in a time capsule to be opened in 2276, symbolising our era’s technology for future generations to view as a historical artefact. Picture: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
Image: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
In one of the more unusual pieces of tech news this year, Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro has been chosen as the flagship smartphone to represent our era.
As part of the United States’ July 4 Independence Day celebrations, marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s independence from Great Britain, an iPhone 17 Pro was placed inside a time capsule that will remain sealed for the next 250 years.
The capsule is due to be opened in 2276, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of American independence.
While it is highly unlikely the device will still function after two and a half centuries, the phone is expected to survive as a historical artefact rather than a working piece of technology. Its battery will almost certainly have suffered complete structural and chemical failure long before then.
Instead, future generations are more likely to view the iPhone as a relic from an earlier technological age — much like the tongue-in-cheek remark in Back to the Future Part II, where a child (a very young Elijah Wood) mocks the idea that people once had to use their hands to operate devices.
The iPhone 17 Pro is one of Apple’s most advanced smartphones, featuring a 120Hz ProMotion display, the new A19 chip and the company’s biggest redesign of the Pro camera system in five years, with a larger rectangular camera housing replacing the previous square design.
For 2026, this is an incredibly powerful device that would be more than powerful enough to run a current generation media player, if Apple were to allow that.
Whether those specifications still seem impressive in 2276 is another question entirely.