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Seriously, Apple? Daylight Saving Time?
By Brian | November 6, 2010 | Share on Facebook
You would think that by 2010, all of our smart phone manufacturers would have figured out Daylight Saving Time. I mean, maybe not the really old phones – the ones that were built back when sundials were still all the rage (i.e., the 1990′s), but the modern ones should be OK, right?
Turns out, a small, little-known phone manufacturer called “Apple” still hasn’t gotten it quite right:
Apple iPhone users in the United States must . . . remember to delete and then reset their phone’s alarm clock — otherwise they may be an hour late for work on Monday morning.
A glitch in the iPhone’s operating system will cause recurring weekday alarms not to ring on time on Monday morning because of the end of Daylight Saving Time, which occurs at 2 a.m. on Sunday in the United States. The phone’s alarm app doesn’t recognize the time change and will ring an hour late if users don’t go into the program and manually reset the alarms.
Users who depend on the iPhone to wake them up should create one-time alarms specifically for Monday morning, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison. “We suggest customers set non-repeating alarms for now and reset after November 7 to resolve the issue,” she told CNN.
Later this month, Apple will release an updated version of its mobile software, iOS 4.2, which will permanently fix the problem, Harrison said.
I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing – getting Daylight Saving Time wrong in your operating system, or releasing a fix for it a couple weeks after it’s needed.
Maybe the guy in charge of Daylight Saving Time was the same guy in charge of keeping the iPhone 4 prototype under wraps…
Topics: Tech Talk | 4 Comments »
I can verify that this article is at least partially incorrect. My iPod touch running OS 4.1 kept up with DST without issue. My iPod nano, with a firmware from 2007 or so, reset a week early, and then had an oddball problem where it kept using Greenwich Mean Time for a few days. I haven’t heard tech details on what the problem was — but it stemmed from last year’s shift of the end of DST. Presumably, the code to handle this was included immediately, but may have had some bugs? Don’t know the details.
As to actual iTiming(TM) issues in the real world, I can report that my iPad seemed to have updated properly, although I don’t use the alarm function, so I can’t say for sure what would have happened.
I’m curious about your Nano, since the DST shift wasn’t last year, but three years ago. So either: a) you haven’t installed an OS patch since the fall of 2007, or b) you’ve had this problem every year for the last three years and just noticed it now, or c) something about the most recent patch stopped working when the year = 2010.
Y2K10, anybody?
I think I’d remember if it were wrong the past two years, and I’m usually awake for the time change. I’m wondering if the initial enabling legislation was temporary, so there’s a sunset in the original code?
Wasn’t trying to make excuses for Apple — it doesn’t matter whether it’s easy or hard, this should Just Work. But a blanket statement that all iPhones are affected is clearly untrue.
Also, to clear up any confusion: the article did not say that the iPhone didn’t adjust the clock for daylight saving time. It said that the built-in alarm feature was not DST compatible, and that it would go off an hour late if it wasn’t reprogrammed. I’m not sure where the line between OS and app is here; that’s definitely something the author could easily have gotten wrong, especially if he/she is not a techie…
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