“Y2K this is not. There are no worries that planes will fall from the sky. Yet when Europeans turned their clocks back during the wee hours Monday in accordance with the end of daylight-saving time, iPhones hiccuped,” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg Businessweek.
“The phone’s primary clock, which is synced with a server somewhere in the cloud, recorded the time change just fine. So-called recurrent alarms, those set by users to sound at the same time on given days, did not,” Satariano reports. “Those who relied on their phones to wake them at, say, 6:45 every weekday ended up snoozing until 7:45.”
“The software bug has its roots in the Congress. In 2005, legislators amended the Uniform Time Act to extend daylight-saving time, starting in 2007. The change, intended to prolong the number of daylight hours and thus conserve energy, means Americans move their clocks back a week later than Europeans do. The recurrent alarm feature in the latest iPhone software didn’t account for the discrepancy,” Satariano reports. “After Sunday, when the United States ends its prolonged daylight-saving time, the clocks of the DST-observing world will be in sync again, and the problem should be moot. Until March, that is, when DST begins again.”
“Natalie Harrison, an Apple spokeswoman, says the company is aware of the issue. Harrison told CNN that iPhone users in the United States must also remember to delete and then reset their phone’s alarm clock – otherwise they may be an hour late for work on Monday morning,” Satariano reports. “The company says it will deliver a fix along with a scheduled software update this month.”
Read more in the full article here.
My wind-up alarm clock still works after 30 years.
Are you sure?…
I recall some that will go to their graves saying ‘Dubya’ wasn’t President!
Some rubbish about being selected not elected!
But boy was he ever in power for everything else that some like to lay blame for, especially the current non man-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!
Funny how I always wake up two to three minutes before my alarm goes off. I don’t even know why I even use it. I guess as a safety net.
@ Cubert,
Can we call you Elisha?
… a fact MDN should perhaps have thought to mention.
The problem is that iOS is set to end DST on the US date: Nov 7. This is a week later than the EU, Australia etc- so their phones did not change time when they should have- and why they are being told to use manual alarms until Nov 8.
US iphones will change time when they are supposed to.
This is like my old VCR, which is hard-wired to change DST automatically on the old scheme (before US meddling) – now, twice a year, my VCR resets the time on the wrong date. For, like, the rest of it’s usable life.
A bit embarrassing that Apple didn’t foresee this…
Finally I understand what the &$)( was going on with those alarms!
Apple again delays a important and rather simple fix for a whole month so they can force upgrade everyone to the newest iOS version.
Firefox and Linux, they would have rolled out a patch in a few days tops.
Apple sure is adopting a lot of the Redmond ways…
Congress may have adopted the change but this was a measure pushed by the Chamber of Commerce to extend shopping. Energy saving was part of the white washing that was used to gain support for the bill.
Apparently we are more likely to shop after work if it is light out.
@Big Als MBP,
No, but you can call me Shanika.
Let’s have a MDN Take: Blackberry users unaffected.
Use my iPhone as my travel phone, and also travel radio with the Fidelio speaker set I picked up; it’s nice to know that I can find some good classical music or jazz no matter where I travel, or know that I can catch my local sports team if I’m far from home.
And it’s not that urgent, nor is it hard to fix; I deleted my alarms yesterday, will reset them tomorrow morning (I have an alarm to let me know when I have to get off the computer so I can make my bus).
U Apple fuckheads still playing circle jerk. What a bunch of inovative thinkers u folks are. A bug not fixed for over a month and u make excuses. Apple deserves u.
Bug hit this morning. What’s weird is that Sat night I set a test recurring alarm for 9 am everyday, it rang as expected despite the dst change. But editing the same alarm to 6:55, it failed to go off until 7:55. Thankfully I had a backup alarm!
Wondering how much lost productivity this will cause before it’s fixed.
The bug is real and does affect U.S. users. On Sunday I deleted and recreated my recurring alarm. On Monday, no alarm. I deleted and recreated it again. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.
This is the first Apple bug to directly affect me. It’s disappointing they didn’t issue an immediate fix or at least push out an email to all registered iPhone owners.
Where is the MDN take “Android users unaffected?”
I want daylight 24/7. I don’t have time to waste sleeping.
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