Slashdot Mirror


iPhone Alarm Bug Leads To Mass European Sleep-in

nk497 writes "A flaw in the alarm clock in iPhone 4s gave Europeans a bit of a lie-in this morning. While the Apple handsets automatically adjusted to daylight savings time, a bug in the alarm system meant many were woken up an hour later than they should have been, after clocks rolled back over the weekend. Annoyingly, Australia was hit by a similar problem last month, but Apple failed to fix the problem or even warn users. American Apple fans, consider yourselves warned. The iOS4 bug can apparently be avoided by using one-off alarms, rather than pre-set regular wake-up calls."

10 of 487 comments (clear)

  1. Sheesh by AdmiralXyz · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a bunch of whiners. Apple tries to do something nice for you, give you a little more time in the morning, and this is how you thank them?

    --
    Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
    1. Re:Sheesh by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You know... that sounds awfully familiar...

      Are you saying that it's not, in fact, a bug?

      And that it could be, instead, a feature?

    2. Re:Sheesh by Stewie241 · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, rather that it's a problem that all cell phones have because of the nature of the technology.

    3. Re:Sheesh by Santzes · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they're sleeping in wrong?

  2. Re:Not just iPhone 4s by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    my girlfriends 3gs (running iOS 4.x) had the same bug this morning.

    Fortunately, my $99 android phone woke us up at the right time

    I am sure that Apple will fix it shortly, then patent alarm clock apps for mobile phones that adjust automatically for daylight savings.

  3. Real bug: changing the time by noidentity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real bug is that we change the time at all, considering all the problems it brings.

    1. Re:Real bug: changing the time by Aqualung812 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Daylight savings saves (hence the name) billions every year in electricity costs."

      Incorrect, DST causes more electricity to be used. It is bad for the economy and the environment. Hint: Air Conditioning uses more power than lights.

      --
      Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
  4. daylight savings time by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not one comment yet about the real culprit here: daylight savings time. If we didn't have it anywhere in the world, then programmers wouldn't have to worry about when DST happens in different timezones (or which places have DST and which don't), or worry about what to do with log files or anything else when time jumps an hour.

    Someone remind me please what we're saving? It's not electricity, because we use lightbulbs before sunrise and after sunset in summer and winter.

  5. Re:Is this story for real? by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know anybody under the age of thirty who doesn't use their phone as an alarm clock.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  6. Hate for DST aside, how does this bug even exist? by Animaether · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see a lot of posts with hate for DST.. that's fine, I'd be happy if it were abolished as well.

    But now back to there being a bug in how the alarm thing is handled on the iPhone. How does that bug even exist?

    If the alarm is set for a particular time, say "7am".. then what does it matter whether or not the clock went back an hour at 3am?
    I can understand the alarm app going a bit batty if the clock went back at 8am (essentially the alarm going off -twice- that day), but given the actual circumstances... how did the alarm decide that it should instead be going off at 8am? The clock, presumably, does give the correct time.. so it's not like its internal time functions don't know what time it actually is. I'm confused. Is this just some manner of shoddy coding going on?

    What's worse is how Apple is handling it... i.e. 'not'. Most of America (some states ignore DST already) is up for its DST change next week. I guess most people are now warned by the media attention (where was that when it was NZ / AU?).