If you have anywhere to be before January 3rd, then you had better not use an iPhone alarm to either wake you up or remind you, or you may find yourself late due to an odd New Year’s Day glitch in some Apple iPhones.
iPhone owners were not happy customers on New Year’s Day when they discovered that their much-loved phones had betrayed them and the unit’s one-time alarm system failed to work.
Right at midnight on the first, the one-time alarm on the iPhone, but not the recurring alarm, stopped working. The strange glitch appeared to affect iPhones using the operating systems of iOS 4.0.2, iOS 4.1, and iOS 4.2.1.
Irate iPhone users were quick to go on Twitter and other social networking sites to complain about the situation, with Apple responding with a temporary fix to the problem and a promise to get it fixed ASAP.
Apple told customers that they were aware of a problem concerning the one-time alarms set for anything on both January 1 or January 2. They assured everyone that by January 3, the alarms will work properly.
Apple expressed relief that the glitch came on a Saturday, as well as a holiday, which may have lessened the effects of the situation.
A similar problem occurred for European iPhone users in November 2010, when a different glitch caused their phone alarms to go off an hour late after not setting properly for the occurrence of daylight savings time. And again, in October 2010, phones in Australia and New Zealand had iPhone alarms go off an hour earlier than they were set for.
Perhaps it’s time to either fix these continuing glitches in the iPhone operating systems, or we all have to figure out another way to be on time for everything.
My iPhone alarm failed to go off today (Jan. 3rd). I set it last night for 4:27am and 4:35am – neither alarm went off. Luck for me I was having a sleepless night and was up in time for work.