20090308

Problem ID: 6719224709505015570
Entered by: Ben Simo

Florian's Bug: The hour the iPhone forgot

Tweeted by @florianseroussi. Confirmed by @karlerikson and @maxbeatty.

It is March 8th, 2009. This is the 2nd Sunday in March, the day that Daylight Savings Time starts in the United States and Canada. This evening, Florian Seroussi (@florianseroussi) reported trouble setting his iPhone alarm to 2:30 AM for a conference call. Karl Erikson (@karlerikson) and Max Beatty (@maxbeatty) quickly confirmed they found the same problem on their iPhones.

So what happens when you try to set an alarm for 2:30 the next morning when it is the second Sunday in March? Let's see... (Screen shots courtesy of Karl Erikson.)

Add an alarm for 2:30 AM.



And get an alarm for 1:30 AM.



It appears that the iPhone alarm is coded to adjust times in the 2 o'clock hour back to the 1 o'clock hour on the second Sunday of March. This is correct for actions that apply to the second Sunday of March. However it looks like the fine folks at Apple neglected to consider the case of users needing to set alarms on the day the time changes for the 2 o'clock hour of the next morning.

Max Beatty tested other times and provided the following video. Take a look.





Thank you to Florian Seroussi for finding what Apple missed. Maybe he is the only one that wants to be awakened at 2:30 in the morning after the shortest day of the year. :) In his honor, I dub this bug Florian's Bug.

And, I hope Florian makes it to his meeting on time.

  Edit

6 Comments:

March 9, 2009 at 12:04 AM  
Comment ID: 5837989610911958871
Written by: Anonymous

Interestingly enough, I set an alarm for 2:00am, which then appeared in my iPhone as 1:00am. Then I waited. The alarm went off at 2:00 as I'd originally set it...AND now I can set alarms in the two o'clock hour.

March 9, 2009 at 8:13 AM  
Comment ID: 3350971856958300294
Written by: Anonymous

It's very logical, in my humble developer's opinion. Of course it would have been nice if some notice was showed with an explanation that the hour would be recalculated.

March 9, 2009 at 12:07 PM  
Comment ID: 2964157423634278408
Written by: Ben Simo

Does being able to understand the logic of something make it not a bug?

If the software leads a user to believe they cannot set an alarm to a time for which they need an alarm, then I believe there is a problem.

March 9, 2009 at 8:34 PM  
Comment ID: 2227005293360452611
Written by: Unknown

It would be logical IF this was occurring during the night from March 7th to March 8th. But it is a major bug if this happened from March 8th to March 9th.

March 10, 2009 at 5:39 AM  
Comment ID: 2447697024356094077
Written by: Anonymous

@Ben. True, understanding the logic doesn't say anything about it being a bug or not. From a programmer's viewpoint that depends on the specs.
In a perfect world the programmer would inspect the design and give feedback. Probably this issue would have been detected (or am I just an optimistic noob?).
I agree there is a problem that ought to be looked at.

Btw, my name isn't really Anonymous, my parents named me Chris some 59 years ago.

March 10, 2009 at 6:01 AM  
Comment ID: 4646541232095295276
Written by: Ben Simo

Chris,

LOL. Had your parents named you Anonymous, then I'd say "There is a problem here."

In a perfect world, software would do as we intend, not as we code. :)

Ben

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