Entertainment For Lively Minds
iPhone alarm problem
Posted by Johan on 3 January 2011 - 12:04am.
So I'm watching the BBC news and they've just devoted several minutes to the fact that the alarm function on the iPhone wasn't working properly this morning.
That's right, a minor glitch in a mobile phone and it makes the main national news bulletin. Are they kidding?
And they had an interview with a bloke who appears to have made a special trip to the Apple shop in Regent Street, just because his alarm clock didn't go off!
Normally I hate the expression "Get a life", but really ...
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It's simple
The BBC News editorial team obviously all used the 'My iPhone alarm didn't go off!' as an excuse for being late for their shift today.
Tomorrow's lead story: OUTBREAK OF DOGS EATING HOMEWORK
Frankly
the alarm is the second to last thing that I use mine for, just ahead of talking into it.
It's the end of the world as we know it
Especially after some of my emails went awol from my Hotmail account. Luckily I had transferred them to my Mac email box otherwise I would have blamed myself for deleting them by accident.
A million pounds compensation should placate me Mr Gates and Mr Jobs thank you.
Hang on
How can the alarm suddenly go wrong? Some sort of 2011 version of the millenium bug. Why wouldn't the alarm just work? Can anyone explain?
It's software.
Software is always complicated, and there will be some un-necessary interaction between different ways that the date is stored and different internal triggers that should fire when date events happen.
The software will most likely not have been tested for the particular software environment - some parts of the Operating System will have been upgraded for new features, and this will have an unforeseen impact.
Actually...
...it is very important to some people. I first heard of this via a mailing list I subscribe to that deals with a particular genetic condition. Getting children to adulthood depends on dietary therapy that involves regular feeds. Feeds in the middle of night depend on parents being woken by an alarm. Not surprisingly, people are a bit concerned to find that their iPhone alarms might not go off. It's just not the kind of thing you expect to go wrong is it?
FFS!
It's a PHONE!!! A Phone can wake you up but there are lots of things that can go wrong with a phone while you sleep. If it's important to wake up then its better to use a dedicated device as a backup, I believe it's called an Alarm Clock..perhaps Apple will release some white plastic glowing version that costs 4 times as much as a normal alarm clock, called the iWakeup if that helps.
Failing that, ask a policeman to throw some gravel at your window at an allotted time as they did in Victorian times.
Not just a phone
While I think this is a bit of a non story, I do think that it's reasonable to expect the alarm on a phone to work properly after all, it's one of the basic functions that is always there on mobile phones. If you go away for the weekend, or for work then you no longer take a travel alarm with you because the phone should work. My concern would be that if there's a basic problem with the alarm then what else has been overlooked.
Must admit the 3-time world alarm clock
is still one of the nicest features of the old Palms:
for those of us who can't afford a Geochron
but crave that Bond-villainy-on-the-cheap aesthetic
I'm with you, dear Doctor.
The whole world has gone dummy-substitute mad if anyone thinks this is in any way at all important.
I take your point but
I havent used an an alarm clock since I got a phone with an alarm on it about 14 years ago. Prior to that I had to carry a travel clock with me when away which was crap. The clock radio by the bed is only there so I can see the time if I wake up in the night. I would have to find the manual to learn how to set it, or ask my 10 year old.
I agree it's not a story but if you build a business on the mantra of It Just Works then people expect it to do just that.
I think Rory wotsit Jones -
I think Rory wotsit Jones - the BBC Technology Correspondence is complaining about his not working and he wants everyone to know. He was tweeting at the weekend about his Itunes not working either - him and apple products dont seem to get on well.
Someone had better tell the Guardian
to get a grip, as it makes front page news on their website too. We might get some proper news from both parties if they stopped being so Apple obsessed.