“A bug in the iPhone clock app prevents non-recurring alarms from properly triggering on New Years day,” Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors.
For the bug to show itself, your iOS device must actually tick over from 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2010 to 12:00 a.m. on January 1, 2011.
Kim reports, “The work around for now is to set up the alarm as a recurring event.”
Full article here.
Mark Gurman reports for 9 to 5 Mac, “We just ran a few tests and the above iPhone alarm clock issue fixes itself on January 3rd.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “james W.” for the heads up.]
They have to rewrite the clock app. This is ridiculous.
They better fix this or else I am getting a designated alarm clock
I was not affected by this glitch, but would have to say that this kind of thing should not be happening.
Couldnt give a damn. Non-recurring? So one alarm on new years day doesn’t work? Wow. Serious non-event.
I’m having that much trouble with my iphone4,I’m thinking of changing to Android
Yep! It is significant for some as it just made me late for work!
I can’t even begin to describe the lameness of the iPhone alarm. I can’t imagine anyone relying on it to wake up to go to work. I use a bedside alarm myself – the iPhone alarm is a plaything used to amuse babies.
Quick call your lawyers,start the FUD machine sue Apple for not waking you out of your coma on New Years day … How on earth can you possibly continue life afte your alarm didnt go off on this totally obscured day? Sell your iPhones, your iPads and your Macs too (this may be contagious) ….
Oh wait a minute, how you gonna wake up out of this coma without your alarm going off…
The end of life and irreperable harm has come to all whose alarm failed on this once in a lifetime opportunity to be reminded that there’s life after antenagate…
Quick call your lawyers, start the FUD machine, sue Apple for not waking you out of your coma on New Years day … How on earth can you possibly continue life after your alarm didnt go off on this totally obscured day? Sell your iPhones, your iPads and your Macs too (this may be contagious) ….
Oh wait a minute, how you gonna wake up out of this coma without your alarm going off… ?
The end of life and irreperable harm has come to all whose alarm failed on this one day and once in a lifetime opportunity to be reminded that there’s life after antenagate…
I’ve been having major problems with time and date on my iPhone. The other day I unplugged my iPhone from my car charger, the iPhone reset and date was 1970. When I changed it back to 2010, I then had to sit through nearly an hour of accepting calendar notifications.
A little acknowledgement from Apple that they are aware of these bugs would be nice…
YAWN!!! … hmphh …. morning already?….what day is it?….where’s my iPhone?… must’ve slept through the alarm….
It affects recurring alarms also! That’s my experience.
@Breeze man you sure love kissing Apple and steve Job’s shinny bottom, how does it taste?
Some intern must have written the clock app for Apple. Luckily we have 1,000 3rd party clock apps in the app store. But which one is the best? Heck knows since the rating and review system is useless…
@Peter Pan
It seems to be an acquired taste. I’d rather not try it, but breeze is beyond repair.
No big deal.
No big deal, but the Android, Windows and other crap fanbois are foaming in the mouth and bleeding their fingers to death posting about it.
I tested this on both my iPad and iPhone 4 this morning running iOS 4.2.1, and both one-off alarms worked fine.
I’m alarmed … by Derek in Milan and Mark S. nonchalant attitude towards Apple’s apparent decline in their exemplar rationale. I got a suspicion that you regard the “It just works” maxim is just a sales pitch and not a determination.
However … by January 3rd my alarm will settle down.
Hey skylark, the problem will be fixed in an update. The trains will still run on time, people will say what they will say, including you.
So…no big deal.
Who uses an alarm? Ever hear of naturally waking up…oh yeah, that means getting to bed at a reasonable hour.
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What the F*****K Apple, I Missed My Flight Today And Because Of This I Lost £30000 On My Business Deal. I am getting a NOKIA Next time……………..
And F*****K You Apple
@agoodboy
What are you trying you spell?
@ agoodboy,
You are a liar, and not a very competent one at that. Eat shit.
If you didn’t sleep in on new years day your job sucks and you can’t afford your iPhone Hahahaha
Apple can’t even get a simple clock app right? What else should I not rely on? My iPhone 4 can’t hold a call or even beep when I need it to.
No issues here. The damn thing alarms when it suppose to and wakes me up
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Why the he’ll would you use that app to wake you up? Use iHome or iLuv’s app. The Clock App just really doesnt have up and at em sounds.
Glad to see someone finally calling @breeze out on his over-the-top “Apple is without any fault” attitude. Even Apple has things they can fix and improve upon. Jobs is a genius, but not perfect.
Bitten by the bug
wow……so mac daily news and all of the users just rip android apart the other day for a bug. and when apple has a bug, the writers don’t have one bad thing to say, just state. that is frustrating to me. i love a fair and balanced tech site. it’d be one thing if they help android and apple accountable. but if you only pick and one and the other…then you are just a bully. no fun. thanks to the well rounded ones of us on here.
sorry for my typos. too tired and sick.
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This website rarely has anything bad to say about Apple. I own several computers, phones and other devices with the Apple logo on them. But DAMN this is one fricking stupid error. And Apple really deserves a heavy slam. At least as heavy as if RIM, Microsoft or Google had made this stupid error.
Maybe MacDaily could have added this to their headline: “Windows 7 Mobile, Blackberry and Android Unaffected” just to be fair.
Breeze must be working for Apple, because he has never under any circumstances ever admitted that Apple can do anything wrong over the years ..like never ever ever.
Nobody can have their head that much up Steve’s ass..just no way.
this is lame… Apple is better than this.
Voice_of_Reason:
Apple has plenty things they can fix, that’s why we see frequent software updates and betterment of products every year and exactly because Jobs being a genius, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s perfect, this is a drop in the ocean and a nonissue that is nowhere on the scale of major fail issues that plague Microsoft Google and all other copycats…
Apple has become a tool for market and news manipulation by ignorant analysts and idiots who regularly exercise FUD and show their ignorance and by traders that have personal gain agendas, which detract from and ignore it’s brilliance.
The focus here is and should be Apple’s attributes and it’s head and shoulders position above it’s so called industry peers…(how many true ones can you name?). There are very few industry leaders like Jobs and Ellison who,though not perfect, in an absolute sense, are relatively so compared to the rest- they shine and are examples that consistently deliver – they deserve and earn the confidence and reverence that investors and their customers unequivocally put in them.
Apple is an example of American ingenuity at it’s best. It’s perseverance of excellence over the years speaks for itself and is evidenced by it’s superior products, industry leadership and the long history of excellent stock performance, which rewards it’s investors and users like no other company. It is the undisputed leader of it’s sector without peer.
Most here revel in Apple’s excellence – that anyone is upset with the regular fanfare, underscoring and focus on Apple instead of cheap ignorant raves and FUD is telling…
Nobody’s shit smells like roses and there’s plenty Apple can do to fix many things – it constantly improves and like no other company, invites feedback and pays attention to every single communication it receives from it’s users.
Let’s keep things in proportion now though and compare apples to apples – then we can talk about the worms.
PS:
Anyone who really wants to address, discuss and contribute to solving and pointing out Apple product problems: there are few websites like Ric Ford’s Macintouch and Jason O’Grady’s which are for the technically concerned.
I just tested this again on my iPhone 4 and it worked perfectly.
Almost missed a ferry because of this. Thankfully my body clock was more accurate than the iPhone and I was only ten minutes late getting up. Poor performance Apple.
I wonder if a class action suit for damages would be valid, especially if it can be proven that apple had knowledge of the bug (likely).
Hmm, wondered about this. Travelling at the moment and had an early flight out on the 1st that I was a touch late for. A bit annoying stuff like this slips through the cracks – that, I think, is the real issue here. If this can happen, what other sloppiness hasn’t been found?
I agree a bedside alarm is useful, but when traveling that isn’t always possible (blah de blah on wake up calls). The point is, these sorts of bugs should have been caught.
Update: Apple has officially acknowledged the problem:
Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison confirmed to Macworld that Apple is aware of the problem. “We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2,” Harrison said. “Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.”
@ Reality Czech,
“Almost missed a ferry because of this.”
We don’t really care about your sexual orientation or dating mishaps.
I generally find the iPhone alarm clock more reliable than a regular alarm. The design is more intuitive and easier to program plus the multiple alarms lets you have backup alarms. In contrast the iHome alarm is a pain to program and it is not clear if the volume or program is set correctly.
Testing for every possible variable in a program like that must be hard but hopefully Apple will learn a lesson and run checks six months ahead of time to verify the program works consistently.
Mine failed today. But, I’m not an idiot, so I always have at least two alarms, since the odds are not zero that I will forget to set one, or one will fail.
FYI: When I did wake up to the other alarm, I checked, and the alarm on the iPhone was properly set, it just completely failed to work.
It is pretty lame that Apple seems to have trouble making a clock app work right. I find it annoying when there is obvious cannon fodder for the anti-Apple dolts to throw at me.
My Mum is old and gets up really really early.
If I need to get up early my Mum rings me.
Always works.
That’s old technology..
Wait, why haven’t I seen the word “Alarmgate” yet?
Mine worked fine. Wasn’t set as a recurring alarm and went off like it was supposed to.
I ignored it, but I’m pretty sure that’s not something that Apple can fix.
@breeze
You put Oracle in the same positive light as Apple? Really? I’m an admin on multiple Sun systems with Oracle databases, and although the systems themselves are high quality, since Sun was bought by Oracle service quality has plummeted. And being in the industry, I can also tell you that Larry Ellison isn’t being held up in the same esteem as Steve Jobs, nor should he be. Steve is a genius, a master marketer, and insists on producing quality products (although not perfect ones, as we’ve concluded). Larry only wishes he was half the industry giant Steve is.
By the way, although I predominantly use Apple products, I’m also able to see outside the Apple box and use other products as well, and to give them credit when they produce something good. The blatant rejection of everything Google, or everything Microsoft, or everything BlackBerry, just because it isn’t Apple, is ridiculous, in my opinion. It also lessens the credibility of your opinions. Of course, when you spoke so highly of Larry Ellison that pretty much destroyed any possibility of credibility with me anyway.
Voice of pretense:
Not everything is perfect there will always be fault – if not for fault how could anything improve? Steve Jobs is viewed by many in the same negative light as many view Ellison – he’s been called a foul mouthed maniac and a dictator by many and so by the way was Einstein and many other a genius…that doesn’t mean much…in fact it’s bull.
The comparison i made was to the individual performance of Jobs and Ellison as CEO’s and leaders who understand their business to a T and have passion and vision that constantly drives them to deliver… Not to the companies ( Apple and Oracle) Birds of a feather flock together because of what they have in common and the fact that their friendship is long is testament.
There is no blatant rejection of everything just because it isn’t Apple, but let’s call a spade a spade and when a company stinks from the top no deodorant can mask the smell…likewise, a company like Apple that shines from the top, inspires excellence and high standards throughout. That is how you capture the hearts and minds of your customers, employees and investors.
Google was a great company before they took ethics out of their vocabulary and went for the Microsoft antics – so they have the best search engine and they got some brilliance but got contaminated with greed and spread themselves so thin that they lost focus and respect. It would be great to see all companies operate and produce like Apple but it’s not so.
For you to conclude ‘blatant rejection’ is evidence of a hasty, baseless and faulty deductive ability – credibility in your eyes is so not important…
@Mark S.
I started my comment with a little pun, but the issue does have implications.
Yes the world will continue to turn, and the trains might run on time depending which country you live in?!?
This issue would have been of little importance some years ago when Apple and its users were a smaller community, this would have been an irritating but relatively inconsequential bug in the scale of things, and to be truthful that is how it should be seen at this point.
Today though, Apple is a massive company; rich, powerful and ubiquitous. A lot of people use their products, and by design or not Apple as a brand is etched within peoples subconscious. As such Apple needs to protect its brand notionally, just as it protects it legally.
The concept, “It just works” is one of Apples ongoing marketing strategies it leverages ideas such as quality, confidence and trust, these notions in turn evoke many others … “It just works” sounds great but it sets Apple up for a fall on the occasions it doesn’t just work, in the same way that Goolgles “Don’t be evil” is served to us on a silver platter, these little aphorisms can turn around bite you in the ass.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that is engrossed with vapid and facile entertainment, so the “no big deal” as you see it is not just being reported in the tech blogs or the tech industry, it has been picked up by the major television news networks around the world, It is being reported in news-breaks and teased on the front page of national papers … and on blogs.
Why? because as expressed before, typically the western/ first world is a milieu of superficial and vacuous entertainment based news and against this backdrop any Apple inc. imperfections (real or not) lend themselves as content for lazy news “producers” the story will run for a couple days due to time zones and it will fizzle out. – BUT the damage will have be done, nothing akin to the “Mobile me” or “antenna gate” fiascos, but none the less it will add another fracture to the overall image and perception of Apple, nourishing Apples distractors and its competition.
Which explains why the “no big deal” can definitely be viewed as worthy of attention. You only have to read other Apple Mac blogs to feel other users angst and negativity with Apple.
I don’t know how or why the iPhone clock software is so screwed up, but S Jobs need to put a rocket up someone somewhere, one mistake was bad enough … but two.
To copy n’ paste someone from Macrumors –
“Which script kiddie did AAPL allocate to write this Clock.app in iOS 4.x? After one major error in mishandling of recurring alarm function under Daylight saving in iOS 4.1.x, their fix in iOS 4.2.1 is still faulty (in another way). How much more basic can this app and feature be?”
@breeze
I agree with much of you sentiment … “Nobody’s shit smells like roses and there’s plenty Apple can do to fix many things” this no doubt encapsulates my and others thoughts, yet your overall comments fixate mainly on the positive attributes … those thoughts are easy to convey, as they are numerous times in every one of MDN’s reader feedback space.
We all need to assume the negatives as well as the positives and as such we shouldn’t and don’t have to traipse over to Macintouch or Jason O’Grady’s (as great as they are) just to express concerned opinions and discuss Apple product problems, when MDN is just as viable.
Get a wider perspective on what lies between black and white.
Contrast = Balance = Stability = Security = Strength
venerated saying because it is tried and tested … unlike iPhone clock apparently.
Skylark:
Respect
However when negatives are assumed with ignorance and noise such as today’s politically polarized noise, its Macintouch and O’Grady’s sites that do lend themselves to level headed and mostly factual discussion of technical matters.
Though most books are black and white, there are millions of shades of grey that lie between the lines – not everything said precludes something else and substance should be at the heart of every argument.
One more thing:
I don’t believe I’ve ever been acused of ‘fixating mainly on the positive’…I know one woman who’s rolling in laughter at tha one
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‘Scuse the typos
This is the second time in only a few months that an iPhone alarm issue has occurred. The first time it wasn’t fixed for months, presumably because it hadn’t affected USA resident users. Pretty sloppy Apple. Once is bad enough, but not learning from your mistakes? I hope there isn’t a Microsoft-like culture starting to creep into Apple, but in the last 12 months it’s sure starting to look like it.
I’m sorry, Apple: It’s a shame!
One expects a Windows device to show such ridiculous problems.
I hope that your New Year’s resolution is to get back on track with quality!
@breeze
Well said!!
The clock is a BASIC function and it’s the second time in a very short period of time when it fails. The iPhone without a doubt is the best product on the market but it is anyway simply EMBARRASSING
I was thinking about getting this one.. It looks really cool! Pretty expensive though.
http://leanspa8.wordpress.com/
@ breeze …
After many interruptions, dying keyboard batteries and attempted postings –
Yes well said???… and respect … I am glad to have generated some gaiety for you and others.
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Now, my learned friend, try looking at it from a different perspective, how about this – Stop sounding like a blinkered Apple propagandist all the time and get a grasp on the concept of parity and equipoise. Holding sophrosyne view is not only a virtue, apparently it’s fun
Maybe the lack of balance and egalitarianism explains the hate that unnecessarily pervades virtually all the political discussions on MDN.
Most of us are here because we “lurve” Apple, but we need to keep it real. The world doesn’t stop when Apple fsck’s up, but when Apple does, lets discuss the issue with candour and sincerity, not from behind a facade where everything all seems to be fluffy white clouds, sugar n’ spice and all things nice. To be honest, I doubt that they’re approaching this problem in Cupertino with a such a cavalier attitude?
Nevertheless … Happy New Year to you and the “one woman”. Let’s not make a federal case out of this, as 2011 is sure to bring great things from Apple inc.
–
On a side note I urge all Australians to give generously to those affected by the flooding in Queensland … an area about half the size of Western Europe is under water at this point in time.
–
And on another note, the Poms are kicking ass in the Ashes.
Apologies for the – “Holding a sophrosyne view is not only a virtue, apparently it’s fun Cheers ” – gag.
I might have missed the mark there … as it was once considered a virtue based upon getting pissed … before becoming an ideal of moderation.
Maybe a smidgen of sophistry cropped up … : (
Skylark:
Parity and equipoise for all – in Apple we trust.
Happy New Year to you too.
There is an easy solution to the alarmgate problem. Simply remove the battery and it will……oh wait….
Sorry, but is something this minor is the only thing we can find to work ourselves up about, Apple must be doing pretty well.
To those that are cursing Apple over this non event, I have but one question.
How many soldiers do think were killed while you were moaning about a alarm clock?
How about a little perspective you pompous ass-hats!
Are you sure alcohol wasn’t a contributing factor for sleeping in. Who the hell jumps out of bed early after a blinder like new years eve anyway.
I agree this is not a major security flaw, but c’mon… It’s annoying as hell: after the daylight savings change and to this date, all recurring alarms sound an hour later and Apple’s suggestion was to set them everyday as non-recurring alarms. Now, those alarms fail to go off and the solution is to go back to the recurring alarms that go off at another time.
Seriously Apple. I let many things slide, but what do you want me to do next time? Skip all workarounds and straight up buy an alarm clock?
@ghoom and Banjo, I’m sure you posted identical comments in the articles about Android randomly sending texts to the wrong numbers, or about the obscure trojan from a 3rd party Chinese app store (i.e. not the official Android one).
@Tom oh I don’t know, people who didn’t party as hard, or those with part-time retail/service jobs that required them to work on Jan 2. Maybe even one of those obscure, weird jobs that require some staff or operators 24/7/365, like doctors, nurses, power plant technicians, bus drivers, 911 operators, firemen, police…
I almost got bit by this yesterday (yes Sunday, that’s why it was a one-time alarm), but thankfully was woken up by something clattering outside. I didn’t even know this was a problem until checking the news later, seeing as I had better things to do all New Years day.
Mine was for a relatively minor appointment, but there are plenty who relied on it to wake up for work like I said above, or catching a flight home after the holidays, or whatever.
Apple can’t have it both ways–it’s a measure of their success that millions of people now rely on the iPhone as their life management device, you can’t just turn around and claim “oh this isn’t that big a deal”.
Like hell it’s not, especially since 1) it’s something as basic as a clock/alarm app; 2) it’s happened twice in two months; and 3) it’s a core app that apparently can’t be updated without a massive, 400+ MB firmware update that’s different for each type and generation of iOS device. This last point is probably why Apple took so long to release a fix for the DST bug, despite knowing about it weeks before it hit North America.
New Years eve I was selling someone on getting an iPhone over Blackberry for work (against the advice of someone claiming the iPhone was a toy), and seemed to have swayed her over despite misgivings about an all-touchscreen device. She’ll see the news about this and wonder, “If Apple can screw up so simple an application, what else might they have missed? Maybe it is just a toy.”
That’s twice in two months that Apple has thrown egg in my face shortly after I made a strong pitch for the iPhone to potential customers. This does huge damage to my credibility. If anyone is thinking of saying “well it’s not that big a deal” ok fine, I won’t pipe up next time and Apple can lose a customer to Android or Blackberry. After all, it’ll just be one or two people whose first smartphone won’t be an iPhone, it’s not that big a deal.
@Banjo
We’re talking about alarm clocks ONLY, please keep your post relevant. Thanks!
So does anyone know why Jan. 3 resolves this issue? What’s so special about today?
And @breeze, plenty have called you out on this thread. Your intelligent rework of my chosen screen name sort of indicates you’re probably thirteen years old, and not worth responding to anymore.
This glitch is embarrassing for Apple. The fact that it follows a recent daylight savings time alarm problem makes it even more embarrassing. I don’t consider it to be a “major” bug, but Apple needs to fix and verify the quality issues in this app and move on.
My 3G works fine w/o recurring alarm.
With the world in such a turmoil. LoSt of small minded people here.
For the relatively few that have an iPhone and the fewer that use it as an alarm clock, ask your parents how many times they had to wake you up no matter how loud you set clock radio.