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Apple Watches were crashing when asked about the weather
We hope you didn't ask your shiny new Apple Watch about the weather on November 4th -- you probably got a rude response. Many Series 3 owners reported that their wristwear crashed (specifically, the "springboard" interface restarted) if they asked Siri how the weather was that day. It wouldn't crash if they asked about weather in subsequent days, but the odd hiccup affected users across North America and Europe. We've asked Apple for comment. With that said, there's already a potential culprit... and it's a familiar one for iPhone users.
iOS 7 calendar display bug for end of DST hits USA
As we reported last week when the UK clocks fell back, there's a quirk in the iOS calendar display routines that's evident on the first day after the switch from Daylight Saving Time back to Standard Time. Although alarms and reminders trigger as they should (on the new schedule), the "red line" current time indicator in the Calendar app is showing one hour later than it should (old time). US users are now seeing this issue, as we "fell back" last night from DST to ST and gained a replay of the 1 am – 2 am hour. This is a purely cosmetic bug and should clear up soon; it is annoying, however, and a reminder that iOS and Mac users have often struggled with more serious time-logic flaws -- alarms that go off an hour late, for instance. The moral: for the Monday after a time switch, set a second alarm clock just in case. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
iOS users jump time zones during DST switch
Ah, the pleasures of Daylight Saving Time. The semi-annual clock shift (known as "Summer Time" in the UK and Europe) saves energy on lighting and heating and aligns daylight hours with the times most people are active; unfortunately, the actual change leads to frayed sleep, a brief spike in traffic accidents, and frustration with gadgets that ought to know how to handle leaping an hour forward. Apple's devices and operating systems are by no means immune to the confounding effects of DST, as we've seen repeatedly over the past few years. Odd behaviors have cropped up including alarm fouls on iOS, mistaken clocks on Snow Leopard and even Siri being confused about when DST actually starts. This year, despite substantial updates to iOS, there still appear to be a few kinks to work out. Several readers report that rather than jumping forward an hour last night as expected, their iPhone clocks actually shifted in the wrong direction -- back an hour -- because the automatic time zone adjustment went wonky. A reader in Nashville has a phone that thinks he's in Mountain Time; a reader in Florida's phone is convinced it should be on Chicago time. Our colleague Mel Martin lives in Arizona, which mostly does not observe DST at all; nevertheless, his phone (which had automatic time zone settings & location settings on) incorrectly jumped forward one hour. Most of these issues will probably resolve themselves with a device restart, or by turning timezone automation on and off, but it's still annoying. By now it's probably too late to issue our regular reminder, but I'll say it just the same: if you are depending on your iPhone as a critical, gonna-miss-my-flight, OMG-I'm-so-fired alarm clock, set a backup. Or two. In a pinch, use the countdown timer rather than the alarm clock -- Siri can do that for you. For years, I've used a 999-minute pocket timer (a gift from SKYY Vodka inventor Maurice Kanbar) as a backup alarm, which trained me to multiply by 60 quickly; your iPhone won't make you go through that work. Thanks Tommy & Alexander
Breakfast Topic: What time do you raid?
Daylight Saving Time is over! Set your clocks back one hour. It's that time again! Daylight saving time is going away on us again. Here's a big reminder to all you folks who deal with daylight saving to set your clocks back one hour. Yay! Free hour! So the question remains -- what time do you raid? Personally, I'm a weekday raider, around 7:30 p.m. my time over on the east coast. We usually raid for a solid two to three hours, depending on the flow of the night, successes and failures, and progression attempts. All in all, it seems to be a good block of time. Are you a weekday raider or a weekend warrior? Early or late? Are you a raider who runs with a team from another time zone or country and has to accommodate some pretty crazy hours? Let's hear about it! %Poll-55398%
Daylight Saving Time last-minute reminder
Here at TUAW we're all about the public service. Really. We would hate for you to be late for brunch on Sunday, so once again let us remind you that Daylight Saving Time starts in most of the US & Canada this weekend. This year, thanks to regulatory changes, the one-hour shift starts three weeks early and ends one week later than in previous seasons. Of course, any gadget or widget with date logic in it sold before 2005 has no idea of the new rules, so this seemingly minor change has the impact of a nano-sized Y2K -- off by an hour, off by a millennium, same hassles.The good news for Mac users is that OS X has, since version 10.4.5, included the new schedule; the recent software updates provided corrected settings for time zones outside the US and patches for 10.3 and Java. Better news: since OS X and similar Unix-like systems use Universal (Greenwich Mean) time internally, Mac clock chips don't have to worry about DST; the offset is handled in software. Windows, on the other hand, sets the hardware clock to local time; this causes the Boot Camp "five hours off" behavior and is the subject of much gnashing of teeth.Of course, if it were a Mac-only world, things would be shiny and clean, but real life is gritty and messy. Assuming you're running some products from Microsoft, you can get the basics for fixes and updates here. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that things are going all that well with the big MS and DST: reader Chris points us to where eWeek has the scoop on the frustrations. Better call and check those brunch plans.
Daylight Saving Time update roundup!
Do DST Rule Change Blues have you down? Well buck up, kiddo -- we've got all (well, most) of the software patches you need to get the smartphone of your choice back into tip-top time-keeping shape right here. Though the changes -- which shift and lengthen the number of weeks we're pushed forward an hour -- should generally make us all happier, better, and more peaceful people, our phones stand to get a little confused about the situation without an update, and surprisingly, manufacturers seem to be doing a decent job in making sure those updates are available. As you find more, please add them in comments and we'll get 'em into the master list![Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Read - Windows MobileRead - BlackBerryRead - Palm OS
