NewYearsDay
Latest
iPhone alarms work fine on 1/1 and 1/2, if you update iOS
There's two possible explanations for why Engadget's tipline was heating up this morning with emailed complaints about iPhone alarms not going off as scheduled on New Year's Day (first reported last year and fixed in iOS 5), but we haven't heard a peep about the problem. Explanation #1: The vast majority of TUAW readers sporting iOS 5-eligible devices (everything after the 2nd-gen iPod touch and the iPhone 3G) have already updated, and the ones who haven't don't depend on their on-device alarm clocks. Explanation #2: TUAW readers like to do New Year's Eve up good and proper, and are still all sleeping it off. Either way, we wish you a happy 2012, free of handy excuses for oversleeping like "My iPhone didn't wake me up!"
iPhone alarms may fail to activate on New Year's Day
If you're using your iPhone or iPod touch as your primary alarm clock, it might be time to reconsider. In 2010, Apple had well-publicized difficulties with the switchover to Daylight Saving Time. Alarms failed to go off at their proper times, causing thousands of people in the Southern Hemisphere to wake up an hour early and many more thousands in the Northern Hemisphere to wake up an hour late. Now yet another bug has struck Apple's Clock app in iOS: single-use, non-repeating alarms fail to go off at all after New Year's Day. Just like the Daylight Saving Time bug, living in New Zealand has given me the opportunity to test this bug ahead of time. Strangely, a single-use alarm scheduled to go off at 7:00 AM today went off on time, but now single-use alarms don't work at all. Only alarms set to repeat at least once during the week will work properly. 9to5Mac suggests that the problem will clear up after January 3, and our testing confirms that -- in a couple of days, the alarms are back to normal. This bug in the Clock app is somewhat less insidious than the Daylight Saving Time bug, which affected repeating alarms. With this New Year's Day bug, you'll still be safe if you've got a repeating alarm set during the work week. Only single-use alarms will fail to go off. I've tested this with alarms created in 2010 and alarms created in 2011, and it makes no difference; all single-use alarms now fail to activate until after 1/3. I've tested this on an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 -- your experience may differ if you have a different iOS device or software version. Considering how many things Apple's managed to get right in iOS, it seems really odd that, of all things, it's the Clock app that keeps getting mucked up. Let us know in the comments if any third-party alarm clock apps are experiencing the same issue (though I doubt it). In the meantime, if you've been using your iPhone or iPod touch to wake you up in the morning, it might be a good idea to invest in a cheap standalone alarm clock -- or take off work until Monday.
PSA: iPhone alarms not working come New Year's Day 2011
We're not exactly sure of the cause of this fancy new issue affecting Apple's super cool iPhone line of cellphones, but apparently you've got trouble come 1/1/2011. According to an explosive stream of frustration-filled tweets on the Twitter microblogging service, when the clock strikes midnight, one off alarms will cease to sing out. The issue sounds eerily similar to recent Daylight Savings Time trouble we witnessed back in November, although we saw both repeating alarm and single alarm failures. So how can you fix this potentially life-ruining problem? Well until Apple patches its OS -- and it's currently unclear if this is just iOS 4.2.1 or earlier versions as well -- you can simply create a recurring alarm at the time you need to be woken up, and then disable it once your dreams are completely ruined. We're taking a deeper look into the issue and have contacted Apple -- if we get more news, you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, feel free to commiserate in comments, and... happy new year? Update: 9to5 Mac says that the bug will get fixed all by itself once the calendar hits January 3rd. We haven't confirmed this, but if it turns out to be the case, that's pretty good news. In less good news, the issue seems to be affecting iOS 4.1 and 4.0.2 as well. Update 2: Apple responded to us on the issue, though they didn't offer any surprises: We're aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
It's 2010 - Fox is still on TWC (for now) but Food & HGTV are off Cablevision
As two digits flipped over last night we waited to see if Fox and Time Warner Cable would work out their differences or turn channels dark.... and waited... and waited until we finally dozed off. As it stands, thanks to a series of extensions and ongoing negotiations, the channels are still on, but there's no new deal. As long as that remains to be the case, many football fans and several members of the government should be quite pleased, but in a New Year's Day surprise, Cablevision has rid itself of two networks on its service - Food Network and HGTV. While we've been upset by reports of some odd aspect ratio stretching on HGTV, these channels have their own fans that are upset to see them missing. Cablevision's posture seems to be that they won't be coming back, but parent company Scripps has already launched campaigns at ILoveHGTV.com and ILoveFoodNetwork.com for viewers to appeal for their return. We'll keep an eye on the ongoing Fox/TWC spat, though we're sure they wouldn't suddenly let channels go dark right before the Sugar Bowl tonight, would they?
