iOS daylight savings bug alarms users

A bug in iOS's alarm clock application gave some iPhone users in Australia's daylight savings time zones a rude shock this weekend, causing alarms to go off an hour early.

(Screenshot by Josh Taylor/ZDNet Australia)

Although the time was automatically adjusted in most iPhones for daylight savings at 2am on Sunday morning, a number of blogs and discussion forums have reported that users in New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia with recurring alarm clocks were woken up an hour earlier than the time set on the alarm.

"What really annoys me is that, judging from these forums, Apple must have known about the problem before daylight savings started in Australia, but chose not to let users know," one user wrote on the official Apple support forum.

The bug appears to be limited to iOS4 and affects recurring alarms, such as those set to wake people up during the week for work. The only solution available to users currently is to either set the alarm one hour after the time they actually want to wake up, or alternatively deactivate the recurring alarm and just remember to set the alarm before bed every night.

A number of users based in Brisbane were also reporting that their iPhones were adjusting to daylight savings time despite Queensland not being in a daylight savings time zone.

Apple was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of writing.

(Front page image credit: Alarm Clock image by Alan Cleaver, CC2.0)