Except when it does not work.
A glitch on Apple's iPhone has stopped its built-in alarm clock going off, leaving many people oversleeping on the first two days of the New Year.
Angry bloggers and tweeters complained that they had been late for work, and were risking missing planes and trains.
Bloggers late for work? LOL.
Apple is not revealing why this happened but claims they will have it fixed by January 3rd. So, tonight, if you use your iPhone as your alarm clock, just go to sleep knowing you'll be awakened in the morning exactly as you wish. Because, you know, it's an Apple product, so it will work. It will. I mean, you do trust them, right?
I mean it isn't like this has ever happened before or will happen again.
A similar problem hit the iPhone alarm when the clocks went back in November, again causing many users to be late for work or for transport arrangements.
Huh? Who said that? Oh, the BBC. OK, so this HA happened again. In fact, it seems to happen at every opportunity.
Well, whatever. You have no business relying on your iPhone to wak you up or tell you the time. It's a phone, dammit. Use it like one.
I tried to you my iTouch as a timer when cooking something last summer but it shut down during the process (there was plenty of battery juice, it just shuts down). I assumed thereafter that alarm clocks on such a device would not work properly, and have not even considered trying it. Good for me.
Meanwhile, if you use Microsoft Hotmail, you should check to see if your emails were wiped out by accident. Oooops. Oh, you were relying on Microsoft to keep your stuff secure? Not smart.
But don' worry, Linux is here to save you. Samsung is coming out with a serious iPod competitor based on Linux. Of course, you can't completely trust Android either, what with their problems with text messages.
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Yeah, my iPhone "just works," just like my windows laptop, it's constantly telling me that I need to update something or other. I saw the articles on lost e-mails which included the information that "360 million" people use Hotmail. Likely, 359,999,959 use Hotmail as their spam address.
Using an iphone as an alarm brings to mind a story I heard at Decus 18 or so years ago. A system manager had set up a phone on the vax he ran so that it would call him and function as an alarm clock. One of the guys on the panel raised the question of the price performance of a Vax as an alarm clock (500k or so for the computer at the time). Given that a clock radio can be had for less than $10, and many watches have alarms as well, why not use a device designed for the purpose. Using an Iphone as an alarm is gagdetitis run amok.
Shhh... the Mac Fanbois will deny there ever are problems - conveniently forgetting the 2 or more problems which accompany every new product released (including OSX - remember 'Leopard'?) However, in general Macs are still much less hassle than a PC with Winduhs malware.
@Lyle: I'm waiting for the next generation iPad - I expect to see people holding it to their heads and using 'em as phones. Or maybe they'll be wearing bluetooth headsets - but that's still one whopper of a phone.
So THAT'S what happened!! I was wondering why my alarm hasn't gone off. I have overslept every morning of the New Year thanks to Apple. I couldn't figure out what I'd done to my iPhone!
You have no business relying on your iPhone to wak you up or tell you the time.
If you really want a reliable alarm clock, get a small travel alarm clock and keep it next to the place where you sleep. That's what I use, whether I am at home or on the road.
Why not use an electric alarm clock radio, I hear you ask. Because I live in, and have occasionally traveled to, places where the electricity grid is less than 100% reliable. Power lines where I live are above ground, so every now and then a lightning strike or fallen tree branch will produce a glitch in the power system which resets digital clocks and from which my alarm clock is immune. Also, in some countries you need to put your hotel room key card in a slot in a panel just inside the door to activate the electrical circuits in your room (if you're in a really good hotel, pulling out the key will start a timer which gives you a few minutes to make sure you have everything you need before leaving the room; in ordinary hotels pulling the card immediately turns out the lights), and obviously electrical clocks will not work properly in such a hotel. Yes, the battery runs out eventually--I think I've replaced the battery exactly once in my alarm clock, which I have had for at least 15 years.
There was a time when it was said (myth? real? not sure) that a larger percentage of house fires were started with plug-in clock radios. I'm not sure if that is true, but when I get the chance, I purge my surroundings of 20 year old beat up dusty old clock radios. I figure new ones are OK.
But yes, it is unreliable. Thus, my wife, a school TEACHER, uses a battery operated portable radio, by my daughter a school STUDENT uses a plug in, hoping against hope that a power failure during the night ruins here best efforts to get to school in the morning!
Not just bloggers
Dumb relying on just one mechanism when it's critical.