Alarm clock fails as of Jan 1

My alarm did not work on Jan 3. I was late for work.

My girlfriend's iPhone 4 alarm failed this morning. How is it possible that Apple could screw up something as simple as a clock alarm program? You'd think someone else made the software for them, for crying out loud. I thought Apple did all this R&D for their products?

Well, since Copy, Cut, and Paste was such a huge technological hurdle that Apple had to study for years before implementing on the iPhone, I can see where an alarm going off when alarm_time = clock_time is really tough, and we shouldn't be too hard on the poor little boys...

My, My greyhoundx, what a large chip you have on your shoulder.

Stedman

30+ years/16 positions in this hi-tech business gives me a lot of perspective. Call it a chip if you like. I just don't give out credit to people and companies freely anymore. I'm far from perfect, but have never claimed to be Superior (nearly flawless) like Apple and Jobs does - and I haven't pushed my faults onto others - i.e. Jobs blaming users and not taking responsibility for much, if anything ever. They command millions in salary but have no faults when problems arise? Please, give me a BIG Bag of what Steve is smoking...

Let me try to really simplify this for some of you.

Basic Consumer Law:

1 - Works as advertised

- Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
- Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
- Advertisements cannot be unfair.

http://www.business.gov/business-law/advertising-law/truth-in-advertising/

Any questions ?

'Misery, pain, damage... a little dramatic aren't you?'

No, just reflecting what a number of posts have said about people missing pain medication, losing hundreds of dollars rearranging travel plans, getting in trouble at work, letting clients down. Many people didn't get to work on time on 1 and 2 January - the sort of jobs where you have to work on public holidays are ones where people depend on you and suffer if you don't get there. You appear supportive of Apple and you don't appreciate the effect on customers when Apple lets them down- that figures.

Am I to assume that I need a back-up for every function of an iPhone that isn't frivolous, so I should carry an alarm clock, another phone, several city maps, a diary and address book, notepad, netbook and a camera? Then why do I need the iPhone in the first place? The contention that people are at fault for not having a back-up is a great advert for not buying iPhone. Apple has not taken its responsibility for reliability seriously on this occasion and has failed its customers.

I have 3GS as well . When it was in a folder it did not work. Took it out of the folder and used as stand alone app and it worked just fine.

Jan 4th and my iphone alarm is working today.
Last night i deleted all my old alarms ( though i did that the night before too)
I also restarted my iphone.
The alarm worked at 6:00 AM

I love how people get so upset over a small bug.. sounds like the same people who blamed their homework not getting done on the dog who ate it. of course it will get fixed be patient. if someone is so upset over a alarm clock problem and says "im going over to android" go head.. which problem would i have right now? 1) my alarm clock on my phone didnt work right on my iphone or 2) when sending a text it went to the wrong person on my android phone thats hasnt been fixed for months.. there is no perfect phone out there. open source isnt all its cracked out to be either.. last i checked there are a ton more open bugs/defects on the andriod os then the ios.

Apple needs to tell people to shut their phone off then restart it. My iPhone 4 did go off on the 1st but it did not go off on the 2nd trough the 4th. I had already tried to restart my phone before I realized that this was a major problem everyone was having, but apple said it would be fixed by Monday the 3rd and mine did not go off so at 7:45 am, today the 4th, I restarted my phone, thinking maybe it would work because Apple said they fixed it and they are good at their word, and set the alarm to 8 am and it worked... so apparently what ever Apple did to fix the problem requires one to restart their phone.

'I love how people get so upset over a small bug.. '

Here's why people are upset (quotes I've selected from just three of the many forums on this particular iPhone failure):

'We missed her flight. The new, last minute flight cost us $600 extra this morning.'
'I was 5 hrs late for work today because of this.'
'(£350 per night) and I missed my full traditional breakfast this morning.'
'supposed to have been running a hospital ward at 07:30 this morning - turned up at 09:00.'
'First time this happened to me I was late for a train for a very important business trip.'
'I ... get up in the night and administer medications to my terminally ill partner. . so the end result was late meds and great pain.'
'We were both late for work and kids late for school ... People had to wait to have their surgery, court cases got continued, etc.'
'Missed my flight today because of the iPhone alarm bug, don't suppose apple will refund me the £430 it cost to get the next flight?'
'My daughter was in hospital in HDU so I had to sleep in the parents room. I set my alarm so I would be present when the consultants went to see her and guess what? It didn't go off!!'
'I'm ninety minutes late for work.....'
'over slept by 4 hours, my boss wasn't to happy'
'I work closely with the elderly and the administration of medication,, due to the alarm not goin off I was 2 hrs late 4 work ...'
'I MISSED MY FLIGHT TODAY.'
'I drive bus for a living and yup, passengers were 45 mins late.'
'I work in a hospital and I am required to be there on some weekends and holidays. On both 1 and 2 January my iPhone 3Gs did not go off'
'We missed the 0700 flight to Turin and had to pay over £1,000 for flights to Chambery.'
'Alarm didn't go off on New Year's Day making me very late getting to the stables to let my horses out'
'I use the alarm on my iPhone every night so I can check on my young son. He has Type 1 diabetes and it is essential I check his blood sugar levels in the night ...'
'… because of the fault a front line ambulance was unmanned until we got there.'
'I was late for work this morning and this has resulted in me receiving a file note on my personnel record'

The size of the bug is not an issue. It caused all the above problems and Apple failed to use the contact details they hold for marketing and administration to warn users in advance.

Apple has not taken its responsibility for reliability seriously on this occasion and has failed its customers.

We agree on one thing... Apple made a mistake and a pretty big one. It's now Jan 4 and the problem has gone away. What would you like Apple to do regarding their 'responsibility'? How about people take their own 'responsibility' and not let companies control them? What about the hundreds of other things that make people late... cars break down, power goes out, health issues, roads closed, weather, etc, etc, etc. That's just a part of life... deal with it and quit being such a whiner that blames their problems on everything and everyone else.

"What would you like Apple to do regarding their 'responsibility'?"

I would like this publicity to embarrass them into not repeating their mistake and issuing targetted warnings of known issues in future. I bought from Apple because I want them to be better than the competition, not just as bad. Imagine if customers checking the display devices in Apple shops found this page left open by the previous passer-by ... this could be a little 'Pinto memo' moment. They will listen to the tills ringing even if they ignore the forums.

I'm 'whining' because I never heard of every car by one maker breaking down on the same day, because a date change is not unpredictable like freak weather and because when a road's closed someone puts a sign up.

Whenever I travel or use my phone as an alarm I always assume something may happen so I set a back up alarm for 5 to 10 minutes later on a second device and if my iPhone wakes me up I turn off that 2nd device.

Any time something is that important I do a backup. If I have a flight I use my alarm and have the hotel call me for a wake up service. If I have an appointment I set both a calendar reminder and an alarm if needed. Whatever you need to do you do in order to be responsible.

What if you dropped your phone, what if the battery died, what if your phone was stolen or lost.

I have everything on my phone, all my contacts, I use eWallet for all my information, I have my calendar, I have my ToDo's, I have my notes, etc.. but it is all backed up to my laptop and what I can to MobileMe etc..

Anything can happen, so you need to be prepared.