iPhone users suffer summer appointment chaos
Spring forward, fall backward
iPhone users are turning to Google for help as an incompatibility with Outlook shifts appointments by an hour instead of switching on daylight saving.
iTunes version 9.1 currently can't cope with daylight saving time, shifting appointments by an hour or even a day as it struggles to cooperate with Microsoft Outlook. Given the breakdown in communication users are downgrading to the more-Outlook-friendly version 9.0, or bringing in Google as an intermediary.
The problem lies in the synchronisation between Microsoft Outlook and the iPhone, and the switch to daylight savings (British Summer Time). It seems that some combinations are responding to the change in time by shifting all the appointments back an hour except all-day reminders, which get shifted an entire day.
Vocal iPhone users are venting their frustrations on the Apple forums and discussing workarounds for the problem while waiting for an official fix. Suggestions include syncing both Outlook and the iPhone to Google's online calendar service, which will play nicely with both applications and remove the problem, but not everyone is happy to share their diary details with the Googleplex.
The only alternative appears to be downgrading to iTunes 9.0, which doesn't have the problem. Downgrading isn't trivial, but detailed instructions are available on the forums and the process does reportedly fix the problem.
Synchronising is complicated, and errors can easily creep in, but it's Apple's silence on the issue which has got customers riled. Apple will no doubt fix the problem in the next iTunes release, but when that will be is anyone's guess. ®
COMMENTS
Apple should fix that.
Finger pointing aside though, DST is more trouble than it's worth. It should be boycotted, who's with me?
Re: Apple should fix that
"DST is more trouble than it's worth. It should be boycotted, who's with me?"
Excellent idea.
But let's go one better and do away with all time zones. Everyone uses GMT.
Then the UK works 9am-5pm, Europe 8am-4pm, New York 2pm-10pm and so on. No more worrying about what time to ring the US office .... I want to ring the LA office and I know they work 5pm-1am. Easy.
why?
did you bother with any full stops if you're going to leave out all the other punctuation?
"Apple will no doubt...
...fix the problem in the next iTunes release..."
I love the starry-eyed optimism inherent in that statement, but why do I have the feeling that the fix'll be "Are you nuts? Why would we do that? Move to a different timezone!" *grin*
