So, how did you and your supposedly auto-adjusting timepieces do with the later-than-before end to Daylight Savings Time this weekend? Here’s my report:
1. Spiffy new alarm clock, which supposedly tracks DST information: Did not auto-adjust. So I figure either its DST feature is just for show, or it couldn’t handle the change. At least resetting the clock was easy enough to do.
2. Cellphone: Did not auto-adjust, at least right away. When I checked it a little after 7 AM (which in context represented sleeping in – with small children, you don’t get an extra hour of sleep at this time of year, you get an extra hour of day), it was showing the DST time. I checked it again three hours later, and it had corrected itself. Why AT&T would be so slow on the uptake, I couldn’t say, but at least they got it right before I had to try and figure out how to fix it myself.
3. BlackBerry: Adjusted just fine. That patch we rolled out in February to deal with the front end of the DST change also worked for the back end.
4. Computer: Adjusted just fine, though one older PC I have at work that isn’t used for network logons (and thus doesn’t get logon scripts run on it) fell back last week. No biggie.
How did your electronic gizmos handle the new reality?
Well, the dog threw up at about 4:30 Sunday morning, so I got a quick chance to run around the house and check out the clocks. The computer was the only one I saw that was showing the correct time, although I didn’t check my cell phone or the picture/frame weather station — both of which I asume were correct.
The analog radio-set clock in the kitchen needed to be put in a SW-facing window before it picked up the time change, about a day late, and the digital automatic clock can’t seem to find the radio signal at all — I’ve put it in the same window, but it is still obstinately on DST. I guess the next step is to change its batteries.
Computer, cable boxes, and phone (Verizon) all worked fine… Everything else was manual anyway.
One thing I’m curious about, though… I’ve seen a lot of issues about electronics screwing it up this time (here, front-page newspaper reports), but I don’t remember seeing anything about it back in spring… The start date was different then too, but nobody seemed to have any issues with it.
Did nobody catch it the first time around? Is this just a more boring news cycle? Did the media look at the problems last spring and decide it was a missed opportunity for a story?
Theories? Conspiracies? Anyone?
My experience with my Sprint phone is that the cell phone needed to hit the network to be adjusted. If you made/received a call or used a service, the time got changed.
It makes sense that the phone is just a clock that gets ‘set’ by the metwork. That’s how it also adjusts when you travel.
iPhone on T-Mobile didn’t changeover.