Apple says iOS software update to fix pesky alarm clock bug

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A report out of Australia notes that the Alarm Clock application Apple ships on the iPhone and iPod touch began waking users up an hour early in the southern region of the continent — New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, and Tasmania — because a bug caused the software not to fall back an hour when changes to daylight savings time kicked in one Sunday ago.

More specifically, it appears that the bug affects devices running variants of iOS 4 than have reoccurring alarms set to wake users up during the week for work, for instance. Meanwhile, a lengthy discussion thread over at the whirlpool forums has dozens of users complaining that their non-recurring alarms have ceased working completely.

"Mine did not work this morning," said one user. "I have since tried creating new alarms, turning the[m] off etc.. Doesn't work. I just tried setting the alarm 1 hour forward and it worked. So definite issue with DST."

A representative for Apple Australia told ZDNet that the company is "aware of this issue and already developed a fix which will be available to customers in an upcoming software update."

That update is likely to appear in the next few weeks before changes to daylight savings time begin to take affect in other portions of the world, including the United States.

In the meantime, users plagued by the recurring alarm problem can either set the alarm one hour after the time they actually want to wake up or deactivate the recurring alarm and remember to set a non-recurring alarm each night.