Apple details iPhone alarm clock bug in support document

The new support document, published on Wednesday, comes days after Apple made headlines with an iPhone bug that caused repeating alarm clocks to go off late across Europe. The issue occurred because of a change from daylight saving time, and could repeat itself in the U.S. on Sunday when America concludes daylight saving.

Apple's documentation notes that users can resolve the issue by setting the repeat interval on an alarm to "Never." If users reset their alarm every day, the daylight saving bug will not affect them.

The support note says that after daylight saving ends in the U.S. on Nov. 7, users will be able to set their alarms to repeat again. The iOS issue affects the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G, as well as the fourth-, third- and second-generation iPod touch models.

In October, the same bug caused alarm clocks in New Zealand to go off an hour early. Apple said it was aware of the issue and had already developed a software fix, but it has not yet been released.

This week, Apple released the golden master of iOS 4.2, the next software update for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, to developers. Golden master status suggests that the software is finalized and a release to the public is imminent. It's possible that Apple could release the software update before this Sunday, allowing users who update their iPhone to iOS 4.2 to avoid the daylight saving bug.