Silent Nights For iPhone Users As Alarms Fail

Perhaps Apple had sympathy with the hungover millions around the world but those who had to work on New Year’s Day and January 2 found that the alarm clocks on their iPhones failed to sound.

Twitter was alive with complaints that their phone alarms had let them down. Those who sought solace and remedial measures on the Apple website were disappointed to find no explanation and no apology.

All The Whistles But No Bells

“We’re aware of an issue related to non-repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2,” Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison told Reuters in an email. “Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.”

Fake tweeter @ceoSteveJobs pulled a very unseasonal April Fool by warning that anyone who tried to access their iPhone clock app would void their warranties. Thousands of people believed the message and several news services and blogs reported the hoax as an official Apple warning, so it was a worrying start to the year for many users.

Despite the company saying that the problem would disappear by January 3, some tweeters claim that their alarms failed again. A fix is being demanded and Apple has twelve months to right the problem or risk being the target of class actions in US courts.

Many tweeters claimed that they were late for work or had missed trains and planes because of the failure.

This is the second problem to hit the app within a year for UK users. Last October, iPhone clocks successfully adjusted by switching back an hour to GMT from British Summer Time but the alarm feature did not. This meant that many were awakened an hour later than they would have wanted.