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Apple iPhone 4 alarm clock bug makes scores late for work

A suspected ‘bug’ in the iPhone operating system has caused scores of people to be late for work this morning, after their iPhone alarms went off an hour later than intended.

Apple iPhone 4 reviewed
A software bug with the iPhone 4 alarm app meant that scores of people were woken an hour later than intended this morning

Users of Apple’s iPhone 4 mobile phone could be forgiven for arriving late in to work this morning – an apparent bug in the phone’s software prevented the handset’s alarm function from working correctly.

Although the time on the iPhone 4 automatically updated when the clocks went back at the weekend, it seems the alarm function didn’t, resulting in scores of people being woken an hour later than they had intended today.

A similar bug affected iPhone 4 users in Australia and New Zealand when clocks switched from Daylight Saving Time last month. The glitch could strike again next week when the United States adjusts its clocks to mark the start of winter.

Apple has not officially commented on the issue, though the company did apparently pledge to roll out a software update when the bug struck in Australasia in October.

Scores of over-sleepers from across Europe took to Twitter to vent their frustration. “iPhone alarm bug made me wake up late,” tweeted Saghul. “Alarm issues this morning with an iOS 4.1 iPhone,” tweeted Conor Mulhern. “It went off exactly an hour late. Glad it may not have been just me.”

“iPhone alarm bug strikes! I thought it was just me but apparently the bug that caused my iPhone alarm to wake me an hour late hit everyone!,” tweeted Simon Moores.

iPhone 4 users can circumvent the alarm bug by deleting all alarms and creating new alarm alerts. Editing existing alarms will not resolve the problem.