automatic time zones

[Pony99CA]

YEA! what AMY said! I'm trying to show this thing off to people and i have to tell them despite all the new technology, my mothers cell phone in Iowa auto-updates timeszones but my Q wont.

Are you sure? Does your mother's cell phone show time zones at all? It may change the time displayed when you go to a different time zone, but most "dumb phones" don't deal with time zones at all.

Consider one of the problems with auto-setting the clock. What would happen if you live just west of a time zone boundary, but the closet cell phone tower is just east of the boundary (and therefore likely an hour later than your actual time)? Now consider what would happen if your office is east of the boundary. Your phone wouldn't change at all when you went from one time zone to the other.

Also, as this is a CDMA phone, what would happen if you went to Europe, where they use GSM almost exclusively? You'd still have to change times manually.

Yes, it would be nice if the system could handle this all for you, but it doesn't. That's how it works, and no amount of complaining will change it. The best thing to do is learn how the system works and use it the "right" way.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Unless they decide to mess around with implementing DST on a different day again.....

Yeah, but that hopefully won't happen for a while. Even if it does, it affects a lot more than just your phone; it can affect your PC, your cable box, your DVR and more. For example, I had to do a special update to get my Replay TVs configured for the DST changes.

Once the update is done, though, you shouldn't have to worry about things. Of course, that didn't seem to work well with Outlook -- even after updating my PC at work, we still had to regenerate meetings for the period between the new and old DST changes.

Steve

[FourTwenSesh]

Yeah, but that hopefully won't happen for a while. Even if it does, it affects a lot more than just your phone; it can affect your PC, your cable box, your DVR and more. For example, I had to do a special update to get my Replay TVs configured for the DST changes.

Once the update is done, though, you shouldn't have to worry about things. Of course, that didn't seem to work well with Outlook -- even after updating my PC at work, we still had to regenerate meetings for the period between the new and old DST changes.

Steve

Exactly. Our DST patching took almost a month! Also, i found a swap time zones function in Outlook, so that you can actually display and swap 2 timezones for your calendar. This is the function you are talking about I think. Its in options>Calendar options>time zone...

[Pony99CA]

Exactly. Our DST patching took almost a month! Also, i found a swap time zones function in Outlook, so that you can actually display and swap 2 timezones for your calendar. This is the function you are talking about I think. Its in options>Calendar options>time zone...

That's useful if you're creating an appointment on your PC, but the suggestions I made were to improve Windows Mobile to make the Calendar easier to use.

To use it the "right" way today, you have to navigate away from the Calendar to the Clock settings applet, change the time zone, then go back to the Calendar to enter an appointment in the correct time zone. That's just stupid!

When creating an appointment on your device, Microsoft could add Time Zone drop-down lists for appointment start and end times (you want both to handle things like flights that cross time zones). When viewing the Calendar, Microsoft could add an option to select the time zone you want to view the Calendar in.

Those two changes would make using the Calendar correctly much easier and emphasize the importance of setting the time zone correctly.

Unfortunately, they aren't even listening to their MVPs about this. I remember a debate about how time zones should be handled back in 2003 and nothing has changed.

Steve

[FourTwenSesh]

That's useful if you're creating an appointment on your PC, but the suggestions I made were to improve Windows Mobile to make the Calendar easier to use.

To use it the "right" way today, you have to navigate away from the Calendar to the Clock settings applet, change the time zone, then go back to the Calendar to enter an appointment in the correct time zone. That's just stupid!

When creating an appointment on your device, Microsoft could add Time Zone drop-down lists for appointment start and end times (you want both to handle things like flights that cross time zones). When viewing the Calendar, Microsoft could add an option to select the time zone you want to view the Calendar in.

Those two changes would make using the Calendar correctly much easier and emphasize the importance of setting the time zone correctly.

Unfortunately, they aren't even listening to their MVPs about this. I remember a debate about how time zones should be handled back in 2003 and nothing has changed.

Steve

Which ultimately leads to the conclusion that time is man made and therefore flawed by design?!

[blueonblackstrat]

I'm not sure how many have let motorola, how unhappy they are with this, but I was sure to let them know of the critical flaw in the auto timezone change.

Fact is, if you are in New York, and you are going to have a meeting in L.A. in three days... Set the appointment in your calender for say 3 pm... When you get on the bird in New York, you are in the Eastern Standard Zone, when you get off the plane, you are in Pacific Time.. Meeting at 3.... well 3 is 3 is 3 is 3. The fact that the time doesn't change in the calender is simple. And if if does, well that would be yet another critical flaw this POS needs addressd.