Sunday, March 30, 2008

Phones and time

Why doesn't my mobile phone keep track of time via the Net? It could just send a blip once a week and keep itself accurate. And it could know when it's summertime. Instead I have to go through a series of menus every so often because it's too slow.

Talking about summertime, I notice that nowadays it was not judged confusing enough in itself, so they managed to make it start at different dates in the US and Europe. Well done, folks.

6 comments:

Bert said...

Calling your mobile usually resets the clock. Just don't answer when you know that it is you who's calling. :-P

Note that I am a bit surprised. Modern digital mobiles are in frequent communication with nearby towers, even when not in use. That is why North-American mobiles usually keep the time quite accurately (mine sure does, and self-updates too). Maybe you should have a better look at the menus, you might actually be blocking the feature. Oh, auto-updating won't work either if you keep your phone off... ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It does not seem my Motorola Razr does this. the clock is losing at least a minute per month.

Alex said...

That is most peculiar.

I thought date and time were exchanged on system registration.

Do you leave your phone on 24/7, and not "roam". If your phone is continually in sight of the tower, then maybe it doesn't re-register, and the clock drifts. Try power cycling the phone, this will force a registration. Mind you, going to Trafford Park from Bolton should have moved you from one site to another.

I worked on a system that used a Motorola RTC. Every time I read the RTC it would round to the next second, or next 100th. The result was that if I polled the RTC every minute it would drift very soon. I was trying to implement fail time. That was when I learnt the merits of maintaining a software RTC, and only use the hardware one daily or on power up.

All the same, Razrs world wide take system time. And system time is regionalized by cell site, not raw UTC.


Oh, as for BST differening from US DST and Central European time:-

"Before 2006, Indiana officially used standard time year-round, with the following exceptions:

* The portions of Indiana that were on Central Time observed daylight saving time.
* Also, some Indiana counties near Cincinnati and Louisville were on Eastern Time, but did (unofficially) observe DST.
* However, in 2005, Indiana passed legislation which took effect on April 2, 2006, that placed the entire state on daylight saving time. See: Time in Indiana
"

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I sometimes turn it off at night, so that definitely does not help.

Alex said...

Do you know any other Razr user with your system provider? This does not sound right at all.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Laurie used to have one, I'll check if he used T-Mobile.