Les Jones: Which of Your Clocks Changed Time Automatically?

October 31, 2006

Tech > Which of Your Clocks Changed Time Automatically?

The time change was Sunday morning, which got me thinking about all of the clocks that changed themselves.

Cell phones - All cell phones seem to change time automatically, because they get their time from the cell tower. They'll also change time zones automatically as soon as they communicate with a tower in the new time zone.

Computers - As I recall Windows has been able to automatically adjust the time since Windows 95 unless the default is changed in the Date and Time control panel.

My 10 year old Philips-Magnavox VCR - You know how most VCRs constantly flash "12:00"? One reason I bought this one was that it has auto clock set. It automatically sets its clock using a signal broadcast by PBS. Or it would, if I still had it hooked up to cable TV. Now the VCR's job has been taken over the ...

TiVo - TiVo automatically changes its clock for standard and daylight savings time. TiVo also sets its clock when it dials in to download new program data.

Honda Odyssey - Melissa noticed that the mini-van's clock changed itself. Our Odyssey has a GPS-enabled navigation system, but I hadn't realized that it used GPS to set the dashboard clock. Neat-o.

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my Macbook, my Imac, my Dell laptop, my cell phone (and my wife's), my blackberry.

Watches, car clocks, coffee maker, bedroom alarm clock, and the wall clocks in our house all failed to set themselves. Really though, its the car clocks that are the most annoying to set. We went the whole day without realizing we were running an hour ahead because we just deferred to the car clock and no one mentioned the time change to us.

Posted by: countertop at October 31, 2006

One small correction - CDMA phones do as you described, but GSM phones do not, as that technology is less timing dependent. In fact the best phone I ever carried, a Nokia 6190 with special engineering software installed, didn't even have a clock feature.

I never understood why anyone would use a VCR as a clock. We just stuck duct tape over the flashing 12:00.

Posted by: triticale at October 31, 2006

I did not know that about CDMA phones. Thanks!

Posted by: Les Jones at November 01, 2006

My computer at the office sets it time automatically, I suppose it is a Microsoft XP (or Dell?)thing. Problem is that it seems to be 8 minutes faster than my cell phone time.

Posted by: Scott at November 03, 2006

A little late to the party on this post - but here goes anyway:

My wristwatch reset itself automatically. It does a time sync almost daily, in fact. When it doesn't, the signal from Fort Collins isn't strong enough.

Posted by: Ben at November 06, 2006