Can you trust your iPhone as an alarm clock?

This blog post inspired by Episode 60 of Build and AnalyzeWhat's worse than having to get up early in the morning? Not being able to trust an alarm to wake you up. What happens when you have a major event that you simply cannot miss? Do you trust your smartphone?

As a developer, I can see why people SHOULD feel comfortable relying on their smartphones…but also am painfully aware of how frustrating it is when something as simple as an alarm fails to work. Like a lot of things in life, it doesn't matter how many times it works. All someone needs is to have that annoying experience of having technology fail them at a critical moment. Suddenly that el cheapo alarm clock in the bargain bin at that mammoth box store may be ugly, but you know it will wake you up on time, every time…peace of mind you can acquire for less than $10.

This is painfully obvious in the world of the smartphone gold standard - Apple's iOS and assorted iPhones/iPads. Yes, there are some annoyances that crop up. However, Apple continues to manage to do something the mobile phone industry still cannot do - even with advances in the Android sphere. Apple makes devices that not only work, but do so in a very consistent and fairly reliable manner.

While Android is not something I would ever choose to have on my phone, I can see its appeal and how it can be a great choice for people. Regarding Android tablets, though, there is no comparison. The iPad not only ignited consumer interest in tablets, but there are NO Android competitors that are remotely close. They haven't even reached the starting line.

Having been burned by a poorly made Asus netbook several years ago, I didn't think I would ever experience hardware that could be worse than that piece of garbage. This changed when I began to experiment with Android tablets at my local Best Buy. I invite you to take a trip to your favorite retailer and get your hands on the horrible creations masquerading as Android tablets. Oh my Christ. The hardware feels cheap, flimsy, and frail - which is complemented with a user experience that is full of inconsistencies and a device that feels unresponsive and obsolete…all while sitting on the store shelf pretending to be the next big thing. Yawn.

Android on a tablet is tantamount to marrying the girl who gave you herpes in hopes that you'll find happiness together. Sure, maybe it's possible - but in the end you will ultimately find yourself feeling dirty, used, and unsatisfied. This is the definitive Android experience you can expect on a tablet.

…enough of that. I'm not here to bash Android or continue admiring the attention to detail and user experience Apple consistently has. I love my iPhone 4. I love my iPad 2. And I love how these all integrate nicely with the MacBook Pro I use. But there is one thing that I don't like. I can't trust alarms to fire off reliably.

What? I've had my iPhone 4 since June 23rd of 2010, and I still find myself unable to reliably trust that the alarm clock will work. The sad part is, it's not for lack of wanting to. It's because this $300 purchase has one key flaw. The engineers who have made monumental leaps in user experience and mobile operating system development cannot figure out how to reliably have a recurring alarm adjust to time changes.

"What? That doesn't make any sense. You mean to tell me that your $300 smartphone cannot reliably wake you up in the morning? What about the nearly $113/month for two years that you've committed to - better known as $2,712?? Surely that should help contribute to a rock solid experience, yes?"

Yes. And no. For the most part, the alarms on my iPhone 4 and iPad 2 work exactly as I would expect. It's not a demanding use case in theory. In practice, I have been burned twice by alarms misfiring around changes to and from Daylight Savings Time. I even followed the advice of completely deleting all recurring alarms THE DAY BEFORE a time change occurs, and to my surprise I still was burned. See Recurring alarm bug resurfaces in iOS 5 and Apple Fail: Daylight Savings Time Adjustment Delays Alarms 1 Hour for my experiences with that.

I want to believe that I can trust my iPhone to wake me up. For the most part, I can. But because of those two asinine user experiences, I always hesitate when I need to set my alarm for something really important. If I'm late to work, it's not ideal but it would not be the end of the world. However, when I travel I need to be able to trust that my alarm clock will wake me up when I ask it to. Sure, the argument could be made that if I don't travel during time changes, I can leave my rose-colored lenses on.

It is absolutely ridiculous that I can't trust my alarm to wake me up each and every time I ask it to. I like to believe my iPhone will get me up and out of bed when I ask it to, and 99.9% of the time it performs flawlessly. But those two times that it failed me because of a fundamental flaw? Ridiculous. I am confident Apple has engineering expertise and talent to resolve issues as silly as that…but they didn't. It's an alarm and a clock for Christ's sake - one of the most fundamental elements of a mobile device.

I am optimistic, though. It is 2012, and the iPhone has been around since 2007. Maybe, just MAYBE having a reliable clock and recurring alarm system on the iPhone will be a reality one day. In the meantime, I keep walking by those ugly alarm clocks - wondering if I should set one up…just in case.

What do you think? Do you trust your smartphone to wake you up reliably?

This blog post was inspired by episode 60 of one of my favorite podcasts - "Build and Analyze." This podcast is a weekly news and discussion show about the world of iPhone, iPad, iOS, and mobile web development. It's hosted by Dan Benjamin (@danbenjamin) and Marco Arment (@marcoarment), and manages to successfully balance life and humor with just the right amount of developer commentary.