Thousands of angry iPhone users overslept and even late for work and flights today after a New Years Eve software glitch cancelled the phone’s alarms.
The iPhone’s non-recurring alarms stopped working for a staggering two days after the clocks struck midnight to usher in 2011.
Instead thousands of smart phone owners got a surprise lie-in and many were forced to blame the glitch for being late for work.
The bug was the latest in a series of embarrassing blunders for Apple after the iPhone failed to cope when the clocks went back one hour on October 31.
Phone chiefs have promised they mobile will automatically rectify the bug just in time for when millions of people across Britain return to work after the festive break.
An outpouring of online anger ensued as people bemoaned missed dates, turning up late for work or missing that annual ”happy new year” phone call to loved ones.
Beverley Paris wrote on Twitter: ”OK so I <3 my #iphone 3GS but the alarm didn't go of this am because the OS has a bug that will correct itself 03/1/11. SUPER UNCOOL!''
Dan Linfoot wrote: ''iPhone alarm didn't work today! Slept in by 15mins. Brew time then out on the pushy! :)''
Matt Burfield wrote: ''Why the hell did my alarm not go off on my iPhone? Arggh''
Alexander Drake wrote: ''iPhone alarm you piece of shit. No-one told me it didn't work on 1st and 2nd of January?.''
Flight attendant Fion Chan wrote: ''Luckily I managed to wake up on my own. I don't want to lose my job on the first day of the year.''
Art of Fighters added: ''Just recovered after the nye!special thanks goes to the iPhone alarm clock bug which almost made us lose our flight!!!.''
Jayne Hoskins wrote: ''Can anyone shed any light on the iPhone alarm not working since new year?? I've just over slept by 2 hrs??''
Footballers Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Savage, who are followed by hundreds of thousands on Twitter, issued warnings to their followers yesterday about the alarm error.
It is the third alarm failure in months after some iPhones missed the clocks going back one hour for British Winter Time meaning people were given an extra hour in bed.
Similar problems affected iPhone users in Australia and New Zealand in September, causing their alarms to go off an hour early in the southern hemisphere.
Apple issued a statement advising many of its phones would not work at the start of 2011 but the warning was missed by its thousands of customers.
The glitch effected non-recurring iPhone alarms which stopped working for devices running iOS 4.02, 4.1, and 4.2.1.
An Apple spokesman said: ''We're aware of an issue related to non-repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2.
''Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.''
It is unclear what caused the alarm to fail, but technology experts say it could be due to a bug in the iPhone 4's operating system.
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