We don’t think many aspects of iPhone UI design could be more straightforward than the time picker in the alarm function – but it looks like we’d be wrong…
Macworld spotted a tweet By someone who found that hours and minutes are not rings, but rather very long lists with a definite end.
When the clock passes 23 (or 11pm if you’re so inclined) and it goes back to 00, it doesn’t actually go back to zero, it goes to a new zero. And also when the minutes pass from 59 to zero.
I have tested this and can confirm the claim. If you’re interested, the hour list starts at 01 and ends, slightly arbitrarily, at 16, while the minute list runs from 00 to 39 (with many, many full cycles in between). It took me about 30 swipes to get from the beginning of each menu to the end.
The site speculates that this might be a more efficient way to program it, but if anyone has any better theories, please let us know in the comments!
This isn’t the end of the discoveries waiting to be made at Apple pickers. The question of how far into the future current calendaring will go lies outside the bounds of current scientific knowledge. Macworld David Price went to the year 6888, while one Redditor went to the year 10005, but neither made it to the end.
Is there an end? Is there a hidden final calendar entry? The world waits for a brave explorer to uncover the truth.
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Photo by Jim Lueck on Unsplash
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