Some guy’s iPhone alarm clock went off at the New York Philharmonic last week. This despite him having the Ringer switch flicked to the “off” position. In this position the switch shows a little orange line.
This weekend, the blogosphere has been a-buzz with contrasting opinions on the implementation of “silent” on the iPhone. Read Hivelogic to get up to speed if necessary.
Short version: iPhone’s silent switch is actually not a “Silent Mode” in the Nokia or Blackberry sense of the word. It is a “Ringer Off” switch. That means that certain user-triggered activities, will still produce noise. Apple notes this in the iPhone User Manual:
Important: Clock alarms, audio apps such as Music, and many games still play sounds through the built-in speaker when iPhone is in silent mode.
Nevertheless, some bloggers are calling for the switch to be changed to a Mute-All switch. This would do away with one of my favourite iPhone design decisions. In fact, I have overslept at least one important business meeting because I’d left my Blackberry on silent the night before.
I need a phone that:
- Stops making noise (phone calls, emails, messages) when I go to bed,
- and then starts making a lot of noise when its time for me to wake up (alarm clock).
It’s pretty simple.
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