Date/Time Settings and Alarms

I’ve noticed that I rarely wear a watch anymore.Why is this? Well,it’s because I always have my mobile phone with me.Why wear a watch when I can just whip out my phone and check the time? The next few sections show you how to manage the clock on your phone and set some alarms.

Setting the Date and Time

Most phones and providers these days obtain the date and time from the mobile phone opera- tor.However,you might want to change the time.Maybe you want to set your phone to the time zone your sister lives in,or maybe you want to set the clock 5 minutes fast so that you’re always on time.To set the date and time,follow these steps:

1. If you aren’t on the main screen,press the Home key.

2. Press the Menu button,and tap Settings.

3. Scroll through the screen,and tap Date & time to bring up the Date & time settings screen.

4. If Automatic is checked, uncheck it so that you can change your date and time settings independent of your mobile phone operator.You’see options for changing the date, time zone,and time.

You’ll notice two other options available to you on the Date & time settings screen:

• Use 24-hour format: Unfortunately,this won’t make Jack Bauer show up when you’re in trouble;it only switches the clock between showing 1:00 p.m.and 13:00.

• Select date format: If you’re more comfortable reading the date in a different format, this is where you configure it.

Setting an Alarm

Personally,I never understood the usefulness of wake-up calls.Most hotel rooms have a digital alarm clock.But if you’re worried about the power going out,your mobile phone lets you set your own alarm.Several alarms are actually pre-configured (though not turned on),but we’ll create a new one for this exercise.To set an alarm,follow these steps:

1. Tap to display the Application tab,and touch the Alarm Clock icon.

2. Press the Menu button to display the Alarm Clock menu.

3. Tap the Add alarm icon to display the screen 

The following alarm options are available:

• Alarm:  This is the toggle that enables or disables the alarm.A green check mark means that the alarm will go off.Don’t see one? The alarm is disabled and won’t go off.Simply tap the Alarm line to toggle the check mark on and off.When you touch it,a pop-up shows you how long it will be until the alarm will go off.

• Time:  This is when you want the alarm to go off.

• Ringtone:  Despite the fact that your phone can play many different audio formats (more on that later) and comes with quite a few ringtones,only six options are available 

• Vibrate:  Vibrate is simply a toggle.If it is checked in green,the phone will vibrate when the alarm goes off.

• Repeat:  You can configure the alarm to go off on certain days. If you do not select anything on this screen,the alarm goes off only once,when the clock hits whatever time is set on the Time option.

After you’ve made the settings you want,you can press the Back button to go back to the list of alarms.But,before you do that,why not set an alarm to go off in about 5 minutes,based on the time on the Notification bar? Also enable the alarm so that you can see the best feature of the Alarm Clock.

Snooze

Could there be a more wonderful invention than the snooze alarm? How could you not like a feature that makes an alarm go away for 10 minutes?

Like any good alarm clock,this one comes with a snooze button.Simply tap the Snooze but- ton when the alarm goes off.

Deleting an Alarm

Deleting an alarm is easy.Simply tap the alarm to view the settings,press the Menu button, and then tap Delete alarm.