BlackBerry Cool

This Timezone feature would be nice if it didn’t make the unacceptable change to all appointments in the calendar. For example: I life in San Diego and my home time zone is PST (-8). Last week I travelled to Tulsa/OK which is CST (-6). So, arriving in Tulsa, I change the Time setting to CST, so that my BB 8700c would show the local time. Now I look at my calendar and noticed that all my appointments got also changed forward by 2 hrs. For example, before my trip I had my flight departure set as a 2:02pm appointment; after the time zone change from -8 to -6, this appoinment now shows up as 4:02pm, which could have made me miss my flight, if I hadn’t noticed this strange and unacceptable behaviour.
This never happened with my Palm OS PDA.

did you ever find a solution to the calendar/clock syncronization problem?

I had the same problem when commuting between Singapore and Sydney (2hr difference). Would be great if a solution is out there (I ended up having to keep my 8100 on Sydney time)

same issue and I have a list of things I hate about this thing;

On the other hand, I am in Pacific time and I schedule a conference call at 1 PM. I fly to NY (3 hr difference), change the time zone and I get reminded at 4 PM of my scheduled meeting. The reality is that I have more scheduled meetings to remember and just one flight to return. I can remember the hour of the return flight, not my 20 meetings. I believe it is a great function.

Richard, Thanks for this info. I’m a Treo user and my old Treo 650 did exactly what you described and it got all of its appointment times and time zones from a sync with outlook. But when I got a new Treo 700p, it didn’t work. I spent several hours with Palm tech support and in the end we decided that it would not work and there were no plans to change the software (or hardware, I’m not sure where the problem was). So based on your note, I’ll look to move to a Blackberry. Very sad after many years as a Palm OS user.

Can you not create the appointment on the Blackberry to a specific time zone?

The reason you are getting reminded at 4 pm EST is b/c the device maintains the integrity of how it is entered. If your calendar is on PST and you schedule a call at 1 PM EST – you need to put this on your PST calendar at 10 AM PST. When you change the time on your device it will be correct. Ask an assistant in your office and she should be able to assist you. There is a way to list two time zones at the same time on your outlook calendar. This will help with the conversion.

I’m converting from a Treo to a Blackberry (8830). I am trying to find the Blackberry capability to determine the time in various places where I need to call people e.g., Africa, Middle East and other places around the world. I don’t understand why the Blackberry “World Edition” phone doesn’t have this capability – the Treo 650 does. Does anyone know what program I can download that will allow me to do this? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Rich

It is unthinkable in this world of GPS that the phone does not sync with the geographical location. Is there ANYone who like making the timezone change manually?

I agree with you Jay. The phone doesn’t even need GPS to know the timezone. It can know based on the cell tower. I just switched from a Windows Mobile phone to a Blackberry on the T-Mobile network. I like the Blackberry much better, EXCEPT that the Windows Mobile phone automatically adjusted the time zone as soon as I landed (I travel a lot). I have to go make the change manually to the Blackberry. I just can’t believe that RIM overlooked this incredibly obvious feature. If anyone figures out a way to have the Blackberry cahnge timezones automatically, PLEASE let me know!!

It may seem lazy and ridiculous, but I really liked the automatic time update feature on my Treo. For the most part I do like the 8830, but this one issue bugs me. I travel a lot and sometimes, I’m exhausted and don’t want to remember to reset my phone. Is there a way to have the time automatically update to Network?

I just purchased a new Blackberry Curve and I have the same frustration. I travel somewhere different every week and it’s absolutely ridiculous that my Blackberry doesn’t know what time zone I’m in. At first I thought I was stupid and couldn’t figure out how to update the time from the local cell towers, but little did I know it was a shortcoming of my new $400 phone. I upgraded from an old LG flip phone so I could have data, bluetooth, calendar book, etc but my appointment times and alarm are now useless. I believe this is a major flaw in the software that could be easily corrected with an update. All the other phones update the time zone automatically, why can’t Blackberry?

I agree. I had this problem 6 years ago, got rid of the blackberry then. I was assured by the sales associate that this was no longer the case. I switched from a simple razor, which had much better (simpler) software. I can’t imagine why this hasn’t been corrected in all these years, but I will be sending this one back under the 30 days AGAIN, wish their associates were better trained.

The “solution” we use is to enter all appointments in your local time zone. SO…for example, you live PST…and have an appointment at 4PM EST. Put it in your BB at 1PM….when you arrive, change time zone to EST and your calendar will be correct. This works well when you use calendar invites across time zones to people. If you entered a meeting invite for that same meeting above you can see how it works out.

The “solution” we use is to enter all appointments in your local time zone. SO…for example, you live PST…and have an appointment at 4PM EST. Put it in your BB at 1PM….when you arrive, change time zone to EST and your calendar will be correct. This works well when you use calendar invites across time zones to people. If you entered a meeting invite for that same meeting above you can see how it works out.

My problem is within the same time zone, EST Atlantic is the set time and then without request or warning the clock resets to Caracas,Vnz…moves my entire calendar by an hour and I cannot simply correct the time zone see the appointments be corrected.

Is there a way to set your blackberry so that it updates the time automatically when you change time zones?

It wouldn’t even have to change the timezone for me. All I would like is to have the local time DISPLAYED alongside, or optionally, instead of my timezone. Just tell me what time it is, that’s all I want……….

I don’t get it,my blackberry curve will not update time zones automatically? Is this a joke?! If i look under the “network” time it’s sometimes correct when i arrive in a new destination but even then it won’t display it or switch on it’s own. It may seem like a small detail but when you travel as much as i do,not uncommon to be in more than 1 time zone in a day let alone week, this is a major problem I am flabbergasted has been overlooked and from what I’m hearing for quite sometime..very poor..please fix with a patch or whatever,time to work your magic guys!

Please let me know if there is an update for BB to correct the time zone problem. Thanks

No, they haven’t fixed this little problem yet when I got my new BB 8310 (Curve) in January 2009.

Truly frustrating, as it’s illogical. If I’m traveling to TX from AZ, and setting appts. for while I’m in TX – of course, I would enter them in TX time. It seems quite convoluted that I would need to first figure out – now, really, 2pm TX time is actually 12pm AZ time, so I’ll enter this future appt. for noon . . . necessitating, of course, that I remember this conversion each time I speak to someone in TX with whom I’m scheduled to meet or trying to find available time to meet? Crazy.

No kidding! I’m enroute from Charleston, SC(EDT)to Albuquerque, NM(MDT) via Houston, TX(CDT), and I almost missed my connecting flight because my BB Curve is still displaying the origin time zone’s time. C’mon RIM… Get it together! Syncing to local time without screwing up the calendar should be rock-bottom BASIC!

The blackberry calendar works great once you figure out the details. When you create an appt, the default time zone for that appt is the same time zone you have your phone set to. But there is a field to specify a different time zone for that appt. For example, if your phone is set to CST & you create an appt for 5:00 EST, when you save the appt it will display on your calendar as 4:00. When you travel to the eastern time zone (& change the time zone on your bb), the appt will now display at 5:00.