Originally Posted by
jsanders Mercy---!!!! You would sit in London, and enter an appointment for the next week in Bugtussle, Arkansas, and NOT think, "wait a miniute, I need to make sure this IS in Arkansas time, B E C A U S E, (cue dramatic music), I will be in Arkansas that day. How should I enter this to make sure I don't miss it?"
Yes, because everyone knows how many hours exactly they need to add or deduct from GMT or for that matter know where the time zones change geographically. The average American probably can't even tell you where Arkansas is, let alone the time zone it's in.
I used to have a simple Samsung phone which would sync time with network time based on tower location and it's time zone. That same phone had a basic calendar in it with appointments. Not once was it ever wrong and I always entered appointments in at the time I was supposed to be somewhere. Guess what, with the time changing correctly to match whatever time zone all I had to worry about was that the entered appointment was at the exact time I was asked to enter.... not to bust out my global time zone map to figure out GMT differences.
Face it, if the time would properly sync with the network on a BB no one would have to worry about any of this, including your assistant who just entered 10am for a meeting in London, but forgot to calculate the time zone difference or for that matter, went ahead and did that, but you forgot to change your time zone on the BB when you got there.... and you missed the meeting.
While internationally traveled business execs and their assistants are keen on dealing with a "global" time scale, your average consumer's not going to think of that right off.... and it's evident as much because this question always gets asked by people who come from other smartphones that don't make such a big deal out of time zone/network sync preferences. Those smartphones simply "just work". Since RIM's BB devices are starting to become more and more used by "non-business" types each year, it's important for them to make changes to their "old ways" to keep up with the times. We live in a world now that we expect the devices we use to simply be smart enough to mimic "thinking by themselves", but for that to happen, the logic built into them must come from a company that can take the blinders off once in a while.
Let me give you an example of leaving the blinders on.... The Pearl trackball in all 8k series phones are made from a "dirt attracting" platic polymer. Do you think that was a smart move to make? ID-10-T move of the year.