iPhone users have been baffled to discover a secret design element that has been hidden in plain sight for years.
In a viral post on X (formerly Twitter), one user has shared their strange discovery about the iPhone alarm.
When you set an alarm on an iPhone, it looks as if you are spinning a wheel with the numbers one through 12 written around the circumference.
However, users have now discovered that this isn’t really the case.
In a post, a user wrote: ‘The time picker on iphones alarm app isn’t actually circular it’s just a really long list.’
Eventually, if you scroll for long enough, you will actually find the end of the alarm app’s list of possible times.
As confused iPhone users have discovered, this time is always 04:39pm.
On social media, Apple fans have been shocked by this strange discovery, with one commenter asking: ‘Why is this such a disturbing discovery?’
iPhone users have been baffled to discover a hidden feature in the iPhone alarms app. In a viral post, one user revealed that the scrolling ‘wheels’ aren’t actually circular
If you scroll through the 24-hour clock while setting an alarm, it looks like you are spinning a wheel. In reality, you are actually looking through a very long list
On social media, iPhone users were shocked by the discovery. One commenter asked why this was ‘such a disturbing discovery’
Rather than being infinite loops, most scrolling wheels on the iPhone are actually finite lists.
This means that users can run out of room to scroll if they keep flicking through enough 24-cycles.
However, since these lists are very long and there’s no reason to scroll more than 24 hours backwards or forwards, most people never realise this.
On social media, this revelation has left iPhone users reeling.
One flabbergasted commenter wrote: ‘I feel so betrayed.’
Another added: ‘Concerning. It isn’t even that long! It only took like ten seconds of fast scrolling to hit the end.’
While another chimed in: ‘This is like flat earth for iPhones.’
However, the feature also sparked a lively debate between those who saw it as sloppy coding and fans who praised it as a smart design choice.
On X, formerly Twitter, iPhone users tried to find the end of the list themselves and identified that it always ends at 4:39 pm
One commenter complained that they felt ‘betrayed’ by the realisation that the app’s interface was not what it seemed to be
Another commenter said that it only took about ‘ten seconds of fast scrolling’ to reach the end of the list
One angry user wrote: ‘Steve Jobs would never have allowed this.’
‘I hate Apple for this,’ wrote one commenter.
Another added: ‘This is beyond cursed.’
On the other hand, many tech enthusiasts argued that making the menu a list, rather than an endlessly looping wheel, is actually a more efficient solution.
One commenter wrote: ‘Interesting! Sometimes things can be done in a simpler way. No over engineering required.’
Another wrote: ‘An experienced af dev built this. Much easier than trying to build something circular with nearly identical utility. Proof: Nobody knew.’
As another simply added: ‘The guy who built it is a genius.’
Meanwhile, as some commenters argued about the features, others had more questions about the user who found this in the first place.
Some commenters claimed that this was a sign of poor engineering from Apple, with one commenter writing that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs would ‘never have allowed this’
Other tech enthusiasts praised the design choice as a simple and elegant solution to a problem that could otherwise require complicated coding to solve
One confused social media user asked: ‘The important question here is, what were you trying to do?’
‘How do you even figure these things out lol,’ another chimed in.
While one baffled iPhone user asked: ‘What possessed you to even scroll so far so as to discover something no human has ever stumbled upon before?’
However, this isn’t the first time that the time and date features on the iPhone have been found to contain a hidden secret.
Previously, iPhone users were surprised to find that the calendar was missing a 10-day period after sharp-eyed iPhone users found that the calendar jumps from October 4 straight to October 15 in the year 1582.
Rather than being a technical glitch, these ten missing days are actually an ancient relic of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.
In the shift, the church jumped ahead 10 days from the feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4, 1582, straight to October 15 the next morning.
The relics of that 500-year-old administrative decision can still be found in your iPhone’s calendar app as an unexplained missing period.
THE TRILLION DOLLAR RISE OF APPLE
1976: Founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne created the company on April 1 1976 as they set about selling computer kits to hobbyists, each of which was built by Wozniak.
The first product was the Apple I.
1977: Apple released the Apple II in June, which was the first PC made for the mass market.
Steve Jobs unveils Apple Computer Corporation’s new Macintosh February 6, 1984 in California.
1981: Jobs became chairman.
1984: The Macintosh was introduced during an ad break for the Super Bowl and later officially unveiled during a launch event. It was discontinued a year later and Jobs left the firm.
1987: Apple released the Macintosh II, the first colour Mac.
1997: Apple announces it will acquire NeXT software in a $400 million deal that involves Jobs returning to Apple as interim CEO. He officially took the role in 2000.
The then Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Steve Jobs, with the iPhone
2001: Apple introduced iTunes, OS X and the first-generation iPod.
The first iPod MP3 music player was released on October 23, 2001, at an event in Cupertino and was able to hold up to 1,000 songs.
2007: Apple unveils the iPhone.
2010: The first iPad was unveiled.
2011: Jobs resigned in 2011 due to illness, handing the CEO title to Tim Cook. Jobs died in October from pancreatic cancer.
2014: Apple unveiled the Apple Watch. It also unveiled its first larger iPhones – the 6 and 6 Plus.
2015: After purchasing Beats from Dr Dre, Apple launched Apple Music to compete with Spotify and other music streaming services.
2016: Apple returned to its roots and announced the 4-inch iPhone SE. Meanwhile, the firm is embroiled in a legal battle with the FBI, involving the agency demanding access to the locked phone used by Syed Farook, who died in a shootout after carrying out a deadly December attack in San Bernardino, California with his wife. The court order was dropped on March 28 after the FBI said a third party was able to unlock the device.
2017: Apple introduces the iPhone X, which removes the home button to make way for a futuristic edge-to-edge screen design and a new FaceID system that uses advanced sensors and lasers to unlock phones with just the owner’s face.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks at an Apple event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.
2018: In a first for the company, Apple introduces new features in its latest operating system, iOS 12, that encourage users to manage and spend less time on their devices. The move was spawned by a strongly worded letter from shareholders that urged the firm to address the growing problem of smartphone addiction among kids and teenagers.
2019: In January, Apple reports its first decline in revenues and profits in a decade. CEO Tim Cook partly blamed steep declines in revenue from China.
2020: In March, Apple closes all its bricks and mortar retail stores outside of China in response to coronavirus.
2021: In an online virtual event in April CEO Tim Cook declared Apple’s goal of becoming carbon neutral for Earth Day. Later in the year the iPhone 13 was announced.
2022: In September the iPhone 14 was announced. One of the new features included a new sensor to detect if a user had been in a car crash as well as an improved camera system.
2023: Apple brought back its ‘Home Pod’ after the first generation was discontinued. The ‘Home Pod’ can be seen as an alternative to Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home as it is powered by voice commands.
2024: Apple makes its first steps into artificial intelligence with the release of Apple Intelligence. The features are not all released at once with many delayed until the following year.
