Daylight Saving Time in the US is being extended by four weeks starting in 2007 to help curb energy consumption. That's great! 
However, the .NET Mobile Framework isn't fully aware of this yet. You can ask the TimeZone class when DST will begin and end, which is really helpful for keep appointments on time. Right now, though, it's telling me that DST won't start until two weeks after it really will due to the change.
Are Daylight Saving Time start and end dates changing for anyone else around the world? This is important for getting iCalendar recurrence schedules to go from the Mobile device to Google Calendar.
*Update* Thank you for all of the comments with new regulations on Daylight Saving Time, links to KB articles and links to patches for Mobile devices! Microsoft has released a patch for Windows and .NET that you can get through Windows Update. There is a knowledge base article describing how to patch Mobile devices manually. The people at EdgeBlog created a Windows Mobile patch for Daylight Saving Time.
Oh boy. This is really stupid. I might be wrong, but i know of several studies, that say: daylightsavings dont save a bit. I vote for completely removing DST from anyones calendar. Its just an annoyance with no real use. But thats just my oppinion.
Hi Eric,
I’m not quite sure, but I think Australia has changed DST.
Best regards
Carsten
In Chile there have always been a problem in the first day of DTS, windows (and ovbiously the .NET framework) always changes the time a day early, so there is a day where no computer related thing coordinates with a real thing…
I think a day is acceptable cause it’s always a saturday, but if the problem is several weeks then it’s mayor.
Greets
Is this specific to .NET or will the patch for Windows correct it? I would think this is stored in Windows and called by other applications, so as long as your version of windows has been patched to support the new dates everything should work fine….
For testing, MS offers something called TZEdit to change your systems timezone manually (required on older versions of Windows which are no longer supported and will not have a patch made available.)
Check out this page from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx
Hth
Uhm, ok.. so your program runs on mobile/ce devices, not windows. Ok, I knew this, really!
Anywho, MS has the following articles related to changing the timezones on Windows Mobile and Windows CE devices respectively:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923953
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923027
Question now is, if those changes are implemented on the mobile devices will that make GMobileSync run correctly?
Daylight savings is changing in Australia in two ways. 1. Western Australia is trailing Daylight Savings for the next 3 years. 2. As of Oct 2007, NSW, VIC and ACT will all align with TAS and everyone in the eastern seaboard (minus those in QLD, backwards dairy farming state), will commence and complelete DST on the same day, as opposed to a month apart. I am unaware what SA and NT are doing.
DST info comes from the localisation and regional settings in the HKLM registry hive for win32, win64 and wince based devices. The .NET Framework or Compact Framework pulls it from there.
This is actually provided by the underlying Windows Framework. And what are the chances that these companies are going to release the latest AKU for all the mobile phones to correct this update. Chances are very slim to none, because most of them have hacked in their ability to update the time from their cell towers. So they will not see a need for this “feature”.
You have probably seen it already but in case you have not, Microsoft has released a fix and I am assuming they are expecting the cell phone companies to distribute it.
Bill at edgeblog has packaged up a CAB file using Microsoft’s instructions to make your life a little easier.
I have not installed this fix/patch so I can’t tell you if it works.
I am a little curious though, as I am with Cingular and I don’t know if using this fix/patch will make a difference. For me Cingular auto updates my date/time on my phone, so I assume on March 11, 2007 they will simply update the time on my phone when my phone exchanges some data with the nearest tower.
Someone has packaged a CAB file to patch the Daylight Savings changes, based on Microsoft’s article about it.
http://www.edgeblog.net/2007/daylight-saving-time-windows-mobile-fix/
Thank you everyone for the responses!
After I posted this, I saw the Windows Update for Daylight Saving Time. Sweet!
Thanks for the links too, to:
http://www.edgeblog.net/2007/daylight-saving-time-windows-mobile-fix/
and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923953
I will update the original post with the new information.
Thanks for linking to my article. I hope you find the patch useful. I also have another article on my site with links to other vendor’s fixes to the DST problem.
http://www.edgeblog.net/2007/daylight-saving-time-the-year-2007-problem/
-Bill
One of my readers determined that after you apply the patch, you must manually change your timezone to something else, and then change it back. This forces the phone to re-read the registry. I confirmed this and tested it successfully. If you have used my patch, please change your timezone.
Thanks,
-Bill
Steven…
I love your site. They really look very nice. The articles provided are long enough to provide great content but not so long as to be totally engrossing, if you know what I mean….