Schedule-syncing side effects

Sometimes you don't see what could go wrong with a system until you use it heavily... auto-syncing things from one device or system to another is a minefield all by itself:

Macworld: Editors' Notes: Ring-a-ding-ding by Rob Griffiths

I have a recurring event [Thursday] each week, a phone call with my Macworld boss. Generally I don't use alarms on my iCal events, but I set this one up with an on-screen message with sound (don't want to miss the phone call to the boss!). So every week on Thursday at 10:30 a.m., our home begins to sound a lot like a rehearsal for a performance of The Carol of the Bells. The Mac Pro chimes, followed in quick succession by the Dual G5, the iPod video, iPod nano, second generation iPod, and MacBook Pro. Then, a couple seconds later, the Treo chirps up (I guess its clock is slightly out of sync), and if the PowerBook in the family room has been left on, I'll hear that bell, too.

Of course, all of these sounds don't happen perfectly in sync, so I'm treated to the sound effects spread over a 10-second or so interval. It's quite humorous, actually…the first time...

... As a result, my No. 1 iCal feature request is an “alarm on this device only” setting

  Apple / Macintosh / Software Engineering   3 comment(s)  

Wait a sec- they're all chiming? That's quite a trick, since no current or past iPod has a built-in speaker- does he have them all connected to external speakers that are turned on? Or maybe he has earbuds in them all, but how many earbuds can he cram into his ears?
      ...posted by Chris on March 31, 2007 11:04 PM

Actually, there is an audible alarm on iPods, though it's a really primitive one - Lyn's older iPod has been going 'BEEE-dee-BEEE-dee-BEEE-dee-BEEE' every morning for over a year; we haven't bothered to figure out how to turn it off yet...

So there is some kind of noisemaker in many iPods, even though it doesn't play music.
      ...posted by Steve B. on April 4, 2007 8:48 PM

Oops- you're right- I remember now that there is a way to turn on an off an audible click when scrolling. Maybe I should have actually tried the alarm before spouting off... :-)
      ...posted by Chris on April 5, 2007 8:14 AM

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