Local Time Offset

I’m going to rant for a moment.

Why must I set the “Local Time Offset” in the User Settings page?  This thing is a figgen’ GPS!  It already knows what time zone I’m in.  This thing is an FMS!  It knows where I’m headed.

I can understand having the ability to override the offset for special cases, but there should be an “AUTO” option, and it should be the default value.

David Bunin

To be fair, the logic for "what is my local time-of-day" for your phone lives in your cell provider's infrastructure, not inside the phone.

This isn't quite as simple to implement as it might seem due to the need to take daylight savings time changes in the spring and fall into consideration. I don't think this information is included in the GPS satellite signals, so a gps would need to have all the necessary date/time change tables on-board. The data also changes from year to year.

In the continental US that may not seem like such a big deal because everyone changes at the same date/time. Outside the US, there are many complications. In Canada, for example, all the provinces change in step with the US except most of Saskatchewan, some regions of British Columbia, small region of Nunavut, small region of Quebec, small region of Ontario which are on the same time year round and never change. Imagine a gps needing to always know the right Zulu delta for this geographic patchwork?

Most European countries change in step with each other, but on a different weekend than the US. Other regions are worse (e.g. S. America). Take a look at this web link to get an idea of the complexity: http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2015.html

MysticCobra wrote: To be fair, the logic for "what is my local time-of-day" for your phone lives in your cell provider's infrastructure, not inside the phone.

I didnt realize this, and that this was a significant level of effot.