This morning I noticed that my iPhone and Apple Watch claimed that the alarm had gone off two minutes late, which seemed improbable.

I checked the time on the iPhone against the official US Government time and discovered that the iPhone was nearly two minutes fast, which should be impossible.

Unless, of course, the phone wasn’t synchronizing itself to network time, which it obviously wasn’t.

A little thought (after coffee) gave me the answer. I hate getting on an airplane and having the iPhone and my watch reset themselves to whatever timezone the wifi on the plane is supplying, so I turn off the automatic setting and change the timezone myself. Little did I know that I was also telling the phone not to synchronize the time at all – and after a few months, it had drifted enough to be noticeable.

I could have fixed the problem by manually resetting the time and date using the little boxes at the bottom of the picture, but it’s easier to just let the phone do it all – I may still turn off the automatic setting the next time I get on a plane, but I will be damn sure to turn it back on when I get to my destination!

I’ve been subscribing to The Economist for many years; it gives me a good overview of what’s happening in the world (beyond the US), it’s well-written, amusing, and I really enjoy their science and culture sections.

It’s also bloody expensive – $349/year for print and digital (I prefer the print version, though I like having access to their website and podcasts). My subscription was due for renewal on Sunday, and I decided not to renew it. I hoped I could do the deed on the website and not have to talk to anyone.

It was easy – log in, click on “Manage Subscription”, click “Cancel”. Up popped a form asking for my reason to cancel – I clicked the “too expensive” button and was immediately offered one year for half-price.

Naturally, I accepted.

I guess I’m an easy mark sometimes. :-)