TUAW Responds: NTP for the iPhone

For those dismissing this since the iPhone syncs time via the network, those of us living near time-zone borders don't, or cant, always use this feature. I live on the MST/PST border and my iPhone, if left configured to grab time from the network has a 50:50 chance of picking up the wrong time. So I set the time manually, and it does drift a bit.

So an NTP app is nice, or Boss Prefs (hadn't seen that option in Boss Prefs).


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Mike

The iPhone should sync to network provider time, as all GSM phones do (pseudo-NTP).

The iPod touch should sync to the desktop computer's time, which can be set to use NTP. I can't imagine the drift between when you sync would be so dramatic that it'd ever matter.

So this is a solution looking for a problem. But a clever solution it is!

The only entry in /etc/ntp.conf that's necessary is the "server" line.

Also, please do not use random NTP server addresses you might have found somewhere. The http://www.pool.ntp.org/ NTP pool server project provides over 1500 NTP servers world-wide for individuals to use. Just use one of the CC.pool.ntp.org host names (where CC is your two-letter ISO county code, i. e. us for the States), and the pool system will automatically select a server close to you for optimal performance. If you want redundancy, use 0.CC.pool.ntp.org, 1.CC.pool.ntp.org, etc. with multiple server lines. If you don't know where in the world you are, or if you're travelling a lot, you can leave out the country code.

Example /etc/ntp.conf:
server 0.pool.ntp.org
server 1.pool.ntp.org
server 2.pool.ntp.org

Hmmm.... me thinks this could be used for the new movie downloads? Setting the clock back would extend the amount of time you have to watch the movie? Isn't that how it's working on the Mac Pro's... wouldn't it also work for the portables?

I wonder....

Well, it could come in handy for the (jailbroken) iPod touch regardless...

The iPhone's clock is already synchronized with AT&T's clock. Having both NTP and AT&T independently resetting the clock might lead to unexpected behaviors.

Isn't NTP redundant on the iPhone since it updates its time from the cell towers? Not to belittle the work done here which is very impressive, just making an observation.

Install Boss Prefs. In addition to it being a fantastic, *extensible* replacement for the Services/NetServices.app (and also allowing you to hide Preferences.app, Summerboard, Customize and more from the main Springboard) -- it has an NTP plug-in. It's a wonderful "swiss-army knife" of Preference tools for the iPhone/touch jailbreaker.

http://code.google.com/p/bossprefs/