
Why 9:41 AM is always the time displayed on iPhones and iPads - anderzole
http://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/14/why-9-41-am-is-the-always-the-time-displayed-on-iphones-and-ipad/
======
205guy
I think the article missed some very interesting aspects of this story. First
of all, why bother setting the time in the first place? I think it's because
having many different times in different ads/websites/docs looks sloppy.
There's also the chance of someone working late (2:00 am) or having a strange
time such as 20:02 or 11:11. These are very minor but could be distracting in
high-profile ads or consistent docs. Much simpler to just say that all time
displays will be a simple 9:41 (time 0 in the age of the iPhone, essentially).

I would be more interested in how they implement this. I assume there is an
internal style guide somewhere mandating the use of 9:41. But are people who
make the images (photographers, marketing, web team, doc writers) supposed to
set the devices (or their clocks) manually? Do they have corporate photoshop
scripts for setting the time in "post-production?" Maybe there are test
settings (later removed for shipped code) that allow the time to be "frozen"
so all screenshots look natural at the desired time. Can anyone inside Apple
tell us?

~~~
ekianjo
I doubt they take actual screen pictures on their promo materials. This is
usually something done in post-production, where you integrate the screen on
the frame of the device. Or you make a 3D render altogether.

~~~
mrtksn
Actually, I recall a short documentary about the production of the Apple ads
and as far as I remember Apple uses real photos of products, not CGI. But
probably because of the difficulties of capturing photos of LCD screen(white
balance, polarization, luminescence intensity and so on) they may be replacing
screens with screenshots.

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raimue
HTC used to have an iconic clock on their Android handset, for which they
always used 10:08 in marketing materials.

This probably stems from a tradition in advertisements for analog watches.
They are usually set to some time between 10:08 and 10:10. Not only is this
setting symmetric and therefore pleasing to the eye, but also any printed
brand name is clearly visible and unobstructed.

~~~
Orangeair
An interesting note about 10:08 is that on a 12 hour digital clock, it
represents the most bars which can be simultaneously illuminated.

~~~
Patrick_Devine
10:00 would also work, but doesn't seem as visually interesting.

~~~
jxf
10:00 lights up one fewer segment than 10:08 does, though (assuming a standard
7-segment display).

~~~
Patrick_Devine
Right you are. For some reason I read the original comment as "lights up the
most _vertical_ bars".. I think I'm jet lagged after getting back from pycon.

------
ChrisClark
Google also uses specific times in their screenshots. But the times match up
with the version of Android it is running.

~~~
msoad
Wow! You are right [http://www.android.com/versions/kit-
kat-4-4/](http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/)

~~~
plorg
That only appears to go back a couple versions. For example, times in ICS
screenshots are all over the place: [http://www.android.com/versions/ice-
cream-sandwich-4-0/](http://www.android.com/versions/ice-cream-sandwich-4-0/)

~~~
notatoad
it seems to be valid for the official press photos of the nexus device
corresponding to the android version, at least as far back as the Nexus S at
2:30.

------
EC1
Anywhere else I have ever worked has pretty much always used 4:20 in the UI as
a joke. When I started work as UI/UX lead at a bank a year ago, all the
process work that was done with the previous team had some arrangement of 4:20
worked in everywhere haha.

~~~
pxlpshr
Not exactly original.

And depending on who's looking at the material, it could be considered
offensive. If you get away with it, great but some companies like USAA require
all employees and contractors pass drug tests so suggesting the universal
stoner hour might not be the best decision.

There's a reason designers use lorem ipsum in mockups – it's because once upon
a time a designer thought they were clever with their fake text, and an
account manager had to deal with a pissed off client because of what it said.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
> And depending on who's looking at the material, it could be considered
> offensive. If you get away with it, great but some companies like USAA
> require all employees and contractors pass drug tests so suggesting the
> universal stoner hour might not be the best decision.

Just to be clear, you're saying that:

    
    
        - The time "4:20" might be offensive to a reader,
        - I should, for some reason, care about this,
        - USAA's decision to drug test employees is relevant.
    

Did I misinterpret you there? You're basically advocating for removing the
13th floor from elevators because someone might get scared or have their
feelings hurt. Or designing a system that applies a penny discount to
subtotals that end up at $6.66, $66.66, and so forth (I have heard of this).

4:20 is just a time. And I'm suspicious of your explanation for Lorem Ipsum's
usage, as well, given how long it has existed and how long it has been in use.

~~~
dragonwriter
> You're basically advocating for removing the 13th floor from elevators
> because someone might get scared or have their feelings hurt.

If you want to use an analogy to suggest that a proposal is obviously wrong,
you probably want to avoid your analogy being something that is widely
established practice.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_floor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_floor)

~~~
jsmthrowaway
That's exactly what I meant, actually. I think that practice is stupid.

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parisidau
Our original blog post, if anyone is interested in the original source:
[http://www.secretlab.com.au/ipad-
day-941-am](http://www.secretlab.com.au/ipad-day-941-am)

------
anonymfus
Nokia usually uses model numbers. 9:20 for Lumia 920, for example.

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a3_nm
Similarly, Free (the ill-named ISP and mobile phone provider run by Iliad in
France) uses "13:37" on most ads as a geek joke
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet)).

~~~
ozh
and "Rock n' Roll" is the welcome message on the device. Gotta love that :)

------
elsamuko
Another story, why casio watches are always at 10:58:50

[https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=casio+digital&tbm=isch](https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=casio+digital&tbm=isch)

[http://mygshock.com/wiki/Trivia#Why_do_all_Casio_promotional...](http://mygshock.com/wiki/Trivia#Why_do_all_Casio_promotional_photos_show_10:58_as_the_time.3F)

------
lugg
I don't see anyone has discussed it yet, could it be an advertising technique?
You can create a cognitive bias in this fashion, by showing a high number like
941 the customer is less likely to balk at a sale price in the high hundreds.
Where if they were pre-exposed to a low number say 3.15 they will probably
find a 900 dollar price tag too much.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias)

Another thought is maybe that 9.41 is a lot of peoples reading in bed time, or
taking notes in a meeting at work time. Easy to picture yourself using one at
those times.

Or maybe its just a clean number that shows the correct orientation of the
tablet/phone if you read it upside down

------
lukashed
I love these little details. I remember walking past the billboard in front of
a not-yet-opened Samsung store that showed the Galaxy Gear and some other
Galaxy Smartphones. All devices had different times on them.

------
jarjoura
Actually, OS X releases up until Snow Leopard the clock was set to the version
of the OS. 10:10 for OS X 10.1 for example.

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adnrw
Here is a 2010 article, also on TUAW, about the same thing:
[http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/12/9-41-9-42-the-secret-of-
apple...](http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/12/9-41-9-42-the-secret-of-apples-
reoccurring-numbers/)

------
brokentone
I once setup all of the times in our app screenshots to be the octal
representation of our company name.

i.e. 1:02 - b 1:14 - l 1:01 - a 1:32 - z 1:05 - e

------
Sharlin
I wonder if it's a coincidence that 1, 4 and 9 are also the squares of the
first three natural numbers. And, consequently, of course the relative
dimensions of these:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_%28Space_Odyssey%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_%28Space_Odyssey%29)

~~~
logicallee
Yes, of course it is a coincidence. If it weren't - 1:49 is a time too...

~~~
Sharlin
I'm honestly a bit surprised by the downvotes. 1:49 would _obviously_ not fit
the other constraints involved, and seeing how Apple is known for their eye
for details and the pop-cultural significance of the 1:4:9 ratio, I'm
surprised if someone didn't at least think of this when choosing between 9:40,
9:41 and 9:42...

~~~
dfc
The article explains why 9:40 is not used.

As far as the downvotes go, HN is--thankfully--somewhat anti-numerology.

~~~
gjm11
I don't see that there's anything numerological about the suggestion that
Apple might have worked into their publicity for the iPhone and iPad some
allusions to ... a science-fictional black cuboidal artefact containing
mysterious highly-advanced technology that changes the world.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not claiming that they _did_. It could very
well be no more than coincidence. But it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to
me that there might have been a conversation like this: "OK, we should set the
time to somewhere around 9:40 for these pictures." "Hey, if we make it 9:41
then there's a cute _2001_ allusion in there." "Ha, iPhone as the monolith
from _2001_. I like it. Let's go with that." And there's no need to believe in
numerology to find this plausible.)

~~~
Sharlin
Exactly my train of thought. Should've probably elaborated a bit in the
original post.

------
sebbean
can someone answer why 4:20?

~~~
mcphilip
Drug culture reference:

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_\(cannabis_culture\))

~~~
Stratoscope
My favorite 420 reference is California Senate Bill 420.

The bill was introduced by John Vasconcellos, who was certainly one of the
coolest heads in the State Senate.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Senate_Bill_420](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Senate_Bill_420)

------
leccine
Mine has 4:20PM all the time. Does anybody know how to fix?

------
Aloha
TMYK - I love stuff like this :-P

~~~
jarjoura
Why was this comment down-voted?

~~~
dang
Probably for not being substantive, made worse by abbrevs and smilies.

HN users tend to punish throwaway one-liners, unless they show signs of
thought having been put into them. It's arguably too harsh, because some of
these comments are innocuous. But the same immune reation also keeps more
malignant things from taking over, so overall it does more good than harm.

~~~
Aloha
It's not like the original article was chock full of substance in the first
place, which is why its even more annoying.

------
Ellipsis753
Hehe. Interesting and kind of strange. If it's so important that the screen-
shot shows the current time when it is displayed why not just have it show the
correct time with a program? It doesn't seem like that would be terribly
difficult.

~~~
lostlogin
There is a poster on the wall of the shop I walk past occasionally. This is in
print media too, and having the same advert on TV, print and web probably is
something Apple likes.

~~~
Ellipsis753
Fair enough. Yes. I guess I guess I can understand it being nice to always use
a standard time.

It would be really awesome if whenever there was an advert on TV if the iPhone
showed the current time. However with the scheduling of TV ads I don't think
this is really possible.

------
netcan
Imagine having to reprint brochures, reshoot something or even have to tinker
around with the clock so all your screenshots are 9:41.

There are cute quirks and there is attention to detail. But at some point or
another it becomes a cultish bureaucracy no one knows the origin of demanding
that all clocks alway show 9:41 for some long lost reason.

~~~
im3w1l
In my experience people love quirky details performed for long lost reasons.
They are central to our culture and identity creation. Take Santa Claus on
Christmas dressing in red and saying hohoho, and entering through the chimney.
Why not a blue woman squeezing through a tiny crack in the wall and saying
neeneeneeneenee?

EDIT: Didn't downvote you btw

~~~
AznHisoka
it's cute, but pointless. probably contributes close to nothing in terms of
revenue.

~~~
oceanplexian
And that's exactly why Apple is the world's most valuable brand. Attention to
detail, even if it doesn't directly generate revenue can have profound effects
that will never be discovered in an A/B test or by crunching financials.
Unfortunately most tech companies (and businesses in general) don't understand
this.

~~~
AznHisoka
yes, but it's nothing to be written about or discussed. lots of startups do
this and they get no attention

