Google promises to bring back December to Android 4.2 (the end of the world is nigh)

21 Nov 2012

Image via Android on Google+

Google’s latest Android OS may have forgotten about December completely, but the Android team is now on the case to reinstate the month – so I guess the end of the world is going ahead then?

When users try to add an ‘Event’ such as a birthday or anniversary to a contact’s details on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, they may be surprised to find that December does not exist. The options for selection jump from November to January on all years.

This bug appears to only have affected the People app and the Calendar app still knows there are 12 months in a year. But this still presents problems for those who want to remember birthdays and anniversaries happening in December.

Though this issue was widely reported last week, Google only acknowledged the problem yesterday via its Android profile on Google+, assuring users that a fix is on the way. “We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar),” the post reads. “Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won’t be forgotten by your friends and family.”

Doomsayers who still use a Mayan calendar reckon the end of the world is coming on 21 December 2012. Perhaps Android 4.2’s survival strategy was not to acknowledge 21 December, thereby avoiding the apocalypse completely? And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling users.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com