As much as I like shiny new cell phones, I like saving money even more. So I tend to hang on to bricks like my old Nokia 3360 two or three years after everyone except your grandmother has upgraded. (I’d still have that one, in fact, except that my cat peed on it. Seriously.)

I mention this merely to place in proper context the significance of my decision a few months ago to pony up for a Motorola Q. That it was powered by Windows Mobile was a concern, but I’ve been quite happy with it. Until Sunday’s earlier-than-usual shift to daylight saving time, that is.

After noticing my phone was thwarting all my attempts to set it to the correct time, I found this helpful information from Microsoft: Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update. To be fair, all I had to do was download and install an update. Then again, why the hell do I have to download and install an update simply so that my phone will display the correct time under a revised DST schedule signed into law in August 2005?

Here’s the key passage from that Microsoft article, under the heading “What you can do to ease the transition:”

“All Windows Mobile powered device users affected by the time change should give extra attention to meetings and appointments scheduled between March 11 and April 1, 2007, and between October 28 and November 4, 2007. View any appointments that fall into these date ranges as suspect until you communicate with all meeting invitees to make sure that the item shows up correctly on everyone’s calendar.”

Sure, just view all your appointments as suspect. That’s what I want to hear from the company that made the software than runs the phone on which I keep all my critical calendar information.