Changes to the dates when Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts and ends could cause problems for your Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone or BlackBerry, causing these devices to display incorrect times from when DST begins to when it ends. Both Research In Motion (RIM) and Microsoft address this with downloads and instructions on their respective Web sites.

From 2007 onward, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, the 11th this year) and ends one week later (2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, the 4th this year) than in the past. Previously, it began the first Sunday in April, which happens to be the 1st this year (no joke to those whose appointments become mixed up, however) and ended on the last Sunday in October.

Microsoft and RIM have posted patches and instructions to address this situation; so when DST comes around your handheld or smartphone will alter the time correctly on the proper dates. That when you set an appointment, for example, it will reflect the correct hour you set it to occur.

Here you will find RIM's BlackBerry DST patch and instructions on how to implement it. DST patches are available for all BlackBerry devices running version 4.0.0 or newer device software. IT administrator's can push the patch to their BlackBerry users.

Click here for Microsoft's DST patches and directions.