[tz] Cellphone tz updates often not happening in Israel

[Guy Harris]

On Sep 23, 2013, at 1:07 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> I wonder why the cellphones' copies of the tz database
> are not being updated?

Perhaps there isn't an over-the-air automatic "update the tzdb" mechanism separate from the regular "update the OS" mechanism.  (I don't think there's one for OS X.)  If so, then:

	1) if you can't update to an OS version with an updated version of the tzdb;

	2) if the updates aren't over-the-air, and you haven't bothered to tether your phone to whatever machine provides updates;

	3) if the updates are over-the-air, but aren't forced, and you didn't accept the update;

your phone will get the wrong answer.

(And if the binary format changes in ways that would cause older versions of the tz code not to be able to read them, or if there are bugs in older versions of the tz code that cause problems with current versions of the tz data, things get more complicated if you just try to push the latest data files to all phones.)