ESPN anchor Erin Andrews takes a picture with her iPhone in Pasadena, California. (Reuters)

Some iPhone users woke up late in the new year, while some Microsoft Hotmail users woke up to find their emails had disappeared.

Many iPhone customers had some explaining to do after they overslept, because of a glitch in the gadget’s alarm clock feature. Users who set their iPhone alarm for a single wake-up rather than recurring use found the alarm didn’t go off with the year's arrival, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison said yesterday.

A fix is in the works, and all iPhone alarms will work properly starting today, she said. The glitch affects iPhones using Apple’s latest iOS 4.0 operating system, including earlier versions of the smartphone whose users have downloaded the latest software.

It was not immediately clear what caused the alarm problem, or how many iPhone users were affected. Online postings on blogs and social-media sites described people being late for work, church services and other appointments on Saturday and Sunday because of the problem.

The issue is the second in two months involving iPhone’s alarm clock. The company said in early November that the end of daylight saving time could cause problems for iPhone users. In that instance, Apple said that repeating alarms set on iPhones and some versions of the iPod Touch might not recognise the November 7 end of daylight saving time, and might work incorrectly shortly before or after the time change.

The company introduced the iPhone in 2007. Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones in its fiscal fourth quarter, from July to September.

Meanwhile, some users of Microsoft Hotmail are starting off the new year scrambling to get back emails of old. Frantic users have posted complaints on Microsoft’s online forum that all their messages have disappeared. “Please help me get them back,” wrote one user under the moniker “Zacgore” in a post dated Saturday. “All my kids’ info and pictures are in there!” Others complain that the majority of emails in their inboxes was sent to their deleted mail folders instead. It’s unclear from the posts how widespread the problem is.