This time change has been standard on every other smartphone I have had (symbian, windows, and blackberry). Outlook (running locally or connected to an exchange server) also works in this manner. On the server, it keeps the time in a single timezone (probably GMT, but perhaps calculated to the meridian through Bill Gates's kitchen?) and the client converts it to local time.

The use case for changing times is that your appointments are shown at the correct local time wherever you are. So if you have a phone call at noon Austin time, and you travel to LA, your reminder will ring and remind you that the call is local 10am. This has always worked perfectly for me when I travel.

Airline flights are different, though. The airlines give you your departure and arrival times in local at each end. So if you are flying from Austin to LA, they will show a 10am (central time) departure and an 11:30am (pacific time) arrival.

For the last several years, I have put my flights into my calendar (on any device) with arrival and departure times entirely in LOCAL time for me. So I would have listed the above flight on my calendar from 10am to 1:30pm. To keep myself from going insane, I include the local times in the note for the calendar entry. I do this for all appointments that I will be having in another timezone as well (if I make a 3pm appointment in LA, I have to put it in the calendar as 5pm local time in Austin)

Doing this, my appointments automatically timeshift properly, my flights show the proper duration on my calendar, and my alarms ring at the proper time. I think that this is the proper use of calendars across time zones, even though it seems like a workaround. (The system you are working around is the centuries old problem of the disconnect between a local solar time and a universal standard time. I blame George Graham and his damnable deadbeat escapement. And, of course, the British for sponsoring him. Always the British.)