Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 8, 2011
Apple: iPhone Alarms Broken Until January 3rd
Apple has confirmed an iOS bug that left the iPhone without functioning alarms on January 1st 2011. As the New Year was rung in, iPhone alarms remained curiously silent.
Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison told Macworld that the the bug had been officially recognized, and would fix itself on January 3rd. “We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.” Harrison told Macworld.
The alarm code in iOS seems to be pretty buggy. This latest problem follows a bug that caused alarms to sound an hour late when both Europe and the U.S flipped over from daylight saving time at the end of the summer.
Today is the third, and judging by the fact that The Lady made it out of the house on time this morning, iPod Touch alarms are working fine. On the other hand, she has a curious habit of leaving recurring alarms running on my iPod Touch, waking me at all sorts of odd hours, so it could be that.
iOS bug prevents New Year’s alarms [Macworld]
Photo [Eflon / Flickr]
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on January 3, 2011
Wake Up Five Great IPhone Alarm Clocks
The iPhone and iPod Touch, as previously noted, make great alarm clocks. Easy to set with the wheel-driven interface, a range of pleasant or downright nasty sounds and 100% reliability (as long as you havent turned the volume down). Just set, toss under your pillow and forget. You can even leave a romantic little note for your better half to read when he or she wakes up.
But like many of Apples built-in iPhone applications, it might be too simple. Thats where third party developers step in, adding music, nightstand clocks and more. Here are five of the best.
AlarmTunes
Like all the alarm apps, AlarmTunes (pictured above) needs to be left running to work. You can sleep the display but, unlike Apples own app, it cant run in the background. Once you remember this, AlarmTunes gives all sorts of features. The main one is the setting of music to wake you, like clock-radios of old. You can pick anything from your existing playlists, including podcasts (who wouldnt want to wake up next to Danny Dumas and the Gadget Lab podcast crew?)
Theres also a sleep mode which will fade out the music, multiple alarms and shake to snooze (a fantastic idea). The only problem is that it is ugly, and in the nightstand mode the screen is a little busy. Still, youll hopefully be asleep most of the time so this isnt a big problem, and it costs just $1.
Product page [iTunes]
Playlist Alarm Clock
Playlist Alarm Clock, another $1 application, goes in the opposite direction: It looks gorgeous but the interface is somewhat clunky, not what you want from an app you use when half asleep at either end of the day.
The retro-digital readout gives the time and tells you what music you are listening to, but when you come to change the settings things get confusing. Again, you can add any playlist or sing from the iPod library, but the options are layed out in a way only an accountant (a wide-awake, caffeine-charged accountant) could love, with buttons all over the place. Also, right now there is no screen dimming and no nightstand mode.
Product page [iTunes]
EasyWakeup
EasyWakeup has two distinguishing features. Its high price ($15) and its auto-detection. You set the tune you want to hear and the target time for waking up and then put the iPhone down on the mattress next to you. As you toss and turn or lay still, the app uses data from the accelerometer to track your sleep phases.
It then uses some algorithms (read: special sauce) to work out the best time to wake you. If the testimonials on the site are anything to go by, youll be getting up earlier, more refreshed and will be able to break your intimate relationship with the snooze button.
There are cheaper version which offer a bewildering range of subsets of the main apps functions, but itll send you to sleep studying them. Stick with the pro, or go elsewhere.
Product page [iTunes]
MusicAlarm
The simplest and cheapest of the bunch (its free), MusicAlarm lets you choose a track from your library to use as an alarm. Thats it. It looks a lot like Apples own alarm application, only instead of the built-in alarm tones you get a list of songs to choose from. Youll need to leave the app on (although sleeping the screen is fine), but apart from that it should just work. And did we mention its free? Download it today.
Product page [iTunes]
Music Alarm Clock
Yet another $1 clock, this one is probably the best looking of the bunch thanks to its lovely digital display an option to put the album artwork in the background. Its also dead simple to use: set the alarm, choose the song, done.
Product page [iTunes]
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by publisher on July 24, 2009
