Version 2.2.4 has just been released.
The biggest change in this version is the support for time zones. This means that if you change the time zone (via system preferences) the alarm clock will automatically update all the alarms to go off at the proper time for the new time zone. Also, if you change time zones while the application isn't running, it will update all the alarms to the new time zone when it launches.
If you're wondering why this was previously a problem, it's because of the way OS X stores dates. They are stored as the number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970 GMT. So '0' might mean '1 Jan 1970 12:00 AM' in London, but in New York it might mean '31 Dec 1969 8:00 PM'. The correct date and time are displayed by applying the time zone offset to the GMT time. Therefore, a date set for 9:00 AM EST, it will always go off at 9:00 AM EST... and if you happen to be in St Louis, that means the date is set as 11:00 AM for you! Confusing? Well all you really need to know is that I've taken care of all these problems. I worried about it so you wouldn't have to. Travel all you want, change time zones at will, and don't even try to remember when daylight savings is! Just set your alarms, and they will go off when they're supposed to. Enjoy.
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16 comments:
Can I request a 'feature'?
I think this would be easy:
Can you make the OK button the default so that I can just hit return once I've entered the time for my alarm?
Thanks.
Darin
dhayton(at)gmail(dot)com
That's a great idea! I'll look into it.
Hi!
First I really want to thank you for a great application! I love the nice and simple interface and the possibility to only show it in the menu bar of my Mac mini.
But ,,, in the last days I had a really serious problem: Instantly after Alarm Clock waked up the Mac, it COMPLETELY freezes! Not only no alarm - nothing happens any more! I have to force the Mac to power down an restart it ...
The only thing I changed since then is that I installed eyeTV 2. Maybe there is a problem with these to programs running together on the same machine end both are enabled to wake or power up the Mac??
By the qay: It's an intel Mac.
Greetz
Chris.
Hi Chris,
That's a really weird problem. I'll try to figure out what's going on. Got a couple questions:
1) Does the system freeze if just Alarm Clock is running?
2) Does the system freeze if just eyeTV 2 is running?
3) What is the output on the Console just before the system freezes? (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app)
Hi!
I also want to first thank you for this handy program - I am using it every day, but there is something that would make it much more pleasent for my experience:)
Could you please think of a way to crossfade the tracks of a playlist, so that it would not be so disturbing if the tracks have no silence between them, or that the program just lounches iTunes with my selected track, or playlist!!!??
Thanks again for your efforts for making people's life better:)
Crossfading the songs in a playlist isn't a bad idea. I'll look into it.
As for using iTunes to play the songs/playlists... this is NOT a good idea. Here's why (from my FAQ's on my website):
Most other alarm clock applications choose to play the alarms/music via iTunes (via AppleScript). I deliberately decided against this route. There are many reasons for this. First of all, an alarm clock should be as stable as possible. Playing music through iTunes adds a dependancy on a 3rd party application that was not designed with the functionality of an alarm clock in mind. If an alarm is supposed to go off in the morning, an alarm should go off no matter what.
Consider a few of the following scenarios if iTunes was depended upon:
1) The alarm is set to play a specific song, but the song was deleted.
2) The alarm is set to play a specific playlist, but you renamed the playlist, or deleted it.
3) The alarm is set to play a radio station, but the internet is down. (or goes down during play time)
4) iTunes was recently upgraded, and requires you to re-agree to the license next time you launch it. The alarm application launches it for the alarm...
5) You had iTunes set to play to your airTunes speakers, but you left your airport card turned off.
What happens in the scenarios above? Do you miss your final exam? Do you arrive late to work on the day of your presentation? It's partly due to these shortcomings and oversights that I decided to make my own alarm clock application in the first place.
I take stability very seriously.
I want people to be able to depend on the alarm clock, and not feel the need to set a separate alarm "just in case."
If you use a different alarm clock on your computer, try out some of the scenarios above. Would you still wake up?
Also, what happens if you pause iTunes during the alarm? What happens if you pause it with an apple remote? Does the alarm automatically snooze for you? (Mine does) Did the alarm even realize that iTunes is no longer playing a song?
Alarm Clock 2 avoids all the above problems by playing the song internally.
If a song fails to play, it knows immediately. (And plays a backup sound)
If a playlist no longer exists, it knows about it.
If you pause the music, it's because you choose to snooze the alarm.
In other words, Alarm Clock 2 is in full control, and knows everything that is happening concerning your alarm.
It's only job is to wake you up in the morning, and I believe you'll find that it does it's job perfectly.
Hi Robbie!
Thanx fo your answer and happy Easter!
In the meantime, I tried to figure some things out ... I tried EyeTV alone -> System doesn't freeze. I tried Alarm Clock alone -> System doesn't freeze. I treid EyeTV & Awaken (sorry fo that ...) -> System freezes again!!
With beeing a user and having no idea of the procedures running in the background, I think it is some kind of problem that both prgrams want to wake up te system a certain (diffrent) times ... in a few days, I will have Miglias Evolution TV in addition to or instead of EyeTV, I will see what happens with that ...
Hi, Robbie - happy Easter
You're right ofcourse, I didn'n think of these scenarios:)
I just offered this to you in case it's too hard to crossfade the songs! I'm realy glad you've liked my idea and I'm looking forward to see if you make it come true:)
THANKS AGAIN !!!
Chris,
That's what I figured would happen. And good thinking on testing it with Awaken too. This shows it has something to do with the general wake from sleep routine, instead of simply the combination of 2 specific applications.
My guess is that EyeTV is freezing the OS. Both AC2 and Awaken only make a simple system call to take care of business after waking from sleep. I'd imagine EyeTV has a driver issue, or something they do causes the OS to freeze, and I'd also guess that it's an intel problem only. Does anyone out there have EyeTV on a PowerPC would could test this theory?
I'm anxious to hear if Evolution TV has the same problem. I'm betting it won't. We'll see...
I've got a PowerBook as well, so maybe - when I have some time in the next days - I will test the whole thing with it.
I'll report. :o)
Hi again!
I remembered something else, I would like to mention that a few weeks ago i missed my wake-up time because I forgot my headphones pluged in to my powerbook and the alarm wasn't loud enough to wake me :)
That wasn't a big deal, but maybe for someone in some case it would have been...
I don't know if there is a way to go around this, but I just wanted to shere it with You :)
Ivo,
I've had that problem too! It's easy to forget sometimes, especially when you already have your alarms set for the month! (Or in my case, the entire semester!) I rarely even think about my alarms anymore, I just go to sleep whenever I get tired. And I have also occasionally left my headphones plugged in, and have overslept. There may or may not be a solution to this. Some thoughts:
It might be possible (via core audio) to direct the output from the app to a specific device. (Such as the internal speakers of a laptop) However, when you have normal speakers plugged into the laptop, this is probably not desireable. The problem with this, is that the computer cannot distinguish between headphones plugged into the audio out port, and external speakers plugged into the same port. The best plan may be to have the alarm act as it does now, but just prior to the alarm terminating due to inactivity, blast the default alarm through the internal speakers at full volume. I'll look into it...
Computer alarm clocks certainly aren't perfect. But they do have many advantages over traditional alarm clocks. Like automatically updating for daylight savings time. (My gf was late for work after the last time change. I didn't even know it happend!) And waking up peacefully to your own music. And being able to schedule repeating alarms for the week...
Robbie,
I know nothing about programming, but I want to ask you if there is a way for your program to detect if it's running on a portable, so that there would be a setting in the preferences to allways output the sound trough the internal speakers if it is(running on a portable)???
Hope I don't bother you with all those rookie questions:)
Ivo,
It is possible to detec the type of machine the application is running on. In fact I detect whether or not the computer is running on batteries to make informed decisions on whether or not to allow the computer to sleep while an alarm is snoozing.
Although, like I said earlier. I'm not entirely sure an app can control which speakers to play on. This may be controled solely by the hardware. I'll have to research this idea.
Hi Robbie,
I tested Alarm Clock together with Evolution TV on my Mac mini Intel for some days now - and this seems to work fine! :o)
So - for me everything is okay because I will keep the Evolution TV and sell the eyeTV. But I hope I will have the time to test eyeTV with my PowerBook. Maybe this weekend. I will tell you about what happend.
Hi Robbie!
It took a while, but I tested a lot of things now. And you won't believe it: No real problems any more!
I tested the combination AlarmClock/EyeTV on my PowerBook -> no problems. And I tested EyeTV Software with EvolutionTV Hardware on the Mac mini Core Duo with AlarmClock -> no problem!
So I'm happy now.
:o)
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