Friday, June 23, 2006
Vacation
I'll be on vacation in northern Minnesota for the next week. I'll still be coding, but won't have constant access to the internet. So if you email me, or post comments to this blog, I might not be able to immediately respond. Please be patient and I'll do my best to reply to everyone as soon as I can.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Frequent Feature Requests
There are a few feature requests that I often receive, and I find myself always copying and pasting my previous responses. So I figured I would just post them here for everyone to see.
1. Why can't we name alarms, and have the names appear in the menu?
The idea here is to have the NAME of the alarm show up in the menu, as opposed to the time and date(s).
Thus the menu would show, for example, "Sunday Morning Service" instead of "08:00 AM (Sun)".
This was actually part of the original prototype, but was scrapped after version 1.0 based on user feedback. Most users who set alarms, found that if they saw the name of the alarm in the menu, it wasn't satisfying enough. They constantly found themselves clicking on the name to double-check the time before they went to bed. Seeing "Work" just wasn't as gratifying as seeing "7:00 AM"
It also caused major headaches when users needed to occasionally change the alarm. Maybe some days they would want to get to work a little early, so they'd change the alarm time to 6:30. But the next night, they'll glance at the word "Work" and assume it meant 7:00. It's a lot worse if they decided to sleep in a little bit one day! The same applies for pretty much any repeating alarm. People tweak their alarm times all the time. Perhaps somebody wants to go to the early church service one sunday, and the later service the following week. It's much easier just to glance at the alarm time.
After months of using the product, and much user feedback, I ultimately scrapped this ability. Many users may think it would be cool to have this feature, but after using it for a few weeks I'm confident they'd change their minds on the subject.
I could also try to put both the time AND the name in the menu.
Of course this would result in a HUGE menu, that could possibly stretch across the entire screen, and this would just look silly.
2. Why can't we add messages to alarms, so we can use it for reminders?
The reason I haven't implemented something like that is because I don't want people to think of it as a calendar application. I have no intention of competing with iCal, nor do I think that I could. iCal is perfect for setting up reminders for conference calls, important meetings, deadlines, and managing a to-do list. I feel that people should use iCal for such tasks, as it truly was designed for it, and does an excellent job.
It would be an easy addition to attach text, or a full message, to any alarm. In fact, I could do it by adding another tab at the top of the alarm editor. So there would be "Time", "Alarm" and "Message". Then when the alarm goes off, hitting Stop would bring up the message. I could even program an option where the message is read aloud to you, using Apple's speech API.
But I see a problem with this. The application was made for one purpose, and one purpose only. To be an alarm clock. When people use alarm clocks, they use them to wake up in the morning. Then after they've woken up, they check their calendar to see what they have to do today. My application isn't this calendar. That's what iCal is for. Perhaps they have some other reminder for themselves. Like "don't forget to do such-and-such before leaving for work". And what do people usually use to remind themselves of such little things? Post-it notes! And the computer equivalent would of course be the Stickies program. Many people use repeating alarms. So setting these little reminders for themselves doesn't make sense in the alarm clock. You'd have to go in and set it the night before, and then go in again and delete it the next day. I guess I could make a "One-time" note feature, but I just think it's easier to make a sticky note. Besides, sticky notes don't go away until you want them to. The alarm message would go after stopping the alarm. I just don't see any reason to reinvent the wheel, especially since my wheel wouldn't be as good as the one's that are already out there. And it also makes a simple, elegant application a little less simple, and a little less elegant.
As always, I'm open for criticism. If you disagree with me on any of these points, feel free to let me know. Or if you have a different idea, different view, etc.
1. Why can't we name alarms, and have the names appear in the menu?
The idea here is to have the NAME of the alarm show up in the menu, as opposed to the time and date(s).
Thus the menu would show, for example, "Sunday Morning Service" instead of "08:00 AM (Sun)".
This was actually part of the original prototype, but was scrapped after version 1.0 based on user feedback. Most users who set alarms, found that if they saw the name of the alarm in the menu, it wasn't satisfying enough. They constantly found themselves clicking on the name to double-check the time before they went to bed. Seeing "Work" just wasn't as gratifying as seeing "7:00 AM"
It also caused major headaches when users needed to occasionally change the alarm. Maybe some days they would want to get to work a little early, so they'd change the alarm time to 6:30. But the next night, they'll glance at the word "Work" and assume it meant 7:00. It's a lot worse if they decided to sleep in a little bit one day! The same applies for pretty much any repeating alarm. People tweak their alarm times all the time. Perhaps somebody wants to go to the early church service one sunday, and the later service the following week. It's much easier just to glance at the alarm time.
After months of using the product, and much user feedback, I ultimately scrapped this ability. Many users may think it would be cool to have this feature, but after using it for a few weeks I'm confident they'd change their minds on the subject.
I could also try to put both the time AND the name in the menu.
Of course this would result in a HUGE menu, that could possibly stretch across the entire screen, and this would just look silly.
2. Why can't we add messages to alarms, so we can use it for reminders?
The reason I haven't implemented something like that is because I don't want people to think of it as a calendar application. I have no intention of competing with iCal, nor do I think that I could. iCal is perfect for setting up reminders for conference calls, important meetings, deadlines, and managing a to-do list. I feel that people should use iCal for such tasks, as it truly was designed for it, and does an excellent job.
It would be an easy addition to attach text, or a full message, to any alarm. In fact, I could do it by adding another tab at the top of the alarm editor. So there would be "Time", "Alarm" and "Message". Then when the alarm goes off, hitting Stop would bring up the message. I could even program an option where the message is read aloud to you, using Apple's speech API.
But I see a problem with this. The application was made for one purpose, and one purpose only. To be an alarm clock. When people use alarm clocks, they use them to wake up in the morning. Then after they've woken up, they check their calendar to see what they have to do today. My application isn't this calendar. That's what iCal is for. Perhaps they have some other reminder for themselves. Like "don't forget to do such-and-such before leaving for work". And what do people usually use to remind themselves of such little things? Post-it notes! And the computer equivalent would of course be the Stickies program. Many people use repeating alarms. So setting these little reminders for themselves doesn't make sense in the alarm clock. You'd have to go in and set it the night before, and then go in again and delete it the next day. I guess I could make a "One-time" note feature, but I just think it's easier to make a sticky note. Besides, sticky notes don't go away until you want them to. The alarm message would go after stopping the alarm. I just don't see any reason to reinvent the wheel, especially since my wheel wouldn't be as good as the one's that are already out there. And it also makes a simple, elegant application a little less simple, and a little less elegant.
As always, I'm open for criticism. If you disagree with me on any of these points, feel free to let me know. Or if you have a different idea, different view, etc.
Version 2.3.2
I've recently released version 2.3.2. This version includes the previously mentioned Portuguese localization. It also includes a new dmg background image, courtesy of Chike Orjih! I think it looks great!
The main feature addition of this version is the addition of AppleScript support. This has been on my todo list for a long time, and I apologize for just now getting around to it. It was added at the request of 3rd party remote control users, and salling clicker users. You too can now hit snooze without getting out of bed! Just use the following line of AppleScript:
tell app "Alarm Clock" to snooze
I may be adding more applescript support in the future. If you're a scripter, tell me what you'd like to have added.
The main feature addition of this version is the addition of AppleScript support. This has been on my todo list for a long time, and I apologize for just now getting around to it. It was added at the request of 3rd party remote control users, and salling clicker users. You too can now hit snooze without getting out of bed! Just use the following line of AppleScript:
tell app "Alarm Clock" to snooze
I may be adding more applescript support in the future. If you're a scripter, tell me what you'd like to have added.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Portuguese Localization
I've just received a portuguese localization for the alarm clock! This makes 11 supported languages!
I'm always looking for more localizations! Is anyone out there interested in doing a Japanese translation? My website gets a lot of hits from Japan on a daily basis, and I still don't have a Japanese localization... If you're interested, email me at: robbiehanson15@gmail.com
I'm always looking for more localizations! Is anyone out there interested in doing a Japanese translation? My website gets a lot of hits from Japan on a daily basis, and I still don't have a Japanese localization... If you're interested, email me at: robbiehanson15@gmail.com
Version 2.3.1
I've recently released a minor update for version 2.3. The big news in this update is that the alarm window displays the current song information. When an alarm goes off, it alternates back and forth between displaying keyboard information (such as "Press any key to snooze, Press enter to stop") and song information (such as "Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson") It switches back and forth every 10 seconds just like iTunes, and also like iTunes, you can click the text to manually switch between the two whenever you want. So if you've ever woken up to a random song in a playlist that you didn't know what it was, no longer will you be frustrated all morning trying to figure it out.
Also, a while back I added functionality to the apple remote. Users with an apple remote can go to the next and previous songs in a playlist. Well I figured that remote users shouldn't get to have all the fun, so I also implemented this functionality right in the alarm window. When using a playlist, there are now "<" and ">" buttons which will go to the previous and next songs respectively.
I also added icons to the playlist menu. So at a glance you can tell which playlists are smart playlists, or folders, or regular playlists, etc. I also sort the playlist menu just like iTunes does, so smart playlists will always be above regular playlists, and such. This makes it much easier to find the playlist you're looking for. This feature, like the one above it, were planned for version 2.3, but I got so excited after I finished the timer and stopwatch, I decided to release early.
And of course there are some bug fixes. All of them had to do with the timer and the stopwatch. No bug fixes for any part of the alarm system because... well... I haven't had any bug reports in a long time! :)
In version 2.3, timer window location and window size are saved, and restored when you open a new timer window. (Same for stopwatch) The big problem that I had to fix was that it didn't check to make sure the position was actually on the screen! So if you sometimes use multiple monitors, and then switch to just one, and your last timer location was on your secondary monitor, then the window would be offscreen with no way to move it! Oops! Thanks to Luke for alerting me to the problem. It should now be resolved. Hopefully this didn't affect you. If it did, my apologies.
Also, a while back I added functionality to the apple remote. Users with an apple remote can go to the next and previous songs in a playlist. Well I figured that remote users shouldn't get to have all the fun, so I also implemented this functionality right in the alarm window. When using a playlist, there are now "<" and ">" buttons which will go to the previous and next songs respectively.
I also added icons to the playlist menu. So at a glance you can tell which playlists are smart playlists, or folders, or regular playlists, etc. I also sort the playlist menu just like iTunes does, so smart playlists will always be above regular playlists, and such. This makes it much easier to find the playlist you're looking for. This feature, like the one above it, were planned for version 2.3, but I got so excited after I finished the timer and stopwatch, I decided to release early.
And of course there are some bug fixes. All of them had to do with the timer and the stopwatch. No bug fixes for any part of the alarm system because... well... I haven't had any bug reports in a long time! :)
In version 2.3, timer window location and window size are saved, and restored when you open a new timer window. (Same for stopwatch) The big problem that I had to fix was that it didn't check to make sure the position was actually on the screen! So if you sometimes use multiple monitors, and then switch to just one, and your last timer location was on your secondary monitor, then the window would be offscreen with no way to move it! Oops! Thanks to Luke for alerting me to the problem. It should now be resolved. Hopefully this didn't affect you. If it did, my apologies.
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