Alarm Clock Blog

Air Tunes + Alarm Clock = Trouble

2007-05-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

Occasionally, someone asks me about waking up to music on their Airport Express connected speakers using Air Tunes. Is this something you can add to Alarm Clock?

As I'm sure most people already know, Alarm Clock does not depend on iTunes to play it's music in the morning. This is one of those features that makes Alarm Clock stand out from the rest, and gives it rock solid stability. For more information on why it's important that an alarm clock application not depend on iTunes, check out my FAQ, question #2.
http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/faq.html

Now, concerning Air Tunes:

Unfortunately, the API to play music wirelessly over Airport Express is kept secret by Apple. In other words, they have decided to use the functionality only within iTunes, and not allow 3rd party developers to use the technology. So, for the time being, this is not a built-in feature of Alarm Clock.

However, this is one of those features that may not actually be a good idea for an alarm clock. Sending the music wirelessly to a set of speakers adds a degree of uncertainty. If another computer is connected to the speakers, it will fail. If the network has problems, it will fail. If there is some kind of radio interference, it will fail. These are all problems you won't see if you use your built-in speakers, or a set of speakers that are hardwired to your computer. Also, many people who use Air Tunes (maybe not you, but many other users) have their Airport Express connected to a home theater system. This also means that before you go to bed you have to make sure to switch your audio receiver from TV or DVD over to the correct setting to allow music from your computer to play. A problem that most users never have to worry about when using a set of speakers dedicated to their computer.

Now, it may be possible for Alarm Clock to recover from some of the above scenarios. If the connection to the speakers fails, it could just play the audio on the built-in speakers. But herein lies the problem. Anybody who would go through all the extra trouble and effort to configure their alarm clock to play to another set of speakers wirelessly probably has a reason to do so. And that reason is probably because their computer speakers aren't loud enough to wake them up, or their computer is in another room, and too far away to be loud in the bedroom. So if the Air Tunes failed in either of the above scenarios, it means disaster for the user. If the computer isn't in your bedroom, or doesn't have built-in or attached speakers loud enough to wake you up, it's probably not a good idea to use it as an alarm clock anyway. (And then there are those users who would use the feature just because of the cool factor...)

So even if Apple decided to make public the API to use Air Tunes, I would have to think long and hard before implementing it in Alarm Clock. In many aspects, it's like giving users a gun to shoot themselves in the foot with. There are many other software alarm clocks on the market that put the importance of features far and above stability and dependability. Alarm Clock 2 is not one of them.

I should point out that there IS an application on the market that will allow you to use Alarm Clock and have the audio play wirelessly via Air Tunes. The product is called Airfoil, and you can find out more about it here:
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

But please remember that Apple's API is still private. Which means that this application works because they've managed to hack Apple's API (as far as I know). If Apple decides to change anything in the future, this product may stop working. And then there are all the other problems with playing music wirelessly that I pointed out above.

As always, I'm welcome to criticism. So if you disagree with anything I said, or you just have a different perspective about something, feel free to let me know.

Alarm Clock Tips

2007-02-05T23:08:00.000-06:00

I've had several users email me recently with similar stories. They have a laptop, but they keep their giant music collection on an external drive somewhere. The problem is, they like to bring their laptop into their bedroom to use as an alarm clock, but it's a hassle to bring the external drive too. (Very understandable in my opinion...who wouldn't prefer to slowly awake to their favorite tunes over a blaring, annoying alarm clock.)

There's a very elegant solution to this. Starting with iTunes version 7, Apple introduced support for multiple iTunes libraries built right into the application. If you hold down the option key while launching iTunes, you'll be prompted with the following dialog box:

The idea here is to create a seperate iTunes library just for the alarm clock application that only contains songs on the internal hard drive. If we click "Create Library..." we can do just this. Just give the library a name:

Now you've got an empty iTunes library. Just add any songs you want that are on your built-in hard drive.

After you do this, you can quit iTunes, and relaunch holding down the option key. Then pick your original library (most likely in ~/Music/iTunes/) and you're back to your regular iTunes library.

The final step is simply to instruct Alarm Clock to use this new library that you just created. Quit the Alarm Clock application. Open up your terminal. And type in the following command:

defaults write com.digitallity.alarmclock2 'XMLPath' '/Users/robbie/Music/iTunes (AlarmClock)/iTunes Library.xml'

Replacing the last part of the command with the proper path on your machine. For more information about this tip, see my FAQ page, question number 9.

Happy Anniversary

2007-02-05T00:43:00.000-06:00

Today was Super Bowl Sunday here in the US. This is the day when all Americans crowd around the TV and watch the championship game of "football." But for me it represents the beginning of the Alarm Clock application.

Last year I was watching the Super Bowl (and browsing the web) when I noticed that my Alarm Clock application was featured on MacBytes.com. At the time I was hosting the application on an old Linux box I had sitting in my apartment. Our Internet connection came to a screeching halt as thousands of people starting downloading the application. I had to scramble to find a web host, and that night robbiehanson.com was born.

It's been around a year since then, and the Alarm Clock application has grown and matured. It has been downloaded around 300,000 times. It's available in 16 different languages. And today it's on the front page of Apple Downloads (#5 in the iPod + iTunes category).

I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me donations, and those who have contributed by providing localizations or sending feedback.

By no means am I done developing this software. I continue to have new ideas on how to improve it, and I continually get feedback and suggestions via email and this blog which helps me improve the application.

Version 2.4.1 released

2007-01-29T17:18:00.000-06:00

A while back I mentioned a known bug in Alarm Clock that had been really bothering me. The problem occured when the application attempted to play a song that was protected, and the user wasn't authorized to play it. When this happened, QuickTime would pop up a dialog box prompting the user to authenticate, and the alarm would fail to play. Granted this happens very rarely, and probably only affected a few users, but the fact that it might bother even 1 user is enough to keep me up all night working on it.

Well I'm proud to announce that I found a solution for it, and this is no longer a problem as of version 2.4.1. In fact, I tested this problem on my main 2 competitors' apps, and both of them failed. So it looks like I may be the first alarm clock app to solve this little dilemma.

And while the above paragraph might sound like I'm tooting my own horn, my biggest goal is to improve the overall reliability of software alarm clocks. Not simply mine, but all software alarm clocks, especially on the Mac platform. After all, the reason I made my own alarm clock in the first place is because I wasn't satisfied with the reliability of other products on the market. And I'm guessing that my competitors probably read this blog, so this will help motivate them to solve the problem in their own software, giving all of us (no matter what product we use) a more reliable application.

And the other fix I made is a little embarrassing.
I somehow forgot (or deleted it at the last second) the CFBundleName key in the info.plist file of the application. Generally this isn't a big deal at all, except that the Sparkle (auto update) framework relies on this key to function properly. So the auto update feature in version 2.4 is broken. So users will be notified there's an update, and they'll have a button that says "download and install"...except it won't work! The download will work fine, but it will fail to properly install the application! And so users will be left with a broken application on their computer! Oops! (ouch).

Well I've fixed the problem, but users will have to manually download version 2.4.1 from my website.
When they're notified that there's a new version available, the release notes tell the user that the auto update feature is broken, and it provides the user with a link to directly download the file.

My apologies for this goofup! The auto update feature should work flawlessly in the future.

Version 2.4 released

2007-01-28T16:12:00.000-06:00

I've had a lot of spare time recently to work on the alarm clock. Why have I had so much spare time? Because an ice storm hit the city that I live in and knocked out power for nearly the entire city. My apartment lost power as well, and it took 2 weeks to get it back! I spent those 2 weeks at my parents house, and at my girlfriend's parents house. There wasn't a whole lot to do of course, so I sat around and coded.

During this time I managed to add 2 new features to the alarm clock that I've been wanting to do for a long time, but have been putting off for some reason. The first thing I did was give the application a proper preferences panel. A standard one with buttons at the top, like this:

The second feature (which is a bit obvious from the image above) is automatic software updates. I've been meaning to get around to this for so long, but never got the chance. Well now it's implemented. In the future, when updates are released, users will automatically be notified, and the downloads can be downloaded and installed with a few clicks!

Speaking of cell phone alarms...

2006-11-26T18:36:00.000-06:00

In my last post I talked about the hideous horrible problem with the alarm clock on the motorola razr. But know I'd like to talk about something else regarding cell phone alarms.

My girlfriend uses her cell phone to wake up every morning. Now, I have to go off on a tangent for a second to explain why she uses her cell phone. She doesn't have a Mac, first of all, so she can't use my application. She'll probably get a Mac when she gets a new computer, but she can't exactly afford to buy a computer right now. She has a regular alarm clock by her bed, and she doesn't use it. I asked her why once, and she told that it was too loud first of all. And second of all, the genious manufacturers put the tiny snooze button right next to the tiny stop button, so when she tries to hit snooze in her sleep, she ends up hitting the stop button half the time. Thus she uses her cell phone.

Now every night as we're lying in bed, I sit there and watch her set her alarm. She'll go to the alarm menu, and then she'll find the alarm named 'School'. She looks at it for a second, and then decides that she wants to use this alarm, but she's not sure what time it's set for. So she has to go into it's settings and double-check what time it is. Every night she double-checks it's time, even if she's not changing it from the night before. When I ask her why, she says that she feels more confident if she see's the actual alarm time. If she just sees the word 'School' she doesn't know if it 's set to let her sleep in, or get her up early, etc.

Now for the love of me, I don't know why she even uses a name for her alarms. She could save herself some time every single night, if she would just stop naming her alarms. But the fact that the alarm gives her the option of setting a name is enough to convince her that she should name them ALL...

Now I get a lot of feature requests for Alarm Clock 2. And one of the common requests is to name the alarms. This way when people click on the alarm clock icon, they can see a name for their alarm, and not simply the time. I have not implemented this feature. I hope this gives you an idea of why...

Alarm Clock vs Motorola Razr

2006-11-14T16:43:00.000-06:00

I had a test this morning, and I needed to study for it. Actually, I needed to study for it really bad, so I had to pull an all nighter. Well, at least I tried to pull an all nighter, but I got really tired at like 4 in the morning. So I decided to take a quick nap. Give myself an hour of sleep to refresh, and then get back to studying. So I set an alarm for 5 AM on my computer and laid down. But while I was laying in bed, I decided that a second alarm would be nice. Configure this second alarm to go off at 5:05 just to annoy me out of bed, because I know I'll jump up and hit snooze on my computer alarm right at 5. A second alarm might force me up sooner. And my motorola razr phone was sitting right next to my bed, so I grabbed it, and quickly programmed an alarm for 5:05 and quickly drifted off to sleep.

5 o'clock comes around, and my computer alarm goes off, slowly ramping the volume for me, and playing some easy jazz music. Off course, I'm still dead tired, so I got up and convinced myself to hit snooze and lay down for just a little bit longer. A couple minutes later, my razr alarm goes off. In the dark I fumble for my phone, and quickly mash the side buttons (on the outside of the phone) with my thumb (in order to hit snooze), and fall back asleep.

Couple minutes later, my computer alarm goes off again. I probably hit snooze a few more times on my computer before I actually got up. But the whole point to this story is that the alarm on my razr never went off again! I hit snooze, and it decided to stop on me! WTF?!?

Now I've been using motorola cell phones for years now, and I've used the alarm feature many times on my last motorola phone. I would trust it just fine. But this is the first time I'd used the alarm feature on my razr. So I found it hard to believe that the software would have such an obvious bug. I wanted to get to the bottom of this, so I started testing the alarm later that day. Everytime I tested it, it worked just fine. When the alarm goes off, I can hit any button on the outside of the phone to put it to sleep, and it will go off again after the snooze duration perfectly. That is, until I discovered the most hideous software engineering mistake of all time:

If you hit a button on the outside of the phone once, it snoozes the alarm. If you again hit another button on the outside of the phone, it turns the alarm off!

So when I had reached for the phone, and quickly pressed an outside button, I had inadvertantly pressed 2 buttons at the same time, and turned the alarm off! Now it's not like I'm a professional basketball player, with giant hands. Anybody who has ever used a razr before will tell you how easy it is to press two buttons on that thing on accident. Even worse, the volume buttons are actually one button, where you have to press one side or the other to turn the volume up or down. But if you press in the middle of this button, you actually press in both buttons. And since this volume button is the biggest button on the outside of the phone, I'm assuming this is what happend.

So apparently motorola expects me to wake up to my phone alarm, and ever so carefully, while still half asleep, in the dark, use my pinky finger to press snooze, and be attentive enough to not press any more buttons after that. Brilliant work Motorola. You suck. Thank goodness for my computer alarm, or I would have failed my test this morning.

PS - I still love my motorola phone, I just won't depend on it's alarm clock. And I was exagerrating when I said it was the biggest software engineering mistake ever. This mistake would have to compete with microsoft for that honor...

Version 2.3.8 released

2006-11-01T23:43:00.000-06:00

For those people who use a 12 hour clock with AM/PM, it is rather common to set the time and forget to double-check the AM/PM symbol. I'll bet just about everyone has done it once. Well I did it the other day, and I was pissed off. It's pretty easy to do on a normal alarm clock. But I use a $2000 alarm clock, so it should be a little smarter than that. So here's what I came up with:

When the time is between 6AM and 6PM you'll see the sun icon. Because it's generally light during these times. At other times you'll see the moon icon. It makes it a lot harder to screw up a morning alarm. And for those people that use a 24-hour clock, and don't have to deal with these problems, the icon is hidden.

Also, many people have asked that they be able to put timers and stopwatch windows above all other windows. So I've added an "always on top" option. Also, the timer will now include an option that allows one to say, "when this timer goes off, sound the alarm at the same volume that I have configured my normal (non easy wake) alarms to go off". The option is called "Use alarm volume"

New version coming soon

2006-10-23T02:43:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here, and still working on the alarm clock. With some 75,000 active users, I still get a ton of feedback and feature requests. (Actually I have no idea how many active users the app has, since the only information I have is the number of downloads. But since I have around 200,000 downloads, I figured it might be a decent guess.)

Anyways, I'm implementing a couple new feature requests right now. Some of them are pretty basic, and some of them are really clever. I'm not going to announce the new features until the new version is released, but I thought I'd just let everyone know that I'm still here, and the application is still in active development. In fact, I currently have a huge ToDo list for the application, and I'm looking forward to implementing some of the bigger items.

Update QuickTime...now

2006-10-06T10:17:00.001-05:00

When iTunes 7 first came out, I was pretty excited like most Mac users and immediately downloaded and installed it. It worked fine, but I had a weird problem in the Alarm Clock application. I tried to play a song I had purchased from the iTunes Music Store, and I got an error dialog saying that my computer was not authorized to play this song, and that I needed to authorize my machine from within iTunes. This is a problem within itself. But when I opened up iTunes and tried playing the same protected song, it worked fine. So I tried playing the song from that QuickTime application, and I got the same dialog message. This time I clicked OK, and it brought me into iTunes and prompted me to authorize my machine by signing into my account. I signed in and my machine count went up by one, but I STILL couldn't play any of my protected music outside iTunes!

I was a little freaked out by this, and immediately sent a bug report to apple. I was expecting to recieve hundreds of complaints via email from users... but I didn't. Then a few days later I was notified that a software update was ready for me. It was a QuickTime update that had been available for weeks, and I had just ignored it before. I installed the update, and everything works fine now. So if you have installed the new iTunes 7, but don't have QuickTime 7.1.3, please update immediately!

I sincerely hope this problem didn't affect anyone but me. But in case it did, my apologies. However, the problem isn't fully solved yet. As somebody pointed out to me before all this occured, the same thing will happen if you're not authorized to play a song, and you try to play it in Alarm Clock. In other words, you got a protected song from somebody else, that they bought from the iTunes Music Store, but you're not currently authorized to play it. I'm currently looking for a work-a-round for this problem, but I haven't found one yet. The problem seems to be that there is no way to check to see if a machine is authorized to play a song BEFORE you try to play it. But this seems ridiculously silly. Surely apple wouldn't do something so stupid... would they? If anyone knows of a way to do this, I'd love to hear from you

Upcoming feature requests

2006-08-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

I've been asking a lot of people lately whether or not they like the colored icons in the system menu bar. The results have been about 50/50. Half of the people like them, and half would prefer black & white, to match the standard apple scheme. In fact, I even did a poll on MacUpdate, and the results (at the time of this writing) are exactly 50/50. Because of this, I'm offering a new option, in the app's preferences, of the next version to use colored or black & white icons.

Another thing that many people have been asking for, is for me to disable the 'kill alarm' feature. I realize that many people like to continue listening to music after they get up, and as they get ready to leave in the morning. However... the kill alarm feature is a safety feature for those times when you forget to disable an alarm, and it goes off in the morning and you're not there. Even those people who like to listen to music in the morning will need this safety net occasionally. To compromise, I'm allowing the kill alarm duration to be turned all the way up to 90 minutes in the next version. I'm hoping this will be plenty of time to get up and get ready in the morning. If anyone is listening to music for hours on end after they get up, they should probably be listening to iTunes anyway.

I also plan on adding title's to stopwatch windows.

And I've been contacted by people who are working on a Norwegian and Japanese localization. Haven't heard from them in a few days, but I'm hoping to still have these localizations soon.

And one more thing:
The other morning, my alarm went off, and I decided I wanted to sleep in for another hour or so. Not exactly a normal snooze duration, but I proceeded to hit the plus button (to increase the snooze duration) 50 times before I got it to where I wanted it. When I layed back down, I thought to myself - that was overly difficult. So in the next version I'm going to add support for a key modifier. If you hold down option and press the plus/minus buttons it will increase/decrease your snooze duration in increments of 5 minutes.

Let me know what you think. You can post comments to this blog even if you don't have a blogger account.

So many distractions...

2006-08-04T21:54:00.000-05:00

I've just released version 2.3.4 of the alarm clock. It's been a while since I've had a lot of time to work on the application, and I apologize for not getting this release out earlier. I've had a lot of distractions lately. The main distraction is the new software project I'm working on. If you like my alarm clock, you're probably going to LOVE this new one.

Russian Localization

2006-07-15T05:10:00.000-05:00

I've just received a Russian localization for the alarm clock! This means that the free alarm clock application for Mac OS X will soon be available in 14 languages! Here's the list (in no particular order):

English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Bulgarian
Danish
Spanish
Dutch
Italian
Hebrew
Portuguese
Polish
Finnish
Russian (coming soon)

Don't see your language on the list and would like to have it added? Drop me an email (robbiehanson15@gmail.com) and I'll tell you how you can localize the app. It's pretty easy!

Version 2.3.3 released

2006-07-15T05:03:00.000-05:00

Version 2.3.3 was recently released. This version adds the Polish and Finnish localizations mentioned earlier. It also has the following fixes and additions:

1. There was previously a problem with disabled alarms becoming out of order in the menu. What would happen is that when an alarm became enabled, it's internal time wasn't being properly updated, and thus it would float to the top of the menu and stay there. Also, disabled one-time alarms wouldn't be deleted until they were enabled. All this should be fixed. It wouldn't have caused any problems with alarms, but it was an annoyance.

2. The alarm window (as you know) switches between the song information and the keyboard information every 10 seconds (similar to iTunes). But I noticed that iTunes resets the display automatically when a new song starts. Well the alarm window wasn't doing this, so I implemented this funtionality. When a new song starts (and you're using a playlist) the alarm window automatically switches back to displaying the song information.

3. I recently had an annoyance with the application that I decided I needed to fix straight away. I had my alarm set with easy wake recently. The alarm went off, and gradually increased the volume until it woke me up. I got up, hit snooze and went back to bed. But then, about a minute later, I received mail and the mail app loudly played my "You've got Mail" sound, which woke me up because the volume was still at the same level as when I hit snooze on the alarm clock. So now, if you're using easy wake, after you hit snooze, the system volume is immediately reset to your starting volume so that random computer noises don't disturb your snooze time.

I often wonder if my competitors are reading this blog...

If so, this is to one of my competitors:
Check out line 90 of MyPMSetter.m - I think you might be missing a corresponding AuthorizationFree call.

Polish, Finnish Localizations

2006-07-11T01:03:00.000-05:00

I return from vacation and what do I find in my inbox? Two emails from kind souls willing to help with localizations! The Polish localization is complete, and the Finnish one is in progress, and quickly nearing completion!

Vacation

2006-06-23T03:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Frequent Feature Requests

2006-06-16T11:48:00.000-05:00

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.

Version 2.3.2

2006-06-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

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.

Portuguese Localization

2006-06-02T02:45:00.000-05:00

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

Version 2.3.1

2006-06-02T02:39:00.000-05:00

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.

Version 2.3

2006-05-23T05:03:00.000-05:00

Version 2.3 was recently released.
The response thus far has been phenomenal! One of the biggest requests was for the addition of a timer. I've added this functionality, and I believe I've done it in style. If you don't have it yet, you should download it now.

You can also check out the screenshots of the new features here:
http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/screenShots.html

Long time, no see

2006-05-18T02:51:00.000-05:00

It's been over 2 weeks since I've offered an update for Alarm Clock, or posted to this blog. What have I been doing? Have I been relaxing at the pool, taking in the beginning of my summer vacation? Heck No! I've been hard at work on the Alarm Clock, adding features, and making it more stable. More to come soon...

Hebrew localization

2006-05-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've just recieved the first draft of a Hebrew localization. It should be completed/approved very soon. This will be the 10th supported language for the app.

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 2.2.6

2006-05-01T13:16:00.000-05:00

A new version is available. Here's the low down.

Feature additions:
-Now automatically skips to the next song in between snoozes when using a playlist. I often use a playlist to wake up, but since I wake up rather fast, and hit snooze many times, what ends up happening is I hear a small section of the song many times in the morning. No matter how much you like a song, after it wakes you up 15 times in the morning, it starts to get really annoying! So with this addition, a single song won't constantly annoy you if you're using a playlist.
- You can also manually skip to the next track, or go back to a previous track with the apple remote. Several users requested this feature, and since I saw no reason not to implement it, I honored their request.

Bug fixes:
-Fixed bug where app would crash if it encountered a bad alias.
-Fixed bug where app would crash if you immediately hit stop before the background thread completed parsing the iTunes library. Depending on your computer, and the size of your iTunes library, the background thread lasted anywhere from 0.3 to 2.5 seconds. So yes, you had to act extremely fast if you wanted to catch this one.
-Fixed bug where app would crash if you tried to edit a one-time alarm after the alarm had already gone off. This was only possible if the alarm editor was open when the alarm went off.
-Fixed memory leak in iTunes player. It was possible for a few variables to not get released.
-Fixed bug where currently snoozing alarm doesn't wake up a battery powered MacBook Pro that goes to sleep between 30 and 45 seconds before snooze ending, or between 0 and 15 seconds before snooze ending. (Yes, it only affected intel Macs because they take much longer to go to sleep. At least it does on my roommates MBP) (Yes, it only affected the computer if it was on battery power.) (Yes it only affected the user if it happend approximately right in those ranges. So there was a 30 second window for trouble.) The precautions I had coded a long time ago didn't take into account the possibility of it taking over 20 seconds for a laptop to go to sleep. It should be safe now even if your computer takes 60 seconds to get to sleep.
-Fixed bug related to the alarm check timer firing early. This was a really odd bug that happend to me one time. Timers are supposed to fire at specific intervals. Sometimes they fire a bit late, but I had NEVER seen them fire early... until now. So the time was firing several milliseconds before the second hand got to zero. This meant the program thought it wasn't time for the alarm to go off. So it wouldn't check again until the next minute, and the end result was that the alarm went off a minute late. When this happened to me, it continually happened every time I ran the application. I was very perplexed. But when I restarted the computer, the problem completely went away, leading me to believe it was a freak bug in the OS or in the NSTimer API or something. But regardless I added code to allow for slight inaccuracies in the firing of the timer that will take care of the problem should it ever happen again.

I wasn't planning on releasing a 2.2.6 version, but when bugs pop up, especially any that would prevent an alarm from going off, I drop everything else, and get them patched immediately. Stability is the main focus. I'm not sure if these problems actually affected anyone, but the fact that they could have keeps me up late into the night working on it. I would rather lose several hours of sleep, then cause someone else to oversleep! My primary focus now is on version 2.3, but if anything serious comes up, a fix would be immediately offered.

Email suggestions

2006-04-27T04:20:00.000-05:00

I get dozens of emails each day about the alarm clock application. Many times users have suggestions for the app, and we converse back and forth about their implemenatations. Many of the new features in AC2 (and the upcoming features in version 2.3) are directly related to user suggestions. If you have suggestions, or general feedback I encourage you to send me an email or post a comment. (you can post comments annoymously on this blog if you wish)

There is one suggestion that I occasionaly get that I would like to publicly state my position. Every so often, I get a suggestion that says "how come I can't launch a 3rd party app when an alarm goes off?" There are several reasons why I haven't implemented such things in AC2, and I've pasted a recent email response to a similar suggestion below:

I apologize, but this is a feature request that I'm consistently resistant to.
Let me explain my thoughts on the matter.

For as far back as I can remember, I've hated alarm clocks with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. Every morning they would go off, loud and next to my ear, destroying my pleasant dreams and shattering my slumber with their incessant beep-beep-beeping. I'm convinced that in hell they use the sound of a beeping alarm clock as background music. (sorry, I'm getting off topic) So when I finally got my first mac several years ago, I realized it's potential as an alarm clock. Not being a mac programmer at the time, I did what everyone else does, and went out and downloaded one. For the next several years I used this alarm clock (as well as several other alarm clock programs) and learned a few things about them.

One of the things I learned (the hard way, several times over) was that it sounds cool to launch other applications to wake you, but it's not reliable. The alarm clock program probably has no problem running scripts, or launching other apps, but those apps were NOT made with the functionality of an alarm clock in mind, and don't always behave as one would expect. Would you stake your job on the ability of an applescript to launch EyeTV, and that EyeTV would launch perfectly without prompting you for anything, and would be at the correct volume, and would be on the correct channel...? (I used EyeTV because the sender specifically mentioned it, but you can insert any 3rd party app here.) When you start to think about all the potential problems with launching other apps, you start to see the problems that something small could cause for an alarm clock program. Many programs out there allow users to do all kinds of things when an alarm goes off, but how safe are they to use? One time I set my alarm to open up a webpage which would play an online radio station. The alarm clock launched the browser correctly, but when I awoke an hour late I was greeted proudly with a 404 error. I then had to explain to my Math teacher that the reason I missed the exam was because I was using a computer alarm clock and that it was set to open a web page which had restructured and changed URL's. His response: he laughed at me, told me to get a real alarm clock, and told me that excuses like that won't work in the "real world" so they won't work here.

Even the alarm clock applications out there that only play music aren't totally safe, because most of them rely on applescript to control iTunes! (Mine does NOT, btw) I've had my fair share of problems with these apps as well.
Think about some of the problems an alarm clock runs into when it depends on iTunes to play it's alarm in the morning:
- iTunes was recently upgraded, and requires you to re-agree to the license agreement. It was launched by your alarm in the morning.
- iTunes was set to play to your airTunes speakers, but they aren't available
- iTunes was set to play a radio station, but gets disconnected during play time. The music stops.
- A short playlist is used, but you forgot to turn on playlist repeat.

I can think of several more, but I'm sure you get the point.
It is directly because of all these problems that I decided to make my own alarm clock. I was sick and tired of alarm clocks which would occasionally not work in the morning. In my opinion that was completely unacceptable, and I think most people don't use alarm clocks on their computer because of all the crappy alarm clock software out there. I've made it my personal mission to make an alarm clock that is completely dependable. It doesn't execute applescripts, or launch web pages, or 3rd party applications... but you can rely on it to wake you up in the morning. It doesn't cross-fade songs in your playlists, or turn on iTunes visualizations... but you can sleep peacefully knowing that it will operate correctly in the morning, no matter what.

I'm sorry to shoot down your idea, and I hope I haven't offended you, but this is something I'm rather passionate about. I hope you can understand where I'm coming from, and maybe appreciate my desire to create such a dependable application.

Version 2.2.5 released

2006-04-18T00:21:00.000-05:00

I just released a new version. I was going to add a few more things, and release this version later, but I found an OS X bug (on Intel only) that required an immediate patch. There were two major changes in this release:

1. "Implemented work-around for OS volume bug that affects intel macs immediately after waking from sleep."
When an alarm goes off, one of the first things the alarm does is execute a core audio call to set the system volume. For some reason, these calls don't work on Intel macs if they are executed shortly after the system wakes from sleep. The effect is that if the alarm clock wakes the computer from sleep to sound an alarm, the volume may not be properly set, and thus may not be loud enough to wake the user. I'm not sure if this happens on every Intel mac, but I received word of 2 confirmed cases, which was enough for me to classify it as a class-A bug, and scramble to release an immediate patch. Stability is key. This problem is now solved, as AC will continually set the volume during the alarm.

2. "Alarm Editor now properly badges close button during editing."
That is, if the alarm gets changed, the app will put the black dot in the red close button to indicate it's been changed and hasn't been saved. This is common in many apps, and AC now follows suite. If the user tries to close the window when there is unsaved changes, they are prompted to save their work. This helps as several users have stated that they sometimes close the alarm editor windows with the red button, and don't know if it's been saved or not.

How about a new name?

2006-04-11T02:05:00.000-05:00

Many people have asked me, "Why do you call your product simply 'Alarm Clock'?" The answer is that when I started working on it, it was an obvious name and I figured I'd think of a clever name for it later. But I never did come up with a name I liked, and finally released it to the public with the same generic name. Some people like it. They say it's a simple name for an easy-to-use program. Other people think it's a silly name, and it makes the product look bad. So I wonder what YOU think of the name. Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Does it not matter? Do you have any ideas for an alternate name?

Version 2.2.4 released

2006-04-10T04:21:00.000-05:00

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.

Windows screws up your clock

2006-04-06T01:20:00.000-05:00

If you have an Intel Mac, and you installed Windows XP with the newly released Boot Camp from Apple (or you plan on it), beware of your system clock. Windows will screw up the time on the Mac!

This is because of the way the time is stored in EFI/BIOS. Windows XP sets the BIOS clock to match the local clock, but OS X uses the international standard UTC (Universal Time, otherwise known as GMT). One way to fix the problem is to set the Windows time zone to GMT (+0000) and deselect "automatically adjust for daylight saving time".

Italian Localization!

2006-04-04T23:02:00.000-05:00

I just received an Italian localization for the alarm clock. It has been merged into the current build, and will be available upon the release of 2.2.4. (Which I'm currently working on.) This makes a total of 9 localizations...and counting. More are always welcome!

Version 2.2.3 released!

2006-03-27T12:12:00.000-06:00

I've just released version 2.2.3 to the general public. It's available for download NOW! This version adds support for the APPLE REMOTE. So now, if you happen to have one of these handy devices, you can snooze your alarm from across the room. I've always wanted to be able to do this...and I still can't because I don't have an apple remote. :( But my roommate (with a MacBook Pro) can, and he loves it! And I'll admit, sometimes this functionality can be dangerous... so I've added an option in the preferences to disable it, just in case.

What else is new in this version:
Added Spanish localization
Added Dutch localization
Did I mention the apple remote support?
Fixed bug where application would fail to unmute the system volume
Several other minor bug fixes.

And since it always bothers me when developers say "several bug fixes" without elaborating, I'll provide a few more details here:
1) Check for updates now correct for pre-release builds.
Normally, pre-release builds, where the build number was higher than the build number of the last released version, would claim there was a newer version available. This annoyed me, so I fixed it.
2) Fixed "Song: (null)" and "Playlist: (null)" display bugs
This would happen after upgrading to 2.2.2 or later from an earlier version, and the previous song or playlist had disappeared. (Or changed ID numbers within iTunes, which isn't that uncommon)
3) Fixed Enter/Return bug
I've been using a Powerbook for so long, I've forgotten that the Enter and Return keys are actually different on a standard Mac keyboard! When the alarm said "Press Enter to stop the alarm", it actually meant "Press Return to stop the alarm", and the Enter key didn't actually work! So now I've made it so that either key works, as one would expect.
4) Fixed double-clicking stop bug
Did you know that if you double-clicked the Stop button on the alarm window, the application would crash. Well I didn't! So I've now fixed this problem.
5) Smoother window fade out when stop is clicked
Partly due to the fix from the above problem.
6) Improved accuracy of AlarmTask timer
This is the timer that checks for alarms to go off every minute. Previously this would check when the seconds were zero, but the milliseconds could have been anything, depending on when you launched the program. It now checks right at zero seconds, and zero milliseconds. (Ok, it's more like 1 or 2 milliseconds depending on the speed of your computer)
7) Improved readability of text in bezel by adding a shadow
Got this idea after looking closely at some Growl notification windows. I was like, "What?!? How did they add a text shadow?!?" Now I know.

Seeking beta testers

2006-03-24T05:13:00.000-06:00

I'm looking for people willing to help me beta test the alarm clock. Especially intel mac owners. Several days prior to each release, I send out a beta version to all testers. I'm currently seeding a pre-release version of 2.2.3. There have been many improvements to this version, as well as a cool new feature! Want to know what it is? Send me an email and I'll send you the latest pre-release.

Happy 2-month anniversary

2006-03-22T03:18:00.000-06:00

Monday marked the 2-month anniversary of the initial public release of the Alarm Clock application. So how has the application been doing?
To date, it's had an estimated 38000 downloads.
It's now available in 8 different languages.
It's been on apple's top 10 download list (in it's category) for the past month.

And this is just me perfecting it's original design. I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve...

Spanish & Dutch localizations complete

2006-03-22T03:11:00.000-06:00

I received the completed Spanish and Dutch localizations today, and they have been integrated into the current build. These will be part of the next release, which I hope to have ready in the next several days.

Spanish localization

2006-03-17T22:39:00.000-06:00

I've just received an offer from someone to help me create a spanish localization of the alarm clock! This will be a welcome addition, and will make localization number 8! I'm extremely thankful for all the help and support I've received from the Mac community in the development of this software. I've had a lot of kind feedback, encouragement and help. To everyone who has submitted feedback, helped with graphics or localizations, and those who have given donations: THANK YOU. None of this would be possible without you.

Version 2.2.2

2006-03-17T13:36:00.000-06:00

Version 2.2.2 has just been released. It offers several bug fixes and a few new features/tweaks.

Fix 1:
Previously there were problems if the user had multiple playlists in their iTunes library with the same name. Most people don't know this is possible, but it is. Well this was a tiny little oversight in the code (or should I say failure to read apple's documentation fully), which has now been corrected.

Fix 2:
In version 2.2.1 I added support for resolving aliases to the iTunes Music Library.xml file. Well, apparently I have problems copying and pasting code from apple's website, because I failed to copy their code correctly, and the result was a failure to resolve an alias if it pointed to an external drive. (At least I think external drives were the only thing affected.) I've corrected this oversight.

Fix 3:
(More like a feature addition...) The alarm editor now automatically reselects your track and/or playlist. So if you chose to wake up to a playlist, and you open the alarm in the alarm editor, your selected playlist will be restored when looking at your music. The same thing happens if you selected a track. Also, if you switched to a playlist (say a playlist for songs you like to wake up to) and selected a song from there, then both the playlist will be displayed and the song within the playlist will be selected. Makes switching songs a lot faster for many people.

Fix 4:
The alarm clock would sometimes crash if you owned a laptop, and quickly switched between wake and sleep several times in succession. (Obviously, this didn't affect everyone) Normally it happens if you have the lid shut, and plug in a usb device. In this case the computer would wake up, and immediately go back to sleep when it realized there wasn't an external display attached. If you then unplugged the usb device (causing it to wake up and go back to sleep again) the alarm clock would crash. (Yeah, it happens under just about those particular conditions. And yes, I did take me forever to track down this sequence.) Well anyway, this seemed to be a problem with apple's code, in particular the [NSTask waitUntilExit] method. So instead of using it, I wrote my own version and all is fixed.

Fix 5:
I tweaked the look of the 'Alarm' tab in the alarm editor. Made it a little simpler... I think you'll like it.

Dutch Localization in the works

2006-03-17T01:29:00.000-06:00

I've received word that a Dutch localization of the alarm clock is currently under way. This will make a total of 7 languages! If anyone is interested in localizing it into a new language, I'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email. ...anyone out there speak spanish and want to help out?

Version 2.2.1

2006-03-10T14:55:00.001-06:00

Version 2.2.1 has just been released. It fixes a few bugs that have been a thorn in my side for quite some time.

Fix 1:
Previously, if the user moved their iTunes library, there was a chance that their "iTunes Music Library.xml" file would be moved too. Generally this didn't occur if they moved it via the iTunes Preferences, and allowed iTunes to migrate the music files for them. But occasionally, users would move the files manually (including the xml file) and just slap an alias in the original location. What they didn't know is that these aliases are not automatically readable by the filesystem or by applications. Developers have to go in and specifically add code to check for aliases, and then add code to follow these aliases. Needless to say this is a pain in the arse for us developers, but then again, aliases have their virtues. Well, I've finally added the 500 lines of code to deal with this problem, so hopefully it shouldn't happen again.

Fix 2: (More iTunes library XML problems...)
Occasionally, after making changes to your iTunes library, the song that you selected to play would skip to another song nearby the original. This is because the application previously stored the "Track ID" for the song. This track ID is needed to lookup the song in the XML file, but unfortunately this track ID isn't persistant. iTunes creates the XML file everytime you change your library, so everytime it gets created, there is a small chance the track ID of a song may change. This is fixed by now storing a "Persistant Track ID", which can be validated against the "Track ID". If the track ID has changed, the persistant track ID can now be used to find the updated track ID. Sounds confusing? It's really not that hard. Just an extra little step in the process.

For more information about this crazy "iTunes Music Library.xml" file I keep talking about, go here: http://www.indyjt.com/blog/?p=51

Version 2.2 released!

2006-02-28T11:46:00.000-06:00

Version 2.2 has just been released for the general public. See the website for the change log.

I also made some last minute improvements too. The alarm icons have reverted to their original color scheme, as many beta testers have requested. Also, a suggestion given to me via a comment on VersionTracker.com: the application now returns the system volume to it's original level after stopping an alarm.

LET THE DOWNLOADS BEGIN!

Version 2.2 just around the corner

2006-02-27T06:17:00.000-06:00

Version 2.2 has just been sent out to the translators and beta testers. If all goes smoothly, it should be released in the next couple days!

Shuffle it up

2006-02-27T06:15:00.000-06:00

I just finished implementing Shuffle. Now when selecting a playlist, you can choose to have the songs play in order, or play randomly. This was a popular feature request and shold make a lot of users happy (including myself).

New menu icons!

2006-02-26T08:10:00.000-06:00

Think the icons in the menu look like crap! I do...and I created them! In fact, I've had several people comment that they "could be better." (I think they were sugar coating it) Well all that is over now, because someone has created brand new ones! And they look sexy! Much better than before. These will be included in the next release.

More radio streams trouble

2006-02-26T08:07:00.000-06:00

I have the majority of the radio stream code complete. However, during testing I continually run into problems. It just isn't stable enough yet to merge into the application. And since I have made several other improvements since the last release, I'm putting it on hold for a while so I can get the next release out the door.

Danish Localization Complete

2006-02-26T08:05:00.000-06:00

I just received the localizations for Danish. They have been integrated into the application, and will be in the next release!

Radio Streams trouble

2006-02-24T02:14:00.000-06:00

Maybe I was a bit too optimistic in my last post. It seems there are many different types of radio streams, and handling them all in a simple manner has proved extremely difficult. Plus, what happens when a radio stream disconnects? Stability is the most important aspect of this application, so I'm going through and testing dozens of radio stations. I'm adding a background thread to handle remote stream connections, and delegate methods in the alarm to handle the case where the stream fails to connect, or becomes disconnected during play. (In either case the app can fall back on the default alarm, and you'll still wake up!) I'll try to keep my blog updated as the radio fix progresses.

Radio Streams Fix in progress

2006-02-22T13:20:00.000-06:00

The current release of the alarm clock doesn't support some (actually most) radio streams. I now have working code that will play almost all radio streams, whether the stored location is a playlist URL, or a stream. I'm currently working this code into the main branch. I hope to have it completed by the end of the day.

Danish Localization

2006-02-22T07:14:00.000-06:00

I've just received confirmation from a Danish developer that a Danish translation/localization for the application is in the works. If all goes smoothly, it should be ready by the next version release.

Digital Audio Fix completed

2006-02-21T18:10:00.000-06:00

If you use the digital audio output on your mac, you may have noticed that the menubar-based volume control (which came with your computer) doesn't work. (Or so I'm told) This is due to the fact that it uses the old sound API's. To affect digital audio, applications must use core audio. Since the alarm clock application used the old sound API's, setting the volume and easy wake didn't work properly. I've now switched over to core audio, which should fix this problem. Another nice side-benefit: the volume scaling in easy wake is vastly improved. You can't even tell when it's increasing, it can be that gentle!

If this bug affected you, and you'd like to help me test the latest build, send me an email.

UPDATE: So I was wrong. This doesn't fix it. The volume scaling is still improved though. :)
I'll continue working on a fix for this.

Intel testing

2006-02-21T18:01:00.000-06:00

Good news for all intel Mac users: my roommate received his MacBook Pro today. This means I'll have an intel mac at my disposal for testing. I've already tested the latest release and the latest build and all seems well.

Happy 1-month Anniversary

2006-02-21T17:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday marked the 1-month anniversary from the first day I posted the alarm clock for public download on the internet. It's been a wonderful month, and the software has been quite successfull. So far, it's had an estimated 20,000 downloads. It's been featured on macbytes.com, freemacware.com, macnews.de, and more. It's also been localized into 4 other languages! I hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned because there's more to come!