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.
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8 comments:
Does anyone have a problem out there getting the music to play on intel macs? I have a macbook that this programme won't work on (it worked on my ibook just fine)
I haven't heard of any problems with intel macs. In fact, I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro that has worked with the app just fine for the last several months.
I will mention 2 things really quick. Don't take this as an insult to your intelligence if you already knew this. It's just that 95% of the people that say the music isn't playing are having 1 of these 2 problems:
1. Alarm clock doesn't play it's music in iTunes. It plays the music internally so as to be more reliable. If you're looking at iTunes to see if the music is playing, you're not going to have any luck.
2. The default easy wake settings sometimes ramp the volume rather slow, depending on your stereo. If the alarm is going off, but you don't hear anything, you may have to wait a while before you hear much. You can of course change the easy wake settings in the app's preferences. And if you try to turn up the volume while the alarm is going off, you won't have any luck. The alarm clock is constantly controlling the volume while it's sounding an alarm, so as you turn up the volume, it immediately turns it back down.
To see if it's a problem with the application, the best thing to do is open iTunes, and play a song. Set your volume so you can hear the song. Then create or edit an alarm, and preview a song in the 'Alarm' tab. If the song plays fine in the alarm editor window, it should play fine during an alarm. Let me know if you continue to have problems, or if I solved your problem.
Ok I swear, it wasn't working. I had rebooted, played a song in itunes to make sure the volume wasn't too low, looked at the console log for errors. . .but today I tried it and it's working fine. I have no idea what was going on but thanks for your help anyway!
Robbie,
I like the look and feel and basic functionality of Alarm Clock. I have read your opinion on the redundancy of message reminder in Alarm Clock but I still think it would be great if that option was present.
For example, I'd use it for small tasks like reminding me to call someone later or watch Seinfeld or finish making my tea in 5 minutes.
I think you'll agree iCal is no place for such tasks and when I'm in the middle of doing something else Stickies have no way to remind me when it is time to attend to such tasks.
This would be similar to the reminder function that you can find in almost any mobile phone along calendar function.
Cheers,
facenormal
I'm the author of iSnooze (http://ita.progoth.com) and I had a hard time finding a comparable program when I got my MBP. Yours is the only one that's come close, and it is VERY close, and certainly better in some regards.
The only thing I miss from iSnooze, and this might be a moot point due to your keyboard shortcuts, is that iSnooze pauses the music if you touch any key or move the mouse (while I'm blearily trying to find the Stop button), but if you stop moving the mouse / hitting keys for 10 seconds without hitting stop/snooze, the music unpauses.
thanks for the great app
Hi Steven,
I've heard of iSnooze before! Great app!
That's not a bad idea to have it automatically pause the alarm when the mouse moves. Some thoughts on the matter:
First, like you pointed out, the keyboard shortcuts were made with this idea in mind. Theoretically it should be as easy to hit a key on the keyboard as it is to move the mouse.
Another thing I have to keep in mind is that many people enjoy listening to the music AFTER they wake up. As in, their alarm goes off and starts playing music, and they get up and let it continue playing while they get ready for the day. They also like to check their email in the morning, and let the alarm continue playing. Although a small option to disable the feature in the preferences would get around this annoyance for these users...
Many new users, however, don't use the keyboard or mouse to snooze their alarm. They use the apple remote to hit snooze.
It's certainly a good idea though. I'll keep it in mind. As the other of alarm clock software yourself, is there anything in the latest version that you feel could use improvement, or something that should be added?
Steven,
I've given your suggestion some further though, and I think this would be a great idea. I'll see if I can implement it in the next version or 2 of the application. Thank you very much for your constructive criticism. It's exactly this type of feedback that has helped make the alarm clock app what it is today.
Hi Robbie,
Just found your app; looks great! However, sadly, it doesn't seem to do the one thing I really need. That is, operate in concert with iCal. Or at least I don't see it mentioned here, so please correct me if I am wrong.
Let me describe what I'm after. iCal offers a number of alarm types. Ideally, your app would be another of the options there. Why? Because iCal falls short in that it cannot wake the computer for an alarm! This makes iCal useless for any important alarm, IMO.
Now, I understand that that's a tall order. So I'll settle for something much easier: an applescript that sets an AlarmClock alarm. That should be easy, no? You see, I use a database that automatically sets iCal events as much as a year or two from now, though most are within a few months. That database could easily call such a script at the same time. In that way, I'd have synchronicity between iCal and AlarmClock.
I really do need this, and would be happy to pay for your app to get it -- if it comes with such a script.
Thanks, and please do let me know what you think.
Chris
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