Make Use Of: "Waking up can be very hard. And not only because it got that late yesterday night. No, beds are just too comfy these days.
Without an extremely good (read: loud) alarm clock ruining the party, it’s all too tempting to stay in bed just a little bit longer.
So if you don’t have a decent alarm clock, you know you’re in big trouble. A lot of people use their cellphone’s alarm, but that’s often just a mediocre solution.
We’ve scoured the internet looking for free alternative alarm clocks; great applications for your PC, Mac, Windows Mobile, iPhone and even Android that’ll make waking up a delight. Or at least a little bit easier."
7 comments:
I have a massive alarm clock with 120 db capabilities it also shakes the bed to get me awake. The problem with these alarm clocks is it relies on a sound that the user will trust to wake up. Additionally many students these days have laptops which will usually not be left on all night. Desktops are also keep in offices or other rooms of the house rather than the bedroom. The market for these applications is rather small then. Also I would never trust a computer to perform these functions perfect every time. If the volume is off, of the computer goes to sleep, or anything else happens the alarm won't wake the person and they will be late. The best thing is a machine that is dedicated as an alarm clock and does only that. That way it is fail-safe and will work better than a computer.
Personally, never a fan of using my computer or my phone as an alarm clock. The possibility that I forgot to plug it in and it's battery ran down over night, that I forgot to set it, that its not in the same room that I'm sleeping in -- too much risk there. I don't understand how people can rely on their phones to be their alarm. The other problem -- most phones alarm go silent when you put your phone on silent. My phone vibrating on the bedside table certainly won't wake me up after a long night of crew. The high pitched screech from my $5.00 Bed Bath and Beyond alarm clock will.
Oh good gracious. I have always had a deep hatred for alarm clocks. Any time I hear the ringtone that wakes me up each morning, my skin crawls, and I just get a negative vibe. It would be interesting to see if the mac alarm clock would help my wakeup schedule become a bit more pleasant. But one concern that arises is if one has a laptop. I usually don't leave my computer active all night, I close the monitor and it deactivates throughout the night. I doubt that this application would be able to open my computer and wake me up, but if there is some way for it to override my computer in "closed sleep" mode, I might become interested.
I really like the feature of the Mac alarm clock that will wake the computer from sleep. The nice thing about this is that it is easily customizable for every day of the week. However, more often than not I find that I am changing my alarm daily regardless of the prior week's setting. The reason, perhaps one day I need to get up five minutes earlier. I don't terribly mind setting my alarm every evening. Its not a huge hassle and it ensures that I will always set it for the right time. That having been said, I always set at least 2 alarms, due to the fact that sometimes they just do not work.
Personally I always worry that my alarm clock will not go off ad I spend a fair amount of time each night checking and rechecking to make sure that my alarm will go off in time and that the volume and sound will actually wake me up. For this reason I think I would be very hesitant to use my phone or my computer as an alarm clock for fear that they wold not be charged or that somehow the alarm would fail to go off. On the other hand I really like the idea of having an alarm clock that lets you plan ahead for many different days, and multiple events without having to reset it.
I have to agree, who uses their computer as an alarm clock? The scree would be on while you went to sleep before it went to sleep. I am sure these programs are not free because there is no market from them. I use my cell phone in addition to a traditional alarm clock. I have trouble waking up. They say if you have trouble getting up in the morning, the problem is not your alarm clock but rather your sleep habits or bed. If we got enough sleep to begin with, then we would wake up better. That is never going to happen in our industry. Late nights and early mornings, we live for them, dread them, and despise them.
I used to have a pair of alarm clocks set for the same time, one electric and one wind-up so that if I forgot to wind the mechanical one the electric one would wake me up, and the mechanical backed up the electric one in case of a power failure. If I'm traveling I might rely on the alarm built in to my watch and it usually works, but even now at home I still use a dedicated alarm clock that I seem to wake up and stare at for 2 or 3 minutes until the alarm finally goes off. There's at least one, sometimes 2 computers within a few feet of the bed that are never turned off but even so I don't think I'd ever want to rely on them to wake me up.
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