Let us for a minute consider time zones. A necessary evil to be sure, but frustrating for those who either travel far away or who need to communicate with those who are. What time is it in Jakarta? Does Iraq observe daylight savings time? I need to call home at 7am, what time will that be in London?
Helping deal with this problem is Clocks “ Multi Time Zone Alarm Clock by Rosebrae Technology; which aims to be more than your average clock solution. Here ‘s a quick look to see if it lives up to its billing.
Here in Iraq, I am confronted with more than a few time zone challenges “ first, there ‘s the obvious need to know what time it is back home in the US. Second, Iraq does not observe daylight savings time, so just as you ‘re getting used to the time difference between here and the US, the time changes back home and you ‘re off by an hour. It doesn ‘t sound like much, but when you call an hour early and wake everyone up, it can be! The guys I work with are all from the Philippines, so knowing what time it is in Manila is often of interest. I don ‘t like sleeping with a watch on, and thus have no easy way to tell what time it is at night “ it ‘s definitely not a Hilton here with a nice bedside alarm clock! I was eager to see if Clocks would make all of this easier to deal with, while also providing me with a reliable alarm clock.
The main screen (shown here in ‘full screen ‘ mode with the ‘home ‘ time zone alone, and in ‘normal ‘ mode with two and three time zones configured)
The first thing you notice is that this a very visually pleasing app. The three themes are all nice; I preferred the stock one as it seemed just the right brightness for both day and night viewing.
New time zones can be added at will with a tap of the ‘+ ‘ sign at the top right; if you add more time zones than can be shown at once, you can scroll down through them.
Each time zone can have its own independent alarm (with your choice of one of the built-in alarms or any song already synced from iTunes). You can also choose if the time zone is displayed in 24 hour time or not. The built-in alarm sounds are acceptable, if not inspiring. I prefer a more subtle wake up, so I chose one of my own songs to coax me into consciousness a little more gently than the built-in ones, which are geared more towards a quick adrenaline surge.
Like all third-party applications, Clocks must be running for the alarms to work; although the display can be off/locked. You have the option to disable auto-lock when the application is running so that the clock(s) are always displayed; and it was here that I discovered the only issue that surfaced during testing “ I happened to receive a push notification from CNN that apparently prevented Clocks from overriding the auto-lock, which subsequently engaged. I suspect that there isn ‘t much that can be done to address this; the push notifications likely override any running app. It should be noted that if you have the screen on all night with auto-lock disabled, a substantial chunk of your battery will whittle away while you sleep. I suspect that this app will be popular with those who have charging docks or radios near their bedside.
In reviewing Clocks, the question for me ultimately became (as I suspect it will be for most of you): Since the stock Clock app does pretty much all of this, what does your money buy you with this app? The answer is essentially twofold: A prettier display, and the ability to (most of the time) disable the auto-lock. At 99 cents, it ‘s a good buy if you want or need your iPod/iPhone to be a nightstand clock.
Clocks is available in the App Store for 99 cents.
Rosebrae Technology provided a promo code to Just Another iPhone Blog for the review of Clocks. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page.
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