iPhone: Apps – Relax Alarm Clock

iphonerelaxalarmapp.jpgRelax Alarm Clock for iPhone comes in 2 versions: the ‘Lite’ option, which is cut down and cut price at £0.59, and the full option, which will set you back £2.99; both are available at the App Store.

As you may expect, the Lite version is, well, lightweight. That said, depending on your needs it still offers an excellent alarm clock. You can choose colours, fonts and one from 10 available sounds (including an acoustic guitar, bamboo chimes, birds, rain, wind and a piano) to rouse you from your slumber. You can also choose one of the tranquil options to fall asleep to, using the timer function to automatically stop the sound of the ocean, or a bubbling brook or whatever you choose from the available list of 10 after a time you determine (in increments of 1 minute). If you would prefer a different sound from those within the application you can record your own sounds using the ‘record’ function built into Relax Alarm Clock .

I started off with the Lite version, but it lacked a few features I wanted, which, needless to say, were available in the full version; who’d have thought it ;-) . As you’d expect, the full version includes all of the features in the Lite version and more.

The main feature that was lacking for me in the Lite version was a ‘snooze’ function. This is included in the full version, and can be set to any length you desire, in increments of 1 minute. While I usually get up as soon as my alarm goes off, the option to snooze it ‘just-in-case’ I doze back off to sleep is a crutch I wasn’t prepared to throw away. The function is easy to set and even easier to operate: when the alarm goes off two large buttons appear – a red ‘snooze’ option and a green ‘dismiss’ option. Both snooze and dismiss work faultlessly, as you’d expect.

Another great feature of the full version is the ability to tap the time display and have the app throw up all the settings, without the need to come out of the app to make changes through the main settings screens, as is required by the Lite version. You can change sounds, volumes, sleep times, fonts, colours and time format from within the applications options screens, which is very handy.

Nice touches in the full version include the ability to be able to slide your finger left to right across the screen to dim or brighten the display, which is a great if you like a dark room; another nicety is the range of sounds – a massive 64 tunes or noises ranging from the soporiphic (presumably to get you into sleep rather than get you out of it) and the in-your-face (for example white noise – guaranteed to get you into the here-and-now without compromise!) Personally I use the ‘Fiddle’ – irritating enough to force me out of bed but not so brash that it scares me into the day.

Both versions allow either landscape or portrait display; I tend to use portrait as I sit my iPhone in a dock by my bed. It is worth noting two things: first, as you would expect the app won’t run in the background and, therefore, needs to be running to work, which will drain your battery; so, secondly, it is worth making sure your phone is on a power supply if you are relying on this to get you to work on time and your iPhone to still have sufficient charge for the day ahead.

Since installing this app I have ditched my clock radio altogether, and often find myself flicking it on just to give me a clock if I am in hotel or some other place without the time on view. If you need/want a good clock and/or alarm, you could certainly do a lot worse than this app. £2.99 well spent, in my opinion.




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