iphone 4 alarm clock opinions/alternatives

[trilla12]

i've been using the standard iphone alarm clock lately, but it's frustrating and sometimes unreliable. here are my main issues with it, and please correct me if i'm wrong or possibly missing something...

- you have to make sure the phone's volume is up high enough before the alarm goes off, otherwise it's barely audible. you need to do this with an old radio alarm clock too, but it seems like an unnecessary step with this cutting-edge technology. who needs a quiet alarm? and unlike a radio alarm clock, you can't adjust the volume as the alarm is sounding on the iphone.

- once you hit snooze, you can't deactivate the alarm without going into the clock menu and disabling it manually. for example, you quickly wake up and hit snooze, then decide to actually get up. but now you have to either wait til the next alarm sounds to end the alarm's cycle, or go into your clock and manually disable the alarm. then, if that alarm is supposed to repeat daily, you have to remember to go back into the settings later to turn it back on for the next day.

- this may have been said before, but you can't specify the timing intervals for the snooze. you get nine minutes or whatever it is, that's it. brutal.

can anyone recommend an alternative app that they personally use or tell me something i may have missed with this one?

 

[Mitchelino]

i've been using the standard iphone alarm clock lately, but it's frustrating and sometimes unreliable. here are my main issues with it, and please correct me if i'm wrong or possibly missing something...

I used to use it to. Never had any problems with it, though.

- you have to make sure the phone's volume is up high enough before the alarm goes off, otherwise it's barely audible. you need to do this with an old radio alarm clock too, but it seems like an unnecessary step with this cutting-edge technology. who needs a quiet alarm? and unlike a radio alarm clock, you can't adjust the volume as the alarm is sounding on the iphone.

Even when my iPhone is on silent mode, the alarm still activates (and is quite audible). I like to put it on silent so I don't here the email alerts, etc. If the volume is very low, then the alarm might also be low, as you mentioned. To be honest, I do think I've ever had to adjust the volume to make it audible.

- once you hit snooze, you can't deactivate the alarm without going into the clock menu and disabling it manually. for example, you quickly wake up and hit snooze, then decide to actually get up. but now you have to either wait til the next alarm sounds to end the alarm's cycle, or go into your clock and manually disable the alarm. then, if that alarm is supposed to repeat daily, you have to remember to go back into the settings later to turn it back on for the next day.

Perhaps it's for the best. I know if I were able to cancel the alarm easily, I'd just fall back asleep. Worse case, just open the clock app and toggle the alarm off, then back to on (if you use an alarm that repeats itself daily/weekly, etc.)

- this may have been said before, but you can't specify the timing intervals for the snooze. you get nine minutes or whatever it is, that's it. brutal.

Yeah, the only way to get past this is to buy a more advanced app. Apple's goal is probably to find the balance between simplicity and advanced features.

can anyone recommend an alternative app that they personally use or tell me something i may have missed with this one?

I have been using Sleep Cycle since January or February 2010. I really like it. It's never failed me. If you haven't heard of it: it's an app that monitors your sleeping patterns (using the accelerometer) and wakes you up during a 30 minute window before your set alarm time. It works very well, starts off quiet, and then starts to get louder and vibrates like mad. It makes sure you wake up. It doesn't have many features, though.

 

[Gokunama]

[app]Alarm Clock Pro[/app] has been great, I can set the alarms at intervals, and just close the app when I'm actually get up.

 

[trilla12]

thanks, i will give these a try

 

[vettori]

thanks, i will give these a try

If you're looking something with a very high volume alarms and customizable snooze timer, you may be interested in my Hard Awakening app (link in signature).
A user left a review (alas 1-star ) saying that my app has broken his phone speaker... So it can play very loud alarms

BTW, I've replied also to say that the "master" volume can't be changed by apps, you always have to use volume buttons on your phone to turn it all high, any adjustment an app can do is from zero to the max volume you've set with volume buttons.