3 Ways Apple Can Improve the Clock App
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 10/26/2014 1:00:00 AM
The Clock App is one of the hidden gems on the iPhone and iPad... here's how it can be made even better.
The Clock App doesn't get any headlines and it's never the subject of any big Apple events, but the Clock App is one of the most commonly used features of the iPhone and iPad.
The Clock App was one of the first Apps included with the original iPhone and it soon became the perfect replacement for an alarm clock, especially for frequent travellers, because it was always accurate, and you could easily configure multiple wake times and sounds.
Apple didn't just re-invent the Alarm clock, the Clock App also included slick timers and stopwatch features that are popular for timing speeches, sports and cooking.
Here's a few ways to make the Clock App even better.
1. Date Spanning.
Although Apple does have a Reminders feature that can give you an alert at a given date / time, adding and optional date spanning feature to the Clock App can make it even more flexible.
Date spanning should be added to the Alarm, Timer and Stopwatch feature.
ALARM Example: An Alarm using date spanning could allow you to not only say "5 AM", but "5 AM On May 1, 2015". Although Apple already has a reminder feature which allows you to set a date / time reminder, that's not the same as an alarm, which rings continuously until you turn it off or snooze. So, if you wanted to remind yourself to wake in time for a flight a week from today, but forget to set it, the Reminder chirp may not be enough to wake you... but Alarm would.
Date Spanning with Timers and Countdowns would let you not only trigger a number of hours, but potentially days, weeks, months, etc.
2. Multiple Stopwatch
Here's a scenario. You start the stopwatch when something starts. 10 Minutes later, you decide you want to time something else, but you can't because the Stopwatch is already timing the first thing. Your only choice right now is to use the Lap feature, and subtract the Lap time from the other event.... but what if a third or fourth thing pop up?
All it would take is a plus sign next to the Start / Stop to create a new event that you can start while the first one is still going on. By optionally giving a name to the events, you could easily swap between each timer screen without forgetting which is which. As you swipe between Stopwatches, each one would still have it's own running clock and laps.
3. Multiple Timers / Countdowns
Just like Multiple Stopwatches, Multiple Timers would let you do a countdown to multiple events. Move your laundry to the dryer in 45 minutes, take one pill in 4 hours, and another in 7 hours... All scheduled at the same time.
Once a countdown completes, it can trigger an alarm and convert to a moving stopwatch... continuing the count forwards to tell you how long since the trigger took place. You can stop it, close it... or keep it going to let you know much time has passed since it took place.
For example, you could simultaneously have:
287 Days, 4 hours 8 minutes until your Bermuda vacation.
340 Days, 2 hours, 12 minutes since you got your new job.
12 Days, 7 hours, 13 minutes until your rent is due.
23 Days, 3 hours, 31 minutes until your cell phone contract runs out.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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