So who uses an actual alarm clock anymore? Have we all converted to our BlackBerrys yet? For those still coping with an alarm clock you aren’t afraid to throw against the wall, wake up people!
BB Smart, the geniuses that brought you their HTML Email Viewer have developed another application to makes your BlackBerry rise and shine (unlike you on a Monday morning). BB Smart Alarms Pro has just jumped out of bed and has already made its mark on the BlackBerry community. If you have an OS of 4.2 or higher and you like to doze off, then this application is for you. Oh, and if you're type that tends to hold off buying a first model year car in favor of waiting for version two, don't sweat - the folks at BBSmart are adamant about making any and all future upgrades available free of charge to existing customers. But trust me, version 1.0 of Alarms Pro is Alarmingly Great!
Stop hitting the snooze button and have a read.
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………
Create an Alarm
As I open up Alarms Pro, I’m greeted by 2 options on a lovely grayscale background. Above the options, I am told that “No Alarms Exist! Create one now?” Of course, I think to myself, if I don’t this application won’t realize its potential! Now I must choose between “Regular Alarm” and “Quick Alarm.”
Quick Alarm
As I click on “Quick Alarm” a black window pops up and I am able to set an alarm for anywhere between 1 and 99 minutes. All I had to do was use the trackball to make my selection and done! This allows you to benefit from the application first, and then explore it later. After setting the time, you can either go to sleep, study or whatever else you want to do OR go through your options. When you set your time, you are taken to an Alarm List Window. Here you can manage your alarms. Opening an Alarm gives you access to 5 fields in an Edit Alarm window:
Status – Where you can enable or disable the alarm.
Title – Initially titled, Quick Alarm, you can personalize it to read anything from “Good Morning Sunshine” to “The boss is coming up, finish your reports!”
Time – Edit the time for the alarm to sound and also choose to have the alarm recurring.
Alarm Sound – the app comes preloaded with 4 sound effects to wake up to (electric piano, guitar riff, drum beat or disco). You can also choose from your own music from your media card. Select how many times you want it to repeat (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 100 or 1000 times) and the volume. They’ve included a handy button to test the alarm.
Alarm Settings – activate or deactivate vibrate and silence when holstered. If you want to snooze, set up the snooze length for 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes (What?! No 3 hours?!?).
Create a Regular Alarm
Regular Alarm truly gets into the nitty gritty of the application. Here you can manage all of your regular notifications such as deadlines, medication, after school activities or anything! The Edit Alarm window is the exact same as the window for Quick Alarm, save the Time field. In Regular Alarm, when you select Recurring, you can also choose which days you can set the alarm for. Click on the desired days and it will switch from pink to green with a green box around them. Your Alarm List utilizes three colors for easy definition; green means active, enabled Alarms, red means disabled alarms, and purple show alarms currently “snoozed”. The icon on your BlackBerry desktop even gets in on the colorful action as it sports colors on the clock face, depending on your alarm status.
Colors indicate the status of your Alarms
Alarms Pro sports an auto-save feature. If you accidentally navigate away, you can go back to your saved alarm and edit if need be.
When the alarm sounds, the screen switches to a large clock display with snooze and dismiss options below. Once you hit snooze, you’ll see a countdown activate.
WAKE UP!!!
Turning Off the Alarm
Once you get into BB Smart Alarms Pro, you will love both Alarm types. Regular will help you manage your normal routine and Quick will help you with the unexpected. Create as many alarms as you need. The interface is bright, artsy and easy on the eyes (not to mention easy to use). I haven’t been able to get it to work when my BlackBerry is powered off. I would suggest setting the BlackBerry auto on/off to a minute or two before the alarm is supposed to go off. It won’t replace your calendar, but it WILL definitely replace the native BlackBerry Alarm. You can try it out for 10 days before snatching it up. Priced at $15.00, it’s definitely not an application to snooze – I mean – sneeze at.
Pros
- large, easy to use interface
- create virtually unlimited alarms
- use your own music for alarms
- free upgrades as future improved versions are released
Cons
- won’t work when BB is powered off
Download & Discuss
