[dwhitman]

Lots of great ideas here. For me: BIG numbers I can read from bed without my glasses, the ability to set up a repeating cycle of different times for different days of the week.

And most important, the program should incorporate multiple kitchen "count down" timers in addition to wakeup timers. I use that feature of PalmOS BigClock many times a day either in the lab or in the kitchen.

[tprevett]

mmm...Alarm.. Just set a calendar appointment.. you can do it on one day, daily, weekly, monthly.. etc...

[jagowar]

This would be a definate must for me. I get tons of sms alerts through the night also so I keep the ringer switch to vibrate.

this would be one for me as well.... since i almost always keep my phone on vibrate.

also agree with most of the other suggestions here.... like the shake idea, the large numbers idea, etc. just make sure there are multiple alarms, and customizations for each alarms.

[remmysmom]

I use my palm as a night clock and alarm. That means it is in the charger and any time I wake up, I can look over and see what time it is. As long as it's in the charger, its on. I use Mobile Clock and love it's features.

[SeanBlader]

Dwhitman, I'd love to do a countdown timer as well, that's just too useful to forget about. It will be in version 1.2 or so, but for starters I just want to focus on helping people wake up in the morning.

Remmysmom, the more I think about it being on while in the charger the more I like it. That might not likely work as a web app, but once I get to moving it native I'll look for that ability, at least as an option.

[sir_mycroft]

How about combining the alarm with a today's screen. I.e. get up 'cause you have x, y, and z to do today...

[SeanBlader]

Just wanted to keep everyone posted. The timer is working, so I can actually convert your alarms into an alert that comes up. Really I was surprised how much code is required for a little alarm clock, but you need a data structure, you need to be able to read and write it, you need to be able to take user inputted times and scheduling info and convert that into something that the code can read and compare with the current time, etc... It's not a bigger deal than I thought, but still it's surprising. It's not a full time thing, I'm thinking half the interface is complete for the basic alarm functions. I need to write a snooze interface, and a config interface for the various options available.

On the latter option there, I was debating how Palm would handle what options might be available. Do I need to put in an icon that goes to the options screen, or maybe there's an options function on the drop down menu from the titlebar? I might just do an icon for the moment and then remove it later if necessary.

I watched the webOS webcast today as well and it all looked pretty basic, so there shouldn't be any problem for me to convert it to a native application within a few days of having a Pre in hand.

I'm looking forward to more chapters of the O'Reilly book so I can get details on alerts and dashboard functions. And getting the media playback for the Pre is still going to be a challenge until it's in hand, that will be something that happens on the day of release probably. Media is just so random on the web, you'd think playing an MP3 through the browser would be easy, but unfortunately it's not. Once the Pre is out though, I expect those components to be easier, assuming they are documented by Palm.

And then if anyone has Javascript questions out there, I'd be happy to help where I can, but my first piece of advice is to use the Firebug extension for Firefox. There is no better Javascript debugger available. It's saved me from so many hours of frustration I can't even count. Sure Firefox isn't webkit, but when it comes to developing, Safari has fewer debug tools than IE even.

[jhoff80]

So, since it seems (based on Chapter 1 of the book and the webcast earlier today) that you currently need to have an application have a UI to be working for the Pre (no real headless applications), might I suggest that the general application runs in the dashboard, and then if you want to actually configure the settings or have a large clock view, then you tap on the notification there, and when you close the settings card, then it just goes back down to the dashboard? Or another solution would probably be that it somehow (if its possible) would hook into the built in calendar to make the notification actually come from there, even though it would preferably not actually show on the calendar.

The reason I'm saying this is because I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want a card open all the time just to run a simple alarm clock, and I can't rely on myself to open the card every night before I go to bed.

Now, I know that without the actual SDK, a method of actually customizing it for the Pre isn't really possible yet, but just a couple things I wanted to throw out there for when you get to that point.

[captaindan]

I can not believe a phone like the Pre a phone of that magnatude would not have an alarm clock. It just blows me away. It would be so easy to add one like you said. I think it's great your doing this. Thanks and God bless.

[HChristianS]

I sort of imagine it like WM on My HTC Touch (Sprint) for instance

Alarm 1 (730AM)
M T W Th F Sat Sun.

Alarm 2 (900AM)
M T W Th F Sat Sun.

Alarm 3 (1000AM)
M T W Th F Sat Sun.


and for each Alarm and times you choose which days to wake up (in bold) at that time.
That GPS location thing where it vibrates where it knows where you are and isnt loud seems like a really good idea along with the shake to snooze. But then its like what if your phone simply dropped and you didnt get to shake it enough to actually wake up.
I also liked which tone you want to play for each alarm annnd
if a picture(s) can show everytime it goes off, cause I for one, like looking at my girlfriends.....face.
I think you should be creative and modern and minimalistic and simple with how the actual application looks too.

Everyone is going crazy about it not having alarm as built in software,
when people can make an application for it
I'm worried about it not having the cellphone strap hole (like the iPHONE), so it doesnt drop. And yes I've seen pictures online where it doesnt have it all, but hopefully the actual shipping unit doees.

[snowquest]

Great stuff, would be nice to be able to configure what shaking the Pre does. For instance, shake to snooze, shake to turn alarm off.

[WhoAmI]

Great ideas! Can't wait to see it happen once the SDK and Pre finally come out!

[Walter E Kurtz]

I too use my phone as an alarm clock. It just works so perfectly, much better than 4 big digits staring me in the face all night.

Anyways, WEATHER. So that when I go to turn off the clock, I see, "Oh sweet, 65 and sunny today with a high of 80 and a slight chance of rain"

Please, OH PLEASE. Weather.

[HChristianS]

I too use my phone as an alarm clock. It just works so perfectly, much better than 4 big digits staring me in the face all night.

Anyways, WEATHER. So that when I go to turn off the clock, I see, "Oh sweet, 65 and sunny today with a high of 80 and a slight chance of rain"

Please, OH PLEASE. Weather.

isnt that also intergrated in the Calendar application?

[Zorro1]

Excellent poiint, HC. Or perhaps, they expect that the 'cloud' calender has it? Nah, that can't be. There must be a notification system that's built in. Can't be any other way.

[pilot1000]

Shake to snooze would be a GREAT feature!

You would need API's for the acceleromator tho?

That is a great idea, and Palm has already stated there will be an API for easy access to the accelerometer.

[jhoff80]

Excellent poiint, HC. Or perhaps, they expect that the 'cloud' calender has it? Nah, that can't be. There must be a notification system that's built in. Can't be any other way.

Well... Google Calendars, which is one of their cloud solutions, does have that weather feature.

[snowquest]

I was just thinking of coding a weather app... I'm sure there will be several.

[Captweez]

I would like my alarm application to be an all in one time app. So if you could add a simple stopwatch (I don't need millisecond accuracy, just want a function for counting up from 0:00) and also a countdown timer, that would be amazing.

[anon(45821)]

isnt that also intergrated in the Calendar application?

Yeah, you can see it in action in Palm's latest Meet Pre video. Weather displayed directly under the Day/Date header.