(Last edited March 4, 2008)
I am still awaiting the first submission for the Palm Discoverer/Explorer profile. If you have a bit of time to provide a few things about you and a pic, will you please contact me so that I can post it for the Palm Discoverer profile? Or, just your thoughts of the Palm and how it has helped you in any way, or your favorite Palm apps. Or, if you have a Palm blog, and would like me to add you to my blogroll links, please let me know and I’ll add them in. I’d love to hear from you!
In the same theme as I’ve recently been focusing on, here’s another clock application that I will be discussing. Apparently, the developers of TreoAlarm are offering to provide free registration to TreoAlarm if anyone blogs about their program. Of course, I can’t pass up this great opportunity to get a free app. Thanks to everythingtreo.com member Stillrockin for mentioning this info in his posting at everythingtreo. And, of course, a BIG THANKS to TreoAlarm for offering this great app for free. (Edit. It looks like the page to the offer is no longer available). BTW, check out Stillrockin’s blog here) too.
I certainly didn’t expect myself to be reviewing and trying out many different clock applications when I originally started, but this addiction(?) has bit me and I’m starting to kind of enjoy looking at the different clock apps that are out there. Originally, I was quite happy (and I still am) with the free Watchmaker (read my Watchmaker posting for more info) but then I started trying out other clock applications and find that each has their own “flavor” if I can even describe it as such. Sure, they’re all “clock applications” but each of them offer the display and telling of time in a different way. And I’m finding that as I try more of them out, there is a difficulty in deciding which one to keep. After all, there is only a limited amount of RAM on the Treo (yeah, I know that it’s still much more than my old Zire 71 and the TT so I shouldn’t really be complaining) but RAM is still quite precious, even on the newer Treo 650. Eventually, when I’m finished reviewing all the popular clock applications that I will have to make a difficult decision of removing them (yes, I currently have a few of them installed in my Treo as I’m testing them out).
Well, TreoAlarm is more of a weather forecast program than an “alarm” application as its name implies. Sure, there’s the ability to set up to eight different alarms (if you choose not to use the default two settings to turn the phone radio on and off at a specific times) but the main screen is what you see when the program launches. And it looks quite nice.
The current time with seconds shows up near the top left and the rest of the screen is taken up by a a graphical display and a detailed weather forecast. You can view up to five days of forecasts. Simply tap on the triangular arrow to advance to the next screen or the opposite arrow to go back. And this program supports multiple city forecasts, so you aren’t limited to just one city’s forecast. But if you are updating the forecast, you have to first display that city’s forecast and click on the “Update Weather” button and do it for each city otherwise, you only update it for the city you’re currently viewing.
Each alarm can be customized to your individual settings. You can select a specific time to occur at odd days of the week, for example, 7:00am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or every day, or just on the weekends.
You can select individual alarm sounds from amongst your collection of mp3 ringtones that you have or the default alarm tones that comes with your Treo. This way, you can have one alarm ring a specific tone while another alarm will have another different sounding tone. This can be helpful to distinguish between the alarms so that you will know what the alarm is about without having to look at the program. This is a feature that many clock and alarms applications have already but I wanted to discuss it regardless since I’ve always loved having the ability to distinguish betweeen all the alarms I have.
Enough of talking about the program, here’s the Flash simulation you’ve all been waiting for showing how it looks and works.
Treo Alarm simulation
Alternative Flash links: Photobucket, Image Shack
The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.
To continue playing the simulation, press the 
or 
button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the 
or 
button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the 
button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.
To scroll forward or backward in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on 
the progress bar.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MANY FREE HOST SERVERS MAY HAVE POP UP ADS. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU DISABLE POP UPS BEFORE CLICKING ON THE FLASH LINKS
Screenshots of Treo Alarm weather forecast
TreoAlarm is a great clock application that offers something a little bit different than other clock applications. I love how it looks. And the size of 173k is still relatively smaller in size compared to many other clock apps.
The best thing I’ve found about this device (and it really most likely only applies to my Treo device) is that the alarm ringing problem I’ve encountered with Watchmaker and Palmary Clock doesn’t happen on Treo Alarm. I don’t know what it is. I still have Palmary Clock and Watchmaker installed and they still require me to press the keypad buttons 5 times to stop the alarm ringing, but with the TreoAlarm, it has never happened even once. As soon as the alarm rings, I tap on the screen and it stops ringing! Wow. Again, this is most likely something strange happening only on my Treo device but it can be a bit annoying at times to press the keypad buttons 5 times to stop an alarm from ringing.
Okay. Enough raving about TreoAlarm. Here are my requests for the program that I’d like. Rather than having the weather forecast on the main screen and taking up the bulk of the screen, I would like to be able to have something else instead, maybe a calendar like Palmary Clock does. And rather than having to click on the arrows to progress to each page or screen of weather forecasts, maybe have an overall screen of the 5 day forecast showing the icons and temperature and being able to access the individual day’s forecast if I wanted to. That way, I don’t have to click or tap as much (and I don’t like clicking or tapping if I didn’t have to). In order to update the forecast for each of the cities I have in the program, I have to manually do it for each city. I can see that there’s a reason for this, but I originally thought that it would update all the cities. That’s okay. Second, I’d like more alarms. Eight alarms, I’m sure for many, are enough. For me, I’d like a few more.
Other than those, I’m quite happy with the application. The program seems quite stable on my Treo. I have not experienced any problems at all. It works fine. So, if you want a clock application that allows you to check for weather forecasts, please check out TreoAlarm! I’m quite sure you’ll love this as much as I do.
Unfortunately, I believe that this clock application is only supported on the Treos (thus the name and its reliance on a wireless connection for weather updates) although I’m not completely sure.
: archives categories palm treoalarm clock alarm weather
(copied from Blogger)
Thanks for the link to my Blog. But since your reviews for the Treo are so indepth, vs my quick overviews, I will be adding a permanant link from my Blog to yours! Especially since all I have been blogging about lately is my Treo and Palm OS!!!
Peace and Grace!!
# posted by Stillrockin : 4/24/2006 04:29:31 PM
Thanks a lot, Stillrockin! That reminds me to add your blog to my blogroll. There. You are now part of my blogroll. Thanks very much! BTW, I also subscribe to your blog. As I always say, I’m always learning and quite a newbie. Thanks for your support.
# posted by maceyr : 4/24/2006 05:10:41 PM