Great Idea, but Bugs Need to be Fixed

I really like having an alarm app on my computer. My Mac Mini is hooked up to my large screen TV, and I use my TV as a monitor. The whole set up is in my media room/den/study which is in the center of the house. It isn’t in my bedroom so the wake up function is something I never intend to use. I didn’t need an alarm to wake me up in the morning, but I bought the paid version because I needed multiple reminders for different tasks I need to be reminded of during the day. It is really nice for that and the full screen “antique clock” skin makes the computer/large screen TV very classy looking during times when I am not using it. I love that I can set multiple alarms, each with a different sound so that I can be reminded to stay on task during my waking hours. Since I am a chronic night owl, I especially like setting a bedtime alarm (to remind that it is time to turn off the computer and head toward the bedroom), and I love the soft relaxing sounds that come with that particular function.

I have used it for 2 days and so far it seems to work well. Every alarm I have set has reliably gone off on time. There are some bugs that need to be fixed, but none of them are deal breakers for me.

The biggest issue is that when my computer needs to shut down to install updates, MY ALARM CLOCK prevents shutting down. It won’t simply allow the computer to automatically close it, like all other programs and apps. Nope. I have to MANUALLY shut this app down in order for the update to proceed, thus defeating the purpose of automatic updates. I really hate when apps cannot quietly fit in with the overall functions of the computer and require special attention in situations that should be automatic.

I also don’t like that this app interupts me for things like "requests to leave a review". When I pay money for an app, I shouldn’t be wrangling the app’s self serving requests. The only interuptions that are acceptable are the alarms that I have set. All other communication really should be emailed to me so that I can read it at my convenience. This app should only ask for my attention when I have set an alarm. When an app behaves like this, I call it “bossy”. I don’t like bossy apps - I should be in charge of my computer and the apps should just do their job. However, I have now left a review and so I hope the app will be satisfied and leave me alone. This kind of thing is really rude.

And, as other reviewers have mentioned, there is some slight drift on the alarm times. This is disconcerting, but nothing that troubles me since resetting the alarms is easy - and when I turn off any given alarm I am at the computer anyway so it is no big deal. AND the weather function is pretty useless to me because it won’t accept my city and state, and it thinks my zip code is somewhere in Arizona, even though I live in Colorado. So, I’m not sure why the developers even bother to give the app this feature when it doesn’t work.

All in all, it is OK. I struggle a bit with the functionality, especially the issue of the app not shutting down when the computer tries to restart. But $2.99 is pretty reasonable and certainly less money that buying an alarm clock at Wal Mart. There are some things that don’t work properly, but the main function is to alert me at specific times and it does that well. I will probably try another alarm app to in the near future to see if a different one functions better, but this will do for now.

LindaCRH about My Alarm Clock