Alarm Clock Connect for iOS 4 (Weather, Facebook, Twitter, Calendar & More!)

We are super excited to announce the release of our latest app, Alarm Clock Connect. We truly believe users are going to be pleased and impressed with the development emphasis and attention to detail we have put into this product and will hopefully find Alarm Clock Connect to be the most advanced alarm clock app for any smart phone on the market.

Exclusively for iOS 4, Alarm Clock Connect is a fully customizable alarm clock solution that allows you to wake up the music you love and the information you want!



Video Demo:


Feature Summary:

Alarm Clock Features:
- Select any music or audio from your iPod library
- Additional sound options as an alternative or for use with local notification feature
- Local Notification option serves as a backup alarm in case you leave the app (enable in settings)
- Set a reoccurring alarm for any day of the week, allowing different times on different days for those flex schedules we all have
- Optional note, handy for leaving yourself reminders when your alarm goes off
- Contemporary clock face with 12 and 24 hour modes
- Prevalent oversized Snooze/Wake buttons
- Set multiple alarms for your alarm or reminder needs
- Dimming panel used to decrease screen illumination while you sleep
- Alarm Fade-In option
- Independent alarm volume preference from device volume and music player

Weather Features:
- Automatic retrieval of local weather based on your current location
- Current temperature
- 3-day forecast including temperature and weather conditions
- Weather is automatically refreshed when alarm goes off
- Manually refresh information at anytime
- Celsius or Fahrenheit read out
- Dynamic background images correspond with current weather conditions and time of day

Calendar Features:
- Current date panel
- Automatically fetches your daily events from the calendar app - review your day before you even get out of bed
- View all events for the day by tapping the events button

Music Player Features:
- Select any media from your iPod library, including Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks, etc.
- Functions independently from alarm music selection
- Timer feature that can automatically shut off your music (music sleep timer feature for 15, 30 or 60 minutes)
- Realistic controls and volume dial
- Vibrant Album Art

Social Networking Features:
- Sign in to your Twitter and Facebook timeline and news feed
- Feeds are automatically refreshed when alarm goes off
- Manually refresh information at anytime
- Post Status Updates to your Facebook account
- Post Tweets to your Twitter account

Settings Menu:
- Tap and drag the friction point below the time to reveal application settings menu
- Enable/Disable Local Notifications (local notifications off by default)
- Celsius/Fahrenheit Toggle
- Alarm Fade-In Preference
- Alarm Volume Preference

As always we appreciate your support and feedback and hope you find Alarm Clock Connect to be the most innovative and exciting alarm clock app on the app store!

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alarm-clock-connect/id385451596?mt=8

ratbatblue said:

Okay, this will reveal my ignorance of alarm clock apps, obviously, but just in case there's one more ignorant one out there:

I guess alarm clock apps, other than the native Apple one, have to be constantly on in order to work. Makes it utterly worthless for reminders, actually, and I was just as interested in it for that as for an alarm clock. Seems like a great app for its intended purpose, but I can't see myself using anything that has to be constantly running in order to use. Too bad it won't run in the background, in other words.

Click to expand...

hi ratbatblue,

We actually employ a feature called Local Notifications that can be enabled in the settings menu of the app. This will ensure that an alert, similar to the built in alarm, will go off if you happen to leave the app either accidentally or intentionally. We have built in several sound options for the local notification alert, found under "Alternative Sounds" when setting an alarm.

In your particular use case, the fundamental difference will be when you hit the snooze button (prompted by the local notification), it will bring you into Alarm Clock Connect so you can observe your current weather conditions, facebook & twitter feeds as well as your calendar events for the day.

Of course we recommend you leave the app in the foreground during the night so you can take advantage of the in-app features (such as sleep music timer, alarm notes, alarm fade-in, wake up to your iPod music selection, etc.) for the optimal/intended experience. Additionally, you can shut off your screen by hitting the sleep/lock button on top of your device or dim the screen using the dim feature within the app if screen illumination or having the screen on is a concern, and everything will still function as expected.

Appreciate the question.

TonyC28 said:

I'm trying this app for the first time and I think I can deal with leaving the app running as long as it isn't killing my battery. It doesn't, right? But what I can't figure out is how to stop it from adjusting my ringer volume after the alarm goes off. Once the alarm plays whatever song I have it set to it adjusts the main volume on my phone to that level. Is there any way to avoid that?

Click to expand...

Hey Tony,
Especially if you are running on an iPhone it is usually not recommended you leave an app running the entire night while on battery alone. We recommend docking or plugging your phone in while using Alarm Clock Connect throughout the night so you wake up with a full charge and are ready to sustain a day of use.

Concerning volume, the alarm volume managed within ACC uses the iPod volume which I believe is shared with your ringer volume. If you would prefer, you can put your device on vibrate and as long as you have the app running and have an iPod song selected, the alarm will sound. We will look into the possibility of restoring original volume level on exit for an upcoming update.

Thanks for the feedback!

Also meant to mention another feature which is you are able to lock/sleep your display while in the app if you prefer to preserve a little battery and shut off your screen. Did this last night on one of our iPhone 4 unit for 6.5 hours and it only drained approximately 7% of the battery life. I was stunned by this result actually considering the app is functioning while the screen is off. This will most definitely vary depending on device model and the services you have running, but I thought I would share the info.

Some great news to share. Version 1.1 of Alarm Clock Connect just went live in the app store.

The latest enhancements include:

- Tweet and Post Status Updates from Twitter and Facebook
- Fixed a Facebook timeout issue
- Other bug fixes and optimizations

We have also posted a brief video demo on our site, just click the link below!



Cheers.

ctt1wbw, thank you very much for your comments and you should be set as far as push notifications go.

pasipple, I sent you a pm to help troubleshoot the weather question you had. Look forward to hearing from you.

Also, some additional good news. We just submitted yet another update with new key features including the ability to create or modify calendar events directly from the Today panel!

Update 1.2

Update released today with the following:

- Ability to create new calendar events directly within the app
- Edit existing calendar events by tapping on them
- Upgraded Twitter authentication to twitters new OAuth system
- Fixed Local Notification issue related to switched off alarms