One of the nicest things about an iPad is that it can turned into many other things with just the right app. Apple’s tablet â€" or similar devices made by other companies â€" can be a continuously updated magazine, a photo editor, a way to make dinner reservations, a daily newspaper or a premium cable TV channel.
It all depends on your needs, and recently I decided I needed a new alarm clock on my nightstand.
Years ago, I received one as a gift of the original iHome IH8 clock radios, which let you wake to music from your iPod. I’ve been using it ever since with a 20-GB iPod Video. Each workday morning it has gone off reliably, playing a random song and planting an earworm to carry with me for the rest of the day.
But the IH8 is getting long in the tooth, as is the iPod that’s plugged into it. It also doesn’t work with my iPhone. So, I set out to see if my iPad could replace the clock radio with an inexpensive or even free app.
I had a simple set of requirements:
• The iPad had to fit on my smallish nightstand. I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP machine, which takes up a lot of real estate. I also have a lamp, and there’s usually a book I’m reading as well.
• The app needs to show the time in a large font because I can’t see well without glasses. At the same time, the display needs to be dimmable so it doesn’t keep me awake.
• I wanted to be able to wake to music from my iTunes collection, but I don’t store it on my iPad. While I keep on my songs on my phone, which has 32-GB of space, my 16-GB iPad can’t hold it all. I rely on iCloud, so the app would have to play songs not actually present on the tablet.
• And as I said earlier, the app needed to be free, or very inexpensive.
And for those who would say, “Just use the clock app that comes with iOS!â€, guess what? For some bizarre reason, Apple doesn’t include this app on the iPad. If you want to use the tablet as an alarm clock, you must use a third-party app.
I immediately discovered that the MiniSuit case I wrote about earlier this year fit well on the nightstand, so that part was easy. Finding the app, though, was a little harder.
There are plenty of apps out there designed to work like alarm clocks. Several folks recommended Nightstand Central, which gets very good ratings in the iTunes App Store. However, it does a lot of things I don’t need. It will use your Camera Roll to generate a slide show, for example, and displays the weather forecast. It’s nicely designed, and reminds me of the slick HTC clock-and-weather widget found on that manufacturer’s Android smartphones.
As nice as it is, I found it to be too busy â€" when I wake in the middle of the night and check the time, I don’t want to start reading stuff on a screen. Plus, I thought it was a little pricey at $2.99.
A more minimalist app caught my eye. Alarm Clock HD eschews slick graphics for a simple, almost-retro green-on-black default display.
It has a weather forecast, but it’s in small text â€" easily ignorable, and it can be disabled. It will play music regardless of whether it’s stored on the iPad or on iCloud, and you can even control how long it takes for the song to reach full volume, which makes waking up much less jarring.
Alarm Clock HD can also display items from your RSS, Facebook or Twitter feeds, but again, you can turn these off. Or, if you prefer, you can have them auto-hide after a time period you designate.
The paid version gives you unlimited alarms, which can be programmed in multiple ways. For example, I’ve got one set to wake me each weekday at 6 a.m., but to leave me alone on weekends. But I occasionally work a weekend shift, so I’ve got a second alarm group that wakes me Tuesdays through Saturdays.
The text color can be tweaked, but not the background color. You can also determine whether the clock shows seconds, the date or days of the week. It can also display the battery level, which is important if you run the app overnight without connecting the iPad to a charger. (On my third-generation iPad, the app will use about 50 percent of the battery in about six hours if it’s not connected to the charger.)
But my favorite feature is the ability to dim the screen just by swiping from right to left. I’ll take the brightness down to where the numbers are just barely visible. I can see the time easily without glasses, but the screen is not so bright that it keeps me up.
I’ve been using it for almost a month, and so far it serves my needs well.
My only real complaint: I feel compelled to plug the charger in each night, so I can make full use of the iPad at work during the day. With the MiniSuit case, the charger connects on the right side, which bumps against the CPAP machine. I may go looking for a decent iPad dock, but most of those require you to remove an iPad from its case.
One other note: You may ask why I don’t just use my iPhone as an alarm clock. After all, it comes with a built-in alarm (though it doesn’t play iTunes music, which I always thought was odd), it’s small and supports alarm apps that are similar to those for the iPad.
The simplest reason is this: I like to turn my phone off at night. If someone wants to reach me, they can use my landline phone. I’d rather leave the phone off and charging so I’m not disturbed by various notifications. But also, it’s small and, without my glasses, requires me to reach over and pick the phone up to look at the time. The iPad’s bigger screen makes it a better solution.
Do you use your iPad or a tablet as a bedside alarm clock? What app do you use?
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