Best Alarm Program

[akyuznet]

I need an alarm program that can do:

1.can work(make alarm) when device closed.
2.can play Mp3 files as an alarm
3.user can put at least 5 alarms..
4.step by step increase the volume..

Thank you

[Mirrebex]

hehe.. good luck.. and if you find any please let me know..

[Donny Bahama]

SuperAlert (by Whittaker Moore Associates) does everything you've asked - and more. It will even sound the alarm when you have your PPC muted. You can use .mp3 or .wma files, set it to come on at a certain volume, then gradually increase or decrease in volume. You can set the number of loops, number of repeats, repeat interval, etc. Very full-featured app.

Beware, though - there's a bug in Windows Mobile (at least up to and including WM2003SE - I don't know if it's been fixed in WM5) that makes alarms unreliable. SuperAlert claims to get around it, but even with SuperAlert I've still had alarms that didn't go off when they should have.

Here's a link. (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=16827)

[akyuznet]

I found wolfClock which is free.

Thank you

[Lex]

Super Alert was fixed long ago. I run WM2003 and haven't lost an alarm for a very long time. But Super Alert is not an alarm app per se, it captures and handles alarms but you'd still need an alarm clock app, a reminder app (apMemo, Resco Stickies) or the built in clock or calendar appointment to activate an alarm.

[akyuznet]

Thank you for the usefull information..

[Donny Bahama]

Super Alert was fixed long ago. I run WM2003 and haven't lost an alarm for a very long time.I'm running the latest version of SA on WM2003SE on a Dell Axim X30 and I have lost alarms. (In fact, I missed a Dr. appointment yesterday AM due to an alarm that failed to sound Tuesday night!) The developer of SA thinks it's fixed, but I can assure you, it is not because I am living proof. I also have a frequently occurring problem with SA in which the alarm goes off, but the dialog does not appear; I'm sitting there looking at my PPC's home screen with no idea why the alarm is going off and no way to snooze or dismiss it. After a soft restart, the alarm usually sounds again after 5 minutes or so - this time with the proper dialog displayed, but restarting every time that happens is a royal PITA.

[Lex]

Donny B. that's interesting, I too experience occasional phantom alarms (alarm sounds but I can't tell where they're coming from) and I've never been able to isolate which app is at fault. Could the missed alarm issue be one related to device vs. OS? I know that isn't logical but weirder things have happened.

[Donny Bahama]

I can say for certain that SA is producing the phantom alarms, because I have it (and only it) configured with that particular .wav file.

As for missed alarms, my hypothesis is that it's more of a conflict between installed apps. I say that partially because I did a hard reset a while back, and only installed a select few essential apps. SuperAlert seemed to work perfectly then, but as time went by, I missed certain things and began installing them little by little. I didn't track this closely enough to be able to point the finger at any app in particular, though.

I think most anyone would agree that the more you install on any device - PC, Pocket PC, whatever - the more trouble you're going to have. Taken to the opposite extreme, a device with nothing installed (beyond the apps & utils that are included in the OS) will probably function very reliably and run nice and fast. (With the exception of the alarm bug in WM2003 - for that you'd pretty much have to install SuperAlert. But I believe that if SA was the only installed app, it would probably work flawlessly.

[Lex]

Isn't it a shame to pay $400-$600 for a computer device that can't do something a $5 digital watch can do?

[Donny Bahama]

LOL. It's an even bigger shame that the bug has been there so long - and MS has known about it for so long - and they never bothered to fix something that should be considered core functionality for this type of device. I wish there more/better Linux options, or a Mac PDA. (Can you imagine? If they got the PDA right the way they got the iPod RIGHT, they could take over the PDA market!)