Day Nine. App Nine. Alarm Clock.

Today's app is one that we use almost every single day...except those glorious days when we can sleep in. Yep, you guessed it; it's an alarm clock. Our alarm clock of choice is the aptly named app, Alarm Clock by iHandySoft.  We like the app because it's easy to use and it works; we set the alarms we need and then just leave it.  Because waking to jarring or screeching sounds is not how we like to start our day, we especially like the ability to add our own songs and to control the setting for the gradual volume increase.  With our settings, the music begins at zero volume (not very effective for waking us) and slowly increases over a two minute period (length is adjustable) to a loud volume, which will definitely get us out of bed.  Nice.  However, if you are one who will go back to sleep after turning the alarm off and you think you may need multiple reminders to get up (slacker), there is a snooze feature.

We also like the miniature weather forecast and current temp. at the top of the screen, but it isn't a deal maker or breaker for us (like the "add your own music and make it come on slowly" was).  You can also have the screen tell you what city you are in, in case you are someone who may not know that when you wake up.  Wow.  Anyway, the app is customizable in a number of ways (color, celsius or fahrenheit, seconds or not, etc.).  The only thing we can think of that would make it better is if it got up and brought us our coffee... and from what we read, it seems that you can get a different app for that! [Update]: The latest update to Alarm Clock didn't seem to us like a big deal at first- brightness adjustment. See what we mean? It doesn't seem that impressive, especially because we could already slide our fingers to adjust the brightness of the clock. However... what we didn't realize until last night, was that the "slide the finger to adjust the brightness maneuver" now adjusts the overall brightness of the phone. The reason that's cool is because you will no longer be blinded by your bright phone when you turn off your alarm in the darkness of the early morning and begin to check your email. We like the update.