Feature Friday: What’s a car dock?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Sondy at Angle Labs

Alarm Clock Xtreme is packed with features to help you get out of bed an on your way.  Each week, we’ll highlight a different feature in the app.  Questions?  Let us know in the comments!

Alarm Clock Xtreme started out with a feature that’d dismiss alarms based on how fast you were moving, whether walking, running, cycling, or driving.  Wouldn’t it be great if the alarm would stop if you placed the phone in a car dock? But first off, what is a car dock?

A car dock attached to the window with a USB cable. Perfect for hands-free navigation while driving!

 

This car dock uses a suction cup to stick on your window.

Continue reading →

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Android Meetup Lightning Talk

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Irene Duke

Last night, I gave a lightning talk at an Android Developer meetup event in San Francisco on how to create layouts for devices with different sized screens.

The Android developer resources emphasize creating multiple xml layouts for different screen sizes, but in most cases, there is a better way to optimize the layouts. Check out the presentation below to learn more. Continue reading →

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Motorola List Views on Android 2.3.x

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Irene Duke

I used the original Motorola Droid for almost two years and I loved it. Unfortunately, the original Droid is stuck on Android 2.2, which is now quite outdated. When shopping for a new phone, I was drawn to the Droid 3 because of its physical keyboard, but was disappointed after trying it at the store. My disappointment was due in part to the lack of 4G, but was mostly because of the ugly style that Motorola decided to use for list views on their Android 2.3.x devices. Continue reading →

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Feature Friday: Have your alarm launch an app

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Sondy at Angle Labs

Alarm Clock Xtreme is packed with features to help you get out of bed an on your way.  Each week, we’ll highlight a different feature in the app.  Questions?  Let us know in the comments!

One of my favorite features on Alarm Clock Xtreme is the ability to launch apps with the alarm.  Personally, I like launching Pandora, but you can also launch weather apps or your todo list or… really any app on the market Google Play or the Amazon App Store. Continue reading →

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Version 3.3.1 of Alarm Clock Xtreme released

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Sondy at Angle Labs

To celebrate the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, we’ve released an update to Alarm Clock Xtreme.  Appearing on both Google Play and the Amazon App Store, the latest version of the most “xtreme” alarm clock on Android includes some changes and bug fixes that you’ve requested:

  1. The 2×2 analog clock widget is available again—huzzah!
  2. Fixed list view style on Motorola 2.3+ devices.
  3. “About” page updated. You can now tap on Help and then Forums to get answers to frequently asked questions, view known issues, submit feature requests, and more.
  4. Other bug fixes and minor changes (view our complete changelog since v3.0 here)

Take the latest version for a spin, and let us know how we’re doing!  Feel free to leave a comment here, or drop us a note.

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Past, present, and future

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Irene Duke

Happy π (pi) day from those of us at Angle Labs! For those of you rusty on your math, π is an angle of 180 degrees.

In the world of a startup, half a year can be like an eternity. It’s been over half a year since our last blog post and we’ve been busy, so we’d like to give you an update on some of what we’ve been doing and some of what we’re planning for the future.

Alarm Clock Xtreme for Android remains our flagship product. We have worked hard to make the app as reliable and customizable as possible, in addition to improving the look and feel as well as the ease of use. In November, Alarm Clock Xtreme was featured on Lifehacker as the #1 alarm clock app for Android. In January, the app was featured as a staff pick in the Android Market, and more recently, the NY Times mentioned Alarm Clock Xtreme as one of the best alarm clock apps for Android. The app has now been downloaded over 6 million times and has nearly 3 million active installs. The app remains the highest rated and most downloaded alarm clock app for Android, all thanks to you, our users. Continue reading →

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Alarm Clock Xtreme in Our Daily Lives

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Irene Duke

Sometimes people ask Alex and I if we use our own alarm clock to wake up, and the answer is always an emphatic yes. Here are a few of the ways we use Alarm Clock Xtreme in our daily lives.

Irene

Waking Up:
I created a playlist that contains most of my upbeat music and use the random song by playlist sound option to wake up. I can hear it when it’s still pretty quiet, so I use 50% as the max volume and set it to a 15 min volume crescendo. I use the shake to snooze option and have the shake duration increase after each snooze. I start with a 15 minute snooze and have it decrease by 3 minutes after each snooze. I set the max number of snoozes to 3. The 4th time the alarm goes off, I try to shake to snooze, but the music just keeps playing. Eventually I realize I have no snoozes left and I solve an easy math problem to shut off my alarm and get on with my day. Continue reading →

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Inaugural post

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Irene Duke

I wrote Alarm Clock Xtreme in the first few months of 2010. I was unhappy with my job and wanted to refresh my programming skills before looking for a new position. I was an iPhone user at the time, but I had worked with Android before and Android had a lower barrier for entry. I traded my iPhone for a Motorola Droid and created Alarm Clock Xtreme.

The app was much simpler initially. It allowed users to shake their phone to snooze, and travel at a minimum speed to dismiss, ensuring that they had left the house. Slowly, I began adding more features and building my ideal alarm clock. My goal became to discourage excessive snoozing and help myself and others wake up on time. As the application grew in users, I started receiving emails from people telling me how much the app has helped them get out of bed in the mornings. The app turned into a hobby and a passion. I spent a lot of my free time after work and on the weekends adding new features, responding to emails, and reading the latest news about Android. Continue reading →

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