Night Stand Review: Ditch the Alarm Clock
- Easy to use
- Could possibly degrade screen
The iPhone, just as many other cell-phones functions very well as an alarm clock. It allows you to create multiple different alarms as well as repeat them on certain days of the week. But unlike many other phones, when plugged in the iPhone will not constantly display the current time.
The fellows at Spoonjuice saw this problem and created a clean astheticly pleasing solution. The app is know as Night Stand and it serves its purpose surprisingly well.
Put simply all Night Stand does is display current hour, minute, day and optionally second. But the unique and most important part is that you are able to keep the iPhone from going to “sleep” or shutting off the screen. This proves to be incredibly useful when in a dock on, ironically enough, your night stand. This way you can use the iPhone’s alarm capabilities and still be able to roll over in bed and see the current time. Other functionality includes the ability to change the clock’s color and rotate the screen from vertical to horizontal using the accelerometer.
With running the iPhone without “sleep” has it’s disadvantages though. It will drain your iPhone much quicker then regular use, so I would only recommend using it when the iPhone is plugged in. Keeping your screen on for prolonged periods of time will degrade your backlight and screen much faster and to slow this I would recommend lowering your backlight brightness.
Aside for the short list of problems, which aren’t necessarily the apps fault, I would definitely recommend getting this app. Currently it is listed for free on the App Store (iTunes link).
Eh… I’d rather just hit the sleep button to view the time, better than having my iPhone be drained and possibly damaging the screen as you say. Plus why would I want a night light…
I see what your saying but personally I like being able to roll over and see the time. Also, I wouldn’t say it’s a night light at all. If anything it gives off the same amount of light as a typical digital alarm clock.
It would be great if it could degrade the backlight automatically, since it will probably be used in dark rooms anyway.
Can we talk about what time was chosen for the icon?
Yup, I was about to say that it would run out of battery if it wasn’t on a dock. But if it wasn’t on a dock, how could it stand up on it’s own?
@Marcus: That would be good too, and also, it would also save battery. Think it has an automatic backlight adjusting feature, but it comes in really slowly. Think the backlight should be able to be controlled inside the application and not just in the iPod Touch/iPhone settings panel.
@John: As an alarm clock.
These kinds of applications tend to burn your screen. I wonder when they’ll have one of those screen burn fixing applications for the iPhone a lot like the screensaver that existed for the Mac.
Well, doesn’t it turn off the backlight/goes into sleep mode when you leave it on for a while?
THAT IS NOT IRONY
LEARN WHAT IRONY IS
AAAAAAAAGHRRR
Yes…. we can talk about that icon Jake!!
Well its nearly the icon’s time now, I do worry for my screen’s life, and great use of the word ironic.