Review: Musical Clock – Multiple Alarms

For a limited time, get Musical Clock - Multiple Alarms for free at BlackBerry App World! 

Waking up early in the morning every day can be an overwhelming task. I try to extend my sleepy time as long as possible before I absolutely must drag myself out of bed. Since I'm pretty quick to hit to the snooze button, I need something that offers multiple alarms to get my kiester moving. As of now, my secondary alarm is a family member shouting in my ear. That's when I discovered Musical Clock-Multiple Alarms by Karvi Technologies.

Musical Clock - Multiple Alarms is a neat little application that goes beyond the capabilities of the native alarm. It allows me to create multiple repeating/non-repeating alarms for anything I need. While your device can assign a music file as an alarm sound, it uses the same one for each and every alarm. With Musical Clock, not only can you set unlimited alarms but you can choose a different music file for each one created. 

Setting Alarms 

This app comes with an array of features you would expect in an alarm application. You can choose the frequency, time, snooze, tone, volume level, and turn on vibrate. What struck me most about this application is how easy to navigate it is. There are no complicated screens or multiple menus to jump through; it's all right there in front of you. It takes no time at all to add new alarms. Plus, it even comes with a shutdown feature. I know what you're going to say, how can an alarm go off? As I use this mainly to wake up, there's no need to have it run in the background all day. Besides, all it takes is a simple click on the icon to restore.

Though the app comes with eight preinstalled tones, you're not restricted to them as it uses any musical sound on your SD card.  One thing Musical Clock - Multiple Alarms has over the competition is its ability to create its own playlist from your entire music folder.  Shorter sounds like ringtones will repeat while longer pieces will play in their entirety.

Another great feature that stands out is that it will launch any of your installed radio streaming applications (i.e. Pandora, Slacker, TuneIn Radio) to use as an alarm. This is perfect for me as I've used alarm clock radios my entire life. Just make sure the option to auto-play on startup is selected (if available).

While your BlackBerry inserts multiple alarms in your calendar, I rather like that this one doesn't. My calendar looks more like a to-do list and I prefer to keep things separate without anything else clogging up my view. Musical Clock - Multiple Alarms stores all alarms directly within the app itself. This is definitely a great way to hide from prying eyes, especially if you're on BES and sync your calendar.

Multi-colored LED display

Musical clock comes with its own digital display which, when selected in options, replaces the BB clock when plugged in. Users can modify the LED color and background pattern shown with a click or a tap. The choices are rather limited at the moment (five in the paid version, two in the free version) but a nice touch nonetheless over the native one. It does support landscape mode for the Storm and Torch and allows you to switch back and forth between 12 hr or 24 hr format. Perfect for when paired with the charging pod by my bed.

Final thoughts

Honestly, I've never used the built-in BlackBerry alarm clock and never thought about it until now thanks to this app. Between work, CrackBerry, and other responsibilities this is the app I've been relying on to keep myself in line. I love that it creates multiple alarms for anything and everything I need with its own unique name. Goodbye antique alarm clock, hello BlackBerry.

Pros 

• Unlimited Multiple alarms 
• Past alarms are not automatically deleted
• Launch internet radio applications
• Shutdown feature

Cons 

• Cannot snooze or dismiss an alarm when keyboard is locked
• Cannot backup/restore alarm settings to SD Card

Musical Clock by Karvi Technologies, Inc. is available for all devices running OS 5 and higher. It also comes in a free limited feature version.

More information/purchase the full version from the CrackBerry App Store
More information/download the free version from the CrackBerry App Store 
More information/purchase the full version from BlackBerry App World 
More information/download the free version from BlackBerry App World