No Fizz About This 3-in-1 Clock Alarm App

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First of all, thanks to Nicky of Fizz Software for providing the product for this review!

The latest addition to the Fizz Software’s family of products is Fizz Alarms. If you are familiar with the graphics and visual appeal in the other Fizz Software’s offerings, you certainly won’t be disappointed! This is one beautiful and eye-catching piece of work that is not only good looking but offers a minimalist style without all the distractions or complications of other clock or alarm applications. Not only is Fizz Alarms a Clock and Alarm application, it is also a stopwatch and a countdown timer, all three applications in one! Think of Fizz Alarms as a 3-in-1 clock alarm application that offers not only the very important alarm and reminder feature, but stopwatch and a countdown timer! Don’t take my word for it, let’s take a look at the program and go through each feature one by one.

This is what the main home screen looks like, showing the three main modules: Alarms, Stopwatch, and Counters (Countdown Timer).

Here’s a view of the Menu options available in this screen. You can change between the Digital Clock which you are currently viewing…

and the Analog Clock which you can change into, simply by unchecking the “Digital Clock”.

You can also choose to show either the Digital Clock or Analog Clock in full screen. Simply select your choice of digital or analog clock and either tap on the clock itself or select the “Show Clock Full screen” and you will view the clock in full screen.

Enough of the Home screen, let’s take a look at the other modules of the program. We’ll start with the Alarms. Here’s what you’ll see when you first tap on the Alarms module on the Home screen for the first time.

Obviously since we haven’t set up or created an alarm yet, it won’t show any alarms. To create one, simply tap on the “+” sign button or anywhere near it to go to the alarm settings screen.

As you can see, there’s a lot of settings and customization options you can make, including: the frequency of the alarm, the alarm sound, alarm playback options, volume settings, and snooze options.

The Alarm supports files in wave, wma and mp3. I was a bit disappointed that it doesn’t seem to support midi files since that restricts a lot of ringtone files that may already be in the smartphone or PDA device that you can otherwise use. As we all know, keeping the wma and mp3 files in RAM will eat up a lot of valuable space that can probably be used for other applications or files. Perhaps, Fizz Alarms could support midi files in a future release. Also, it could be even better if there was an option to delete any wma files that comes with the program that you know you won’t use, in order to free up more RAM.

You can control how often the alarm recurs whether it be once a day, once per week or maybe Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursday of each week or whatever other occurrences you specify. There’s a snooze function that you can enable to remind you at a later time of your alarm. Knowing that especially for us sleepyheads in the morning, this can be very useful.  So for those of us who are like that, the snooze button feature can be quite handy to have. There’s also the ability to set the ringing characteristics from volume levels to increasing ring and other settings. Talk about customizing your alarms! Whew! That’s a lot of settings! Let’s now go on to the next module, which is the Stopwatch.

The stopwatch module is quite simple to operate. Simply tap on the play or start button designated by the right pointing triangle and the stopwatch starts running. The program supports up to a hundredths of a second with lap support. Fizz Alarms also adds a visual representation of each lap in comparison with the others, there is a bar graph next to each lap to indicate the time lapse of each which gives a quick glance view. This is something I don’t think I have seen in other stopwatch apps before and it’s a very nice feature. As an added bonus, the stopwatch also allows you to save the lap times into a .csv format file either in memory (RAM) or on the expansion card. That can be a very helpful feature as you can now be able to use the data recorded for calculations and record keeping. This can be especially useful for those training in sports to keep track of your progress over time. We’ll now cover the last module of the program which is the countdown timer module.

The countdown timer can almost be thought of as a reverse stopwatch in that rather than showing you the time elapse, it shows you the time remaining. Of course, in a countdown timer, there is a slight difference in that you do have a finite period of time and then reverse counting until it reaches 0 whereas in a stopwatch, the time runs until you stop it.

Having a countdown timer can be very handy in situations where you want to be able to set a specific block of time for something and have a countdown timer so you can monitor how much time is remaining so that you can allocate or gauge your progress. For example, if you are conducting an exam, this can be a great way to give the students an idea of how much time is left. I used to use a countdown timer on my old digital watch when conducting various exams to notify the students how much time is left at certain intervals. There is also a Snooze function in the countdown timer as well, for those who need it.

Here are some screenshots of the settings in the countdown timer module.

Here are some of my opinions of the program. I like how the general program is very eye catching and visually appealing. It creates a sense of simplistic or minimalist style yet fully functional and accessible via a finger or stylus tap. Although it seems that the program is very finger or touch friendly in many areas (being able to tap anywhere along the entire bar will select it or do the action), it seems that some areas of the program are not as finger or touch friendly. In areas like the settings listing for the Alarms for example, where the scroll bar is on the far right hand side, the scroll bars are a bit too thin and far too close to the right edge for my finger to get to. This is when I need to use my stylus or finger nails to try to get at it. A suggestion is to widen the scroll bars a bit so that it will detect a finger touch. Second, I do find that I am forced to do a lot of tapping to get something done. In many areas of the program, I need to first tap to have the action selected, and then, the next tap will do the action. For example, if I’m in the Home screen and want to go into the Stopwatch module, I have to tap once to select the Stopwatch module and another tap to launch the module. To me, being the picky person who dislikes tapping too many times, this makes it cumbersome. Also, when setting alarms, I have to tap as many times as required either up or down to get to the minute I want. That means, if I want to set an alarm at half past the hour, I’ll need to tap 30 times either up or down to get to that. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think I want to do that too many times. A suggestion is to set special incremental buttons (ie. +10 and -10) so that I can tap once to go up or down by 10 saving the extra taps. Even setting the outer buttons to increment by 10 should work just as well. This will still keep the interface the same without adding additional buttons.

With regards to the alarm module, it offers a lot of settings and features. However, I would like it to support midi files so that I can use a lot of the midi files that may already be in my device. Also, it could be helpful if I can be able to delete some wma sound files that came with the program so that I can free up some RAM. I wasn’t able to find a vibrate feature in the program so I am missing an important part or capability that some devices offer, which is “vibrate”. I would like that feature to be available, if possible. Lastly, I would also love to have the program support sound files stored on the expansion memory card.

In terms of the stopwatch module, I liked the graphical bar in the stopwatch so that it shows the lap times in a visual way so that you can see the lap times at a glance. I also liked the ability to save the lap times into a .csv file for recording data and being able to use it for calculations and record keeping. I was however, a bit disappointed that it didn’t support multiple stopwatch timers running simulataneously. Also, I didn’t like being able to have the stopwatch stop rather than let it run when I tap on the Home button. The only way out of the program without stopping the stopwatch is to tap on the “x” at the top right hand corner and then exit out. Otherwise, if you select “home”, the stopwatch and timer will stop.

Lastly, with regards to the countdown timer module, I like the multiple timers support. Having a snooze feature is also handy, for those who may need it.

One other suggestion for the program in general is that if this could be offered as a plugin for the Today Screen that it can make it even better and for much faster access to the program. Not only will I be able to see a bigger version of the time, but also be able to launch Fizz Alarms immediately from the Today Screen.

Conclusion

This is a very easy to use and visually appealing clock and alarm program offering features like multiple alarms and personalized settings for each, a stopwatch, and multiple countdown timers. Especially when setting the time of the alarm, it can get quite frustrating to keep tapping to get to a specific number. Perhaps, there are specialized buttons that can go up in increments of 10 which may still keep the minimalist design could satisfy people like me who dislike tapping too many times. A possible suggestion is to change the outer buttons to increment by 10 and keep the inner button to increment by 1.

What I liked

• Finger friendly software with big accessible buttons or areas
• Visually appealing
• Simple to use
• Multiple countdown timers support is very nice
• The ability to save lap times is very nice, especially for those who wish to save records of stopwatch lap times so this distinguishes many other stopwatch or clock programs that may not normally support this feature.

What needs improvement

• Many features require a lot of time and taps to access
• No support for playing midi files
• No support for files stored on expansion cards
• Needs a vibrate feature
• In stopwatch mode, if I tap on the Home soft button, the stopwatch will immediately stop and reset rather than letting it continue to run. I was expecting the stopwatch to keep running until I manually stop it. To keep it running while going to another program, you must click on the “x” in the top right hand corner to exit without stopping the stopwatch.
• It could be helpful to support multiple stopwatch timers going simultaneously.
• Plugin for the Today screen so that it can show the nice looking clock with quick access to the program.
• Add support for multiple times and clocks for those who may wish to monitor and set alarms in different time zones
• Some areas are not as finger friendly as they could have been.

Official details (taken from Fizz Alarms’ website):

Fizz Alarms is your every day time manager. From repeating alarms, stopwatches to counters. Its your time so take control.

Supporting Windows Mobile 5 & 6.

Main Features include :

* Comprehensive Alarm Support
* Control your alarm recurring options
* Control your alarm volume playback - various options
* WAV, WMA & MP3 support
* Snooze Support
* Stopwatch Support
* Save your lap times
* See your laptimes at a glance - compare the speed bar.
* Multiple Counters
* Name your counters
* Select different sounds for each counter
* Snooze time - at end of counter

* Digital or analog main clock face
* Windows Mobile 6.1 support - all screen sizes
* Super Simple Interface
* Localised in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch & Russian

Fizz Alarms is available for both Windows Mobile 5 & 6 Professional edition (for touchscreen devices) and Smartphone edition (non-touchscreen devices).  Go check it out here and let us know what you think of it in the comments!

Fizz Alarms is a very nice looking program that offers not only a multiple alarm and settings capability but also stopwatch and multiple countdown timers. The interface is very clean and eye catching and supports finger touch navigation, which may appeal to those who love the iPhone touch type navigation. I like the bar graph representation of the laps in the stopwatch and the ability to customize the sounds. I would like the program to also support midi sounds so that I can choose from amongst sounds already in my Treo. It’s available for both the Windows Mobile Professional edition (touchscreen devices) and Smartphone edition (non-touchscreen) platforms. Go check it out here and let us know what you think of it in the comments!

Where to Buy: Fizz Software

Price: $14.95

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