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A Clock Works…

Clock

Co. Design is a great site for people who love good design. Some of the stuff they cover would be called “high design” which is sort of like, well, stuff that may be really cool, but also really expensive, and chances are, you probably don’t need it.

This Jasper Morrison Alarm Clock is a clock that looks cool, and probably even has some cool features, and the article suggests that using an iPhone for your alarm clock is silly. I disagree.

I’ve got a pretty nice alarm clock, an old Sony Dream Machine from the mid-1990s, with dual alarms, a nice, big display, and a radio built in. The problem is, it’s on my wife’s side of the bed, and I get up earlier than she does. If I use it as an alarm clock, it will wake her up (not good) and it also requires me to either lean way over her to turn it off (not good) or get out of bed to turn it off (also not good.)

So I actually do have a clock on my side of the bed, but it’s a simple X10 controller and it tells me what time it is. As for an alarm, the iPhone is the best solution for me so far. I don’t use any 3rd party alarm app, as the built-in alarm works fine. I set the volume all the way down at night, and put the phone in silent mode. The phone vibrating is just enough to wake me up and not wake up the wife. The iPhone alarm is also easy to set, and I get up at different times depending on the day of the week, so that’s all preset. Since I also plug my iPhone in to charge it each night, it’s a win-win situation. Any notification apps I use tend to have the concept of “quiet time” and I almost never get messages/interruptions in the middle of the night. It works quite well for me, and I’m typically not the sort of person who uses my phone for everything, as I’ve still got a GPS I prefer to use, as well as an iPod I prefer to use.

I’m interested in what other people do… Do you have an alarm clock, or has your phone taken over that task?

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My GPS Works (Sort of…)

Scoble (and others) ask, Do GPS’s work for you?

Well, I’ve got a Garmin eTrex and I use i mainly for hiking and biking, but occasionally also use it when driving (even though it is a handheld unit.)

So does it work? Yes… for what I currently use it for. Simple things. Mileage, speed, navigation, etc. The basics. Could it do more? Oh yes… Hopefully at some point, I’ll be able to attach the thing to my Mac to easily get data into and out of it. I can’t really do that yet, meaning I technically can get the data in and out, but it’s a pain. Garmin has never been to nice to the Mac platform, though that is (supposedly) changing.

I’ve been saying the geolocative services are just going to get bigger and bigger… and they are, but we really need the hardware folks to get on board with that, and give us the tools we need to make it happen.

Until then, I’ll be using about 25% of my GPS. Garmin, get on the ball, make me love what I can do with your product so I can blog about it all the time.

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Garmin Hates Macs?

Oh sure, I know, there are people (and companies) out there that don’t like Apple, or those pesky Macs they keep making. (Weren’t they supposed to go out of business 10 years ago?) Now when it comes to companies not liking Apple, you might think Microsoft tops the list, unless you think of Apple as Microsoft’s R&D Department. Anyway, from what I hear, if you want to find Mac-hating, look to Garmin.

Dig through the macmap Yahoo! Group and you’ll find many messages about this subject, here’s a good one that mentioned how Garmin has never supported the Mac and has no intention of doing so.

So what are Mac-owning potential GPS buyers to do? Well, we can either hope that Garmin changes it’s tune and supports the Mac at some point (unlikely?) or try to find another company that will support the computers we use. (doubtful?)

I’m considering the purchase of a GPS this year, and Garmin is making it very hard for me to send any of my money their way since there seems to be little chance they will support my choice of computing platform.

Garmin = Jerks