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Comment by Johnny555 | Hacker News Reader

Who would buy an alarm clock that needs an app to set it? As soon as I saw that I needed to install an app (and create an account!?) just to set my alarm clock, I've have sent it back.

Though I guess I do have an alarm clock that needs an app to set it since my only alarm clock is my phone. But if I bought a standalone alarm clock, I'd want it to be really stand-alone, not dependent on my phone.

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Dark patterns on the packaging that obscure the need for a cell phone app. I've seen this kind of thing show up all the time.

So why not return it?

He did.

Ran into something similar with a resistance band workout system. To access the how to use videos, you must sign up for an account. To sign up for an account, they must verify your phone number via SMS. Why on Earth does a set of resistance bands need your contact information? I sent the whole thing back. Maybe if companies start hurting due to restocking costs, they'll stop.

> packaging that obscure the need for a cell phone app

There have been a handful of posts on this theme. The idea being that food labels disclose the raw facts about things like high-fructose corn syrup and saturated fats. Likewise IoT packaging should do the same.

https://www.troyhunt.com/what-would-it-look-like-if-we-put-w...

https://www.symantec.com/blogs/expert-perspectives/why-we-ne...

This is a brilliant idea that would give consumers at least some idea of whats happening. I wonder if you could great a crowdsourced database of this in a per product way

Because setting alarms on normal clocks is really annoying. Or setting the time in the first place.

I assume the clock has wifi to set the time via ntp already, so adding an app was easy, in the eyes of the hardware division, who never think about the complexity of software, or the cost of it.

It's a job you do once though. Or very, very rarely.

It's surely not annoying enough to buy an alarm clock you can only set via and app on your phone which also requires you sign up for an online account. That, to me, sounds far more annoying. I'll stick with my £5 digital alarm clock.

I have an alarm clock that sets itself based on some radio broadcast of the current time. You need to set which time zone you're in and there's a single switch to turn DST on or off.

These don't do too well in the Eastern US. WWVB is too far away. They introduced a phase modulation that has a lower SNR required for recovery, but as far as I can tell no chipsets exist that understand this signal, and only one clock exists that can receive it. (And it's an analog wall clock, so good luck with your alarms.)

I use GPS for time transfer. Works great everywhere in the world.

> I use GPS for time transfer. Works great everywhere in the world.

Except on basements. Or on buildings with no view of the sky.

> Because setting alarms on normal clocks is really annoying. Or setting the time in the first place.

Maybe on digital clocks, but on analog clocks you just spin the knob to the correct time. Not annoying at all.

I have this nice clock on my bedside table: https://www.marathonwatch.com/collections/clocks/products/an... This one is also good: https://www.lemnos.jp/en/archives/1367

Currently I have my phone set to ring 3 alarms on weekdays, and 1 late one at weekends, would be better if it just read my calendar though.

Only having one kinda inaccurate alarm on an analog clock would be annoying, also having to change the time twice a year, and correct for errors.

I find it less annoying than using a phone for alarms, even not counting the fact that it doesn't have a phone as a pre-requisite.

> Because setting alarms on normal clocks is really annoying.

I'm not sure, on the two digital clocks I'm using, changing the time or the alarm takes at most 30 s. On the other it will ring every day at the same time, including on week-ends, but then since it's quick enough to change the alarm it's not a big deal. If I wanted day-of-week dependent alarms, I'd use my smartphone for this.

Raymond received it as a gift.

Never mind that. Who would buy an alarm clock at all? It's 2019. Use your phone. Or your Apple Watch.

One reason is because they really really need to wake up on time and don't want to rely on their phone.

My android phone used to spontaneously reboot once a month or so and since it was encrypted, it wouldn't finish booting until I entered my unlock code, so the alarm would not go off. I haven't had that problem in a year or more plus now I think even an encrypted device will boot up enough to make the alarm work (though I'm not certain).

Also, about once a month or so, I either forget to plug my phone in or don't get the cord plugged in all the way and I wake up to a dead phone.

A standalone alarm clock (battery operated or with battery backup) is much more reliable.

Though nowadays when I need to get up on time (like to catch an early flight), I set an alarm on a second device, either my wife's phone or a tablet but if I didn't have that option, I'd use an alarm block as backup.

Note 3? I'll bet it was a Note 3.

I was really surprised that modern smartphones are not able to ring an alarm while they are turned off.

My daily driver, Sony Ericsson ELM, rings an alarm each morning I need it, for the last ~9 years. Even when it's off, even if the battery is dead (once had a problem with a charger, couldn't even boot the phone, but it rang each morning for a week).

My iPhone? If it dies, it dies. Not even talking about Android.

Yes, that surprised me too. But do you have any idea how your phone's alarm can ring when the battery is dead? Does it have a second battery?

Most phones turn off before the battery is truly 100% dead.

IIRC, some of these old phones do have a second "coin cell" battery, which keeps the clock running even when the main battery is removed (the SIM card is usually below the battery, so you have to remove it to exchange the SIM card).

Yeah, old Nokias could do that too. I assume they came with an RTC chip with a programmable alarm, instead of using the main CPU for everything, like most smartphones.

Old Nokias still do that! I'll be sad when mine dies.

Interestingly Apple Pay works when iPhone dies

My pebble watch does this. When it goes "flat" it reverts to time and alarm only mode which lasts for about 24 hours.

Or that time the stock clock didn't have permission to wake up the phone from a sleep state... ironic.

But after you overslept and unlocked your phone it actually sounded the alarm, regardless how much time has passed.

> One reason is because they really really need to wake up on time and don't want to rely on their phone.

Also, a standalone alarm clock won't automatically switch to daylight saving time... on the year daylight saving time was finally discontinued. Happened to many people a few weeks ago (at least the daylight saving time switch, like the federal/state/municipal elections, is always on a Sunday).

> A standalone alarm clock (battery operated or with battery backup) is much more reliable.

Read the box or documentation carefully before buying, though, because sometimes the functionality is greatly reduced when running on the backup battery. Mine, for example, stops displaying the time when on backup, and I think alarms will not go off. The backup is just to save you having to set the time and alarms when power comes back.

For those times I really need to wake up on time, even if power has gone out in the night and is still out in the morning, I use an old fashioned Westclox Baby Ben wind-up clock that I've had for 40 years [1].

[1] https://clockhistory.com/0/westclox/series/series-14-1/style...

The last time I slept in a room with a wind-up clock, I moved it out of the room, the ticking was annoying. Though even if I had a wind-up clock, I doubt I'd remember to wind it up every night - I barely remember to plug in my phone.

Back when I was doing hourly shift-work and I absolutely had to be to work on-time, I used a battery operated travel alarm clock like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-PQ15-1K-Travel-Alarm-Thermomete...

The AAA battery lasted a long time (like a year or more).

I use a $5 simple alarm clock. I don't take my phone into my bedroom. It's improved the quality of my sleep as I don't look at the phone in bed before I go to sleep, and I get up quicker since I don't look at my phone in bed before getting up.

I keep my phone in the bedroom, but not near the bed. Reduces the chances of snoozing it and going back to sleep (not that it was common, but even twice in five years was annoying enough).

Because neither a phone or watch alarm can wake me gently with light[1].

[1] https://www.lumie.com/products/bodyclock-starter-30-refurbis...

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