Hacker News Reader

Comment by Johnny555 | Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

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.

> 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).

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).

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

Reply on news.ycombinator.com