Wake Up Time turns your Mac into a full-fledged alarm clock. This can be especially useful if you keep your Mac by your bed at night. It can also be great if you are working a lot on your computer and need a little reminder to take breaks.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

This application is meant to provide a simple alarm clock to those who need it. While having an alarm clock on their computer may not benefit everyone, this app is meant to provide a solid base for those who decide that such an app can be useful.

Pros

• Realistic and informative display
• Large, primary button to easily turn off alarm
• HUD display
• Customizable snooze time
• 24-hour mode
• Customizable alarm

Cons

• No multiple alarms
• Cannot customize sleep timer
• Not integrated with the top menu bar
• Will not wake the computer from sleep

Discussion

Wake Up Time can be an odd program because most people don’t ever think of using their Mac as an alarm clock. It’s actually a fantastic idea and can truly be useful. It works great after staying up late working on papers or projects. It allows you to just set your computer aside and go to sleep. It prevents you from having to struggle with your phone alarm or buy an obnoxious, physical alarm clock.

The features it provides are great and make you feel like all alarm clocks should be set up this way. The alarm clock will show you a HUD-display interface that looks exactly like a traditional alarm clock but with an elegant skin. The time will be displayed front and center with the option of a 24-hour format. It will also display a nice, big button that will allow you to control the alarming. You can also customize the alarm but choosing your own sounds or music and by adding effects like volume fading. In addition, you can customize the duration of the snoozes.

There are unfortunately some missing features in this seemingly simple application. For starters, you cannot set multiple alarms. This is incredibly inconvenient because sometimes you need to be woken up at different times and don’t want to reset the alarm every time. In addition, you cannot change the duration of the sleep timer, which can be very annoying if it takes you longer to fall asleep. If the developers were to add the ability to hide this program in the top bar, then that would be a big bonus seeing as this application doesn’t always have to be open.

However, the biggest missing feature of this application is the ability to wake the computer from sleep. This is a major blow because if you leave your computer open, your going to want to at least have it go to sleep in order to conserve power and resources. Your only options with this application are to either have it constantly display the alarm clock, or just turn off the display. Neither of these options will help you conserve power and forces your computer to remain active during the entire night.

Conclusion and download link

For the most part, this application does its job well. However, there are quite a few areas that need adjusting in order for this to be a fully functional alarm clock. The good news is that the developer has actually stated that some features will be added soon. But all of the shortcomings need to be adressed in order for this application to succeed  The truth is, there isn’t a large demand for an application such as this, so in order to gain popularity, Wake Up Time has to be nearly perfect.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.2.1

Supported OS: OS X 10.6 or later

Download size: 13mb

Wake Up Time homepage