It doesn’t take a genius to know this article is about – obviously, it is about an alarm clock app. But, Alarm Clock HD has more to it than you may think.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Alarm Clock HD is an alarm clock app, yes. It does, indeed, allow you to set alarms to be awoken at a specific time. However, it is so much more — Alarm Clock HD shows RSS, Facebook, and Twitter feeds; weather information; battery level; and allows you to pick which tune you want to be woken up to.

Pros

• Simple design
• Shows RSS, Facebook, and Twitter feeds/news
• Shows the local weather, temperature, and battery level
• Includes a flash light feature
• Sleep timer included
• Highly customizable display

Cons

• Free version is ad-supported
• Available alarm tones can put us to sleep
• The settings screen is repellant and confusing

Discussion

The homescreen of the app is filled with content but the Time is seen clearly and unobstructed – we like what we see. The design reminds us of the retro digital alarm clock with the added bonus of being highly customizable, if you so desire. The time is surrounded by weather, temperature, day, date and battery info. The bottom shows RSS or social feeds and an ad. If you turn off data connection, an ad to upgrade persists. But surprisingly, you can turn the phone to landscape mode and the ads vanish! On left top, there is a button which enables a white screen and turns on the flash (using your device’s camera flash, if it has one), in case you have to find your glasses. The top-right button takes you to the boring settings page.

The setting page gives us lots and lots of options to configure. First, of course, is to set the alarm. You can select one of the available tones or choose one from your library (I highly recommend you do the latter). There are options to upgrade to full version. You can login to Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to feeds. Also, there are options to customize the display and some advanced alarm settings.

One interesting feature is the sleep timer. You can select a song to hear, set the timer, and go to sleep. After sometime (after the time expires), the song automatically stops, saving your precious battery, and letting you enjoy your deep slumber.

Conclusion and download link

To conclude, this is always a handy app to have. However, don’t throw away your grandma’s alarm clock because you can have this; rather, if you are looking for an alarm app in the App Store, Alarm Clock HD is an excellent choice.

Price: Free with Ad-less version for $0.99

Version reviewed: 1.32

Requires iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad on iOS 4.3 or later

Download size: 12.0MB

Alarm Clock HD on Apple App Store