Get up! The Awaken 3 Beta is Here
My friend, Jerry Brace of Embraceware, has just posted a public beta of Awaken 3.0. If you haven't checked this app out yet, Awaken is basically the best alarm clock app for OS X out there, and version 3.0 really amps it up with a complete rewrite and UI overhaul.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the new icon by icon designer Jasper Hauser. It'll be familiar to Awaken users, but it's a vast improvement over the old icon in subtle ways. That's an apt description for Awaken 3's user interface improvements as well.
Open the app, and you're greeted with an updated interface with clear roots in iTunes recently redone look. New color display background options (pick your favorite nano color) add some nice pizazz, a little glowing alert symbol warns you if "sleep from wake" has been disabled, and the window's shadow even slowly fades when you click in and out of the app. (This one's a very cool effect, and one I'd like to see in more apps. It gives the sense of the app quickly moving to the back or front, rather than the normal abrupt shadow changes.)
Don't like the blue? Awaken 3 now has options for nano green, black, and pink.
There's lots of other little improvements as well. You can now reorder the list of alarms with drag & drop (something that was sorely lacking in previous versions), the menubar functionality has been improved, and Awaken should now work totally fine for users with iTunes libraries stored on external drives. And the app now comes with a nice collection of abrasive beeps and buzzers for those who tend to sleep right through music.
And while end users won't realize it, Awaken 3 adds all of this while simultaneously slimming down its code. It's been completely rewritten, and the result is a lighter app that should, in general, feel snappier.
Check out the beta on the Embraceware blog.
Comments
Up until this point, there have been 19 responses to “Get up! The Awaken 3 Beta is Here”:
Phill Ryu
I checked it out, but it seems to have less features, a much uglier UI (my personal tastes), and cost more money? Or am I missing something?
Alarm Clock is definitely nicer, it's smaller and sits in my menu all the time.
I use Aurora, not bad, and its free : http://metaquark.de/en/software/aurora/
Look's great, I might start using this more now.
Looks very nice. I am going to use this tomorrow.
Looks sleek, I wish I had a Mac -.-
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I use a different alarm clock. All the same functionallity, and it's free. Has never failed me in over 3 months of use. http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/
I use Alarm Clock 2. Very small, tight, does what I need it to. This one looks very nice, but I think it is more than I need.
I agree with Chris, Alarm Clock is definately nicer.
I don't see why this application has to load iTunes and not just play the music like Alarm Clock does. Alarm Clock may not have the UI of Awaken, but it is certainly a better application. I can set my 9:01 alarms and be happy.. not having to round to 9:00 or 9:05am. I don't know why, but waking up just after 9 makes me happier than waking up at 9, and I don't feel late if it's by 1 minute and not 5. Yes, I'm fussy - but I like things to work a certain way!
Get Alarm Clock - http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/
god, only mac users would care about a freaking alarm clock...
I've used Awaken for a long time now, it's a really great looking app with lots of useful features. I love how it's now possible to hide the main body of the window and have just a trim looking display for the time, very nice.
I set it to wake me up this morning and it was able to turn my computer on from sleep, started playing the music but then it crashed. But that's what betas are for. =)
Heath,
Don't act like it's just Mac users that fuss over applications... People are naturally picky...
Love these shiny overly designed apps. Used Awaken before.
But now: Alarm Clock 2. Awaken with all its GUI shinyness got in the way of what I really wanted. The UI of Alarm Clock 2 is less refined (text is not properly aligned in a lot of places), but a much better fit for my uses. Less is More.
the fact i can't make this have a buzzer as an alarm sound renders it totally worthless 
[...] I was just catching up on some posts on Phill Ryu’s blog and came accross Awaken 3 this sounds like an awesome way to be woken up. [...]
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Josh Pigford
October 29th, 2006 at 7:53pmUm, *cough cough*, iRooster - http://www.chimpsoftware.com