Anyone that knows me knows how much of a sucker I am for universal binary apps(apps that work on all iDevice platforms). If I can pay one price for an application and have it work on both my iPhone and my iPad, I am twice as likely to buy that application over another. When it comes to applications like an alarm clock, having something that sets you apart is key. When I went looking for an alarm clock app for my iPhone there were certain things that it had to have, and universal binary was one of them. What I tried after a little searching was Music Clock, and I haven’t looked back since!
What it delivers
Other than multiple device support, I wanted a few things. I needed to be able to set multiple alarms. My days vary so much that I need to be able to set an alarm for a specific date at a specific time. Music alarm lets me not only do that, but it lets me set specific alarms for each day of the week. If I want to get up at 6AM on Tuesdays, but 6:30AM on Wednesdays, I can program that in. The other thing that I needed was to be able to program the alarm to go off on Eastern Time no matter what time zone I was in. I have calls to make at specific time in my home time zone no matter where I am. Music Clock can be programmed to “ignore” the current time zone displayed on your device and uses your home time zone if you desire. The last thing that I knew it had to have was a choice for my built in iPod music to act as an alarm. Music Alarm delivers. There are a few built in things that I didn’t know I wanted but now are very important, useful, and “must haves”. From time to time I like to hit the snooze button, but I know the night before how long I can “snooze”, with Music Clock I can change my snooze time. Can only lay there for an extra 5 min? You’re covered. Got an hour? You’re covered there too. From time to time, I wake up in the middle of the night and need to wonder through the house for whatever reason, and with Music Clock you can double tap the screen and turn it into a flashlight. Something that I don’t use but may be important to you is the sleep timer. I don’t listen to music when I’m going to sleep but I know a lot of people do, if you’re one of these people you’ve got all of the options you could want there.
Two things that I want to see
There are only two things that I want to see in an update. While Music Clock supports the iOS 4 multitasking, when you don’t actually have the app open with the clock showing, the alarm defaults to a standard alarm instead of using your music that you chose. This isn’t really a big deal, but I really like waking up to soothing music instead of a loud buzzing or beeping. Second deals with the flashlight. When you turn on the flashlight it doesn’t turn on the LED on the back of the iPhone4. Again not a huge deal but I’d like to see it as an option anyway.
Recommendation
This app has pretty much everything that you could want from an alarm clock app. The things that I want to see changed are really not that important so I would recommend this to anyone looking for an a good alarm clock app. For only $.99 it’s a steal and a really well designed app.
You can get Alarm Night Clock/Music here from the 
Cool! I use my iPhone exclusively as my alarm clock. But I hate that the Snooze is set for 9 minutes. How random is that? If there’s a way to change it I’ve never figured it out. It’s worth a lot more than $.99 to me to be able to customize the Snooze. I’ll give Music Clock a try. : ) Thanks, Terry!