The game was Texas Hold ‘Em, without a shadow of doubt the most famous gameplay variant spawned. It is easy to learn, simply addictive but inexplicably difficult to master. I digress.

During the tournament, we faced a minor speed bump. In Texas Hold ‘Em, blinds increase periodically and since this was a tournament, we decided that the blinds would go up every 15 minutes. Sure, that sounded sensible at the time but there wasn’t a clock in the room and none of us was wearing a watch. We had to resort to using our mobile phones to tell us the time. Every so often, one of us yelled, “Time to double the blinds, guys!” Personally, I considered that pretty inconvenient — especially so when you’re in a competition, it was distracting.

At the end of the tournament, one of the players suggested that we should bring a clock to time the blind increments. My mind immediately went, “What? A clock?” My innate geekiness wouldn’t allow myself to succumb to utilizing what I can only describe as “wall art”. I was positive that there was an app, somewhere out there in vastness of the internet, made for this specific purpose.

And there is. It sure took me a rather long time to find it, though.

It’s called Old Timer (a cunning play on words, I have to admit) and it’s available for Mac and PC because it runs on Flash. Ironically, I didn’t actually set out to look for a poker timer, per se — to be brutally honest, I didn’t think that an app like that existed. I initially searched for a timer application that would display a pre-set countdown and play an alarm once it reached zero. That proved much harder to find.

Old Timer is the perfect companion to a self-hosted, homebrew poker game. As soon as I launched the app, it gave me the option of running in full-screen. Instantly, I knew this was the one I was looking for.

The app is immensely simple to use. You are allowed three different modes of gameplay — all day, average or multi-table. Since my tournament consisted of several different tables, that was the mode I selected. Then, I had to enter my customized blind increment levels, the number of players, length of each round before the blinds double, cost of buy-in and rebuys, and finally the starting amount of chips distributed to each player; then hit Play.

Cleverly, Old Timer calculates the total number of chips in play and how much there is in the pot. But what I’m really pleased with is the timer! It’s a gorgeous white on black display with large fonts that everyone can see from across the room. What’s more, it shows how much the blinds should be at any given moment. Oh yes, it pays to be a geek!

In the final minute before the blinds increase, Old Timer plays a short soundclip to indicate that there is less than a minute left. It also displays the values of the blinds in the subsequent round. When the timer reaches zero, there is a wonderfully posh indication that new blinds are in play; and the timer automatically resets itself for the new round. It’s just perfect.

Old Timer will work on both Mac and Windows and there is no other way to say this – it is the perfect blinds timer for a home hold’em game. If you know any better texas hold em blinds timer, I’m all ears; suggest them in the comments.

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Now think back to when you were a kid and how many pickup games of road hockey, baseball or even cricket that you had. (Do European and Australian kids have pick-up games of cricket? I’m just trying to be more inclusive.) At least once or twice a week? Nothing organized, just a bunch of kids getting together and having fun.

So, where did the kids go? I know there are kids out there or we wouldn’t have Hannah Montana or toy stores. The kids are inside, surfing the Internets, IM’ing their BFF’s, Facebooking and YouTubing. If you’re like me, you know life is to be lived – not watched. So what to do?

How about free software to limit your kids’ online time on the computer?

Here’s a free one to check out:

Romaco Timeout

This is a fine piece of freeware from fellow Canuck, Mark Furneaux (a.k.a. TheUbuntuGuy – no relation). It simply does what it says it will. Perhaps the only caveat is to make sure that when you install it, that you select the Install for Everyone option. That way you can apply it to whichever users are on the computer.

Take a look at the settings window and I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out exactly how to use this software. The beauty is the simplicity.

When the Romaco Control Panel opens, you must enter a password before you can even change any settings. Of course, choose a password that your kids won’t guess. Once you’ve done that, the rest of the Control Panel is accessible.

In order to make the program start counting down, you must check the Enable Timeout checkbox. From there, you can choose the method you want to put healthy limits on the computer usage.

Do you want them to be on the computer for no more than an hour or two a day? Choose the Daily Quota option.

Did you say they could only go on for half-an-hour before supper? Choose the Per-Session Timeout.

With the Per-Session Timeout, you do have to set it for a minimum of  15 minutes. Now, if you set the Warn n minutes before action option in either scenario, there is NO WAY the little goobers can say, “I didn’t know it was going to shut off.” Or the ever-popular, “It’s not fair! I didn’t have time to save my game. I need to get back on and get to a save point!”

Personally, I would only respond to that last statement with my patented, “Did I promise you fair?” accompanied by the arched eyebrow. See that warning below? It scales to whatever size your screen is. They can click the OK button to continue their Twittering.

There are two possible outcomes from setting the timer – Log Off or Shut Down. How you choose is up to you. Log off is good enough for our kids since they know that they’ve had enough time and respect us. Ha! I almost typed that last line with a straight-face.

I’d also recommend checking the Startup Automatically For This User. That way it will startup automatically for that user. That was redundant.

Once you have it set as you want, simply click on the Run Immediately button. The countdown will begin. Then click on the Apply and Close button. That will minimize the Romaco Timeout to the system tray – out of the way.

The only easy way to stop the program now, is to open the Timeout Control Panel from the system tray icon and enter the password. If you’ve done your job right, the kids won’t be able to cirvumvent this. Unless they are more into computers than just surfing. In that case, you may want to look at registry tweaks to disable the Task Manager.

I can’t promise you that your neighbourhood will fill up with kids playing and laughing by using Timeout. What you do with your kids when they step away from the flickering-blue babysitter is up to you.

What other methods do you use to help keep their computer usage healthy? How do you encourage them to get outside and just play? I’m all ears and willing to learn. Just leave me a note in the comments below.

Image Credit : krisandapril

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I try to organize myself by using to-do lists but planning only brings me one step closer to finishing my work. Persistence and determination are the key to getting things done. Unfortunately, I have very little of those. I was born that way, I’m afraid.

While writing the first two paragraphs, I checked my mail several times, fired up Safari, updated my Twitter and browsed Facebook. See, I told you I was a multi-tasker.

But deadlines are deadlines. If you have a project due Tuesday — then there’s no choice but to complete it by Tuesday. Sure, you can try to push the deadline but there’s still one!

To help with the situation and motivate me to clear the work that are currently pending, I’ve come up with 6 great (and free!) tools, categorized into 3 groups.

Distraction busters

Yup, that’s right. Productivity’s number one enemy is distraction. The enemy is sly and cunning. It is a master of disguise and sneaks up on you when you least expect it — in the form of an email, an IM message or beeps and alerts from other applications.

To deal with distraction, I’ve come up with not one, not two but three applications. These apps will only allow you to work on one app at a time and hide the rest. Out of sight, out of mind.

The first one probably needs no introduction. It’s Think by Freeverse. This simple little app helps you concentrate by providing an overlay that blocks out everything but the active application. If the opacity of the overlay isn’t set to the maximum, the underlying apps are still in view but can’t be clicked on.

To switch between applications, Think provides an illumination panel which displays a list of programs that are currently active — just click on any to bring that to focus.

The next distraction buster is Isolator. Isolator is pretty similar to Think but it’s much more configurable. In addition to an overlay, you can choose from several different effects — blur, bloom, crystals and desaturate. Unlike Think, you can also easily switch between apps by clicking through the overlay. Isolator will automatically re-render the overlay so that the topmost application is unaffected.

While using Isolator and Think, I found that the Dock was still in view and a little distracting. To hide the Dock, press Command + Option + D.

Finally, the last weapon in my arsenal to deal with distraction is Spirited Away. This app has been around for a while and most Mac users will have already heard of it. Nevertheless, that doesn’t make it any less useful. On the contrary, Spirited Away complements Isolator and Think!

What Spirited Away does is very simple — it hides inactive applications after a certain period of time. This minimizes clutter and removes distracting windows from view. It also provides you with an Exclude list; in case you want to always keep certain applications in view.

Distraction — busted!

Pomodoro Timers

What the heck is a pomodoro timer, you ask. Literally translated, pomodoro means tomato but no, they’re not what you think.

The “pomodoro technique” is a time management strategy. In a nutshell, it involves working for 25 minutes and taking a 5 minute break — that’s one “pomodoro”. There’s a whole website dedicated to teaching the technique as well as an ebook which you can download for free. Once you master the pomodoro technique, you’ll notice that your tasks get done pretty quickly. The golden rule when working with pomodoros — don’t break it. Once you start a session, make damn sure that you complete it.

In order to provide some assistance while you’re adapting the pomodoro technique, I have the pleasure of introducing two fantastic apps.

The first is Focus Booster. It’s an Adobe AIR app that looks sleek and awesome. Focus Booster places itself above all windows so you will be able to view it even though Isolator or Think is running. You might want to add it to Spirited Away’s exclude list to keep it in view all the time.

Each time Focus Booster starts, it will run as long as one pomodoro i.e. a 25-minute work session followed by a 5-minute break. You’ll have to manually initiate a new session if required.

The second app to help you work with the pomodoro technique is well, Pomodoro. This menu bar app is simple yet at the same time, powerful. Start a session and it will ask you what you’re aiming to achieve. I entered “Finish Article” and the timer started with a Growl notification.

When I said that Pomodoro was powerful, I wasn’t joking. It can automatically restart the timer, display a Growl notification when a preset interval has passed, integrate your Twitter account and automatically tweet your pomodoro sessions, and run a script whenever a session starts, ends or anytime in between.

I find that having a work timer displayed on my screen provides me with a rather good representation of the amount of time I’ve spent on a particular task. Knowing that, I can speed up or slow down my work accordingly.

Self Control

If you’re addicted to the internet, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks; there’s nothing to stop you from constantly launching the browser and surfing. “Just 5 minutes,” that’s what you keep telling yourself. Before you know it, over an hour has passed and you still haven’t gotten any work done. In these situations, only Self Control can prevent you from straying.

Self Control is a Mac application (doesn’t that clear up a lot of confusion?) that will block the internet access to any sites in its blacklist for a preset period of time.

Once it has been started, nothing can circumvent the blocked access. Restarting your Mac will not help, neither will deleting the application. You will just have to wait for the timer to run out. I’ve painted a rather bleak picture with the last two sentences, Self Control is actually all for your benefit. It forces you to concentrate on work. Even if you wanted to stray, you can’t!

So there we go. Six apps that can work in tandem to complement each other, helping you to focus on work and eliminate distraction. Here they are once again:

Think – Link
Isolator – Link
Spirited Away - Link
Focus Booster – Link
Pomodoro – Link
Self Control – Link

Do you use any of these “focus” apps? Has it made a difference in your workflow? Did you know what the Pomodoro Technique was? If you use other apps that has helped you focus on the task at hand, please do share them with us in the comments.

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Over the years, I have learnt my lesson. Now, before the start of any projects, I will tell my clients that I charge by hours and give them an estimate of the time needed to complete the project. I will then use a desktop time tracking software to track the amount of time I have spent in the project and then charge my clients accordingly.

If you are like me who provide your services on the hourly rate, here are some free and useful desktop time tracking tools that you can use to track the time you have spent on any projects.

Baralga

Baralga is a simple and lightweight application that allows you to track the time you have spent on your project. On the home page is a big Start/Stop button where you can click to start the timer as you start on the project. There is also options for you to enter manually the total time you have spent on the projects. Best of all, it allows you to export your data to Microsoft Excel, CSV or even as a data backup.

Baralga is developed in Java and works in multiple OS.

Rachota Timetracker

Rachota looks slightly complicated than Baralga, but it is in fact a simple to use application with several useful functions. It allows you to define your working hours/day and give you a notification when your working hours are not reached/exceeded. It also allows you to define regular tasks (with priority) so that you can access to them easily on the front page.

While doing your projects, there will be times when you need to take a coffee break. Rather than stopping the timer, there is a Relax button where you can use to pause the timer. Once you are done with your break, simply click the Work button again to start the timer.

Rachota comes with an Analytics tool where you can use to compare the amount of time and work done that you have completed.

Rachota is developed in Java and in available for all platforms (that support Java)

Klok

Even though Klok is still in beta, it is surprisingly an useful and comprehensive time tracking application. For each project, you can further split it into smaller sub projects and manage it like any other projects. You can also create templates to be used for new creation of projects.

Once a project is completed, you can drag and drop to the Archive button (located at the bottom left corner) to archive it. At any point of time, you can also access the archive to unarhived any old projects. While Klok allows you to export your data to Excel spreadsheet, there is no ways for you to import any data. This might be a problem if you need to work on multiple computers.

Klok works in all platforms and requires Adobe Air to be installed in your system before you can use it.

actiTime Basic

actiTime Basic is a free, yet powerful timesheet optimized for your basic time tracking needs. Once installed, you can run ActiTime from your browser. Features include creating new users, setting up customers record and project details, enter the time spent for each projects, allocate your work schedule and best of all, generate an invoice for the time you have spent on the projects.

actiTime uses Microsoft Access or MySQL to store your data. Data collected by actiTIME can be exported to qbXML file and then imported by actiTIME Invoice Importer to QuickBooks® for invoice generation.

Time Tracker

Time Tracker is a Windows-based application. One thing that I like about this application is its user-interface. It allows you to see everything in one glance. The projects, tasks and links to reports/charts are located on the left pane and allow you to switch between each project easily and quickly. The main panel that track the time you have spent on your project is of a spreadsheet format so you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting used to it.

The reports section comes with three different type of visual report: text, chart and grid. Depending on your preferences, you can choose the one you like.

Time tracker also supports plugins. However there are only few and limited plugins that you can use currently.

Time Tracking Tool

Time-Tracking-Tool is really what I call a lightweight application. Weighing at only 1.3 MB, it is by-far the smallest applications among these 6 time tracking software. Even though it is small, it still comes with the complete set of tools to track your time effectively. You can create new tasks and add sub-tasks to it, activate the timer as you work on the project, view the report with bar chart. One thing that is lacking from this application is the ability to export/import data.

Time-Tracking-Tool is developed in Java and works in all platforms.

What other time desktop time tracking software do you use to track your time?

Image credit: John-Morgan

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Have you ever had to monitor several items simultaneously?

Maybe you needed to time that cake in the oven or when to give your child his/her medicine next? Any which way this web site called E.ggtimer has got you covered. It’s one of a kind online count down timer that you’re likely to find very handy.

Every so often I get a few admin tasks I need to do such as run a few trace routes and monitor a log file at specific intervals. That’s all well and good until 4 other tasks come along and severely distract me. For important events my Outlook calendar will pop up and let me know it is time for my next meeting or some other sort of activity.

But now if I launch an egg timer for each item and keep them open, when it comes time to do something my window will show “Time Expired” and beep. So turn up your speakers, fire up your browser and lets see what’s what.

I can think of lots of instances where this will come in handy! Now check out how easy it is to use.

When you first get to the website this is what you will see:

So this works like a command line website. We all love the command line right?

You put your parameters into the URL. So if I need a 10 minute timer to let me know that I shouldn’t be napping because the chairman of the board is going to swing by so I can look at his laptop I would go to my favorite browser and type:

http://e.ggtimer.com/10minutes

That will give you this screen:

Very large text displaying your countdown using a flash design. When the countdown gets closer to completion the status bars will become darker. So you can be looking at the screen from clear across the room and still be able to discern what’s up!

The syntax is very simple. If you type in the URL with /10 it will be 10 seconds. Any number without a designation is taken as seconds. If you want minutes just write /10minutes. You can use Minutes, Hours, Days, Months and Years.

Can you think of some interesting uses for this web app? Maybe you use something similar – but better. Let us know in the comments guys!

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Fortunately, online stopwatches are easy to find & to use.

Gently enhance the value of your time by making intelligent use of one of these free stopwatches.

Punch In & Out

It’s easy to lose track of time when you’ve got 1) the internet as a playground, & 2) a nice, cozy couch to rest on while you work.

Instead of losing huge chunks of time during a stay-at-home workday, practice a procedure of punching in & out using a clock.  Whenever you begin working, simply start the clock. (My favorite version is this one, a simple full-screen online stopwatch which I can keep minimized at the bottom of my screen as I work).  When you take a break, even if it’s only a quick restroom break, stop the clock. When you resume your work, start the clock again.

Simple. Punch in & punch out. However, don’t waste time after you’ve punched in. Stay on task.  If you find yourself drifting, punch out and give yourself a little pep talk before punching in again.

Log Your Results

Recently, I wrote about the benefits of using the Firefox extension Zotero. This free application allows you to easily drag & drop online material into a notebook extension. Zotero is great to use when paired with an online stopwatch widget called Chronme.

Chronme not only counts time, but it also logs the date & time of day when you put it to use.  This is a powerful asset when you’re keeping track of your productivity, because a log is automatically retained for every break you take while working.

Periodically, you can drag & drop this data into a Zotero standalone note.

Furthermore, since Chronme is a widget, you can place it into a private blog where you can daily record your own performance.

Analyze the Data

At the end of the day, take a look at the total amount of time you worked, and try to find out when you may have wasted time. Consider practicing this experiment with a friend or two, and try to compare productivity with one another.

Perhaps your friend will be more effective in his work than you are, even if he worked less time. Perhaps not. If so however, try to discover the secret to his success.  Be willing to learn how to improve.

Make the Most of Your Time

Time can be money if you make a habit of putting your time to good use. Free up time in your day by getting the most out of the least amount of time.

Why slave for hours over a project that does not deserve more than 30 minutes of your time? By evaluating your own psychology about time, you will see that procrastination tends to waste away precious minutes, hours or even entire workdays.

Try out the methods suggested here to save yourself time & money, and feel free to suggest your own time-saving tips. We’re all ears.

Photo Credits: James Withers, Lady Amada

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But how do you make sure you don’t oversleep during the day, especially when you’re at work? You set an alarm! And since you’re at work, what are you going to use? Your computer, the internet and online alarm clock.

A nap is not the only situation where an online alarm clock comes in handy. Imagine you have half an hour until you need to head out for a meeting, but you need to seriously focus on something and don’t want to be bothered with watching the time.

Let’s look at some practical online alarm clocks you might want to use next time…

KuKu Klok

The Swiss made Kuku Klok offers a very basic and easy to use interface. Set the wake up time and select one of the four preset sounds.

This one’s actually terrific to play a prank on an unsuspecting individual because the electronic wake up sound is soooo horrible, almost like a smoke detector! Save this idea for April 1st or any other great occasion.

Avnoy Alarm Clock

This flash alarm clock isn’t much different from the one described above, although the three available alarm sounds are much nicer (and not suited for pranks). So why did it make it on this list? It’s stylish and it has a Snooze option which the previous tool is lacking.

Naked Alarm Clock

There really isn’t anything naked about this one and the creator admits frankly that they chose the name to make it easy to remember. All its alarm sounds are rather nasty, but hey, they’ll get your attention for sure!

Despite the ugly green color there are some very nice design ideas in this tool. For example the preset values for the minutes (black and white circles) or the 15 to 60 Minutes nap times setter, and the little info box in the bottom right which explains all buttons and functions when you move the mouse over them. All of that is very well done!

Music Alarm Clock

Finally an alarm clock that lets you pick really good alarms! The Music Alarm Clock provides some preset tunes or you can select a streaming radio station. The selection is international and not too bad. Once the alarm goes off it also offers a Snooze button for 5 minutes extra nap time.

Talking Alarm Clock (Windows)

Should you prefer to set your own tunes and should you prefer a desktop tool, I recommend the Talking Alarm Clock. It comes with a lot of options which allow you to perfectly tune your alarms.

Actually, I didn’t get it to talk to me. Apparently there is no matching “text-to-speech” engine available on my computer and I didn’t bother enough to make it work. Playing a custom media file however worked fine.

And yes, you can change the character. Along with the Dschinni there are Robby, Peedy and Merlin at your service.

For more online alarm tools, check out the MUO directory.

What are your secrets to a perfect nap at work?

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What would a bundled app of 145KB have to offer? Some nifty help if you look at it closely. Imagine you are giving a PowerPoint presentation to a roomful of people. Perhaps you need to get your point across with a chart but the guy on the fourth row can’t make it out. With a click of a mouse you can now zoom in and focus on that part of the screen with the important information and then zoom back out. You save your audience the pain of squinting.

Plainly speaking, ZoomIt gives you three tools to play around with.

• Zoom (zoom in on any area of your screen)
• Draw (draw on your screen, whether zoomed or not)
• Break Timer (to countdown till a break is up)

Zoom : Screen Magnifier for Windows

As a screen magnifier, I think this tool is the best free one out there. It does show quite a high level of magnification which can be seen clearly from a long distance. The screen can be panned around to the desired area of focus. The entire operation can be controlled by a toggle keystroke and/or the mouse.

Draw : Freehand Drawing Tool

The freehand draw function serves as a great presentation aid. Of the three features, this one is the richest. Use the mouse to circle or highlight any part of the display. Then, with a simple push of the E (’E’ for Eraser, maybe?!) key, the drawings are erased again. You can erase all the drawings or just the last one.

Or just use the screen like a white or black sketch pad to give an impromptu drawing or a typed remark. Or just have fun by drawing some simple shapes like circles, rectangles or ellipses. Change the width or color of the draw pen. To further enhance its appeal, you can combine the zoom function with the draw to give your presentations the savvy edge.

Break Timer

After the first two tools, this one is more of an anti-climax. It just acts like a countdown timer rolled into an alarm clock. You can get bit of a reminder help from it if you configure it to play sounds when the break time is up.

Inside the 145 Kilobyte Package

The first time you click the ‘exe’ file, it presents a simple configuration screen. The three functions (the ‘type’ function makes it four actually) are well explained with default hotkeys. Of course, it also allows you to specify your own. The program sits unobtrusively on the tray and all features are easily accessible with a right click.

ZoomIt is a free download, does not require Microsoft validation and is installable on all versions of Windows.

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I’m one of the ones that have found Twitter to be extremely useful but if you haven’t found that, here are ten Twitter bots guaranteed to help you change your mind :

MSNBC Breaking

This bot will provide you with the most current news and happenings around the world. There are a few other news bots out there like CNN Breaking News and BreakingNewsOn, but those bots just provide you with the headline and no link. I don’t find a lot of value out of them if I can’t go directly to the story. That is why I think the MSNBC news bot is the best.

ESPN Headlines

The ESPN Headlines bot is much like the breaking news bot above, but it is completely sports driven. As a sports fan, I like to be updated throughout the day. This bot also gives you the courtesy of providing a link to the story. Before this bot was added to my Twitter, I would check ESPN.com repeatedly throughout the day in order to stay current with any sports updates.

Woot

If you are unfamiliar with Woot!, it is time that you discovered this great site. Woot! is an online shopping website that sells mostly electronics, but what makes it different is that they have the Woot of the Day every day. There is always a great deal on something different everyday. If you keep up with it, you can really find some nice things on the cheap.

Weather Forecast

This bot does exactly what you think it does.

Just direct message it with your location, and it will return you the weather forecast you were looking for.

Sandy

Have you ever wanted a personal assistant that would keep you updated with all of your important events? Well, you can have that now with Sandy. But if you wanted a real assistant, you are going to have to wait or shell out the cash. All you have to do is direct message Sandy the reminders you want later, and she will make sure you hear about it at the right time.

Stock Quotes

If you compulsively check your stock quotes like I check my Google Analytics, you are going to need this easy to use stock bot.

Just direct message this bot with the stock symbol to get the latest quote for that company.

Timer

I lose track of time frequently when I’m online or blogging away.

This timer bot lets you set an alarm clock in Twitter to make sure you stay on top your regular and get those other things like paying bills, laundry or cleaning done as well. Pretty cool.

Twitter GCal

Plans can change quickly or come up quickly. Twitter GCal allows you to add events to your Google Calendar by just direct messaging this bot.

Some instructions are needed to fully explain how to use this bot, but they can be found at TwitterCal.

Tipr

Tipr will help out all of the math challenged folks out there (myself included).

It calculates the tip amount for your bill, so you can make sure that you leave the right amount.

Remember The Milk

Remember the Milk is a great online to do list and task manager.

You can update your tasks or to do lists or even get reminders sent straight from this Twitter bot.

MakeUseOf

Finally, make sure to subscribe and follow MakeUseOf updates on Twitter.

This is a great list, but in no way is it a complete list of all the bots on Twitter. Let me know all of the bots everyone else uses in the comments!

(By) Kyle Judkins is a 24 year old marketer and part-time tech blogger. He is the author of LostInTechnology where he talks about some basic technology tips and tricks that everyone can use.

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So I’ve found 3 little gems which does around the same thing. They might not be as fully-loaded as Awaken, but they still do the job and they are free!

1. iTunes Alarm

iTunes Alarm is one of the most recommended applications for those who can’t afford Awaken. The concept is the same. If you want to play some music before you go off to bed, click on “Sleep” and it will ask for the amount of time before it puts your Mac into sleep mode. That’s the quick method. If you’d rather just pause iTunes, a new ‘Stop’ alarm has to be created.

You may create an unlimited number of alarms, of which they may be set to repeat on any day of the week. With each alarm that starts to play iTunes, you can set a ‘Snooze’ period of your liking, the volume level that the music plays at; and the playlist from which to play the music (or you may set it to play songs at random).

iTunes Alarm has to be open in order to be able to play/pause your music. So if you accidentally quit the application, you might miss your alarm (and be late for work – yikes!). Plus if you set your Mac to sleep after the timer has run out, iTunes Alarm has the ability to wake it to play your next alarm. Pretty cool stuff.

2. iTaf

Another alternative is iTaf. The application is only slightly different from iTunes Alarm. Every alarm event which you create starts playing from iTunes and can be set to stop playing after a certain period of time. So, instead of hitting the ‘Snooze’ or ‘Stop’ button to turn your music off, you can enjoy it while getting dressed in the morning and leave for work without bothering about it. iTaf will then automatically pause iTunes and sleep itself (or shut down) after the time frame has elapsed.

One thing that puts iTaf above iTunes Alarm is the ability to shut down your Mac. It also has more superior scheduling options like setting a single day off from a weekly alarm (comes in handy when it’s your birthday and you don’t want to be woken up!)

3. iTunesTimer Widget

Lastly, iTunesTimer is a bare-bone, simple Dashboard widget which can only start playing your iTunes, pause it or sleep your Mac. It is a one off timer which doesn’t have any scheduling function and it doesn’t repeat or snooze. You control how long you want to play your music with the slider, which is not very accurate (I couldn’t get the timer to set at 10 minutes) but I guess that’s not very important. The catch with this little gem is its simplicity.

I also wrote about Snooze in my article “Dashboard Widgets You Can’t Live Without“. All it does is basically sleeps my Mac when the time is up. Actually, it’s got no music function, but I just wanted to add it in as an option.

If you’re a Windows user, Aibek wrote an article about addons for your iTunes, although sadly, alarms are not one of them. If you’re looking for an alternative to iTunes, here’s Mark’s article about Songbird.

(By) Jackson Chung is a full-time medical student attempting to perform a juggling act with relationship, studies and his future.

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