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Excuse Me, Do You Have the Time?

© Janice Karin

It's one of the most common questions asked as people scurry through their lives - what time is it? Whether we are hurrying to catch a train, waiting for a doctor's appointment, or just trying to make it through those last 15 minutes of the work day, the time is important to us all. The built-in launcher on a Palm has a small digital clock (as do the various launcher replacements) but it only displays the local time. BigClock by Jens Rupp provides large digital clocks, four alarms, four timers, and allows you to view the time in up to four other locations.

BigClock is very configurable; there are eight different views, each of which contains two elements. The possible elements displayed are: the current date in any of the five locations using large numerals, the current time in any of the five locations using large numerals, any four alarms, any of the four timers or the four timer controls, the day of the week, date, and time in the first two defined locations, the day of the week, date, and time of the third and fourth defined locations, or the date, week number, day number, and hour number of the year for each of the five locations. You can also chose to leave any section blank. You can choose 12 hour or 24 hour time displays separately for each of the eight views.

You can set four views at a time using the Options|Layout menu item. If you are currently on the 1 tab, you will automatically launch a screen that lets you rename each of the four buttons at the bottom of the screen and chose which elements are displayed when the buttons are tapped. Similarly, selecting the Options|Layout menu item when in the 2 tab lets you rename the four buttons and chose the elements displayed while in that tab.

You can also configure alarm settings using the Options|Alarm menu item. This lets you select which of the five times to use for each alarm, whether to use sound, flashing backlight, or a talelight for the alarm, set up the number of allowed snoozes and the time intervals between them, and select whether the alarm automatically goes off every day or just on selected days.

The Options|World menu item lets you set the name and time of each customized location (relative to your default system time). The Options|Timer menu item lets you set alarm options for the four timers. Most of the alarm settings described above are also available to the timer alarms.

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