Topic: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Hi Chumbians,

I really like my new Chumby one .. but I do have some suggestions to make it even better. In fact, most suggestions are not for me but for my spouse since I wouldn't want my alarm clock to wake her up in any manner :-)

1. Mode: night/dark

Accidentally tapping twice when you want to see the time runs the current widget (flickr) in my case.
a) this illuminates the room (and my spouse is light sensitive)
b) it takes a few steps to get back to "night/dark"
Suggestion:
Only leave "night" by pressing the top button

2. Mode: night/dark

What if I want to get up before the due alarm?
a) you illuminate the room because you have to get into the controlpanel/alarm settings
b) it takes quite a few steps to turn off the alarm and go back to "night/dark" (just to keep the betroom dark for my spouse)
Suggestion:
Add a touch field next to "dark" for skipping just the next upcoming alarm. Don't leave "night" mode. Add "(skip once)" next to the alarm's name stated at the bottom left.

3. Mode: night/snooze

Ho do you cancel a "snooze" (i.e. if you had chosen to "snooze" but then decided to get up anyway)?
a) I have no idea how to cancel a "snooze" befor it occurs .. not even via control panel.
Suggestion:
When in "snooze" mode change the "skip once" (see suggestion 2) to "snooze off". Stay in "night" mode until top button is pressed (see suggestion 1).

4. Mode: night

What if - one day - I decide to sleep just a bit longer but the alarm hasn't gone off yet?
Suggestion: Create the option to add increments of 15minutes to the next alarm time. Don't leave "night" mode. Add "(changed next) to the alarm's name stated at the bottom left.
Oh .. and maybe this increment (then of 5 minutes) would also be cool for the "snooze" period.
-> Why not use the loudness wheel for this stuff?

5. Mode: night

How to I keep the clock dark after an alarm is terminated? I would prefer it to stay in "night" mode rather than going to the default channel. I do think there is the option though. I must admit I didn't understand all the options you have for what happens after an alarm is terminated but I will try "go to last page" this evening .. possibly this does the trick.

6. Mode: night/dark

When in "dark" mode I can tip the display to see the time. Great! But how about a timer to get back to dark by itself? Say after 5 seconds? Currently I have to tap "dark" again.

7. Pin

I didn't analyze fully jet. But I noticed that a "snooze" removed the pin from my widget. Possibly this happened while I tried to terminate the snooze (which didn't work). Actually there were a couple of instances where the pin was lost unintentionally. Sorry I cannot be more concrete at the moment.


Having these suggestions implemented would make the Chumby perfect for me AND my spouse.
I really do hope many people second this.

br
daniello

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Item 3 is already there - go to the alarm panel and there will be a button labeled "cancel snooze" if a snooze is ongoing.

The "cancel next alarm" thing is quite a bit more difficult to implement than it would seem at first - you can see a discussion in this thread.

I'll make sure that Product Management sees these suggestions - in general, we've tried to keep Night Mode very simple, and it appears you want to add quite a bit of functionality related to alarms (which many feel is already much too complex).

3 (edited by daniello 2010-07-22 11:33:19)

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Duane wrote:

Item 3 is already there - go to the alarm panel and there will be a button labeled "cancel snooze" if a snooze is ongoing.

Interesting .. but still .. first of all I have to get there .. second of all the bright light will be on.

Duane wrote:

The "cancel next alarm" thing is quite a bit more difficult to implement than it would seem at first - you can see a discussion in this thread.

I'll look into that.

Duane wrote:

I'll make sure that Product Management sees these suggestions - in general, we've tried to keep Night Mode very simple, and it appears you want to add quite a bit of functionality related to alarms (which many feel is already much too complex).

Well .. I had a "Neverlate" too .. and it provided those features which were IMO really very usable and practical at once. I think Chumby could easily compete but some features are simply missing. I wrote my suggestions just the way I see it. If I were a single and wouldn't need to care about which noises I make to switch something off and how much light I let into the bedroom .. I would be fine.
The way it is now I could think of switching Chumby off at the back when I get up .. that would solve everything but shouldn't be the intended method.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

The other thing you can do in the meantime to avoid the bright light is to simply turn down the brightness in the brightness panel when you go to bed.  At that point, everything should stay dim.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

I am aware of that .. thanks.

Another thought .. say you pick up the idea to add increments to the next alarm/snooze via wheel-knob. Nothing would need to be displayed on the display .. until you apply an increment. Only then you could for example show .. either the total increments .. or maybe the target time .. that the alarm/snooze will go off again (target time sounds like a fun idea .. maybe even more comprehensive than the increments stuff).

And ..
I perfectly agree that "usability" is key. Having another field similar to "dark" in the display wouldn't hurt. There is even enough room to add one. One more button .. several functions (texts) .. depending on the next upcoming event.

D-)

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Not all chumbys have the knob  - in fact, *most* of the devices in the field don't.

The association of the knob with volume happens at a very low-level in the Control Panel, and this would introduce a single exception.  Considering many users listen to music in Night Mode, you'd be asking them to exit Night Mode for the more common case of changing the volume in exchange for the less common case of altering some characteristic of an alarm.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

hmmm ... I understand.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

By the way, I'm not trying to unilaterally shoot down your ideas and say they'd never happen - I wouldn't engage in this discussion if that were my intent.  I'm very interested in input on how these types of things can be cleanly and consistently approached.

The knob is an interesting case. There have been suggestions for other uses - scrolling lists, changing the FM radio station, etc. - but nobody wants to give up volume control under those same circumstances, which means the Control Panel has to be psychic.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

May sound silly, but bind a function (i.e. scroll) to snooze/top button + "volume" knob. So when you turn the volume knob normally, it adjusts the volume, if you press the top button and then at the same time (whilst holding said button) turn the "volume" knob, you can scoll, or change FM stations or what ever you bind to that button set via control panel.

Duane wrote:

By the way, I'm not trying to unilaterally shoot down your ideas and say they'd never happen - I wouldn't engage in this discussion if that were my intent.  I'm very interested in input on how these types of things can be cleanly and consistently approached.

The knob is an interesting case. There have been suggestions for other uses - scrolling lists, changing the FM radio station, etc. - but nobody wants to give up volume control under those same circumstances, which means the Control Panel has to be psychic.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

burkhardi wrote:

May sound silly, but bind a function (i.e. scroll) to snooze/top button + "volume" knob. So when you turn the volume knob normally, it adjusts the volume, if you press the top button and then at the same time (whilst holding said button) turn the "volume" knob, you can scoll, or change FM stations or what ever you bind to that button set via control panel.

That's a possibility, although it's "hidden" functionality and would not be very discoverable.  Presumably the button+knob behavior would be very screen-specific and therefore potentially unpredictable per screen until one uses it a lot.

We have something like this with the button+tilt for widget advancement, and it seems that nobody unilaterally discovers it, but must be told about it.

However, for this type of secondary behavior, and with a properly motivated user, this might be a good solution.  I'll look into it.

11 (edited by daniello 2010-07-24 23:33:33)

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

I like the button+knob idea. Sure ... the button has a "click" sound but compared to other clocks I know it's quite undisturbing.

Short OT question .. it feels like the button has two "clicks" .. one if you push gently .. the other if you push to the end .. I am not sure. Am I mistaken?

*I have to correct myself .. since my original statement was only to leave "night" mode on top-button-click .. I was mislead for a moment sorry .. I still think may original thought is good. More information on this below (see entry #16).*

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

daniello wrote:

1. Mode: night/dark
Accidentally tapping twice when you want to see the time runs the current widget (flickr) in my case.
a) this illuminates the room (and my spouse is light sensitive)
b) it takes a few steps to get back to "night/dark"
Suggestion:
Only leave "night" by pressing the top button

Hmm .. this really happens often to me .. not nice. I must train myself to be more cautious.

BTW .. some other small things I noticed ..
- When in "dark" mode I notice that tapping the display flashes the screen before it goes to "night" level. So there seems to be a much brighter level inbetween which only comes up for parts of a second.
- When I tell my alarm to go "DIM" after it goes of .. I have to manually set the level to normal if I want my flikr photo frame to "look good" again. Hmmm .. I wonder if this is the was it's meant to be.
- When I edit an alarm I have to enter shoutcast to reselect the channel I want to listen to .. even thought I only want to change the time or what happens after the alarm. This slows down the procedure of just clicking through the settings.

br
Daniello

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

daniello wrote:

BTW .. some other small things I noticed ..
- When in "dark" mode I notice that tapping the display flashes the screen before it goes to "night" level. So there seems to be a much brighter level inbetween which only comes up for parts of a second.

This is due to a limitation in the hardware where you can't go from off to dim without going to full bright first - otherwise, the screen can invert (like a photographic negative).

- When I tell my alarm to go "DIM" after it goes of .. I have to manually set the level to normal if I want my flikr photo frame to "look good" again. Hmmm .. I wonder if this is the was it's meant to be.

That's the correct behavior.

- When I edit an alarm I have to enter shoutcast to reselect the channel I want to listen to .. even thought I only want to change the time or what happens after the alarm. This slows down the procedure of just clicking through the settings.

There should be a "DONE" button in some of the screens that allow you to short circuit the process if you're just setting the time on an existing alarm

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Duane wrote:

There should be a "DONE" button in some of the screens that allow you to short circuit the process if you're just setting the time on an existing alarm

a pity the changes I am currently making are on the last screen (trying to understand the options "after the alarm")
;-)

Could you please give me some insight on this: Short OT question .. it feels like the button has two "clicks" .. one if you push gently .. the other if you push to the end .. I am not sure. Am I mistaken?

THX
Daniello

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

We used to implement the custom alarm stuff differently - it was a screen that listed all of the settings and let you edit them independently, so you could edit just the ones you wanted.

However, a few requested features that were added had the presence of some options dependent upon other options, plus, they wouldn't all fit on the screen any more, so we changed to the current "wizard" form.  The flow of the alarm wizard is rather complicated, second only to the network setup wizard.

I assume when you are talking about "two clicks", you're talking about the top button.  If so, then, yes there are two actual physical switches on the Chumby One, one at each end of the white button, but they're in parallel so the first one that goes down and the second one that goes up is the one that takes effect.  This is because the white button is so wide that a single switch did not suffice.  There's only a single switch on the Chumby Classic.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Further up I mistakenly wrote that I second the "top-button+wheel" approach e.g. to get an increment functionalty implemented. Since I was eager to describe the perfect "alarm clock" for me (and my spouse of course) I have to take this confirmation back. I am now sticking with my original statement to only leave "night-mode" (i.e. the alarm clock functinality) on top-button-click.
As an altervative I have the following suggestion: Make it an option to use the wheel for loudness or for increments. A simple checkbox would do. Since the alarm sound increases I (just MHO) don't need a loudness setting for the alarm. Users who listen to music in "night-mode" may not need the increments and select the other option => a perfect world ;-)

BTW I left "night/dark-mode" today by pressing the top-button. This removed the pin (stay) from the widgets again. To me this seems to be a bug. The only one to remove the pin should be me. Or not?

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

daniello wrote:

BTW I left "night/dark-mode" today by pressing the top-button. This removed the pin (stay) from the widgets again. To me this seems to be a bug. The only one to remove the pin should be me. Or not?

Everyone uses their Chumby differently, so I don't know why you've got a widget pinned. However, would you get the same result by putting that widget in a channel by itself? If it's, say, a clock widget that you want to see first when the alarm goes off, you could have it in one channel on its own, and then 5 or 10 minutes after the alarm sounds you could have a silent alarm that changes to a channel with more widgets in it (ie the equivalent of removing the pin).

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

My top priority is to have a hassle free alarm clock (that may be subjective) and not to do too much widgetry. So I found my one favorite widget which I want to be active when I am not using the alarm mode. I do have more widgets installed .. for playing around when I find time but then I wouldn't want it to cycle through them but rather explicitly pick one to play with. So I pin down the flickr widget and that's it.

Putting the widget in it's own channel seems to be a good idea. Thanks - I'll give it a try this evening.

Being new to this device chances are that I not familiar enought with the concept yet.

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

daniello wrote:

Hi Chumbians,

1. Mode: night/dark

Accidentally tapping twice when you want to see the time runs the current widget (flickr) in my case.
a) this illuminates the room (and my spouse is light sensitive)
b) it takes a few steps to get back to "night/dark"
Suggestion:
Only leave "night" by pressing the top button

br
daniello

This would be a great feature. Would be great if only the top button exited night mode. I find that sometime I may accidentally touch the screen twice and light up the whole room. Also the 'Drak' button is rather small to press again in the night mode afterwards

20 (edited by daniello 2010-08-17 02:31:21)

Re: Make this a family alarm clock (don't wake my spouse ;-)

Holidays are over .. work and chumby time started. Two consecutive nights I wake up before the alarm .. what a hassle to assure the alarm won't go off after I get up.

Please .. Chumbians .. try for your self. Take a Chumby home .. set it up .. wake up early (well .. try at least *g) .. and kill the alarm before it rings. You can't simulate in a lab .. you gotta be tired to evaluate.

Not very convenient is it?

Any heads-up on a new firmware .. which might have a procedure for this in place?

br
Daniello