Treo Software | PalmaryClock Wireless

For a while now some Treonauts have suggested that I take a closer look at PalmaryClock Wireless for Treo and since I was looking for a new currency converter (one of 11 included mini-applications) I finally decided to take it for a spin and discover what it has to offer.

PalmaryClock’s main Clock application (pictured at the top in my Palm Treo Cradle) offers a very nice, large and clean digital time and date display.  The Clock screen can be customized in a multitude of ways – such as changing the time display from digital to analog, changing the background image as well as the time/date colours.  You can without a doubt make the Clock look like it’s 100% “yours”.

Additionally, the General Preferences setting allows you to automatically set PalmaryClock to startup when “In Cradle” for example and also to set one of the four hardware buttons to show the time when your Treo is powered off (very helpful if you just quickly want to check the time in a large display).

The main Clock screen also displays the weather for any city of your choice (from an extensive database of 1500 cities worldwide).  This Weather Forecast is also a standalone mini-application where you can add any number of cities you want (see above) and provides a very good full 7 day forecast.  All weather information is updated wirelessly either on an automated regular basis (every morning at 7am for example) or manually.

There’s also a Calendar (above left) which I did not find particularly useful since there is already one built-in my Treo but arguably this one is rather more graphically pleasing.  Additionally, a Time Utilities provides helpful Sunrise information as well as fun Internet Time and a Time Calculator to determine what time/date it will be in up to four cities worldwide based on a ‘base’ city.

The Currencies application (my reason for looking at PalmaryClock in the first place) is absolutely terrific.  I can add as many currencies as I want, get quick wireless updates for the latest up-to-date exchange rates and very easily switch from converting between one currency and the other by simply selecting it from the list.

The Moon Phases (above right) is similarly good and particularly helpful for me to on occasion ‘sync’ with the moon calendar on my watch.  The only thing is that I would like to see the moon phase added to the weather forecast bar in the clock.

Although I still much prefer MobileClock to set my daily wake-up alarms, timers and stopwatches there is no doubt that PalmaryClock also provides a very good set.

You can set multiple Alarms (above) to repeat once, weekly (on all days or just one), hourly, monthly or even yearly.  PalmaryClock has also added support for MP3/WAV alarms so that you can use your favourite tunes.

Both the Timers and Stopwatch (above) are equally easy to setup and use.  I personally don’t have much use for the stopwatch but found the timers particularly helpful to for example mark an hour long brainstorming session with 6 recurring 10 minute timer alarms.

Finally, the World Time (above left) provides a quick means to determine what the time/day is across four cities of your choice worldwide while the World Map is just fun but not particularly useful.

Overall, my biggest complaint about PalmaryClock is not with any one of the mini-applications that it contains but the fact that the developer chose to aggregate all of these in one single application.  I would have much preferred to have been given the option to install PalmaryClock as 11 standalone ‘widgets’ that I could much more easily and quickly launch and access individually at the press of a button.

Having said this, I really do like PalmaryClock Wireless – particularly its Clock, Weather, Currencies, Moon and Timers among its 11 offerings – and it will now stay permanently installed on my Treo.

Treonauts are always looking for simple solutions…