I was back-reading posts on my Tumblr dashboard yesterday when I noticed that a good number of the updates made by the people I follow featured this rather unique creation of a German company called Biegert & Funk. It is a recently released item that costs an astounding €885 (roughly $1250). It is, essentially, a clock.
Yes, I just said a clock that comes with a thousand dollar price tag. Known as QLOCKTWO, this clock is unique in that, rather than using hands and numbers or seven-segment displays to tell the time, it uses words to do its job. It’s hand-crafted and has a quadratic display of letters having a predefined arrangement for its face. It is this typomatrix display that enables this expensive timepiece to spell out the time. For example, if the time is 8:30, the appropriate letters are illuminated so that the clock will read, “IT IS HALF PAST EIGHT.” The matrix refreshes at five-minute intervals, and it is for this reason that four dots are visible at the corners of the display. Say, it’s 8:33. The clock will still read, “IT IS HALF PAST EIGHT” only this time three out of the four dots are lit up. Nice.
What’s not particularly nice, though, is the massively prohibitive price. Fortunately, the guys at Biegert & Funk were thoughtful enough to provide those who can’t afford their product with a decent alternative. If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch, you can purchase the next big thing: Time In Words - QLOCKTWO, the official iPhone app version of the articulate timepiece. Don’t worry, thankfully the app’s price point is nowhere near its physical counterpart. At only $0.99, it’s surprisingly cheap.
The app works pretty much the same way as the actual QLOCKTWO clock. And it works flawlessly.
Upon launch of the app, the current time is spelled out right away. Initially, a flag and a circular arrow are shown at the top and bottom, respectively, until both fade away after a few seconds to give the entire real estate to the typomatrix and the four dots. As with the actual QLOCKTWO, the typomatrix tells the time at five-minute intervals and the quartet of dots help tell the exact time.
You can tap the portion where the flag used to be to call the language options. You can choose from English, German or French, each setting with its own unique array of letters. Likewise, you can tap at the former position of the circular arrow to view some sort of instruction page. The top half of this page suggests that if you give your device a little shake, the appropriate letters will be illuminated to display how many seconds the clock is currently at past the last full minute. This is where QLOCKTWO demonstrates a slight resemblance to a conventional digital clock. The bottom half, on the other hand, sheds light on the purpose of the four corner dots.
An obvious limitation of this app is that, however fervently one wishes it to be so, it cannot be used as an iPhone wallpaper. Apple’s restrictions on third-party apps effectively dictates that the app can only be run within itself only. Nevertheless, I am so amazed by the sheer intelligence of this app that I often find myself firing it up on my iPhone to, well, kill time. Please pardon the pun; I couldn’t resist it.
Quick Take
Value: Medium
Would I Buy Again: Yes. It’s tremendously cheap compared to its original counterpart but it does the same trick perfectly well.
Learning Curve: Zero
Who Is It For: People who want the time told in words—in a stylish and quite geeky way.
What I Like: The very idea of a clock spelling out the words using a clever quadratic matrix of letters and four unassuming dots.
What I Don’t: None. Just that the actual clock it’s based from is really expensive. Sure would prefer the thing be on my wall than on my palm.
Final Statement: Time In Words - QLOCKTWO is one of the cleverest clock apps out there. On second thought, it’s quite possibly the cleverest clock app you can find and one of the cleverest iPhone apps. period.
My Rating: 4.5/5
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posted 23 August 2009
by aldrin - • 1 note
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The Lady With No Name And The Prince With The Golden Touch (A Crazy, Anachronistic Musical Fairy Tale)
There was once a young lady whose voice and beauty were beyond compare,
a young lady who in light of the next point shall remain unnamed for the most part of this tale.
She, like most ladies (and gentlemen), had a name of course.
But a cruel witch, jealous of her charm and grace, put her under a grave curse.
One sunny afternoon, while she was in the garden
humming along with a robin perched on a tree,
the witch suddenly appeared out of thin air, cursed her and, of all things,
took her name away from her memory (as well as from the minds of those who knew the poor lady).
In her demented and horrible voice, she told the girl,
“From now on your name is mine, it is mine to keep.
And unless you find your one true love,
you shall forever be nameless and weep!”
Then she vanished, leaving the lass crying on her knees.
She had mustered all her powers of recall but her name she’d still miss.
She asked her mother, her father, the florist and the butcher,
but even they couldn’t think of her lifelong moniker.
But just as she was about to break down and give up,
an old man walked by and asked for some food and perhaps a refreshing cup.
Flustered and helpless but ever so kind,
she had never been one to pay no mind.
In exchange for her generosity, he handed her a small shimmering block and an ivory cord,
and bade her go and see the lonely prince beyond the ford.
The Everglow by Mae
As it turned out, there was once also a young prince whose handsomeness was a sight to behold.
And he also possessed the awesome ability of turning things into gold.
Now one might get the idea that with a power like that
he could have everything he wanted: a golden mattress, a golden cat.
But, alas, it just wasn’t so for even if he could tap anything, heavy or light,
and wrap it in precious metal, he knew in his heart that something was not right.
To be sure, the prince was not born with the amazing ability of his.
Like it was only yesterday, he could still remember when he refused to give the witch a kiss.
Indeed, she was the same mean witch
who put the young beautiful lady in her awful ditch.
To punish the prince, over him she loomed
and cast a spell to make his every touch send forth aurum.
After that he did not dare go near another woman, or another person for that matter,
lest he touch them and they fall to the ground and shatter.
Suspension by Mae
Until a fateful mid-February night Prince Jasper with the touch of gold
heard a lovely voice from the great hall, his name it called.
And then he saw her, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
He was quite certain no amount of gold could come close to her sheen.
Then he sighed, I could never be with her, he thought,
I couldn’t risk being near her or touching her, I must avoid both.
But the damsel spoke, “Inside my satchel are really peculiar things.
A thin silver bar and two white strings.
“They’re called an iPod touch and a pair of Apple earphones with mic.
A wise old traveller called Uncle Steve thought they’re stuff that you might like.”
She told the prince that she had a hunch that if he would only take them,
the curse that was cast upon him will at last be broken.
The prince carefully took the anachronistic artifacts from their case
and was astonished by what instantly took place.
When he touched them, they were not covered in a deep lustrous yellow.
Rather, three golden scrolls materialized and on the face of the iPod touch a golden icon waved hello.
“Salutations,” the musical note on the icon announced,
“I am Midomi and I am an app that has mastered music and sounds.
“Dear prince, you are now free from your unusual bondage.
Let us now help this lady break out of her cage.
“For she at the moment is without a name,
and to identify her appellation is our immediate aim.”
Midomi continued, “Open the golden scrolls one at a time,
and I, aided by the magical mic, will decipher each and every rhyme.”
The prince was determined to help his now beloved,
so the first golden parchment he promptly unrolled.
And from the scroll itself emanated
tranquil music and a voice that stated,
You come over unannounced / Silence broken by your voice in the dark /
I need you here tonight just like the ocean needs the waves.
And as he opened the second, a lovely bird entered the room.
It was a robin and it gorgeously hummed,
Here’s a night and it shines / And it calls us on and on /
So be here by my side and watch the stars.
Finally, when he rolled out the third piece,
nothing happened but he did as he pleased.
Somehow he knew what was to be
and copied the words on the paper into Midomi:
All I know is I believe / In the very thing that got us here /
And now I can’t leave.
For each song, Midomi came up with the title and the artist.
Definitely, pure magic was how it did this.
According to the app, the first song was The Ocean, the second The Everglow, and the last Suspension.
And it turned out all three songs are from the same band of musicians.
“Short for Multisensory Aesthetic Experience,” Midomi shared, happy and gay,
“These musically-inclined men simply call themselves Mae.”
“That’s my name! I remember it now!” exclaimed the young lady named Mae
and who starting at this juncture shall be known that way.
Then all of a sudden she became silent as she also remembered the witch’s warning:
Unless she finds her one true love she shall spend the rest of her days weeping.
“Now that would mean that,” Mae began, whose eyes were now glistening.
“You’re my one true love,” finished Prince Jasper, “And next to you, gold is nothing.”
This poetic pandemonium is proudly
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posted 18 August 2009
by aldrin - Permalink • Short URL
My First Foray Into iPhone App Development
Pro RSS Reader (and by extension, its free lite version) holds the distinction of being the one feed reader iPhone app available in the iTunes App Store to have the most straightforward name for an app of its kind and wear the widely used orange RSS icon at the same time. In its roster of features are full text and image caching, the ability to categorize feeds into folders, item archiving, email support, image exporting to photo roll, and over-the-air OPML file and Google Reader import. The overall look of the app, characterized by minimal yet effective use of color gradients, is something I’m particularly fond of. And what makes it even more special for me is the fact that I played a part in its development, albeit a very small one.
Several weeks ago I got in touch with the very amicable Simon Oualid, the man behind Pro RSS Reader. I learned he was looking for individuals to translate his app into several foreign languages, and being somebody born and raised in the Land of the Flips, I volunteered to convert the strings within the app to Filipino (or Tagalog, not really sure). And so began my first foray into iPhone app development.
The result? I was later informed by Simon that my translations were integrated in the latest update of Pro RSS Reader. A section of his official statement in the App Store says:
Many thanks to the people who helps in translating the app :
Danish : Christoffer “Raa-Y” Raabye
Deutsch : Andreas Müller
Dutch : Luuk Mulder
Filipino : Aldrin Calimlim
French : Antaya
Itialian : Marco Medori (marcomed_at_gmail.com)
Korean : Youngseok Oh
Polish : Maciej Król
Russian : Dmitry and Natasha Tsozik
Spanish : David Novella
Swedish : Sebastian Pundars
Turkish : Ayhan A. Birlik
So I guess it’s Filipino after all.
(cross-posted on WhatsOniPhone.com)
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posted 03 June 2009
by aldrin - • 2 notes
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