Clap Talking Clock makes your iPad tell you the time when you clap
At night, without my contacts on and with my glasses on my night stand, I more or less can’t find the wall unless I use my hands to feel my way there. That poses something of an issue when I need to check the time, as I don’t use a wrist watch and my alarm clock’s normal sized digits look like the status LED on an electronic device for me. Even larger clocks wouldn’t do much difference, so I’m left with fumbling for my glasses in order to be able to check the time.
I don’t know why I haven’t thought to check for an app to help me with this sooner, but yesterday I did, and after coming up short in the Google Play store, I found the solution on my iPad: Clap Talking Clock. It’s a simple app, and apparently not very popular seeing as it hasn’t been updated in the two years since it was released, but it solves my problem quite elegantly. I plug in my iPad, start the app, and close the Smart Cover. Now, whenever I wake up and need to check the time, I simply clap – the iPad then tells me the time using a synthetic voice. There’s also a sort of RSS feed of tech news along the top, a clock, and the ability to shake the device to make the background white in order to get more light coming from it. That, however, is not exactly why someone would buy this app.
I’m surprised there aren’t more apps that can do this – on either platform – but this is all I could come up with. You have Siri-like apps that can tell you the time if you press a button and ask, as well as apps that will tell you the time if you wave your hand in front of the device, push a button, and so on – but being able to trigger it completely by sound isn’t something I’ve seen a lot of. It solves my problem though, so that’s really all I needed. I used it a few times during the night that was, and it works perfectly. Since this is actively listening all the time though, you do want to have your device plugged in to avoid it draining the battery. Just be aware that other sounds might accidentally trigger it – the Smart Cover closing being one of them. In other words, you don’t want this running with hammer-based construction going on. The app is $1, well worth it for anyone in my situation.
[iTunes]
