Over at Gizmodo, Luke reports that Optus managed to stuff up its network time signal for Queenslanders, switching their phones to daylight saving time and ruining many a banana bender morning. At moments like this, I can’t help thinking there’s a lot to be said for an old-fashioned alarm clock rather than using your phone.
Alarm picture from Shutterstock
When I’m travelling, I’ll use my phone, but at home I have an entirely separate alarm — no risk of that being messed up by network problems or iOS dramas. How about you? Are you all-phone, all-clock, or alarm-free? Tell us in the comments.
Comments
10 responses to “This Is Why Having A Separate Alarm Clock Can Still Be A Good Idea”
One of the nice things about living in the sunshine state is you don’t need an alarm clock to wake you up at 6am. Just have east facing windows in your bedroom and don’t shut the curtains or leave a window open.
It’s much easier to get up at 6am when it’s 22 degrees and sunny, than when it’s 12 degrees and pitch black.
If you’re in Brisbane using the sun alarm method will have you up around 4:30-5am
Please see my comments on the gizmodo story for several nice alarm clocks over at ebay that are very cheap and have lots of nice features.
When I’m travelling, I always take a shortwave radio with me, especially overseas. These have alarms in them, or I just use my phone – then also use the ubiquitous alarm clock in the hotel as a backup.
I just noticed this one on ebay that I didn’t link in the other thread. It costs $3 inc postage and has an alarm clock – it also folds up for travels and it’s only 90 grams in weight.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Desk-Digital-LCD-Thermometer-Calendar-Alarm-Clock-flexible-cover-CM-/261286673544?pt=AU_AlarmClocks&hash=item3cd5e63c88
I am alarm free most of the time though. I tend to wake up between 5-6am everyday and only special occasions require me to get up earlier than that.
Well… our power must have gone out at some point over night because I had to reset the microwave and oven clocks this morning, and my PC had rebooted. So having a plugged-into-the-wall alarm clock would have done no good in that circumstance, it was my phone that woke me up with it’s normal alarm 😀
Plugged in the wall alarm clocks are so old fashioned.
These days the LED technology is so good that battery powered alarm clocks can run for months on a single set of AAA batteries. (and most of them can also be plugged into the wall or a USB port, using the batteries only has a backup)
I have a plug in wood alarm clck on my bedside table. Looks amazing.
Best thing is, it has a small in-built battery that remembers the time for (so far) 3 weeks with no power connected. So if the power goes off and comes back on, I still get woken up at the same time. (Except I don’t use it, I have 2 alarms on my phone, one app based and the other phone based)
The cows faded a bit this morning. But now, the chicken’s on the other foot, frightening the little children, my word it is.
Gone but not forgotten…
I have a 6 month old so I haven’t set an alarm in months
Easy solution, introduce DST in Queensland. Problem solved.
Yah, or just abolish it in the southern states. If you want to go to work an hour early, I give you permission to do so without fiddling with your clock.