iOS: If you have a hard time waking up, join the club. It’s so tempting to hit snooze in the morning and return to the comfort of your pillow. Barcode Alarm Clock is an alarm clock app that forces you to start your day by making you scan your toothpaste’s barcode to turn it off.
It’s an annoying concept, which is why it works so well. If you want to put an end to the obnoxious sound of your phone going off in the morning, you have to drag yourself to the bathroom, find your toothpaste, and use your phone to scan it. The app essentially forces you into the bathroom, and once you’re in there, it’s easier to get the day going.
It doesn’t have to be your toothpaste tube, though. You can scan anything. When you install the app, you’re prompted to set an alarm with a unique barcode. You simply use your phone’s camera to assign that barcode. You can scan your toothpaste, shampoo bottle, something in your kitchen, it doesn’t matter. When the alarm goes off, you just have to make sure to scan that same item in order for the alarm to stop.
The app is only available for iPhone, but Morning Routine is a similar app for Android users.
If you’re bad about waking up when you’re supposed to, it’s certainly worth checking out. Give it a try at the link below.
Barcode Alarm Clock [Apple Store]
Comments
6 responses to “Barcode Alarm Clock Forces You To Get The Day Started”
Queue sleeping next to your toothpaste… :3
Wake up next to that fresh minty smell.
If people require this app to get motivated in the morning then I’d assume they wouldn’t be smart enough to put the toothpaste next to their phone
Its not a matter of cheating the system and keeping toothpaste on your night stand for a quick win. Its a matter of forcing yourself to get up and moving, its a system that will only work if you want it to work.
My biggest struggle in the AM is just the getting out of bed part, once im out im good.
Me personally, id scan the coffee jar because thats always my first stop when getting out of bed.
You can just force quite the app by double-tapping the home button, no toothpaste relocation required. Apps like this are pointless because they are so easy to bypass.
I’m surprised lifehacker would run an article like this, because clearly this is a product designed for people who don’t know how their iPhone works.
Now, show me an Arduino project that does the same thing (encased in carbonite to prevent cheating) and you’d be on to something.
I didn’t see it in the article but what if you run out of toothpaste, Shampoo or coffee and throw it out? Do you have to get up drive to the rubbish dump and find your barcode to scan?
The main issue with all alarm apps on iOS (besides the built in one) is they cant bypass silent / do not disturb, presumably because apple doesn’t want to ‘complicate’ the permissions too much.
Is it too much to ask that apple allow apps to not be running, and be executed without user interaction at a certain time and display an alarm screen, after granting the app the permission to do so and any apps that want that permission should get screened by apple a bit more closely.
Its not like they will be any less reliable than the built in alarm that uses the ringers volume, so if that is low (how i like it 95% of the time) i cant hear the alarm or the yearly daylight savings issues.
This is the most evil, most awesome alarm app I have come across. I wonder if there is an Android variant?