Clock App

Today, I added images and edited the clock app section of the book.  The clock app is a great app to play with to get familiar with your device.  The name is a bit misleading, because inside the clock app there are four separate features: world clock, stop watch, timer and alarm clock.

The reason it is a great app for beginners is because it isolates many of the more difficult concepts into simple programs.  I have two examples for you.

Example 1:  Picking From A List

One of the concepts you come across is picking from a list.  In certain programs, like the World Clock, you are given a search box, but this search box is really just a way to narrow down from a long list.  You see this same kind of box in contacts or when you are adding a recipient to an email or text message.  When you start typing in the box, suggestions will appear below the search box based upon the letters you have typed. What it doesn’t tell you is that you have to pick something from the list.  This is confusing because when you use the search box on the internet, what appears below are truly suggestions, you don’t have to pick one.  Both the box in the World Clock and on the Internet are search boxes, but they act differently.

Example 2: Time Wheel

The other concept introduced is the Time Wheel.  In the Timer and Alarm Clock feature, there is a Time Wheel that allows you to designate how long the timer is for or to choose the time that the alarm goes off. The Time Wheel is a bit confusing, because we don’t think of numbers as circular and each piece is independent of each other.  The Wheel allows you to change the hours, minutes and seconds.  The chosen numbers must be placed in the center of the wheel.  This part is bolder than the top or bottom, which is grayed out.  A common mistake is that people but the numbers they want in the top part, which is understandable, because we are taught to go from top to bottom.

Both of these concepts you will see through out the device.  In the clock features, these difficult concepts are the core of what make up the feature allowing you to master the skill without being overwhelmed with so many other options.