The Gilbert Gottfried of Iphone alarm apps

July 8, 2010 3:19 PM

I am looking for an Iphone calendar application that lets me play an mp3 or select something especially noticeable for the alarm reminder, like Gilbert Gottfried yodeling or something. The existing Ical alarm is too brief and non-distinctive. Thanks for any suggestions, especially those based on your personal experience.

Bonus points if the calendar syncs cleanly with google calendar.

posted by mecran01 to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

What you are looking for is...tough. Because calendar apps can't exactly run full throttle in the background. But try PocketInformant
posted by Brainy at 5:05 PM on July 8, 2010

Keep your calendar, just change the alert - from the MacRumours forum:

here's what to do:
1) go into cyberduck/winscp and SSH to the root directory.
2) then go to /System/Library/Audio/UISounds
3) replace alarm.caf with any other file you have called alarm.caf
.caf means Core Audio file so you probably need to do this part on a Mac
I used Fusion to clip an mp3 file and save it as an aiff. then i opened the aiff with Apple Soundtrack Pro and saved it as a Core Audio file. The whole time I kept the save settings as 16-bit /44100 kHz /1411 kbps bit rate, just like the original. The only thing different about my file is the length and maybe the dB, but it worked.
4) reboot the phone, you must reboot for Core Audio to reload it's files!

There's more information in other comments in that thread too.
posted by unliteral at 5:52 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Well using the clock function you can set an alarm from a ringtone and there are several guides to making your own ringtones in Itunes.
posted by rileyray3000 at 6:52 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks very much, that's better than having to dig up a new app and hope it works! I'll try it tonight and report back.
posted by mecran01 at 7:03 PM on July 8, 2010

Response by poster: update:

I have to jailbreak my phone to install openssh in order to do the above hack, and I can't find a way to jailbreak IOS4 yet.

I need to use the calendar as opposed to the alarm, because I have multiple appointments each day.

So, still looking, thanks.
posted by mecran01 at 7:23 PM on July 8, 2010

you can jailbreak iOS 4 using redsn0w 0.9.5. (google is your friend here - I believe you have to use one of the beta versions to jailbreak the released-to-everyone iOS 4.0 image rather than the released-to-developers-only versions. I've done it on mine - mainly to enable multitasking on my 3G - but have already gotten rid of the program, so I don't remember what version it was I used.)
posted by mrg at 9:00 PM on July 8, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the redsn0w tip. I hadn't searched for jb solutions for a week or two.
posted by mecran01 at 12:39 PM on July 9, 2010

Response by poster: update: Redsnow just isn't working, so I'm using the "Textfree" app which can receive SMS notifications from Google Calendar. It has an alarm tone that is exceptionally long and brutal.
posted by mecran01 at 3:42 PM on July 10, 2010

Response by poster: It occurred to me a little late in the game that Apple locked everything down in order to sell more ringtones. Doh!
posted by mecran01 at 7:04 AM on July 14, 2010

Response by poster: Another update:
I finally ended up by connecting Prowl with Textfree using

googlevoice.ub3rk1tten.com

Prowl is the app that has a terrifically long alert tone option.

I haven't figured out how to use google calendar + google voice yet.
posted by mecran01 at 7:11 AM on July 16, 2010