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Review: MyWakeUpTunes

Every now and then an application comes a long that's genuinely different. MyWakeUpTunes (MWUT) is one of those apps. Although it passes as a simple MP3 player what makes it interesting is that it also functions as an alarm clock on your PC.

Manufacturer: Gx5
Website: http://www.mywakeuptunes.com/
Platform: Windows
Price: Free trial. $10 donation comes with free soundtrack album.

MyWakeUpTunes and Flash
You might be wondering what FlashMagazine is doing reviewing an alarm clock program. Well, a quick browse through the install directory will reveal numerous SWF files. That's because the bulk of the app has been written in Flash. MWUT is essentially a Flash Studio Pro projector with a few VB add-ons.

Who would use it?
Using your PC as an alarm clock isn't as bizarre as it first sounds. There are actually quite a few groups of people who would or could sleep next to their computer. Students often have a PC in their bedroom. Businesmen who travel could run MWUT on their laptop. You could even set it up on your dev machine to rouse you after that all-night coding session!

Your Wake Up Experience
Whether you use MWUT as an MP3 player or as an alarm clock you'll need to find yourself some audio. MWUT will play audio sourced from either a MWUT soundtrack, MP3 file, audio CD or DVD chapter, or playlist from either iTunes, WinAMp or Windows Media Player.

If you choose to use MWUT as an alarm clock then every element of your multimedia wake up experience can be configured. In addition to the audio you can select an image or a favourite DVD chapter to be displayed upon wakeup. For something a little more dynamic you can source your audio from a live feed such as an internet radio station or if you have a PVR installed, live TV.

For those of a new-age inclination there are a number of natural sounds such as waterfalls, forests or thunderstorms that can be overdubbed. Finally you can fade in and out the overall audio volume using an interface similar to the waveform level controller in Flash. My favourite feature of all lets you sync your wake up time to conincide with your local sunrise.

MyWakeUpTunes is a unusual niche product that delivers exactly what it sets out to. From a developers persepective it is interesting to see just what Flash projectors are capable of these days. They are by no means perfect (draggable pop up menus disappear when moved outside the extent of the main projector) but they offer up a host of OS specific functionality that your average Flash movie can only dream of.
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