Alarm

Alarm 4 Roadmap

Russell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:47:30 +0000

Today I put together an aggressive roadmap to get Alarm 4 out the door by April 2. While the dates aren’t set in stone, I will be working diligently on meeting the dates that I have planned. Here’s a summary of my release goals:

Alpha 1: February 15, 2010 – Main design goals completed (Scheduler)
Alpha 2: February 22, 2010 – Secondary goals completed (Startup, Wake from Sleep)
Alpha 3: March 1, 2010 – Other goals completed (New update system, Theming, Media Search)
Beta 1: March 8, 2010 – Bug Fixes, code cleanup
Beta 2: March 15, 2010 – Bug Fixes, code cleanup
RC 1: March 19, 2010 – Bug Fixes and Finalization
RC 2: March 26, 2010 – Final Fixes and Changes
4.0.0: April 2, 2010

As I have done in the past, the first patch version (4.0.1) will be released about a week later with following updates about every month or so. The alpha versions will go out only to testers. If you would like to become a tester, please send an email to alarmsupport@russell-patterson.com and I will add you to my list.

EDITED ON JANUARY 31, 2010: Pushed back a couple dates due to unforeseen issues.

Alarm 3.5.11 Released, Merry Christmas!

Russell — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:12 +0000

I am pleased to be releasing Alarm 3.5.11. This version, while originally deemed a major update, has been downgraded minor update due to an overly-complicated update process between 3.5.10 and 3.5.11. So, the new settings system is delayed for Alarm 4.0, as originally intended. Having the new system in earlier 3.5.11 builds though has allowed me to fix a few issues with the system.

Changes to 3.5.11 are as follows:
Addition: 2,3,4,6,8 Hour and Custom Quick Alarms. Thanks to Missy for the suggestion.
Addition: Alarm 4 About dialog added.
Change: Removed one of the first startup dialogs. (The thanks dialog)
Change: Code refactoring
Change: Automatically Displays Morning Reminder when Alarm goes off.
Change: Some changes to the default settings.
Addition: Release Notes Viewer
Change: Check for Updates doesn’t run on first startup.
Addition: University of Akron (Grad School) Color Scheme.
Change: Adjust Volume now disabled when media isn’t selected.

Download Here

This will hopefully be the last version of Alarm 3.5. Alarm 4.0 is coming, I promise.

Also, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Support, Download Links, Old Alarm Updates

Russell — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:18:40 +0000

I’ve changed the main Alarm support email address.

You can now receive support by sending a message to:
alarmsupport@russell-patterson.com

—
I’ve decided that in order to have a more consistent experience for those who would like to add a link to the Alarm installer on their website, I will have a permanent location for the latest version of Alarm. This location will always be available as long as this site is online so that download links will not be broken and people are guaranteed to get the absolute latest version of Alarm when they download it.

The address is:

http://alarm.russell-patterson.com/alarm-latest.exe

Please use this address whenever you link to the installer.

—
The update process for 3.1.7-3.5.7 has been changed slightly so that I no longer have to support the older update service. Basically, users of those versions will be told that there is a new version available without actually saying what that version is. Once they download the installer, they will be able to see what they are installing before they actually agree to installing it. This makes it easier to make sure those with older versions of Alarm are presented with the absolute latest updates.

That’s about it. Thanks for your continued support.

Alarm Fan Page on Facebook

Russell — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:05:35 +0000

If you like Alarm, please consider joining the fan page on Facebook.

Click Here to Visit Alarm @ Facebook

There you will get notifications of updates delivered to your news feed as well as the opportunity to directly interact with the developer. Suggestions are always welcome!

Alarm 3.5 Support Extended

Russell — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:47:44 +0000

Today I noticed that a lot of people are still using pre-3.5.8 versions of Alarm so I decided to again support those versions. Please upgrade them to 3.5.10! I just set up the auto-update feature so that you can now upgrade from those versions again.

Alarm 3.5.10 Bug?

Russell — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:54:39 +0000

I’ve received a report of a bug in Alarm 3.5.10 which causes the program to freeze when it is sounding and is switching between songs on the playlist. If anyone is dealing with this problem, please send an email to alarmsupport@russell-patterson.com immediately with a description of your computer system specifications. Obviously I want to fix this as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Alarm 3.5.10 Released

Russell — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:24:12 +0000

Hey everyone, today I’m releasing Alarm 3.5.10. This version contains a couple of bug fixes to the app launcher and windows update functionality.

Go get it.

Alarm Update Coming Soon

Russell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:01:30 +0000

I found a minor bug with Alarm 3.5.9 so I’m going to be releasing an update soon. I haven’t decided if it’s going to be 3.5.9.1 or 3.5.10 yet though. It literally has only about 2-3 lines of code changed from 3.5.9 so I’m leaning towards the 3.5.9.1 tag. I’m testing it heavily to stamp out any other bugs I can find so I don’t have to keep maintaining this version. If I find other bugs, I’ll go with 3.5.10.

That’s all for now. Look for the next version of 3.5 soon.

Alarm 3.5.9 Released, Other News

Russell — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:51:33 +0000

Today, I’m releasing Alarm 3.5.9. This build is 99.9% the same as RC 2.

New features since 3.5.8 include:
-Volume control – control the volume of Alarm separately from the system volume.
-Focus Time – choose whether the alarm time takes the place of the current time when the alarm is set.

It is available from the update service for versions since 3.5 and will be made available for download from this site as soon as I complete this post.

In other, other news, the update service of previous Alarm versions will be removed based on the following schedule:
-Alarm 3.1.7-3.1.8 – Update support already ended.
-Alarm 3.5-3.5.7 – Update support will end on August 1, 2009.
-Alarm 3.5.8 RC 1 – Update support will end on July 15, 2009.
-Alarm 3.5.8-3.5.9 – Update support will end approximately October 1, 2009.

Anyways, that’s about it for now. Update that software everybody!

Alarm 3.5.9 RC 2 Released

Russell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:26:12 +0000

Today, I’m releasing Alarm 3.5.9 Release Candidate 2. This is only a minor update of the previous RC build, in fact, it only has the build tag 35932 instead of 35931, so it’s clearly only a minor change.

This new release candidate version contains the option to focus the alarm time while the alarm is set. This was suggested by someone on download.com and I decided to add it to 3.5.9 after I realized that it wouldn’t be difficult at all.

Download Alarm 3.5.9 RC 2 Here (Link Removed)
(MD5: e30695fda4388c6065f98905c31acb55)

Enjoy. Final build probably coming Thursday.