I have a confession to make…I love watches. I believe I am the only person under 60 who actually wears a pocket watch when wearing a suit. Not sure what it is about them, but if you ever are in doubt as to what to get me for my birthday…can’t go wrong with a nice watch. Just sayin’…

So today I am reviewing the mother of all clock apps. TealTime by TealPoint Software. Now after reviewing TealShopper, I knew these guys built some heavy duty apps. I have to say, even knowing this, I was taken aback by TealTime. This beast has just about every type of timepiece that has ever been invented (alas it is missing a sundial, and an hourglass), but like the TealShopper, this app clocks in (oh yeah…that was intended) at $4.95 on the Catalog.

First you have the world clock which has a globe and shows you four timezones (customizable of course). It even has a globe that shows you the current day/night cycle. Now while I found this to be a neat feature, it is a bit hard to use at first. I expect to be able to drag the globe around, but doing that will just send you into edit mode. You have to use the old school arrows to actually pivot the globe.

Next you have a stopwatch. This is pretty standard stuff. The one cool thing here is you can start and stop it by shaking your phone. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of this because it didn’t seem to be all that reliable. If I am trying to time something to the second, then reliability is key. Not a big deal, but it puts a damper on the cool factor.

Next on the list is an analog and digital clock…yep it has each of them…why are these necessary? Dunno. The analog clock looks nice and I was particularly impressed with the working second hand. The digital clock…kinda meh about this one. Not only is it unnecessary, but it isn’t all that nice to look at. Now the one thing these both have going for them is you can set them to a different timezone than the one you are currently in. This will appeal to a small set of people, but those twelve people  just ran to get their credit cards.

Our next item is the alarm clock. Here you can set the alarm to ring specific days of the week (M,W,F for instance), but other than that, it doesn’t have a huge list of features.

Our final stop during clockapalooza is the timer. Think of it as an oven timer and you pretty much have it down. This and the stopwatch are probably the most useful of the bunch.

The best feature of this app is the “dashboard panel” option that each clock has. This little beauty allows you to shutdown the app completely and leave the clocks you set to “on” to remain in the notification area. This has tons of uses, but just having a timer up and visible whenever you need it is pretty darn handy. Another nice feature is the ability to add more clocks. Now why you would need two different world or analog clocks is beyond me, but I could definitely see setting up multiple alarms or timers.

The biggest gripe about the app is the look and feel. I design interfaces for a living so I know I am overly harsh on a lot of UIs, but this one seemed very utilitarian to me. All function, very little form. It gets the job done, but it doesn’t look like it is enjoying itself much while doing it…

Bottom Line