iOS 5 will reportedly add location-based reminders this Fall, but that doesn't do you much good right now, does it? Place Clock fills the current gap in functionality quite nicely, provided you can accept a few shortcomings.
Alarms come in two flavors: Time and Place. Time reminders are one-off events or recurring prompts, but with optional "place restrictions." Need a nudge to call your spouse if you're still at work after 8pm? Simple. Want that weekly team conference reminder to keep quiet if you're home sick? Easily done. You can even define snooze intervals, or switch to another sound when you've reached a customizable snooze limit. Strangely, Place Clock only provides eight sounds. You can't use Apple's built-in ringers, or select any of your custom tones.
Place reminders are where the real action is, but you'll have to climb a significant hurdle before you really get rolling. Place Clock inexplicably disregards your local address book, and won't read any custom push-pins you might have stuck into Google Maps. That leaves you to spend considerable time manually entering location information, or to add locations one by one as you visit them in meatspace. (We recommend the latter option. Verifying locations is a pain, because the map defaults to a fully zoomed view. Attempts to zoom out invariably change the address.)
Once you've got all your important places defined, Place Clock's flexibility and reliability quickly make it indispensable. Reminders fire whenever you arrive at, depart from, or cruise within a specified radius of any location, depending on time of day, day of the week, and even customizable calendar ranges. Programmable delays give you a chance to take off your seatbelt or hoof it all the way to your desk before your phone starts chirping. Perhaps most importantly, Place Clock's thoughtful interface grants intuitive access to all your options without ever devolving into a menacing maze of menus.
Because Place Clock relies entirely on Location Services, and lacks the cell tower triangulation option of its less full-featured Task Ave competitor, battery life takes a considerable hit. Meanwhile, reminder recurrence is tied to specific days of the week, so you're out of luck if you need to tackle an errand every other day, on the first Sunday of the month, or the like. But even if Place Clock isn't quite robust enough to be a true catch-all, and takes more than its fair share of effort to set up initially, it's still a remarkably handy pocket companion.
The bottom line. Adding locations to Place Clock will try your patience, but the effort pays off in spades when you're cruising around town with a million things you can't forget to do.
of 6
iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad Wi-Fi + 3G, or iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G running iOS 4.0 or later.
Reliable and easily defined location- and time-sensitive alarms. Flexible scheduling and proximity radius options. Customizable delays and snoozing.
Won't use Address Book or Google's My Places feature. Data entry of locations is a pain. Use of Location Services takes a bite out of your battery. Won't allow custom sounds or use of Apple ring tones. Recurrence scheduling can only be tied to days of the week.
