Uninstall

If you ever need to uninstall iClock, just delete the app in your Applications folder.

Overview

Time twists and turns, a relentless river’s flow,
A tapestry of paradox, where past and future grow.
We chase its tail in circles, yet forward we must press,
Each moment slips through fingers, elusive, fleeting caress.

In physics’ realm, it bends, a fabric stretched and torn,
By gravity’s firm hand, where black holes are born.
Relativity’s dance, where time can slow or sprint,
A traveler’s clock ticks different, while still hearts skip a beat.

Humans ponder time, in memories and dreams,
Moments lost to longing, or so it always seems.
A future hoped for dearly, a past we can’t rewind,
In the present we are anchored, yet it’s always hard to find.

We live within the folds of time’s eternal duress,
A mystery wrapped in an enigma, its truth we can’t assess.
Each tick a paradox, where science meets the soul,
Time, the master storyteller, competing with the Whole.

All the world ’tis a stage, where time performs its spell,
Casting shadows and illusions, in places we can’t dwell.
Echoing whispered secrets, from tomorrow and yesterday,
Enchanting our spirits, in a mystical ballet.

Veiled in misty moments, where the seen and unseen blend,
Time weaves its ancient stories, from beginning to untold end.
A fabric spun from nothing, with threads of light and shade,
Here we stand, mere players, in the grand masquerade.

– ChatGPT 4.0 with help from julian 4/12/24

There are 4 major major visible parts of iClock.

1. Time Menu – shows local time in the menu bar and preferences on the menu can be selected.
2. Preferences Panel – the control panel for iClock and location of all settings. Opened from the Time Menu.
3. Date Menu – shows date in the menu bar which when clicked reveals the calendar.
4. App Menu – shows all active apps, recently used apps and system control panels.

Once iClock is installed and open then from the Time menu you can open the Preferences.

Quick Start

Once installed, click on iClocks Time menu and in that menu select ‘Preferences…’ (screenshot below) to see and change the preferences for the Time, Date, and App menus.

That will display the Preferences. Preferences are all in one place and look like the screenshot below. Select an item on the left side to display a panel with setting on the right. Adjust the settings to your taste.

Preferences

Preferences is the control panel for iClock. It’s the one place for all settings.

To open Preferences find and select it in the Time Menu see Quick Start (above). Another way to open Preferences is if iClock is the frontmost application select preferences as seen below in the screenshot or type command,

Starting on the left side of preferences and going down thru each item, here is an explanation of each panel.

iClock:About

This is where we put info about the creation of the app and its heritage.

iClock:Register

Here is where you can purchase anytime and then copy & paste the license key which unlocks the app.

iClock:General

Time:Menu

Time:Menu refers to all the settings for the time you see in the menu bar. We don’t allow turning this on/off because we need to have a way to get to the preferences.

Below you can find info on each setting from the top down to the bottom. At the top of each preference is a checkbox to turn it on/off.

Set time format – select the time format from this dropdown menu of commonly used formats that you want to see in the menu bar. The red X icon allows you to delete formats from that menu.

Create custom format – by dragging the blue pills like the one that says Time Zone HST down to the field below called Custom. Once there if the pill has a downward facing triangle and chooses from options like in the screenshot below.

Continue to make the selection you want to make up your custom format. Click ‘Add Custom Time Format’ and it will be added to the bottom of the dropdown menu (called ‘Set Time Format’) of commonly used formats. There you can select and use it.

It is also possible to add punctuation and other characters in between the pills like a comma. The ‘Custom’ field can also take directly the Unicode codes which are described in depth by clicking on this link. Those codes like,  HH:mm:ss zzz can produce a result like 15:08:56 PDT.

Flash separator – the ‘:’ character flashes as a visible indicator of each second.

Color – change the color of the text in the menu bar.

Drop Shadow – turn on/off drop shadow in the menu bar.

Set Font – change the font, size of the time in the menu bar. Does not change color.

Reset to defaults – if you get a little too crazy and want it the way it was.

Time:Menu Items

The items below apply to the Time Menu.

External IP – show/hide the external IP. Internet Protocol address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Select the address to copy it to the clipboard.

Internal IP – show/hide the internal IP. IP Address assigned by your local network router. Select the address to copy it to the clipboard.

Location Name(s)/Time(s) in menu – when checked, this will display your locations/cities with their current local time.

Click to view, add, edit, delete or export cities  – click this button to add and remove cities or time zones and to set which ones show up in the time menu and in the floating clocks. See check-marked items below on the left appearing in the time menu on the right. Drag cities up/down in the pref (left) to change their order in the menu (right).

Tap the + or – icons in the next dialog to add or delete cities.

Or tap on item seen above to change it the city/country you want.

Export – select cities to export and tap the export button, set location to save to. It will create a .plist file that you can open in a text editor. More for geeks.

Menu items format – set the format to see your cities with as much or as little info as you want.

Hide Country – this will hide the country name when this box is checked.

Time format – select a format or create your own custom time format.

Color – set the color of the menu items.

Drop Shadow – set whether to add a drop shadow to the menu items.

Set Font – choose the font you want for the menu items.

Time:Floating Clocks

Show/Hide Floating Clocks – this needs to be checked on. Also needs to be checked on in the actual Time menu.

Clock Face – select to have a digital or analog face.

Analog face type – select among the different face types.

Analog clock size – set to the size you want.

Show analog second hand – show/hide the second hand in analog clocks.

Show AM/PM – kinda obvious.

Clock Location Text – Show city, country, timezone, color, etc. – obvious.

Arranging the Locations – to change the arrangement of cities in the Floating Clocks, click and drag the cities up or down in the location list (image below) to set the order in which you want the locations to appear:

Items checked off in the ‘F’ column above will be the ones that show up in the Floating Clocks.

Items checked off in the ‘M’ column above are the ones that will show up in the menu bar when you click on the time. See image below.

When you are finished arranging the locations, with the Floating Clock pref enabled, turn the Floating Clocks off and on from the menu, and the floating clocks will show and hide from the convenience of the menu when you need  them.

Time:Chimes

Speak the hours, Voice – select a voice to speak the hours.

Play sound on the hour – like a grandfather clock or Big Ben.

Only once – one bell

For the hour count – the hour is the number of gongs.

Play sound on the 1/4 hour

Play sound on the 1/2 hour

Play sound on the 3/4 hour

Quiet time – no sounds play during this time.

Chime volume

Time:Take 5

The name Take 5 means ‘to chill’, is based on English slang for take a break and also on the famous Jazz piece ‘Take Five” composed by Paul Desmond and played by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. That piece also happens to be 5 minutes long and is perfect for use with the Take 5 utility in iClock. We recommend using the tune ‘Take 5’ with the app Take 5 so it plays for 5 minutes in the background as you take a short exercise break every 30 mins.

Take 5 is a timer in iClock for timing regular breaks. Breaks are essential especially if you sit at a desk or on a computer all day long. We have bodies and we forget they need to move around, relax and get exercise. Take 5 is a reminder to provide your body with maintenance it needs.

“There is no pill that comes close to what exercise can do,” says Claude Bouchard, director of the human genomics laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, found in Time Magazine article.

“Physical activity does not have to be arduously long to be beneficial,” says Howard D. Sesso, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health

“Brief bursts of intense exercise are remarkably effective.” “Most people cite ‘lack of time’ as the main reason for not being active,” says Professor Martin Gibala. “Our study shows that an interval-based approach can be more efficient – you can get health and fitness benefits comparable to the traditional approach, in less time.”

Take 5 in iClock is also a Pomodoro technique timer. What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The idea of staying focused for 8 hours can seem like a daunting undertaking. The Pomodoro technique (originating from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer) helps to break this chore into manageable increments. Despite how overwhelming your task at hand may sound, you can do anything if it’s only for 25 minutes.

1. Remove all distractions: close emails, silence phone, and shut office door (if applicable).
2. Set the Take 5 timer for 20 or 25 minutes (one “Pomodoro”).
3. Work solely on one task, completely uninterrupted for 20 or 25 minutes straight.
4. Once the timer goes off, give yourself a short break, maybe 5 mins (ie. get a drink, stretch, walk around, or meditate).
5. After completing four “Pomodoros” give yourself a longer break of 20 or 30 minutes to rest your brain before the next round.

Settings

Turning on/off “Add Take 5 to Time Menu” – adds ‘Take 5’ to the Time Menu. When on you get a link to Start, Stop and Preferences.

Settings for the break, duration, and number of times to repeat the sessions.

Sounds for Break Beginning and Break End.

TIP: Remember ‘Take Five’ by Dave Brubeck is a great MP3 you can use for a Break every sound (break length).

Time:Alarms

A checkbox to turn on/off the display of “Add ‘Alarms…’ to Time Menu’ to the Time Menu.

Below this, you can name, set the time, date and sounds for an alarm. Select ‘Delete’ or ‘Clear in the menu to stop an alarm.

Time:Countdown Timer

Set a time to countdown to. Example enter Dec. 31, midnight for New Years.

Countdown resolution – like days, hours, mins., secs to see a countdown timer.

Display window – can open the countdown window each time you login, wake from sleep, either of those.

Within days – put the number of days before the event that you want to start seeing the countdown timer.

Time:Global Scheduler

A tool to help any arrange a multi-timezone teleconference.

Have you ever had to arrange a conference call with people in many different timezones? It can be very challenging figuring out how to connect with 3+ people in different locations and not catch them at lunch, dinner, asleep or just getting up. Global Scheduler is the tool to arrange this in the quickest and easiest fashion.

Time:Stopwatch

The stopwatch part of iClock allows you to count up, count down (from a set amount of time), stop, reset and change the settings. The settings look like this screenshot on the right.

Start – start and stop with this button.

Reset – resets everything to 0.

Resolution – set the accuracy of time resolution.

Set Font – set the color of the font used for displaying the numbers.

Floating or Normal Window – dropdown menu allows selecting a normal window which allows Stopwatch window to move around from the front to the back layer of windows. Or select the floating window to have it always on top and visible.

Sound – allows select one of the many sounds to play when the countdown reaches 0.

Time:Set Timezone

Takes you to Apple’s control panel to change timezone. Here is a link to a good map of Standard Time Zones

Time:Light/Dark Mode

Apple’s Dark Mode adds a fresh new option to the Mac appearance….but it doesn’t give you a quick way or an automatic way to switch from light to dark mode. iClock controls time, now it allows controlling Light/Dark Mode within time itself !!!