14 DAY TRIAL // Normally, I don't review widgets. This is because they are usually very limited in functionality and there is not much to say about them beyond a few lines, and also because the typical widget is so restrictive in scope that it will only appeal to very few people. Moreover, because of the way that Apple designed Dashboard, widgets are hard to work within a multitasking manner, since they only show up in Dashboard, and if you drag them out of it, they get in your way. That having been said, there are the rare widgets that are exempt from the above and worthy of a review, such as Prod Me.
What it does Prod Me is a little widget that enhances the functionality of your clock. Admittedly, there is not much that can be improved in terms of clock functionality? if it tells the time accurately, it's doing its job. However, there are small additional features that can make a clock better, not at keeping time, but at letting you deal with it. The clock in OS X does a good job, it's always there and it's most accurate, however, it is also very easy to loose track of. Because it's always there, you only ever look at it when you actually want to know the time, but otherwise it goes unseen. Thus, it is quite easy to literally lose track of time. Furthermore, there are some applications that have so many menus that they push the clock off the screen. Prod Me takes care of all these and brings long lost features back to the system clock.
Hear time One of the really good things about this clock is that you could set it to chime. Like grandfather clocks, this chiming is active and will provide cues to the passing of time without you having to go out and look for them. Thus, it becomes much harder to lose track of time, no matter how busy you are or what you are doing. Even if the clock is hidden, the chimes will still be heard. These chimes are a far cry from the OS X option of having the computer speak the time for you or the hour, which is ungainly and much more disruptive.
Choose your poison Prod Me has several modes that you can choose from, all of which make sounds at certain time intervals, but each doing it in quite a different manner.
The Mac OS 9 Style will chime the time every hour, much like a grandfather clock, and it will also chime on the quarters and half. Each of the sounds can be customized and different from the others, so you can be very much aware of what the time is without ever looking at your clock. Furthermore, because of this chiming that happens every hour, this mode gives you the most feedback, although it can admittedly be bothersome at times, so the developer offers the possibility of disabling it.
The Clock Chimes mode will let you choose a time interval and will play the chime at that respective interval. You can choose between one, five, ten, fifteen, thirty and sixty minutes. However, this mode only gives you one chime sound, so it is impossible to distinguish between quarter past and quarter to. This mode also gives the option to chime the hour, should you want it.
Last but not least, there is an Other mode, that lets you choose more unusual intervals, and also lets you type any interval you wish, if you need something more exotic. This mode, however, cannot chime the hour.
For all modes, you also have the option to mute the chimes between certain hours, thus making sure that the computer won't be making too much noise if you leave it running overnight to do things. This gives you the best of both worlds since options such as chime the hour are particularly annoying in the wee hours of the morning.
By themselves, these modes cover any and all possibilities I can think of, and should be more than enough. However, should you need something else, it is quite possible for you to get it, due to the fact that Prod Me is a widget. Like all widgets, it is possible to launch multiple versions of it at the same time, and each of these widgets can have its own different settings. It is thus possible to create complex combinations of any of the above to obtain any chime effect you can imagine.
Cause for alarm Beside the chimes, Prod Me also offers an alarm that can be set up to remind you of various things. Much like the alarm of old, it will keep ringing until it is dismissed, making it ideal for those things that must catch your attention. Besides the alarm itself, the program can also display a text message. The alarm can be snoozed for custom time periods, and you can have as many of them as you wish simply by launching multiple versions of the widget.
The Good
It bring some much-loved functionality back to the system clock and it even improves it. Quite flexible and versatile through the fact that you can run multiple versions of it.
The Bad
The widget stops reacting when it is dragged outside the dashboard and no longer lets you change the settings. Also, the widget itself takes up quite a bit of space without actually delivering much useful information.
The Truth
If you miss the clock chimes of old, Prod Me will deliver them with a little extra added in. Very easy to use and quite practical, launch specialized versions of it when needed and get rid of them afterwards. Nice and clean.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
