JL countDownTimer

Keeping track of time is not a complex task, and it can be key in solving your everyday activities. Countdown timers can come in handy for setting up reminders to upcoming events. If done on a computer, you might have higher chances of success, and there are various applications out there like JL countDownTimer to help out.

On the bright side of things, the application doesn’t keep you busy with a setup process, so you can see what it’s all about from the moment download is done. More than that, it’s possible to have it stored on a USB flash drive in case you want to use it on a different computer, without affecting stability, because registry entries are not affected during runtime.

Note that the application always runs in fullscreen mode, and there’s no possibility to toggle this. On the downside, it’s not built for widescreen displays, which might be slightly inconvenient, given there’s a lot of unused space in the end.

There isn’t much effort invested in the visual design, with various elements all wrapped around a single tint of color, displaying basic shapes, placed inside a dial to represent a clock. The middle area shows the remaining time as it drains out, filling up corresponding circles representing hours until the entire clock is filled.

The application wants to put heavy emphasis on speech to text. On the one hand, you can configure various audio tools to alert you of passing time. On the other hand, there’s the possibility to enable text to speech functions for end of time announcements, or even for events in between, text which is read from the clipboard, so you need to keep it reserved for the application.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that JL countDownTimer isn’t really what you expect from a time-organizer tool. The visual design feels a little rough around the edges, while the whole concept of text to speech isn’t really practical, since it aims to read clipboard content, which might be taken up with something else.