When I first looked at this app I thought it was nothing more than a cute artsy application. But when I actually opened it up, I discovered that it’s actually quite a cute little alarm clock.
Here comes Melatonin.
[This review was written by Raj. Raj is a 15 years old graphic and web designer from U.S. and, obviously, a Mac user. You can reach him on Twitter, or head over his website where you’ll also find some gorgeous icons he designed]
When you first open Melatonin, you are looking out of a window (similar to Outside.app). Outside lies an animal of your choosing - either a bird, a penguin, or a crab. The animal instructs you to pull down the window shade. After pulling it down, you enter the application’s settings screen.
Here is where you can adjust the alarm sounds, time, and themes. After you configure the time (and period before animation starts), you can close the blinds and it is all saved. What’s nice about Melatonin, though, is that it can also put you to sleep. All you have to do is tell it what sound to play and for how long and you’re on your way to bed. For both waking up and sleeping, you can configure custom sounds, including any playlist from your music.
At the bottom of the settings screen, you can choose a theme. Melatonin comes with three beautiful themes: “Hello Birdie”, “Ice Ice Birdie” (a play off of the popular Vanilla Ice song I suppose), and “Oh Crab”. Each theme is beautifully designed and is a pleasure to look at (especially first thing in the morning).
After you close the blinds, you click on the animal to tell it you are going to sleep.
Melatonin starts a beautiful sunset animation and simultaneously plays your ‘fall asleep’ sound.
After the sunset animation completes and the screen goes black, you can pull down a clock (if you wake up in the middle of the night and want to check what time it is, for example).
One thing I don’t quite like (but can understand) is that you have to keep Melatonin on throughout the entire night. It would be awesome of they implemented some sort of push notifications somehow.
Overall, Melatonin is a beautifully designed and cute alarm clock app. It’s available for $0.99 in the App Store. [iTunes Link]
