Use Timer Pro for Mac to set customized alarms with advanced features

At a Glance

Timer Pro for Mac

Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s GemFest 2012 series. Every weekday from mid June through mid August, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for a list of past Mac Gems.

Apimac’s Timer for Mac 7.0 is for hardcore timer and alarm clock users. There are far cheaper timer apps available in the Mac App Store (including Apimac’s freeware version of the same app), but Timer Pro has some surprising functions that make it a stand-out app.

Hide or display all of Timer Pro's events by clicking the Info button (shown in blue).

Timer Pro has three modes: Stopwatch, Countdown, and Alarm Clock (and all three modes work pretty much just as you’d expect). Blow the window up full screen, keep it to a medium rectangle, or iconize it. Toggling the info button either hides or shows the events you’ve performed in the app, which you could export to calendars or other apps if you wanted. Clicking the “+” button adds timers, so you could have several different timers and clocks going at once. You can choose from 14 different alarm tones, choose the amount of rings you want, and have the option to display an alert box.

What makes Timer Pro interesting is that the app offers dozens of functions that you can use instead of (or in addition to) an alarm tone. Some examples: speak a customized message aloud, restart your computer, go to a specific website, launch another application, execute an automator workflow, or start a song in iTunes.

This is what makes Timer Pro noteworthy, and possibly worth the high price tag. The free version of the app is certainly worth a try, but it does not offer these advanced functions.

[Karen Freeman is a writer, teacher, and Apple fan.]

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