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#1 The Nokia N9 (specifically the alarm clock) When trying to find a clone for Android, I found this guy's blog post which explains why it's perfect: http://ww

#1 The Nokia N9 (specifically the alarm clock) When trying to find a clone for Android, I found this guy's blog post which explains why it's perfect: http://www.nition.co/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ http://www.nition.co/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ The swipe interface of the operating system is also the best I've ever used. If I play around with the N9 for a few minutes now; then go back to android, it feels clunky an inefficient again. #2 The Nintendo Gamecube It just works without having to setup profiles or download updates, the controller is awesome (subjective) and it carries the greatest Mario Kart, Smash Brothers and Mario Party ever created (also subjective).

baby 10y ago
I remember watching an interview of Yamamoto explaining how Sony blatantly copied the N64 controller, even copying Nintendo's mistake of having 4 right-side buttons of exactly the same shape (for the fingers). Nintendo corrected this with the gamecube controller having different shaped buttons on the right (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller the A, Y, X and B buttons) For some reason, Nintendo reversed back to the "bad" playstation-like buttons after the gamecube. If anyone knows why I would be interested.
- coldpie 10y ago
  Maybe it's because I play a lot of games, but I don't know why four identical shaped buttons would be bad. I never press A and think I'm pressing B because they are the same shape. It's not clear to me why you think different shaped buttons is inherently better.
  - baby 10y ago
    One thing where it shines: new players and tutorials. When the button is shown to the screen they can immediately track it. Sony is pretty bad with that, GF always asks "what is R2? What is R3? ..."
    - idonotknowwhy 10y ago
      For some reason, my gf picked up 'right bumper', 'left trigger', etc from the Xbox 360 much more easily than "R1/L2" from the PS2.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    Gamecube-style button shapes can be packed more tightly, which I've occasionally thought would be nice when playing Super Metroid and its various romhacks and inspirees. Some of the advanced mobility techniques require complex inputs, and while rebinding can help those flow more naturally, that only works up to a point - when you're trying to reliably perform sequences like spin-jumping, cancelling over an enemy, selecting missiles to get in a couple of quick midair hits, deselecting missiles, and firing beams to clear out approaching nuisance flyers so they don't hitstun you and break your flow, every millimeter between the buttons makes a difference.
- kbenson 10y ago
  The smaller, yellow "c" buttons on the right hurt to use a lot, having a higher and skinnier profile. For fighting games that matters quite a bit, because there's a lot of quick button mixups. Playing some games on the N64 could be painful after a short while. I imagine they went back because all the games expected the old layout by that time since it was used with the other systems, so it was just easier.
- idonotknowwhy 10y ago
  I don't know why they reverted to the 4 same-sized buttons on the Wii classic pro controller and the WiiU controllers. If I had to guess, I'd say that on the Wii, the wiimote + nunchuck were the primary focus and the 'pro' controllers were an afterthought. You could use the legendary gamecube (GCN) controller for some games anyway. In this super-long (and interesting) article about the GCN, under the heading "The Pressures To Create The Perfect Controller", there's a write-up of the design and decision process for the creation of the controller. https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamecube/ https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-...
baby 10y ago
Also, one thing I don't understand with the iOS alarm. Why doesn't it work like the Android one? On android, when I set an alarm, it tells me exactly how long I will sleep if I go to sleep right away.
- evan_ 10y ago
  The newest iOS has a feature that sounds like what you describe under "Bedtime" in the clock app.
  - baby 10y ago
    Still not the same. Imagine that you're telling siri "wake me up at 9am" and it replies to you "alarm will ring in 8 hours".
coldpie 10y ago
I've been using an Android alarm clock program that is unfortunately called Alarm Clock Xtreme for nearly a decade. It works pretty great. It's not quite as slick as the N9 alarm clock that blog post describes, but it's pretty close. If you're still trying to hunt down an alarm clock, give it a shot.
- roel_v 10y ago
  Is it better than Timely? I love Timely, but its lack of updates for many years now is worrying.
  - coldpie 10y ago
    I don't know, it's good enough that it's the only one I've used :) It does still get updates, for what that's worth.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    What are you looking to be updated in your alarm clock? Personally, I find updates to simple Android applications that don't seem to need new features somewhat worrying. It often seems to be coupled with a new requirement for network access...
    - roel_v 10y ago
      There are a few things I've missed (multiple timezone support, bugs when waking up from lockscreen in some cases), so overall it's mostly 'keeping up' - mobile apps that don't co-evolve with the latest versions of the OS's will stop working at some point.
- LadlePlayer 10y ago
  I'm quite a big fan of it ACX myself and use it as my daily alarm clock. However, my one gripe with it is that with the major update (ages ago now), they removed the option to set an alarm with no snooze option.
sparkling 10y ago
The stock Android alarm app seems to have everything that is mentioned in the blog post (at least that is the case in Android 7.0+, can't speak for older versions)

baby 10y ago

I remember watching an interview of Yamamoto explaining how Sony blatantly copied the N64 controller, even copying Nintendo's mistake of having 4 right-side buttons of exactly the same shape (for the fingers). Nintendo corrected this with the gamecube controller having different shaped buttons on the right (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller the A, Y, X and B buttons) For some reason, Nintendo reversed back to the "bad" playstation-like buttons after the gamecube. If anyone knows why I would be interested.

coldpie 10y ago
Maybe it's because I play a lot of games, but I don't know why four identical shaped buttons would be bad. I never press A and think I'm pressing B because they are the same shape. It's not clear to me why you think different shaped buttons is inherently better.
- baby 10y ago
  One thing where it shines: new players and tutorials. When the button is shown to the screen they can immediately track it. Sony is pretty bad with that, GF always asks "what is R2? What is R3? ..."
  - idonotknowwhy 10y ago
    For some reason, my gf picked up 'right bumper', 'left trigger', etc from the Xbox 360 much more easily than "R1/L2" from the PS2.
- throwanem 10y ago
  Gamecube-style button shapes can be packed more tightly, which I've occasionally thought would be nice when playing Super Metroid and its various romhacks and inspirees. Some of the advanced mobility techniques require complex inputs, and while rebinding can help those flow more naturally, that only works up to a point - when you're trying to reliably perform sequences like spin-jumping, cancelling over an enemy, selecting missiles to get in a couple of quick midair hits, deselecting missiles, and firing beams to clear out approaching nuisance flyers so they don't hitstun you and break your flow, every millimeter between the buttons makes a difference.
kbenson 10y ago
The smaller, yellow "c" buttons on the right hurt to use a lot, having a higher and skinnier profile. For fighting games that matters quite a bit, because there's a lot of quick button mixups. Playing some games on the N64 could be painful after a short while. I imagine they went back because all the games expected the old layout by that time since it was used with the other systems, so it was just easier.
idonotknowwhy 10y ago
I don't know why they reverted to the 4 same-sized buttons on the Wii classic pro controller and the WiiU controllers. If I had to guess, I'd say that on the Wii, the wiimote + nunchuck were the primary focus and the 'pro' controllers were an afterthought. You could use the legendary gamecube (GCN) controller for some games anyway. In this super-long (and interesting) article about the GCN, under the heading "The Pressures To Create The Perfect Controller", there's a write-up of the design and decision process for the creation of the controller. https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-of-gamecube/ https://dromble.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/dolphin-tale-story-...

baby 10y ago

Also, one thing I don't understand with the iOS alarm. Why doesn't it work like the Android one? On android, when I set an alarm, it tells me exactly how long I will sleep if I go to sleep right away.

evan_ 10y ago
The newest iOS has a feature that sounds like what you describe under "Bedtime" in the clock app.
- baby 10y ago
  Still not the same. Imagine that you're telling siri "wake me up at 9am" and it replies to you "alarm will ring in 8 hours".

coldpie 10y ago

I've been using an Android alarm clock program that is unfortunately called Alarm Clock Xtreme for nearly a decade. It works pretty great. It's not quite as slick as the N9 alarm clock that blog post describes, but it's pretty close. If you're still trying to hunt down an alarm clock, give it a shot.

roel_v 10y ago
Is it better than Timely? I love Timely, but its lack of updates for many years now is worrying.
- coldpie 10y ago
  I don't know, it's good enough that it's the only one I've used :) It does still get updates, for what that's worth.
- kbenson 10y ago
  What are you looking to be updated in your alarm clock? Personally, I find updates to simple Android applications that don't seem to need new features somewhat worrying. It often seems to be coupled with a new requirement for network access...
  - roel_v 10y ago
    There are a few things I've missed (multiple timezone support, bugs when waking up from lockscreen in some cases), so overall it's mostly 'keeping up' - mobile apps that don't co-evolve with the latest versions of the OS's will stop working at some point.
LadlePlayer 10y ago
I'm quite a big fan of it ACX myself and use it as my daily alarm clock. However, my one gripe with it is that with the major update (ages ago now), they removed the option to set an alarm with no snooze option.

sparkling 10y ago

The stock Android alarm app seems to have everything that is mentioned in the blog post (at least that is the case in Android 7.0+, can't speak for older versions)