Like apps that enhance your photos, timers and alarms on the Mac are plentiful and inexpensive. I use timers to keep track of my work. I use alarms to let me know when something must be done, or when time to do it is up.
The reason there are so many Mac timers may have more to do with the low price, competition, and the fact that we all time different things for different reasons.
My test timer this week is Nice Timer. It’s nice, attractive, inexpensive, but not much to write home about. Yet. There’s hope.
Nice Timer lives in your Mac’s Menubar. Once click and you’re ready to set a time (or, multiple timers).
The onscreen timer is elegant, comes in two sizes and over a dozen different styles. Bring up the timer with a global hotkey. Change the colors for different timings.
Click on a specific timer to stop or start or adjust settings.
What Nice Timer really needs is an alarm that’s tied into iCal or multiple alerts when a time objective has been reached. And, maybe a few onscreen color flashes to let the user know when a countdown has reached zero.
It’s a nice timer, but needs a few more features to justify the price (even though it’s not expensive).
18 ways to use a timer on a Mac? Nah. I made it up. There’s probably a lot more.