Bob's Alarm Version 3.6 Updated: 2005.05.19  
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The 'Sound' screen is shown below. This screen allows you to select the type of sound and volume that will be played when the event happens.

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Type: There are 4 types of sounds that can be played by "Bob's Alarm": Wave, mp3, MIDI and BTones.

MP3 and Wave files: The list will allow you to navigate through the folders on your expansion (SD usually) card. You can also refer to a location on an internal flash card, on devices so equipped (Tungsten T5, etc.). Playing Wave and mp3 files requires the installation of Bob's Sound Library.

MP3: MP3 files can be used if you have PocketTunes or AeroPlayer installed on your device. 'Bob's Alarm' will tell that app to start and stop the alarm sound. If you have a PocketTunes version earlier than 2.3.3 then the PocketTunes volume setting will be overwritten by the Bob's Alarm volume setting when an alarm goes off. To avoid this inconvenience, PocketTunes 2.xx users can obtain an upgrade to version 2.4 from NormSoft, at this address.

Wave: Many devices with expansion cards, but not all, will support wave files using the standard PalmOS wave file playback functions. Some other devices support wave playback, but use a different type of function which is not compatible with Bob's Alarm; most notably, this would include early Sony devices.

MIDI: All PalmOS devices support playback of MIDI tones. A list of available MIDI filenames is available via the drop-down arrow.

  • Bob's Tones: All PalmOS devices support playback of 'Bob's Tones'. These tones allow you to configure not only the volume, but also the speed and frequency of the tone. Playing 'Bob's Tones' requires the installation of Bob's Sound Library.
    • Claxon
    • Warble
    • Zap
    • Phone
    • Chirp
    • Wolf
    It must also be noted that early Treo600 devices had a bug in their sound handling functions that would, eventually, prevent any simple sounds, such as Bob's Tones from being generated. A soft reset would restore the sounds, but only for a while. Installing a firmware patch, available from PalmOne for many Treo600 models, solves the problem.

    Vol (%): Adjust the tone volume. The volume setting is generally adjusted between 0 and 100%. Some devices suffer from odd sound behavior if you select a value less than 5%, and some devices can be set to above 100%.

    BTones Speed (%): Adjust the speed of playback for a 'Bob's tone'.

    BTones Tone (hz): Adjust the tone frequency of a 'Bob's tone'. Tip: Changing the tone can have a significant impact on the loudness of the alarm. As an example, on my original Palm V, I found that most tones did not provide enough amplitude so as to serve as an effective alarm clock (it has to be loud enough to wake me up, right? ;) ). Trial and error led me to determine that 2750 hz was optimal at producing the loudest sound.

    Test: Play the sound immediately, using the current settings, so as to test what it will sound like when an event happens.



    (c) 2004 RarM_Software