Back in the late 90’s it was cool if you had a cell phone, a PDA, a calculator, an MP3 player and at home an alarm clock. That’s probably why those baggy cargo carpenter pants were cool (one pocket per gadget). These days, less is more. You want the same functionality, but if you’re like about 200 million other folks out there, you probably have that functionality contained in just one device… your iPhone.
A Jack of All Trades… A Master of None?
While iPhone is great, sometimes being a jack of all trades means you’re a master of none. So while I use my iPhone for a lot of things, I still find myself using much more dated gadgets for their practicality. One such gadget is my alarm clock. Not because I actually SET the alarm, my iPhone has about 5 alarms set for various things all with different wake-up tones to help me remember what day it is. Actually, the functionality of the iPhone alarm is phenomenal and very easy. Still, on my bedside I keep (kept) my trusty old alarm clock, so I could see the time at night.
Sure, there are clock apps which do a fine job of showing the time, but the slim profile of my iPhone 4S wasn’t conducive to actually displaying the time vertically. At night, I’m simply not awake enough to reach for my phone to look at the time. Plus, once you hit the comfort sweet spot, you don’t want to bother moving just to see that it’s only been 2 hours and your insomnia has struck again.
I’ve used other docks before. Actually, I’ve used quite a few docks. Docking stations have been around since iPhone first came out. AT&T stores use them as displays for the phone, and you can pick up a small vertical dock for about $40 right from Apple. But all these solutions dock your phone vertically. Most clocks I’m used to display a large format digital time, and they do it widescreen. Vertical displays just don’t work well for me.
An Elegant Solution
Enter Cdock. This is surprisingly simple, elegant, and functional. The Cdock is a docking station built to look like a retro-modern clock face. The dock itself does require acquisition of a clock app, but a quick search of the app store yielded 5-6 free clocks that work great. Cdock displays horizontally instead of vertically so you can use clock apps with the iPhone’s accelerometer to display a wide format digital clock. This looks so natural you could forget that your clock is your phone. Cdock is made from a walnut housing and features a hard black or white resin face, a brushed aluminum face or a walnut faceplate. It looks great!
The Cdock still allows you to touch the screen of your phone and access the home button. The power button is recessed into the body of the Cdock, which actually works nicely in keeping you from accidentally turning off your docked phone and disabling your clock. This was definitely constructed for bedside use, and it’s wonderful.
In addition to an elegant design with high quality material, the Cdock also features a 6’0″ USB charging cable. Until I added my Cdock to my bedroom, I’d been using my dinky 3’0″ Apple cable with a USB extension cable. It looked terrible and kept coming unplugged. Thank you Cdock for understanding that not everyone charges their phone so close to an outlet! The power supply looks very much like an Apple OEM charger, but is finished black to hide in the background with your other power cables. Cdock uses the same charging logic as Apple, where the end of the cable is a USB cord and they supply you with an outlet adapter to charge right from the wall. Whether you plan to use Cdock as a classy docking solution at your office or home computer, or as a bedroom clock, Cdock looks great and works great!
The Final Say
I think the Cdock is a must have accessory for anyone who relies on their iPhone as a clock. I’m ready to simplify my bedside table and to retire my old Sony alarm clock. With Cdock I have the functionality of my iPhone alarm clock in a housing which looks great and enables my phone to BE a clock. I’m highly impressed with this product and absolutely recommend it. Get yours here!