I just released my first application on the Android Market: QTimer. (Market Link).

It’s a very simple timer application. I had trouble finding an app that let me quickly set one-off timers. Things like reminding me:

• in 3 minutes when my tea is finished steeping
• in 25 minutes when the chicken in the oven is ready
• in 35 minutes my laundry cycle will be done
• at 5:00 I have to go pick up my dry cleaning
• that the take-out place said my order will be ready in 15 minutes

Every existing application I could find involved lots of key presses just to set a quick, simple alarm. Enough that it was annoying and to even bother (for me at least). I think the main problem is with the default Android time picker control, which is just a plus and minus button combined with a numeric input box.

Built-In Time Picker

If you have a physical keyboard this is fine, but otherwise there is a lot of button pressing to change the input. You can hold down either button, but if you’re pressing the “+” button your view is obstructed and it’s difficult to tell when you’ve hit the number you want.

Wheel Widget

I found a cool wheel widget that mimics how the iPhone handles this type of input, and I think it makes selecting a number much, much easier. I had to make a lot of modifications to the code to get it to work the way I wanted, but it’s a huge improvement over the built-in method of selecting a number.

Other features

Customizable Alert

You can choose to be notified by either a status bar notification (the default) or popup dialog, very similar to that of the built-in Android alarm application. The ringtone and vibration settings can be changed as well. There is also an ongoing status bar notification that lets you know when there are alarms active — this can be disabled from the preferences screen.

History

The history tab provides access to your most used or most recently used alarms, so if you do have an alarm that you use often, you can easily restart it from here.

Preferences & Built-in-help

A lot of the application behaviors can be changed from the settings screen, accessible from the main menu. There is also a comprehensive help document included, also accessible from the main menu.

Screenshots