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CityTime 5.8.4 for Palm OS and CityTime for Pocket PC version 2.7.5
By William | Reporter
Date: 02/04/2007
If you've ever needed to keep track of the time in more than one
city, you'd know how much of a hassle it is to have to convert the
time between one place and another. I've always found it a pain to
try and remember the number of hours I've to add or subtract, and if
DST is in effect or not. That's where City Time comes into play. It
tells you the times in many different cities, saving you the hassle
of having to convert the times yourself.
CityTime has a database of 130 cities from which it draws its
resources. Of these 130 cities, you can pick up to 5 cities that
will show up on the main CityTime screen. One of these 5 cities has
to be designated your 'Home City'. CityTime will prompt you to pick
a Home City the first time you run the app. If, however, you find
you need to select a different Home City somewhere down the road,
that can be easily done by going to 'Options - Select Home City'. If
you can't find your home city amongst the database of 130 cities,
you can easily use the 'Edit Cities' function and create, duplicate
or import any new city/cities which you require. Cities are imported
via Memo Pad, and the import files for the procedure can be obtained
from Code City's website.
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Installing and running CityTime is simple. There are no external
databases to mess around with during the installation, and the
interface is clean and easy to maneuver around. The upper half of
the main screen is taken up by a world map with a day/night plot.
The lower half of the screen shows you the times in 4 cities that
you specify. The day/night plot moves from right to left, and it
tells you when a city is experiencing daytime or night time. It's a
very handy map to have around, since it can tell you just at a
glance which cities' (or, if you aren't that great in Geography,
which continents!) inhabitants are awake and which aren't. Tapping
anywhere on the map brings up a display that shows the time and name
of the nearest city.
Your 'home' time is shown at the top right corner of the screen. I
didn't quite like this arrangement since the home time ended up
occupying the tiniest screen space amongst the other city times,
which made it somewhat harder to see. If it were in slightly larger
font, that would be perfect. Tapping on the home time display gives
you the current day and date of your home city.
DST is well handled by CityTime. In the database of cities, the
cities that are known to employ DST have pre-set DST occurrence
dates. These 'auto' DST times, as CityTime calls them, can easily be
edited by going to 'Options - Edit Cities'. For my review, all the
instances of DST that I used were accurate, and I didn't have to
tinker around with the edit function. On the main screen, cities
with DST are shown as having a little star next to the city's name.
You can customize CityTime to your own preferences. The Display
Period, Plot Redraw, Twilight Area, and GMT Format can all be
changed to suit your liking. Other functions include a Time
Difference calculator, as well as a Sun Rise / Set information
screen.
The best part about this new version of CityTime is the color
version for the IIIc. The use of color in this app has certainly
enhanced its aesthetic value, and it's just a pleasure to look at!
Code City has employed the use of color very effectively in this new
version of CityTime, and the color enhances the usability of the
app.
One qualm I have about CityTime is that it takes up quite a fair bit
of RAM on the Palm. The color version is close to 200kb, while the
grayscale version is about 120kb. However, it's best to keep in mind
that many other world clock apps are equally large in size due to
the amount of information stored in the databases.
The Verdict
CityTime is a wonderful app with numerous useful features, and great
looks to boot. I know this sounds shallow, but the CityTime graphics
on a IIIc are just outstanding, and I feel this is the way that all
color apps should be. It might be silly to rave about color
coordination with regards to an app, but really, CityTime has got to
be one of the prettiest color apps in the market. It's apps like
CityTime that make the color on the IIIc justifiable.
Of course, let's not forget its usefulness. If you're a business
traveler who frequently flies across time zones, this is the app to
get to keep track of the time, wherever you may be. If you have
friends in different time zones, CityTime's also a good way to keep
track of when they might be awake so you can call them up for a
chat! If you're in a profession that requires knowledge of different
time zones (e.g. stock brokers, pilots), CityTime will allow you to
have all that information at your fingertips. Visor users are in
luck, though --- CityTime already comes bundled with all Handspring
Visors. If you need a world clock, CityTime can't be beaten.
The Good
Multiple-featured world clock that's easy to use
Good graphics and great use of color
Handy import function should you need to add more cities
The Bad
Takes up quite a bit of RAM
More Stories Like This...
PocketPC: Essential Softwares (Download CityTime for PocketPC)
Palm: Essential Softwares (Download CityTime for Palm)
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