ChessClock app for iPhone and iPad
4.6 (
5456 ratings )
Games
Board
Developer:
Aardustry LLC
Free
Current version:
5.0.5, last update: 3 months ago
First release : 31 Jan 2019
App size: 6.98 Mb
My original iOS Chess Clock from 2008 is back... in all its old-school Skeuomorphic glory!
Two clocks. Tap one to start the other counting down. Tap both to stop both. Tap the little clock icon to set the time, and the info button to change the settings.
Chess Clock includes features found in competition chess clocks, including Fischer, Bronstein, and USCF ("Simple") delay modes, which work in both digital and the visually appealing analog mode.
Also, since this version was rewritten entirely within the borders of Switzerland, I guess this might be the cheapest Swiss timepiece you can have.
Features:
• Analog flag movement that swings back and forth as it falls (which took me a silly amount of time to get right, but I like it)
• Set each clock independently
• Analog and digital modes
• Adjustable time delay (Bronstein, Fischer, and USCF modes)
• Highlights the currently running clock
Pros and cons of ChessClock app for iPhone and iPad
ChessClock app good for
This app is just what i needed. I play chess just about every day! Its easy to use and its extremley portable. If only they made an app chess board... hmm...
The application works well. Both the analog and digital interfaces look fine, although they could use slightly larger displays. Its easy to change the time limits, and its nice to have a game timer in my pocket all the time. However, I really hope that the developer adds an option to have the timers continue to run after time has expired. In chess it doesnt matter, but scored games, like Scrabble have point penalties for every minute over, not an automatic loss. That feature would make the clock usable in a greater variety of games, and it seems like it would be simple to implement. Otherwise, nice app at a nice price.
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UPDATE ADDED SINCE ORIGINAL REVIEW
I had been using the digital timer almost exclusively, but the analog timer DOES have the feature I sought. Id still like it implemented for the digital timer, but Scrabble (and other games) players can use this timer and keep track of penalty time.
Some bad moments
Does not remember custom clock set-ups, so clocks must be configured each time. To neutralize the clocks, both clocks must be touched simultaneously, but I encountered an error where doing this sent me back to my iPhones main screen, and the clocks had reset. This software was not worth the money, and needs more work.
I fail to understand why the concept of a simple chess clock is so hard for any develop to implement competently. Seriously. Its. A. Timer.
And yet, of about the three features that this one does, it fails spectacularly in one of them: setting a custom time. If you try to change the time using the standard iPhone number dials and click save... nope. Doesnt work. Theres no way to change the time using the dials (for anyone interested, I actually did end up trying to press cancel to see if the labels on the buttons were reverse but that didnt work either).
It really makes you wonder if some of these developers have opened their app a single time.
