Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

I was always fascinated by QlockTwo, but my wallet is not thick enough to shell out only $1100 for the least expensive version. It is a simple wall clock doing nothing but telling the time by illuminating letters which seem to randomly arranged in a grid. The clock updates the time every 5 minutes. If the time is e.g. 11:58 till 12:02, it shows simple “It is twelve o’clock”. Commonly if somebody is asked for the time and it is in the mentioned range, the reply would be the same: It’s twelve.

For less money QlockTwo is also available for iPad and Android operated phones and tabs. The price for the app is $0.99 plus a tab for around $400 to $500 (there are also less expensive ones, but honestly, if you have a tab, will you only use it as a clock?) sums up to around $500, which is half the price of the wall clock.

However there is one more option: Recently I got hold of a digital photo frame for around $40. Apart from photos taken from digital cameras, the idea is to generate images showing the time instead and let them run in a never ending slide show loop. So I implemented a program, generating the required images. Unfortunately the slide show mode does not allow to show the next image every 5 minutes, the closest interval is 1 minute. Hence I needed to generate 720 images for 12 hours. However, the digital photo frame shows the image for almost exactly 1 minute and transits to the next one. After the transition is completed, the countdown timer of 1 minute is restarted. The transition itself does not count. So, every transition the time was slow by round about 1.5 seconds. The transition could not be switched off. After a long trial I managed to get a very accurate timing (loosing something like 17 seconds per month), by removing and inserting certain images to compensate for the time loss during the transitions. In the end I needed 2770 files for 2 days.

However compared to the inspiring QlockTwo design, I can change the colors and even the background of the clock. Basically the options are limitless and I might add new languages in the future. Till then, I have a nice wall clock.

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