Aurora for Mac5.0.3

This product was developed by Metakine up to version 4.3, then bought by One Periodic who released version 5. As of this posting, you can still download version version 4.3 here: https://www.metakine.com/files/Aurora%20v4.3.0.zip

Aurora used to be solid for me. Eventually I opted to upgrade from version 4 to 5 when the countdown timer duration seemed to slow to between 1/2 to 1/3 of actual speed whenever the alarm window that popped up was in the background (i.e., an alarm set to play music would start on time but last 25 minutes instead of 10 before finally stopping). Now version 5 and the latest OS (10.9.4) has resulted in a mismatch between when the menubar item thinks an alarm should start and when the alarms window actually attempts to start it - this happens whenever you try to edit an alarm already in place, and results in a ton of console log spam. This desync seems fixable by quitting both halves of the application (the dock/window part and the menubar part) and reopening them. I reported this bug to the developer a week ago, yet have heard no response at all to date.

Tread Very Carefully I got this in a MacUpdate Bundle & installed it on my Mountain Lion MacPro. I tried to turn it off & removed it from startup items, but it kept re-installing the startup item. After my removal attempt, via AppDelete, my MacPro began freezing every morning at startup, requiring a daily forced restart - very tiresome. As soon as I removed all remnants, including those hiding in Library/Group Containers, the daily freezes stopped. I'll find another alarm clock.

I have lots of problems with Aurora, since I got Mavericks: it works once or twice a week! Status in Menubar sometimes disappears, apparently at random, and I need to reboot my Mac to see it again in the MenuBar (other procedures useless) (in the Preferences of Aurora “Enable Alarms when Aurora isn’t running” and “Show status in the menubar” are always selected). If I don’t reboot, Aurora doesn’t start. By the way: In Mac Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items, Aurora disappears. Sometimes, Aurora wakes the Mac, starts, but doesn't play music. I tried to delete Preferences and all other files and re-install Aurora but nothing changed. Thank you for help! Paolo MacBook 5,1, late 2008, OX 10.9

I have lots of problems with Aurora, since I got Mavericks: it works once or twice a week! Status in Menubar sometimes disappears, apparently at random, and I need to reboot my Mac to see it again in the MenuBar (other procedures useless) (in the Preferences of Aurora “Enable Alarms when Aurora isn’t running” and “Show status in the menubar” are always selected). If I don’t reboot, Aurora doesn’t start. By the way: In Mac Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items, Aurora disappears. Sometimes, Aurora wakes the Mac, starts, but doesn't play music. I tried to delete Preferences and all other files and re-install Aurora but nothing changed. Thank you Paolo MacBook 5,1, late 2008, OX 10.9

I got this in a Bundle. Can't think why anyone would want to buy it if you had a Smartphone or iPad/Tablet. But there you are. Somebody must do, - try the free eval version first.

Version 5.0: Menubar status isn’t displayed in German version. Please bug fix.

Works really well. Can't think of any missing features.

Worked fine with EyeTV, but since my USB tuner broke (or EyeTV - there's a program heading for the dustbin of application history) I've discovered it apparently doesn't work with iTunes playlists containing radio streams or videos. Pretty glaring omissions, especially when you consider how few people use EyeTV on their Macs. If they increased Aurora's compatibility with playlists and third-party software (MplayerX, VLC, Radium etc.) maybe it'd be worth owning. Yes, you can use scripts, but that's a whole new bag of hurt…

because it's Free xD

Aurora is an excellent alarm clock that plays your favorite iTunes music every morning. I tried all the top alarm clocks for the Mac on both MacUpdate and the App Store, even paying for some on the App Store for which free trials are not available. What struck me the most about Aurora, and the reason I bought it and use it, is that it is dedicated to reliability and stability which is exactly what is needed in an alarm clock when you depend on it to wake you up pleasantly every morning. Well worth the price. Don't be fooled by other options with zillions of hard to use features or really low prices and lack of reliability. Aurora is the one to trust.

I bought Aurora to load EyeTV in the mornings. It has worked all of about 3 times. Sometimes it claims not to find the channels (but as soon as you quit the program EyeTV loads fine). Sometimes it just fails to open EyeTV. The unreliability of the application makes it utterly useless as an alarm! P.S. Running Snow Leopard (up-to-date) as well as most up-to-date versions of EyeTV and Aurora. 'Alway open Live TV window at Startup' checked in EyeTV preferences.

I bought Aurora yesterday and immidiately fall in love with it:) The app is simply stunning, nice simple interface, starts the mac to the right time, works smoothly and looks very nice! In my opinion it is much better then awaken the opponents app! Thanks for the nice developing :)

I think Aurora is a fine app, simple to use and essential. Staff of Metakine is very kind and always ready to resolve troubles.

Aurora still doesn't work with the new (silver) Apple Remote. Hope Metakine improve soon after... .

It keeps adding this "aurora wakeup helper.app" to my "login items", which is causing aurora to start on login (not hidden mind you), which is infuriating. This stuff should be configurable IMHO. When i need aurora to be active, i would like to start it myself, thankyou very much.

Aurora 4.0.10 works just fine with Snow Leopard too.

I got this by accident as part of a MacBundle containing two other apps I needed, but I have used it thankfully every morning since. I have an odd schedule; Aurora lets me set a different wake-up time for each day, and a separate playlist so that before my eyes open I know what day this is. Marvelous! It doesn't help my computer run better nor my workflow lessen, but it certainly improves my mood! No alarms, no depressing news, no extra-loud radio ads--just music of my choice.

Aurora is nice as far as alarm clocks go, but Awaken I believe has a nicer interface and better functionality and is much cheaper at $12.95. Aurora does have Awaken beat at present with its' EyeTV integration, otherwise they are comparable in functionality. Awaken also just announced that it's 4.1 release will allow us to choose whether you want to let iTunes play the music or Awaken. Both have benefits. Plus it will allow video playback within the alarm window. Plus I get quicker response from Awaken's devs. Check it out and compare to decide which app is best for your need. Here is a link to the blog talking about new features coming in Awaken 4.1 - http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/24/awaken-41-look-ma-no-itunes-and-look-at-the-moving-pictures/#comment-2314

This app was good when it was free. Since it now costs it has to face off against other for-pay applications like it. Given that, Awaken is about half the price and better (better looking, easier to set up, cheaper, etc.).

I've been using Aurora for quite some time as my one and only alarm clock. It functions perfectly and I've been completely satisfied with it. When the new version (4.0) came out a few days ago, I didn't even notice that it had changed from freeware to shareware/demo. (It certainly wasn't listed in the "What's New" section!) As I said, I think Aurora is a great app, and it's worth paying for. The snooze feature and multiple alarms to perform essentially any task I wish through scripting is fantastic. But in the whole time I've been using it, I've never "shopped around" for a better one. Now that it's $22.00, well, I'm going to have to reevaluate my options before I decide to buy. The price tag just may have lost a potentially very happy customer for Aurora -- not that I mind paying for it, but that I think $15 or less would be a more appropriate price -- especially considering its long history as freeware.

A good application. I've used it a few times when it was free. The new pricing seems a bit on the high side.

WHY PAY? Alarm Clock is the best alarm clock application and it is free. The only problem - it is not compatible with Leopard, yet.

Great application; works how I want it to. And if you want to use this application, but still have your computer lock when it sleeps, then I suggest using a utility like Utility Lock. Works quite well in conjunction with Aurora. Keep up the good work dev! Would like to see the standard OS X lock from sleep supported (jiggler, perhaps?).

Help. Since the iTunes update, the last two days, I've woken up to the "Westminster Chimes" blaring at full volume, Can't take much more. ;>)

this program is amazing... it does just what it says it does... i wish more programs were like this!

Excellent user interface and the perfect blend of necessary features. I've had no reliability issues. I send my Macbook (10.4.9) to sleep (Aurora can play you songs for a set time before sleeping) and it always wakes up at the right time.

Thanks to the developer. Great piece of software. I use it daily. Always works. I love the "random" alarm option and the variety of choices of wake-up music which can be set with each different alarm. Only feature missing? I'd love to be able to set the wake up music to an individual album in my library, instead of a folder at the top level. Mon: Joanie Mitchel- "Blue." Tues: Ray Charles- "Greatest Hits." That type of thing.

Aurora has never been abled to start playback from itunes and i don't use airtunes and never put my powerbook to sleep. Running OS X 10.4.9. And while it uses the fallback player to start playback, very often nothing will play making it totally unreliable as an alarm.

I have a question. Does Aurora work well when the LCD lid is closed? (MacBook)

This is getting frustrating. I'm just looking for a reliable alarm clock to wake me with mp3 music... Problems I've had with Aurora: Computer started up, iTunes started up, plays wrong playlist Computer started up, iTunes hung, Aurora's built-in player started and started playing, but no sound came out of my speakers (yes, sound was turned on) Computer started up, iTunes started up, doesn't start playing I always have to set my clock next to Aurora, so that if it doesn't work I wont miss school...

Great App! This is the best alram/snooze app for iTunes by far.

After several updates, it is the best of the lot. It works, every time, it is flexible enough to allow me my idiosyncratic sleeping patterns and allows me to wake to whatever music I choose. One feature I'd like, if you ever get around to it, would be to go one level deeper into my music and allow me to choose individual albums. Thanks for a great and (everyday) useful app.

Indeed, first check everything and make it work for you. I can understand why the dev didnt want Wake from Sleep enaled by default, you might not want it to wake it from sleep when not there.. well lets just say that is why such functions exist, so you have the choice to enable or disable them. And thank you Jonas for implementing my requests. I tested the program last night (and this morning). It just worked! very nice! Thanks!

the first thing MOST people do is go into the preferences and set everything to what they need. his options make sense to his preference, maybe not yours. that does not make this a bad application. i PREFER it over alarm clock 2, they are about the same as good as eachother. and the itunes alarm hasnt failed me once it has even needed the backup, those complaints were from a whillle ago.

I've been using Alarm Clock 2 for the past 5 months without a single problem. Not even 1. But Aurora looked pretty cool, so I decided I'd try it for a few nights. Here's what happened: When I first opened the application, I created a test alarm, and authorized it to wake my computer from sleep. I put my computer to sleep to test it, and it worked fine. So I quickly created another alarm for the morning and went to bed. It didn't wake me up because I forgot to check the "Wake from sleep" option on the new alarm. Admittedly my fault, but here's a question: Why in the world is this NOT on by default, if I've already authorized? Seriously! In Alarm Clock 2, you authorize once, and forget about it. It doesn't annoy you by making you check a "wake from sleep" option for every alarm. Since that was my first night with the app, I thought I'd give it another chance. So I set an alarm for the following morning, and made sure to enable the wake from sleep option. And when the alarm went off in the morning, can you guess what happened? It didn't wake me up again! This time I find out that, by default, Aurora is set to only change the iTunes volume. Not my system volume, which must have been down pretty low before I went to bed. I suppose you could consider this my fault, as this is an option in the preferences. But here's another question: Why is this NOT on by default? Jonas, do you even think about the people who use your application? Are you trying to set them up for failure? Why are you making it so easy to screw up when using your application? Speaking of designing for failure: When users select a playlist, they have to enable the "repeat" option. (It's off by default) If the playlist is short, this is a big problem. Once again: Why is this NOT on by default? I consider all of the above proof that Aurora worries more about features than it does about waking people up. I've never had to think about any of the above problems when I used Alarm Clock 2. There is no repeat playlist option, because it does it automatically for me, no questions asked. There is no wake from sleep option for every alarm, because it does it for me automatically, no questions asked. Starting to see a pattern? And speaking of stability: Aurora depends on iTunes to play it's music. I can see from previous feedback that the developer had so many problems with this that he was forced to implement a backup. He thinks this is safe. I assure you it's not. Because Aurora can't control which speakers iTunes will play to. So if you're like me, and you have an airport express, you MUST check your iTunes setup before you go to sleep each night, or you might not wake up. Once again, are we designing for failure here? Also, I don't have an eyeTV. But is it really safe to depend on it to wake you up in the morning. Even for an important meeting? So to wrap up this review, I would say the following: Aurora is a great application. However, you need to consider the fact that it's trying to be an alarm clock. If you're looking for features over stability, and you don't mind needing a backup alarm every now and then, Aurora is a good choice. However, if you want a rock solid alarm clock that won't require a backup alarm, then you're looking for Alarm Clock 2.

Uncompressing the .bz2 archive gives a corrupt .dmg...

Looks nice, I will test it tomorrow. this might be the first app to replace my somewhat outdated (but still functional!!) "MP3 Alarm Clock"

It used to be my perfect ap - it did exactly what I wanted - start up computer, start itunes and fade in music from lo volume gradually increasing to louder volume to help combat my morning wooziness. Now, sadly it just starts up the computer - it does not start itunes playing (so I dont get woken up!!!). I guess this has something to do with the new updates to iTunes. Beyond that it has always had issues if you selected "random" play of the play-list. It is so close to being my perfect alarm clock. Here's hoping an update is in the pipe-line that will actually make it play iTunes again!

Is there a way to set different alarm times for different days? For example: I have a 9:00AM day for school on Mondays, but Tuesdays-Fridays I have a regular 8:00AM day. It would be great if this feature was implemented. I love it otherwise.

(followup to previous post) I really come to prefer aurora. the interface is much nicer and doesnt take up menubar space (im thankful for turning that option off) it doesnt need its faisafe player if you put your computer to sleep with itunes running. i preffer "Pause" to put me to sleep, because it lets me do other things to turn it off, more function like that and this would be perfect. thanks

This app looks great! I've been looking for something like this for a long time. Great name, simple but great features. I can't wait to try this out!

I double click on the DMG and it mounts fine, but i get "One or more items have special permissions and cant be copied. Do you want to skip them?" as a error message. Is the download corrupt? I'm using a Intel iMac with 10.4.6.

I use Alarm Clock 2 but it rarely actually plays itunes and i muchhhhhhh prefer aurora's layout. the new version promises alot, and ill test it but i have one question what is this "wake from "deep sleep"" my 2 years with macs i have never seen that option. it seems like just a gimmick to me. thanks for free software, and ill test it.

The first night I tried this app it woke up my mac right on time and started playing itunes, gently fading the volume for me. I was pretty happy but still really tired so I set it to snooze for 15 minutes and immediately fell back asleep. My mac went to sleep 10 minutes later. About 90 minutes later I woke up because my phone was ringing. Needless to say I wasn't very happy anymore. I read the previous comment, and can see that others have had problems with aurora as well. From the suggestion, I also tried alarm clock 2 and it worked flawlessly. (and it's free) Goodbye aurora.

i downloaded this app a while back. it worked fine for a while, then one day it didn't wake me up because iTunes was set to play to my speakers outside on the patio. lesson learned: check iTunes speakers before bed. then several days later it didn't wake me up again. this time i had aurora set to play a playlist with only a couple songs in it. the playlist ended before it woke me up. lesson learned: make sure repeat is turned on for playlist, or use big playlist. a week later, another problem. didn't wake because the system volume was down so low. changed aurora to control the system volume. and guess what happened days later. had problems because the iTunes volume was down too low! lesson learned: don't rely on aurora! besides, what's the point of having an alarm clock with a repeating alarm if you still have to spend a few minutes every night double checking all the iTunes settings. i may as well be setting a normal alarm during that time. i tried out a few other software alarm clocks and they had similar problems controlling iTunes. then i read a comment about Alarm Clock 2, tried it out, and haven't had a single problem in the last 2 weeks of using it! plus i can use my apple remote to hit snooze! check it out here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20597

Very nice app - the one problem I have is that when my Mac wakes from sleep, it requires a password (for security reasons, so I can lock the screen when I step away from my desk). When the alarm time comes up (when I'm on the road), the music starts, and the login screen appears, but after a few moments, by default the Mac will go back to sleep, so the music stops.

This is partly a comment or thought about Michael Pipolo's question. If you're not using the newest (Tiger) system, you might be interested the following. If you are using Tiger, though, the application I'm mentioning below might be able to work for you anyway. There once were one, sole application that could manage to actually wake up a computer from DEEP sleep, i.e. not normal sleep, but the sleep it has when the computer is 'shut off' completely. I have never since, seen any other app that can handle this arcane wake up, and I honestly don't have a clue how the developer of that app did it. Sadly, he stopped developing the app and it is probably belonging to the past (Panther and older OSX). Its name is iBeeZz (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10589).

I have only one question about this app.... Will it wake a sleeping iBook with its lid closed and play iTunes? I have tried other alarms, and they only seem to wake the desktop Macs or laptops with open lids.

Alarm Clock _is_ a "whole application", and resides in the Applications folder. Simply its icon doesn't appear in the Dock (so as not to clutter it), but in the menu bar. You can quit Alarm Clock by selecting "Quit" in the pop-down menu that appears when you click on its icon. Aurora has a nice name and a good looking interface, and I like that you can just type in the alarm date and time figures. It works pretty well. Alarm Clock is better in the "interacting-with-iTunes" department (e.g.: the Easy Wake feature is better than it is in Aurora; you can select just the song you want instead of a whole playlist; ...), and its "concept of use" is also easier and quicker to grasp, imho.