Show Timer is a stopwatch, timer and logging application for your iPhone or iPod Touch. It improves on the built in Stopwatch in a couple of interesting ways.
It offers the option of counting down to a specific time and will show you how long is remaining until then. So if you have an event due to start at 1400 you will get a quick and easy indication of how long you’ve got left. You can also set it up to countdown a predetermined time, so if you are calling a show you could easily set it up to time your half hour calls to stop you missing any.
Show Timer also has a standard stopwatch function that will count up and allows you to time acts of a play for example. It functions as you would expect and you can pause the stopwatch if you are timing a rehearsal and have to stop for breaks for example. The one feature I missed in the stopwatch are split timings, if you want to time individual scenes or if you are working a variety show and need to time individual acts without stopping the stopwatch you can’t. Pressing the hold button will pause the timer and it won’t continue timing until you resume it, a shame as this would be a very handy addition. Perhaps this can be added to a future version?
A few other features make this more than a standard stopwatch though, it features a log that keeps a record of all the timings you make. This log can be edited to give meaningful labels to the timings, you can also use some built in phrases such as Act I, Act II, Intermission. These can save you time, but it would be nice to be able to add your own custom phrases as well. Once your event is finished you can email a copy of the log to any address for later use in show reports or any other paperwork.
You can also have two timers working at the same time, so you could be timing the duration of a show on the stopwatch and then on the countdown be timing how long you’ve got left until the pub shuts!
Another nice feature of Show Timer is that it will continue to keep track of your timings even if the app is closed. So you can start the timer, then go to another app and come back to the timer at any point and it will be running as if you never left.
The only big feature missing is an alarm, although you can countdown to a time or for a set period, when it reaches zero all that happens is your timer turns red and then starts to count up. If you aren’t looking at the screen you’ll have no idea your time has elapsed, this could be a deal breaker for you. Having to have the app open and be looking at the screen to see when your time is up is not a great solution.
It’s a much better timer for stage managers and event co-ordinators than the built in stopwatch on the iPhone/iPod though and at only £1.79 you’ll find you use it over the standard one every time. It just needs to have an alarm and split-timings added to really be complete.
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