There are smartphones, smartwatches, smart TVs, smartphones — so why not have a smart wall clock adorning the walls of your abode? While our smartphones tell time, and we’ve found a way to bring smart watches to life, wall clocks are one of few things in our homes that have yet to be smartified. Glance Clock changes that now.
What Is Glance Clock?
Glance Clock adds more smart functionality to your ordinary run of the mill clock. With Glance, you can not only see the time, but alerts, messages, weather info and more. Glance Clock was funded through a successful crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
How Does Glance Clock Work?
The Glance Clock with its many different features helps you in managing your busy daily routine. This smart wall clock with its minimalist design displays the current time and notifies you of the important information at a… glance. The clock syncs with its own app on your phone via Bluetooth Low Energy. Your phone pushes new data to the Glance clock when it is available, and you can choose what to send to the clock.
Glance Clock can alert you to important meetings, daily weather forecasts, it can give you a snapshot of your fitness data, or whether your UBER driver has arrived.
Glance Clock has a full-colour LED display hidden under nice fabric on the top of an aluminum frame. The LED display is bright and colourful and the displayed data is easily visible from a distance. The Glance Clock also has audible alerts for calls and other notifications.
Glance gets all of its data from the cloud through integrations with smart devices and with various other applications. Through the Glance app, users can choose a service and allow the information to be displayed on the clock. Glance is programmed to analyze data over time and will set up a personal profile. As a result, the Glance will determine what information should be displayed and when.
Setting up the Glance Clock
Setting up the Glance Clock is incredibly easy. All you need to do is to download the Glance app and allow your favourite apps to sync with the device and you’re good to go. The Glance Clock app is available both for iOS and Android devices. The app is the primary way to control the app. You can also control the clock through voice control by connecting the glance clock to amazon Alexa via IFTTT service.
Glance Clock Features
Time & Date Digital Display: In addition to the hands on the clock showing the current time, you can also add a digital time display. Other options include adding day and date, using a 12 or 24 hour clock, and adding small dots to the clock face so you can clearly see the hours.
Calendar And Productivity Apps: The Glance Clock connects with Google Calendar or Apple Calendar and displays your day’s schedule, meeting reminders, important dates (birthdays, holidays), and many more options colourfully on the clock face. However mine never showed more than bars at a certain time to indicate an appointment time.
Incoming Calls: The Glance Clock alerts you of incoming calls by displaying the person’s name on the clock face. It will also ring like a phone, which is actually pretty handy since my phone is on vibrate 90% of the time and I never hear it.
UBER Alerts: While there is an option for you to get UBER notifications on the clock, this particular function doesn’t seem to be enabled in my app.
Weather Notifications: The Glance Clock provides weather notifications, current temperature, humidity, and other weather updates throughout the day. You can schedule these to appear at a certain time of day, or to be constantly there.
Alarm Clock and Timer: The Glance Clock is equipped with an alarm clock, and a timer.
IFTTT and Open APIs: The Glance can display almost anything. Since it’s compatible with IFTTT ***Red about that here), if you can’t find a service you’re looking for, Glance allows users to create their own commands through open APIs.
I will say it was easy enough to find applets for Glance, though there’s not a lot. I tried two; one for when the ISS flies overhead and another for an alert when my Ring video doorbell rings. I only ever got one ISS alert, though it passes overhead 15 times a day. The Ring video doorbell alert also only came about 45 minutes after the doorbell was pressed, and it was only up on the clock for about 3 seconds.
Using Glance Clock
The clock is obviously very easy to use. You look at it can you can see the info clearly. What wasn’t clear to me, though is what the different bars, rings and colours signified. I searched the company website for an explanation, but nothing came up. I reached out to tech support for Glance, which by the way is pretty great.
The Glance team, I’m told is working on a ‘knowledge database’ that will have all these descriptions. However right now, if you need clarification, you need to ask support. Which is kind of silly, as helpful as they’ve been.
Here’s what I know so far about what the Glance Clock display means:
When it comes to temperature, you’ll see blue and red spread out across the face. It matches up to the hour when the temperature is expected to warm or cool. More blue bars means colder. More red bars, and it’s getting progressively warmer.
If you see blue blocks, that’s a calendar appointment at that specific hour.
Sometimes the forecast will animate according to the weather
But some other rings and lights were just a mystery.
Battery life and charging
Glance clock can be used plugged in to AC power, or wirelessly on battery power. I certainly didn’t like the looks of the fat USB cable hanging down from my ultra modern clock, so I wanted to use it wirelessly. ON a full charge you’ll get about two days of battery life, and the app will send you an alert when it starts to die. But this, too, wasn’t ideal. Having to take a clock down and put it up again every 48 hours is tedious, and then of course you can’t really see the clock so well when it’s off the wall charging… unless you happen to have a plug nearby. In all, I wasn’t completely satisfied with either the wired or the wireless option.
The main power supply is 5V/1.5A USB adapter. You can connect Glance clock to a power source by 3m (10ft) cable provided in the box. You can leave the cable plugged in all the time while using Glance clock.The clock also has a backup battery to keep clock fully operated for at least two days. This time depends on your usage pattern, the less you use the clock, the longer the battery life.
Looks & Styling
The clock comes in a light silver and a darker graphite colour. It’s got a light fabric wrap across the front that both hides and at the same time reveals the tiny LED lights that make up the display. It’s a smart design, actually.
Glance clock is bright enough so you can see information clearly during the daytime or in the evening. It has a light sensor and can dim the screen brightness depending on ambient light. This seemed to work ok, but there were times in a bright room where I did have difficulty reading the lighted display.
Overall review of Glance Clock
I’m the person who still has three or four clocks in my house. I like to be on time, so I like having the time displayed at a glance; in the kitchen, by the door, in my home office. I love the idea of having more information available on the clock. The date for example is handy; I’m forever forgetting it, so it’s nice to be able to have it permanently displayed.
If there are any downsides to Glance Clock, it’s the ugly power cord, and/or the short wireless battery life. I just wish there was a better option or a longer lasting wireless solution. I also think not having a glossary and clear explanation online for folks to be able to interpret their data is a bit of an oversight. That’s the kind of stuff you need to have ready before launch.
If you consider Glance Clock to be a fun piece of techy-type art, then this gadget might be for you. If you own a cheap Ikea clock, or don’t have one at all, this device is probably not for you.
Glance Clock sells for about $200USD from Glance’s website. That’s a lot, considering you can get he time from any number of other devices in your house, and you can get your notifications from your phone. Overall I’d say this is a gadget that’s probably a big splurge. I’d wait until it comes down in price, and adds a bit more functionality that you don’t have to do yourself with IFTTT.
Specifications:
Sizes: D = 8.92” (227 mm), W = 1.14” (29 mm)
Weight: 15 oz. (425g)
Display: Text: 328 LEDs, Data: 484 RGB-LEDs
Sensors: Occupancy and Ambient Light
Audio: 2W Notification Speakers
Radio: Bluetooth 4.2
Power: 3400mAh Rechargeable Battery (Up To 3 Months on a Single Charge)
Colors: Elegant Graphite and Modern Silver
