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If the prospect of waking up to a GLaDOS-esque-yet-cheerful voice speaking over catchy piano music sounds intriguing to you, then I've got an app to recommend. Uniqlo Wake Up claims to provide a more peaceful rousing from bed by using calming vocals and music influenced by the weather.
Had I continued using my iPhone's alarm, set to the "Duck" ringtone for daily wake-up purposes, I may have eventually strangled the next thing that quacked. Or perhaps my wife would have. Either way, I'd be willing to do just about anything to smooth the morning routine, so when a few friends recommended the new Uniqlo Wake Up alarm clock app for iOS and Android, I didn't hesitate to give it a try.
It may sound improbable that a few soothing tones and an interesting voice can improve the quality of your wake-up, but even amid my own skepticism, I was impressed with the results.
When your alarm goes off, the Uniqlo Wake Up app queues some light piano music. The actual tracks played depend on a number of factors, though, as the app accounts for day of the week, time of day, and current weather conditions in generating its tunes. This all sets the stage for a computerized voice to greet you with a "good morning" and read out the time and weather.
The music here is worth touching on a bit further, as there is a secret to its catchiness: Uniqlo (a Japanese clothing company using this app for brand marketing) brought in famous anime composer Yoko Kanno to lay down the tracks. If you are a fan of the genre, you may recognize Kanno as the composer for such shows as Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Macross.
As far as I am concerned, there are only two types of people in this world: those with the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack stuck in their head for the rest of their lives, and those who have not seen Cowboy Bebop. Kanno's involvement made downloading this app a no-brainer for me.
It may not drive me from the sheets like "Duck" did, but Uniqlo Wake Up's combination of weather-appropriate music and a somewhat strange singsong-style computer voice may offer the best of both worlds. Uniqlo Wake Up is just as effective at actually waking me up, and at the same time I've noticed I am more likely to get my day started off on the right foot. The total package is a bit hard to imagine, so check out this YouTube video to get a preview of what the morning actually holds:
Uniqlo Wake Up is a free app, so if you aren't convinced already, just go download the thing and give it a test drive yourself. After all, with geek parenthood comes great responsibility — you've got to get out of bed in the morning!
