Tea Timer 1.7.1 is final now. Thank you for testing. Tea Timer also rembers now if you don’t want to update to a specific version and won’t show the update dialog until the next update.
@Henneke: Are you using Tiger? Tea Timer requires at least Leopard.
Susan
on August 1, 2010 at 21:36:
This is a great widget. I use it all the time and laugh when Vicki says "your laundry is ready." LOVE IT. Thanks!
lelis
on August 2, 2010 at 19:29:
i like the widget very much, but since the last update my description field disappeared and i can't find it or chance it anymore. :(
Anne
on August 2, 2010 at 20:20:
Thanks so much for developing this elegant little widget.
Simon
on August 3, 2010 at 15:09:
Stefan -- GREAT widget. I'd been letting my tea steep FAR too long until I found Tea Timer. It's ALMOST perfect... I just have one question: why does the stop button for the alarm not replace the forward/pause button? It would mean there was only one button to push, and there doesn't seem to be any reason why someone would re-start a timer without turning off the alarm...? Thanks again for a great widget!
Duncan
on August 4, 2010 at 03:46:
Is there a way to put in a new description when it was left blank by accident? I can no longer access the description text box.
Which version of OS X do you have? Have you tried uninstalling (removing it from ~/Library/Widgets/) and then reinstalling it?
Triumphator
on August 4, 2010 at 09:46:
Great widget! Thanks for your support.
An idea I have, also allow a count down until a certain time, like "6:55 pm" Simpsons.
chiris
on August 8, 2010 at 19:11:
it's really irritating getting the message to upgrade all the time, which keeps appearing over the widget dispite being dismissed. it makes you consider just getting rid of it. the other widgets do not do this. updates should only spring up over the widget every year or so, if at all
Version 1.7.1 should notify you only once for each version.
Alice
on August 9, 2010 at 19:07:
I keep getting asked to repeatedly upload version 1.7.1!
Holli
on August 10, 2010 at 17:45:
I also am constantly reminded of the update even when it is dismissed. Every time I open the dashboard it is there instead of the widget. I do enjoy the timer though. I use it for our homeschool and my kids love the different voices.
If you update to v1.7.1, it will stop to annoy you at the next releases. Furthermore, v1.7.1 fixes some serious bugs, so you realy should do the update.
ominator
on August 11, 2010 at 15:22:
hi,
it's a really nice widget. but theres a new bug: if you type in a number>60 in the minutes-field, it only counts from 59 minutes.
This is a feature, because 60 minutes equals one hour. Every value > 59 will be set back to 59.
Jack Smith
on August 13, 2010 at 16:00:
Downloaded v1.7.1 on 1 Aug 2010. Set it for 2 hours, never notified when time should have expired - TT stopped counting after 35 minutes.
Aug 12 set TT for 6 hr 30 minutes, wanted to catch bus. Never notified me time up. TT stopped with 5 hrs 36 minutes showing.
Will download and install again see what happens.
Mac OS X v 10.6.4
Gil
on August 14, 2010 at 15:01:
Thank you for this widget :) It is really nice.
But somehow got the german version. Is .. there a way to change the voice from saying "fertig in" to the English equivalent? Thank you!
Tea Timer uses your system language. If it’s German, Tea Timer speaks German, too.
Alexandra
on September 3, 2010 at 18:32:
Hallo Stefan:
Thank you for the “tea timer” widget. I use it to get me up and away from the desk/computer on an hourly basis. When I “remember” to set it, it is most helpful in not having me turn into a computer-potato. ;)
I do have a request. Can one utilize a voice that is not so machine like? GPS systems have these wonderful female or male voices, while the ones on the mac sound like a droid. ;)
thanks for your comment. Tea Timer uses the say command and can thus only use the voices that are shipped with Mac OS X. I don’t know if you can buy extra voices that can be used by say.
Cheers,
Stefan
Linda
on September 5, 2010 at 22:58:
I need a second tea timer, too. The previous version let me have two - one for taking the tea bag out of my cup, and one for 10 minutes later, when the tea in my thermal cup is cool enough for sipping. I have the latest version of Snow Leopard. I saw what you said to Henneke, but it's not fixing my problem. Thanks!
Linda
on September 5, 2010 at 23:01:
Disregard my comment. It's working now! Sorry!
Marc
on September 27, 2010 at 15:43:
Nice, work, especially I enjoy its simplicity and the fact that even when the computer is mute, I'm not missing the alarm with growl (you didn't re-invent the wheel, that's good !).
Thanks again,
Marc
Christian
on October 15, 2010 at 10:48:
Hello Stefan,
I'm a Swiss user of your fabulous teatimer. The only thing if I may say so is, that the voice overs sound pretty strange for me. The way the word "fertig" is pronounced just hurts my SwissGerman ear. We would pronounce it more like:
fair-tig rather than fur-tig.
But this is just a detail. Thanks for your invention. Regards Christian
Paul
on October 23, 2010 at 16:56:
I've got two laptops here and suddenly there is no sound alert at the end of the countdown. Speaker volume is up and other apps make sound. Have v. 1.7.1 and Mac OS X 10.6.4. Console reports "DashboardClient[2140:a03] (org.sofa-rockers.widget.TeaTimer) file:///Users/me/Library/Widgets/Tea%20Timer.wdgt/Scripts/Timer.js: TypeError: Result of expression '$('#soundPlayer').get(0).Play' [undefined] is not a function. (line: 147)"
2132
on January 12, 2011 at 01:36:
I deleted the words and i can not type what i want it to say
Michael M
on April 1, 2011 at 21:17:
Tea timer is very cute but not suitable for any system with multiple sound outputs. One must configure the system to the timer's liking or tea timer will cheerfully send your "tea is ready" message into oblivion. Ruined many a cup while figuring this out. If tea timer were tea it would be Lipton. P.G. Tips would be better, two minutes for me. Still looking for a simple timer. . .
I have two instances of the Tea Timer (1.7.1) on my dashboard. Occasionally one of the instances will freeze.
Sometimes I see messages like this in my windowserver.log:
Jun 26 14:15:31 [199] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetSurfaceColorProfile: Operation on a window 0x304 not owned by caller DashboardClient
I don't know if that's related, or how to determine which widget a specific pid or window id is related too (if there's a way, that would be generally useful). Or if there's any Tea Timer specific debugging info I could turn on.
thanks for the comments. I’ll keep them in mind for Tea Timer’s next release. I don’t know, when this will be, though … ;-)
Laura
on July 17, 2011 at 17:25:
I must have accidentally left the description field blank and now I cannot select it to put in text. I have tried deleting the Widget and reinstalling it but it still comes up blank. Using TT 1.7.1 and Mac OS 10.6.8.
It worked when I first installed the widget, but then I installed system updates and the sound went away. Or maybe it was the reboot. Kinda hard to test for that at this point. :(
The sounds and voices do work in a completely different way.
For voices, I call a command line Apple script, which executes a say command with the appropriate message.
For sounds, I just create an HTML audio player and let it play the sound. There is no magic and there should be nothing that could break (but obviously, there is something … :-/)
I definitely recall that the last update - after which the sounds stopped working - affected Safari. My immediate guesses would be [a] codec problems or [b] some change to the audio API. :(
Which relates back to the error that Safari gave me when I created a page with an audio element on localhost/~ and attempted to load/play one of the /System/Library... files.
Why this magically starts to happen NOW is beyond me.
Make new low bitrate MP3 or AAC files downloadable from the widget on selection, put them in local storage as serialized base64, and unserialize/transform them for playback?
I have a hunch that it's possible, though I would need to level up my JavaScript skills from Adept to Wizard to do something like that myself.
Widgets are just normal HTML documents with a fixed size and the allowance to acces local data and execute arbitrary commands. In JavaScript, there are also some additional objects.
You can clone the Tea Timer repository from Bitbucket if you want and see how far you can get with it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have time to fix anything in Tea Timer until September or October.
David
on August 29, 2011 at 20:31:
I am with Ben (and Paul): OSX 10.5.8, TT 1.7.1
Used to work flawlessly
No Sound at end of time
No sound preview in settings pane
Plenty of files in /System/Library/Sounds/
Sad because this is my favorite dashboard app by far
I’ll check the widget at my girlfriend’s MacBook. Luckily, she still has Leopard … ;-)
Stephen
on September 17, 2011 at 17:23:
Just upgraded to Lion and Teatimer, my favorite widget, works great. However, I downloaded some new voices that are available for Lion, but they do not show up as choices in the widget--just the same ones for Leopard. Is there any way to add them to the voice list (the new ones show up in /system/library/speech/voices)? Thanks.
Just started to work on Tea Timer again (already fixed an issue :)). I’m planning to make the list of available ring tones and voices dynamic so that you’re able to choose the new voices on Lion.
If you can stand the latency, I'm on U.S. Central Time (UTC-5 for the next six-ish weeks) and will be happy to help you reproduce problems - just tell me when/how you want me around. There's all manner of contact options on my site (including Skype), and I'm habitually signed into GTalk under the provided e-mail address, too.
p.s. I've been slammed on the nine-to-five basis, but I'm okay with being up at the small hours if need be.
p.p.s. I do battle with browser nonsense all day, every day, and given your description of the app, my offer to help seems like a chip off the old block.
I’m currently working on TT 1.8. I’ll push all stable revisions to Bitbucket. You can download them from there and test them (even if you don’t have hg installed).
If don’t fix the issue with the new versions, I’d be glad if we could chat to fix the problem. Google talk or plus are ok for me (don’t have Skype).
Comment
R Pritchard on July 23, 2010 at 04:35:
Thanks for the timer Widget! Like it!
Lisa on July 25, 2010 at 15:35:
Thank you for your update to the widget. Before I used 2 Tea Timers, however, I can't download 2. Could you tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Henneke on July 28, 2010 at 19:57:
Hij nice one, only I can't change the collor or sound, there's no button for it. or do I see it not?!
Stefan on July 30, 2010 at 10:09:
@Henneke: Are you using Tiger? Tea Timer requires at least Leopard.
Susan on August 1, 2010 at 21:36:
This is a great widget. I use it all the time and laugh when Vicki says "your laundry is ready." LOVE IT. Thanks!
lelis on August 2, 2010 at 19:29:
i like the widget very much, but since the last update my description field disappeared and i can't find it or chance it anymore. :(
Anne on August 2, 2010 at 20:20:
Thanks so much for developing this elegant little widget.
Simon on August 3, 2010 at 15:09:
Stefan -- GREAT widget. I'd been letting my tea steep FAR too long until I found Tea Timer. It's ALMOST perfect... I just have one question: why does the stop button for the alarm not replace the forward/pause button? It would mean there was only one button to push, and there doesn't seem to be any reason why someone would re-start a timer without turning off the alarm...? Thanks again for a great widget!
Duncan on August 4, 2010 at 03:46:
Is there a way to put in a new description when it was left blank by accident? I can no longer access the description text box.
Stefan on August 4, 2010 at 08:13:
Which version of OS X do you have? Have you tried uninstalling (removing it from ~/Library/Widgets/) and then reinstalling it?
Triumphator on August 4, 2010 at 09:46:
Great widget! Thanks for your support. An idea I have, also allow a count down until a certain time, like "6:55 pm" Simpsons.
chiris on August 8, 2010 at 19:11:
it's really irritating getting the message to upgrade all the time, which keeps appearing over the widget dispite being dismissed. it makes you consider just getting rid of it. the other widgets do not do this. updates should only spring up over the widget every year or so, if at all
Stefan on August 8, 2010 at 20:06:
Version 1.7.1 should notify you only once for each version.
Alice on August 9, 2010 at 19:07:
I keep getting asked to repeatedly upload version 1.7.1!
Holli on August 10, 2010 at 17:45:
I also am constantly reminded of the update even when it is dismissed. Every time I open the dashboard it is there instead of the widget. I do enjoy the timer though. I use it for our homeschool and my kids love the different voices.
Stefan on August 10, 2010 at 17:50:
If you update to v1.7.1, it will stop to annoy you at the next releases. Furthermore, v1.7.1 fixes some serious bugs, so you realy should do the update.
ominator on August 11, 2010 at 15:22:
hi, it's a really nice widget. but theres a new bug: if you type in a number>60 in the minutes-field, it only counts from 59 minutes.
Stefan on August 11, 2010 at 16:10:
This is a feature, because 60 minutes equals one hour. Every value > 59 will be set back to 59.
Jack Smith on August 13, 2010 at 16:00:
Downloaded v1.7.1 on 1 Aug 2010. Set it for 2 hours, never notified when time should have expired - TT stopped counting after 35 minutes. Aug 12 set TT for 6 hr 30 minutes, wanted to catch bus. Never notified me time up. TT stopped with 5 hrs 36 minutes showing. Will download and install again see what happens.
Mac OS X v 10.6.4
Gil on August 14, 2010 at 15:01:
Thank you for this widget :) It is really nice. But somehow got the german version. Is .. there a way to change the voice from saying "fertig in" to the English equivalent? Thank you!
Stefan on August 14, 2010 at 17:03:
Tea Timer uses your system language. If it’s German, Tea Timer speaks German, too.
Alexandra on September 3, 2010 at 18:32:
Hallo Stefan:
Thank you for the “tea timer” widget. I use it to get me up and away from the desk/computer on an hourly basis. When I “remember” to set it, it is most helpful in not having me turn into a computer-potato. ;)
I do have a request. Can one utilize a voice that is not so machine like? GPS systems have these wonderful female or male voices, while the ones on the mac sound like a droid. ;)
Danke nochmals!
Alexandra
Stefan on September 3, 2010 at 18:43:
Hello Alexandra,
thanks for your comment. Tea Timer uses the say command and can thus only use the voices that are shipped with Mac OS X. I don’t know if you can buy extra voices that can be used by say.
Cheers, Stefan
Linda on September 5, 2010 at 22:58:
I need a second tea timer, too. The previous version let me have two - one for taking the tea bag out of my cup, and one for 10 minutes later, when the tea in my thermal cup is cool enough for sipping. I have the latest version of Snow Leopard. I saw what you said to Henneke, but it's not fixing my problem. Thanks!
Linda on September 5, 2010 at 23:01:
Disregard my comment. It's working now! Sorry!
Marc on September 27, 2010 at 15:43:
Nice, work, especially I enjoy its simplicity and the fact that even when the computer is mute, I'm not missing the alarm with growl (you didn't re-invent the wheel, that's good !). Thanks again, Marc
Christian on October 15, 2010 at 10:48:
Hello Stefan, I'm a Swiss user of your fabulous teatimer. The only thing if I may say so is, that the voice overs sound pretty strange for me. The way the word "fertig" is pronounced just hurts my SwissGerman ear. We would pronounce it more like: fair-tig rather than fur-tig. But this is just a detail. Thanks for your invention. Regards Christian
Paul on October 23, 2010 at 16:56:
I've got two laptops here and suddenly there is no sound alert at the end of the countdown. Speaker volume is up and other apps make sound. Have v. 1.7.1 and Mac OS X 10.6.4. Console reports "DashboardClient[2140:a03] (org.sofa-rockers.widget.TeaTimer) file:///Users/me/Library/Widgets/Tea%20Timer.wdgt/Scripts/Timer.js: TypeError: Result of expression '$('#soundPlayer').get(0).Play' [undefined] is not a function. (line: 147)"
2132 on January 12, 2011 at 01:36:
I deleted the words and i can not type what i want it to say
Michael M on April 1, 2011 at 21:17:
Tea timer is very cute but not suitable for any system with multiple sound outputs. One must configure the system to the timer's liking or tea timer will cheerfully send your "tea is ready" message into oblivion. Ruined many a cup while figuring this out. If tea timer were tea it would be Lipton. P.G. Tips would be better, two minutes for me. Still looking for a simple timer. . .
jennifer ressmann on May 1, 2011 at 15:08:
Love this little timer. Tweeted about it! Thanks for making it free! - Jennifer
Anonymous on May 28, 2011 at 11:11:
bug: i enter 60 minutes, press start, it changes to 59 minutes and starts countdown 58:59.. 58:58 etc. minute missed!
Stefan on May 28, 2011 at 12:58:
This is a feature. 60 minutes are 1 hour, so you should enter 01:00:00 in that case.
Bjarne on June 17, 2011 at 02:25:
Tea Timer is my most used widget,, Thank you Stefan. But I have a suggestion...
Todd Kaufmann on June 26, 2011 at 20:27:
I have two instances of the Tea Timer (1.7.1) on my dashboard. Occasionally one of the instances will freeze.
Sometimes I see messages like this in my windowserver.log:
Jun 26 14:15:31 [199] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetSurfaceColorProfile: Operation on a window 0x304 not owned by caller DashboardClient
I don't know if that's related, or how to determine which widget a specific pid or window id is related too (if there's a way, that would be generally useful). Or if there's any Tea Timer specific debugging info I could turn on.
98% of the time it works fine... thanks.
Stefan on July 10, 2011 at 17:29:
Hi,
thanks for the comments. I’ll keep them in mind for Tea Timer’s next release. I don’t know, when this will be, though … ;-)
Laura on July 17, 2011 at 17:25:
I must have accidentally left the description field blank and now I cannot select it to put in text. I have tried deleting the Widget and reinstalling it but it still comes up blank. Using TT 1.7.1 and Mac OS 10.6.8.
Stefan on August 2, 2011 at 21:28:
Hi,
please try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/widget-org.sofa-rockers.widget.TeaTimer.plist
Brigid on August 4, 2011 at 16:55:
Thanks for a handy little item. Cheers.
Katrina on August 8, 2011 at 19:19:
I'm having the same problem as Paul above. No sound at the end of the time.
Stefan on August 8, 2011 at 20:19:
Which versions of Tea Timer and OS X do you have?
ben on August 15, 2011 at 20:50:
I'm suffering the sound-doesn't-work problem too.
10.5.8 vs. 1.7.1.
It worked when I first installed the widget, but then I installed system updates and the sound went away. Or maybe it was the reboot. Kinda hard to test for that at this point. :(
Should I try clobbering any .plist files?
ben on August 15, 2011 at 20:56:
Tried this:
None of this, of course, suggests that the Voices haven't been good to go all along, but the Sounds have certainly stopped working.
ben on August 15, 2011 at 20:58:
...And strike the "I was" in that last. I must've been thinking about writing different words entirely.
Stefan on August 16, 2011 at 09:05:
Does it play the preview of a sound when you change it on the widget‘s back side?
Are the corresponding aiff-files listed in /System/Library/Sounds/?
ben on August 21, 2011 at 21:14:
Sorry about taking so long to check back...
No previews, and there is a bucket of files in /System/Library/Sounds.
ben on August 21, 2011 at 21:14:
And to clarify: Voices seem to work fine.
Stefan on August 22, 2011 at 07:50:
The sounds and voices do work in a completely different way.
For voices, I call a command line Apple script, which executes a say command with the appropriate message.
For sounds, I just create an HTML audio player and let it play the sound. There is no magic and there should be nothing that could break (but obviously, there is something … :-/)
ben on August 23, 2011 at 06:31:
I definitely recall that the last update - after which the sounds stopped working - affected Safari. My immediate guesses would be [a] codec problems or [b] some change to the audio API. :(
ben on August 23, 2011 at 06:57:
Short of tying myself into a pretzel, I found:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/webkitsdk-dev/2008/Apr/msg00023.html
Which relates back to the error that Safari gave me when I created a page with an audio element on localhost/~ and attempted to load/play one of the /System/Library... files.
Why this magically starts to happen NOW is beyond me.
ben on August 23, 2011 at 07:06:
Since I can't seem to let this go:
Assuming continued use of HTML...
Make new low bitrate MP3 or AAC files downloadable from the widget on selection, put them in local storage as serialized base64, and unserialize/transform them for playback?
I have a hunch that it's possible, though I would need to level up my JavaScript skills from Adept to Wizard to do something like that myself.
Stefan on August 23, 2011 at 08:20:
Widgets are just normal HTML documents with a fixed size and the allowance to acces local data and execute arbitrary commands. In JavaScript, there are also some additional objects.
You can clone the Tea Timer repository from Bitbucket if you want and see how far you can get with it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have time to fix anything in Tea Timer until September or October.
David on August 29, 2011 at 20:31:
I am with Ben (and Paul): OSX 10.5.8, TT 1.7.1
Stefan on August 30, 2011 at 09:37:
I’ll check the widget at my girlfriend’s MacBook. Luckily, she still has Leopard … ;-)
Stephen on September 17, 2011 at 17:23:
Just upgraded to Lion and Teatimer, my favorite widget, works great. However, I downloaded some new voices that are available for Lion, but they do not show up as choices in the widget--just the same ones for Leopard. Is there any way to add them to the voice list (the new ones show up in /system/library/speech/voices)? Thanks.
Stefan on September 18, 2011 at 14:28:
Just started to work on Tea Timer again (already fixed an issue :)). I’m planning to make the list of available ring tones and voices dynamic so that you’re able to choose the new voices on Lion.
ben on September 20, 2011 at 16:24:
If you can stand the latency, I'm on U.S. Central Time (UTC-5 for the next six-ish weeks) and will be happy to help you reproduce problems - just tell me when/how you want me around. There's all manner of contact options on my site (including Skype), and I'm habitually signed into GTalk under the provided e-mail address, too.
ben on September 20, 2011 at 16:25:
p.s. I've been slammed on the nine-to-five basis, but I'm okay with being up at the small hours if need be.
p.p.s. I do battle with browser nonsense all day, every day, and given your description of the app, my offer to help seems like a chip off the old block.
Stefan on September 20, 2011 at 22:05:
I’m currently working on TT 1.8. I’ll push all stable revisions to Bitbucket. You can download them from there and test them (even if you don’t have hg installed).
If don’t fix the issue with the new versions, I’d be glad if we could chat to fix the problem. Google talk or plus are ok for me (don’t have Skype).