Pong Time

Posted by on Mar 20, 2010 in misc | 13 Comments

This is a Pong clock for your Android phone. It tells the time by playing Pong against itself.

Sander Muller came up first with the idea to have a Pong Clock. A really great idea and a fantastic device. Then lately Lady Ada designed a wonderful hackable clock platform, called MONOCHRON. The first implementation on the platform was, of course, a Pong Clock.

As I received my new Android phone, a Motorola Milestone, I was looking for a simple project to get my hands dirty. So what could be more obvious than writing a Pong Clock.

If you want to take a look at the source, check out my PongTime repo at github. The code is not pretty as can be, mostly because of optimizations to get rid of object creation and thus garbage collection.

If you are reading this with your Android phone, you can grab the Pong Time app directly in the Android Market. Otherwise search for “Pong Time”.

13 Comments

  1. Pong Clock available on iPhone, webOS and now Android | Blog mobile phones
    22. March 2010

    [...] what could be more obvious than writing a Pong Clock.” Weber’s Android app is called Pong Time and you can download it [...]

  2. The Month’s Best Android Apps | Gizmodo Australia
    30. March 2010

    [...] Pong Time: I’ll let the video do the talking, since there’s not much to add: It’s a Pong Clock. Free. [...]

  3. Jeff
    11. April 2010

    A very nice effort – perhaps I will have to get an Android phone so I can run your app!

    I was one of the people who paid lots of $$$ for the original Sander Muller clock a few years ago. It sat on my wall until I realized that the resale value was considerably more than I paid for it! Now it lives somewhere in Japan… :(

  4. Alex
    11. April 2010

    Really? But even if the original is worth much more than any clone or DIY version, it’s the idea and the concept that persists ;)

  5. ???Android?????? | ???????
    28. April 2010

    [...] 7. Pong Time [...]

  6. Alex
    13. May 2010

    Search for pong time in the market.

  7. Peter
    13. May 2010

    How can I download the .apk installer file?

  8. Peter
    14. May 2010

    Ok, but how can I download it with PC?
    (I have a tablet PC with android OS. Unfortunately the android market doesn’t work in my tablet…)

  9. Ten Of the Best Android Apps | Gadgets - Techinstyle.tv
    24. May 2010

    [...] Pong Time [...]

  10. Dirk
    13. November 2011

    Hi,

    I just realised that all pong clock apps where pulled from the itunes app store and from the android market. Is there a reason for this?

  11. Alex
    15. November 2011

    Yes. Atari demanded that. My app was removed by Google automatically.

  12. Anjan Bose
    6. January 2012

    Hi Alex

    I had earlier put this on one of my android devices. While trying to download it again, i realised that it is gone and saw your comments that it was done automatically by google on the request of Atari. Is there any way of releasing something similar with a different name?

  13. Alex
    10. January 2012

    Hi Anjan,
    yes, possibly. Maybe when I find some time to do that. But I suspect not many people will find it then.
    Cheers,
    Alex