Original title: how on earth is the sound of Apple Inc alarm clock that makes people's heart beat faster?

Abstract

IPhone's default alarm clock tone is probably one of the scariest BGM in the world.

Every morning to work, no matter how wonderful and sweet the dream was last night, at the moment the alarm went off, the beautiful morning was broken and the dream disappeared, leaving only a moment of emptiness and helplessness about to go to work, and this unique alarm clock ring with iPhone sales has become the "public enemy" of people all over the world.

There is a question on Zhihu Inc.: "Why does the default alarm bell of Apple Inc's mobile phone sound so bad?" "someone replied:

"when I set this alarm, no matter how soundly I sleep, I feel stuffy in my chest and my heart seems to be saved, and then I wake up quickly. "

On the other side of the ocean, at another "Zhihu Inc." Reddit forum, someone said:

"the iPhone radar ringtone is the most annoying sound in the world. "

But even though people hate radar alarms so much, there are still a lot of people who have never changed the alarm tone of iPhone. Why is the iPhone boot ringtone so beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but so disgusting in the sound of the alarm? What's the secret behind this? why don't we talk about this hated and annoying ringtone today?

Even the most beautiful alarm clock will be bored.

Allow me to ask a question first: what was the most familiar alarm clock tone before iPhone appeared? If you don't remember, the following picture may help you.

Yes, this deadly clockwork alarm clock, you don't even have to hear the sound to know how annoying it is, and before the advent of smartphones, many people around the world were woken up by it every morning, and the degree of annoyance was quite high.

After the advent of iPhone, people praised many details of the product, including the ringtone, the classic marimba.

It can be said that if it were not for iPhone, I am afraid many people would not know that there is such a piano that can be struck with a gavel, but compared with the ringtone of the incoming call, Apple Inc's alarm bell, radar, appears to be very unpleasant.

Without the monotonous repetition of beauty, coupled with the weak and strong high-frequency sound, this fast-paced frequency of "Didi-Didi" coupled with the vibration of iPhone itself, iPhone radar ringtones are difficult to generate pleasure.

Whether you get up in the morning or refresh yourself after a noon break, it can achieve the magical effect of "waking up", so that some people say, "as soon as you hear this blood pressure, it comes up immediately."

But it's ugly, and there are some reasons behind it. Toby Saville, an expert in sound research, mentioned that the reason why a voice is unpleasant usually has some characteristics, which can be summed up as follows:

1. The tone itself is sharp and harsh. Imagine the sound of your fingernails scraping on the blackboard. You will get bored as long as you make it up to your brain.

2, the monotonous feeling of repeated sound elements, such as listening to the same lyrics 30 times in a row will make people feel uncomfortable, and smashing the wall in the house for an hour will drive people crazy.

3. The Pavlov effect, which is known as the classical conditioned reflex. For example, in the office lunch break, whether you like it or not, the alarm goes off and you have to return from the break and get back to work.

With all three features of the iPhone radar alarm, it's no wonder it's so annoying. Saville concluded that the radar alarm has a "short, sharp, fast tone" and the change is a "brief decay". The sound with a frequency between 2 and 5khz is the most sensitive to the human ear, so it works well as an alarm clock.

Users in any country or place should wake up immediately when they hear this sound, which is the effect of radar alarms, and many iPhone users have default ringtones after they get their phones, so this ringtone has become a "nightmare" for many users around the world.

But we have to ask a follow-up question: does it have to be so bad to have a good effect?

A hurdle that manufacturers can't get around.

In the smartphone era, the highly open source of Android made many people's alarm clock tones get rid of the monotonous self-contained ringtones, and in that era when the iOS system was still very closed, many people joined the Android camp. At that time, many people chose to use simple tools to download and edit music as mobile phone ringtones, especially the wake-up alarm. I still remember my roommate in college. I set funny days and soundtracks with his XIAOMI mobile phone. It always makes people smile when they get up in the morning and hear it.

If Android is like a little girl dressed up, then the earliest iPhone is closed and conservative like a serious king, you can't change the wallpaper, you can't change the ringtone, you don't even have a nine-grid input method, even though Apple Inc updated a lot of new features and opened up more and more permissions to third-party apps, the radar alarm clock remained unchanged until the launch of iOS 10.

A very useful feature on iOS 10 is bedtime, which many friends should have used. In my opinion, it is its appearance that has saved a lot of people from being harassed by radar ringtones. Apple Inc cleverly combines the reminder sleep, alarm clock and do not disturb mode, and gives nine different wake-up ringtones, which are not only more pleasing to the ear, but also set to a gradual effect from small to loud sound.

More intimately, when you set the wake-up time in the morning, the alarm bell will start playing earlier than the time you set to get up, so that you can be slowly awakened from your sleep. This can be said to be the most ingenious change Apple Inc has made after "reflecting" on radar ringtones.

But when it comes to alarm bells, the Android Party seems to have a better sense of superiority. XIAOMI's MIUI system supports downloading individual ringtones for a long time. Weather alarm clocks are added to MIUI 10, which will play different styles of alarm tones in different weather, as well as human voices.

Similar personality alarm clocks can also be seen on Samsung, vivo and other mobile phones, and individual manufacturers also support broadcasting news and to-do items when playing alarm clocks, which is also great, but it is not until iOS 12 joins the shortcut that iPhone supports you to manually expand similar functions, but from the difficulty of getting started, shortcuts are still higher than domestic mobile phone manufacturers, and it is estimated that many iPhone users do not know how to operate.

Coming back to the topic of mobile phone alarm, people are choosing more and more ringtones these days, but the iOS radar alarm is still less likeable, but you can actually change it to a better and more suitable bedtime alarm clock. Will the radar ringtone be eliminated? Maybe not, because what people hate is not just the bell, but the busy day that comes with it. If you don't have to go to work today, just turn off the alarm clock completely.

Source of header picture: Pexels

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