Put the tablet steeply next to the bed to maximize the light effect. But not too near, so that you do not throw it on the floor if you sleep agitated 😉 Anyway, the smaller the device, the more important is it that the display looks in your direction. For large tablets, indirect light may work, or even reduced maximum brightness. Take some time to test your personal optimum.
The purpose of ‘Personal Sunrise’ is a smooth and easy awakening, so I do without complex maths to be solved, or barcodes to be found, or such tasks to verify you are awake! In need, you can set ‘Personal Sunrise’ to “silent” alarm tones, and use one of those ruffians to do their hard job at alarm time.
But maybe ‘Personal Sunrise’ still helps you to wake up more easily, and you will find you might not need them.
Important Tip: use a ‘standard’ alarm clock as backup if you have important dates: considering reliability, old-fashioned alarm clocks beat every smartphone or tablet!!!
Whether ‘Personal Sunrise’ can replace a ‘hardware’ dawn simulator for you, you have to try yourself. There are a lot of factors like environmental light, the size of the display, the room geometry and your sensitivity that are involved.
At least when travelling, the ‘larger brothers’ are not as easy to take with you as a table with ‘Personal Sunrise’!
Use one of the widgets to see the next alarm time of ‘Personal Sunrise’ on the home screen.
Energy considerations / Electromagnetic Radiation
As you are likely loading the tablet during the night, combine that to keep the tablet ‘on the line’ – yours would not be the first to be drained by a runaway program.
On the other hand, ‘Personal Sunrise’ gives you a chance to have a dawn simulation in an electro-free bedroom!
I have tried programming ‘Personal Sunrise’ as battery-saving as possible.
My tests did show less than 5% of the battery load for the whole wakeup cycle (Acer A510, Samsung Note, Nexus 7). ♠
♠ This not valid for the clock display, of course