tameno

Today I released Tameno v1.0.3, and it comes with a ton more intervals, “Count to zero”, and more.

What’s Tameno?

Tameno informs you about the elapsing of an interval you give it.
Say you want to water all your plants for the same duration: set a 20 second interval, and Tameno will tap you every 20 seconds.
Or you want to brush each side of every quadrant of your teeth evenly: set a 10 second interval, and Tameno will tap you every 10 seconds.
Or you’re doing stretches and want to do them for the same amount of time: set a 15 second interval, and Tameno will tap you every 15 seconds.

It’s a universal app that is available for your Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV!

Features vary from platform to platform, naturally:
The Apple Watch taps you when the interval elapses.
The iPhone vibrates, optionally plays a sound, and optionally flashes the screen.
The iPad, Mac and Apple TV play a sound and optionally flash the screen(s).

What’s New in Tameno v1.0.3?

Most importantly, instead of intervals between only 2 and 60 seconds, you can now choose between 2 seconds and 20 minutes! That’s a whopping 3.400% increase in intervals. And it’s a completely free upgrade. Wow!

With that increase in intervals, I found it necessary to have a faster way to set them up. So to change the interval by seconds, you just scroll up/down or left/right like before. If you want to do it by minutes, you can instead tap-drag. Here’s a short video of it in action:

Some users have expressed their wish that Tameno would count to 0 instead of 1, so I’ve implemented just such a setting.
Instead of 3 > 2 > 1 >> 3 > 2 > 1, a 3 second interval will count 2 > 1 > 0 >> 2 > 1 > 0 with it enabled:

Links and Availability

Tameno is exclusively available on the App Stores for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.
It’s a universal one-time purchase, for USD 3.99 / EUR 3,99 / GBP 3.99.
Tameno is currently available in English and German and requires watchOS 9.4, iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, macOS 13.5, or tvOS 16.6.

Tameno Website
Tameno on the Mac App Store
Tameno on the iOS App Store
Tameno on ProductHunt

Enjoy : )
If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to contact me – I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

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This is a day-one patch if I’ve ever seen one. It’s actually day one after release.

Tameno 1.0 on Apple Watch with watchOS 10 stops running in the background after ~45 seconds, because for some reason (the reason is currently writing this blog post) the app used a lot of CPU in some cases, causing watchOS to terminate it. Deservedly so.
Well, Tameno v1.0.1 to the rescue. It fixes the dreaded bug and now it works in the background as intended. Finally.

Tameno Website
Tameno on the App Store (Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV)
Tameno on the Mac App Store (Mac)

I made a new app, called Tameno. It vibrates in an interval you set, so instead of counting in your head, you can focus on the task at hand. It’s the kind of app that makes you go, “There’s an app for that!?”
But let me explain.

Like all my apps, Tameno was developed out of necessity.
I have hedges made up of individual plants, and I like to water them evenly and fairly with my hose. So – I kid you not – I count down in my head from thirty for each plant. And that’s not as easy as it sounds when there’s big planes flying overhead I like to check out, or a neighbor comes up to me and starts chatting, or a bee appears out of nowhere and starts attacking me without as much as a “Howdoyoudo”.
In short, I lose count, at which point I usually curse my very existence, and maybe blame the plants for needing water in the first place.
But with Tameno, that’s a thing of the past. I set its interval to 30 seconds, and now I can just stand there, point my hose at the plant, look at airplanes, chat up the neighbors and even fence off bees, until Tameno taps me to let me know that 30 seconds have passed and I need to move on to the next plant.
That’s the life.

Tameno on Apple Watch

But hang on. Not only do I have hedges, I also have an electric toothbrush.
Now, this electric toothbrush comes with a 30 second built-in timer. However, its instructions state you should brush each side of every quadrant of your teeth for 10 seconds. See the discrepancy here? Of course you do. I’m not crazy. So that built-in timer is completely useless and has me counting down from 10 in my head repeatedly until I hit that 30 second timer. And most of the time, I miss it completely, painfully aware that some sides of my teeth didn’t get the full 10 seconds. Boo.
Tameno to the rescue. I give it a 10 second timer, and off I go, brushing my teeth without a care in the world. And when the interval passes, Tameno vibrates, and I can move on to the next side. Isn’t that lovely? And I didn’t even mention the extra thrill I get when Tameno’s third 10 second interval and my brush’s 30 second timer go off at the same time. What a rush. Brushing teeth is fun again!!*

Tameno on Apple TV

I could go on, but what’s the point? I’m sure the only thing you want to know by now is where you can get this amazing, life-changing piece of software. So here you go:

Tameno is available on Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.
It’s a universal purchase, so when you purchase it on one platform, you’ll also have it available on all the others. It’s a one-time purchase; no subscriptions. Sorry, Apple.

Its regular price is USD / EUR / GBP 2.99, but for a limited time, it’s USD / EUR / GBP 0.99.

Tameno on the iOS App Store (Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV)
Tameno on the Mac App Store (Mac)

Tameno on Mac

Tameno’s Features

  • Set an interval between 2 and 60 seconds in a minimalistic interface
  • Depending on the device it’s running on, Tameno will vibrate, play a sound, and/or flash your screen in that interval
  • Set up custom intervals and phrases with Siri and/or Shortcuts to start Tameno with your voice.
    Phrases exclusively suggested on this blog include: “Siri, I’ve got my hose out”, and “Siri, help me brush each side of each quadrant of my teeth with Tameno and my electric toothbrush”. You know, brevity is key.
  • Tameno comes with three widgets:
    – “The Favorite”, which gives you quick access to that one interval you can’t go about your day without
    – “The Recents”, which gives you quick access to the last couple of intervals you used
    – “The Interactive” (requires iOS 17, macOS 14), which lets you set up and start an interval right from the widget itself
  • Recently used intervals are synced across your devices using iCloud
Tameno on iPhone (iOS 17)

I think that’s all there is to say about Tameno for now.
Oh, it’s short for “Tap me now”.
Alright, it’s shorter. By two letters. Naming’s hard. Just like counting down in my head.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day, and I hope you’ll enjoy Tameno.

P.S.: If you like the icon: thanks, I made it. If you don’t: I know, A.I. made it…

* brushing teeth is never fun.

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