FW Editor: What are your plans or objectives in the near future?
Zuinige Rijder: Incorporate the BattClock improvements in TouchLockPro, so they are aligned. Further I am investigating real transparency, make it possible to couple a command to each BattClock area and further improvements on request of users.

FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for BattClock? What inspired you the most? Do you plan to develop new software, or are you more focused on optimizing the current ones?
Zuinige Rijder: I started developing for Windows Mobile only 2 years ago. The standard locking solution of Windows Mobile is crippled. Starting with the source code of SensorLock I created my own superior locking solution, using all the available sensors on the Touch Diamond, TouchLockPro. People kept asking for the BattClock features as standalone application. So I made a special version only having the BattClock. And over time a lot of features are added, so it is now a swiss-knife. You can show a lot of information, not only battery and clock, but also CPU%, Free memory, network monitoring, Battery info like temperature. The most inspiring was to find out how to control all of the sensors of the newer HTC and Samsung phones. I am thinking of developing new software for fun, because BattClock and TouchLockPro have been matured now. I am not sure if I should continue on the Winwdows Mobile platform or move to Windows Phone 7, Android or iPhone.

FW Editor: BattClock is a great software that consumes almost no resources. What is the secret?
Zuinige Rijder: BattClock itself is written in C++, written with performance and efficiency in mind. The configuration is taken from the Registry. The configuration program is a separate program written in C# (BattConfig), which communicates with BattClock via the Registry. That way you only need the extra memory while configuring. BattClock does not use itself dynamic memory allocation, so all the variables are static or on the stack. So in memory it only occupies 2 KB. Other programs often use more than 100 times more memory!

FW Editor: Do you plan to improve or change BattClock in any way? If yes, how are you going to do that?
Zuinige Rijder: I will add the possibility of coupling a command to a BattClock item when pressed. Still there is a choice to have the current approach and detect which area is pressed or make real separate BattClock areas. Currently you have 1 BattClock area, you have more control when you can configure 6 different BattClock areas. So I still have to choose which way to go. The last one is the most flexible, but is also more configuration.

FW Editor: Why are you recommending BattClock over the simple clock and battery display?
Zuinige Rijder: BattClock makes it possible to show it at the same time, whereas in standard Windows Mobile you need to choose one. And you can show a lot more information, all in the taskbar. People use BattClock for detecting battery drain by other programs, too hot battery, customizing their taskbar. The great thing about BattClock is that it just draws over the information beneath and it works for Windows Mobile 5 and higher. So really a swiss knife for people taking time to find out all possibilities.

FW Editor: How can you describe BattClock in just a few words? Why?
Zuinige Rijder: BattClock, show a lot of information over the taskbar, while very very small in memory and consuming almost no resources (0.0% CPU). By default people are looking for displaying time and battery% at the same time, but will discover there are much more possibilities.

FW Editor: What is your favorite BattClock feature and why?
Zuinige Rijder: Showing the weeknumber in the taskbar, a feature not available in Windows Mobile. And you can just show this (and other) information over the left-upper standard Windows logo (not interesting logo ;-)) and still be able to press there to open the start menu.

FW Editor: Can you tell us more about this feature? Why it is so important? Is BattClock the same without it?
Zuinige Rijder: The taskbar space is limited and the ability to position the BattClock areas where there is no other useful info displayed is a key requirement. Because you still want to see your taskbar icons which are important.

FW Editor: Now, to end our small interview, is there any message you would like to send to BattClock users?
Zuinige Rijder: BattClock is freeware. If you like the software you can donate a small amount of money for the effort I did put in the development of the software. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10952376 Further information of all the possibilities of BattClock you can find here: http://touchlockpro.sourceforge.net/BattClock.html