Rostrum vs Talklight

Rostrum shows a speaker how much time is left, as a clock large enough to read from the back of the room — or from a phone propped on the podium. The background changes color at times you choose. Green while there's plenty left, amber when it's time to move on, red when it isn't. You decide how many stages there are and exactly when each one starts — most timers give you three fixed colors and no say in the matter. SILENT BY DESIGN No chimes. No alerts. No notifications. Not "sounds turned off by default" — Rostrum contains no code that can make a sound. Your audience never knows the timer is there. THE CLOCK IS THE CONTROL No buttons over your countdown. Tap to start or pause. Pause it and the clock becomes the editor: swipe with one finger to adjust seconds, two fingers for minutes, three for hours. A running clock refuses those swipes on purpose — a hand steadying the phone should not be able to rewrite a talk in progress. Pinch in to leave. A one-time overlay teaches the gestures, and a quiet line along the bottom of the clock keeps the key ones in view whenever the clock is stopped. Mid-talk, nothing but the time. BUILT FOR WHOEVER IS RUNNING THE ROOM Changing a talk length takes one tap. Set your common slot lengths once — 5, 15, 30, 45 minutes, whatever your event uses — and switch between speakers instantly. ON A BIG SCREEN WHEN YOU NEED IT Connect a display with AirPlay or USB-C and the clock fills it while your phone becomes the remote: start, pause, and adjust from your hand while the speaker watches the screen. WHEN TIME RUNS OUT The screen turns red and flashes briefly, then counts upward so a speaker can see exactly how far over they are. Impossible to miss, impossible to mistake for anything else. DETAILS THAT MATTER ON STAGE • The screen never dims while the clock is up • A phone call or a lock screen never stops the countdown — the full time is there when you come back • Digits never jitter or shift as the numbers change • Text color adapts automatically so it stays readable on any background • Remembers your setup between launches Also on the Mac App Store — one free app, both platforms. Free, with no purchases, no accounts, and no data collection of any kind. Rostrum has no network code — there is nowhere for your information to go.

Talklight keeps every talk on time. Set green, yellow and red at the minutes you choose, give the speaker a screen they can read from the back of the room, and run it from your seat On stage • Three looks: full-screen color, colored digits on black, or color only to use the screen as timing lights. • Counts down or up. After time's up it stays red and counts the overrun as +m:ss. • Tap anywhere to start. The controls fade while the clock runs and the screen stays awake. • A touch lock ignores stray taps on the lectern. • +1 and −1 move the end by a minute, and the color cues move with it. Touch and hold for 10 seconds, 30 seconds or 5 minutes. • A progress bar with a mark at each cue, the time of day and a flash at zero, each of them optional. • A chime or bell and a vibration at each cue. Sound follows the silent switch unless you tell it not to. • A color-blind palette: blue, yellow and orange. Timers • Starts simple with three timers: a club speech, a lightning talk and a conference talk. Templates add evaluations, pitches, sermons and more in one tap. • Add as many of your own as you like, from 5 seconds to 24 hours, each with its own cues, look and sound. • Quick-start lengths from 1 to 20 minutes, any custom length, or a timer that ends at a clock time, such as 8:30. For timekeepers • Qualifying time windows with a grace period, judged in whole seconds: each run is marked qualified, under time or over time. • History keeps every run with the speaker's name and the actual time. • Share the day's timer's report as plain text in one tap, ready to read out at a speech club or paste into the group chat. Control it from your seat • Put an iPad on the lectern as the display and control it from your iPhone: start, pause, add time and move to the next speaker. • The two devices connect to each other directly over Wi-Fi or peer-to-peer, with a four-digit code. No internet, no account, no server. • If the link drops, the display keeps counting and the remote reconnects by itself. • Message the speaker: "Please wrap up", "One minute left" or anything you type, with an optional blink to catch their eye. Run of show • Line up a meeting or a session with a timer and a name for each speaker. • On stage, Next and Previous move through the lineup and "Up next" shows who follows. • Every talk lands in History for the report. On every screen • TV or projector: connect an HDMI adapter or use AirPlay. The big screen shows only the clock while your device keeps the controls. • Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. • Pocket alerts: lock your iPhone and put it away. A time-sensitive notification arrives at each color change, and an Apple Watch turns it into a tap on your wrist. Built to be trusted • Time is measured from the clock, not counted in ticks, so it stays right through rotation, locking and switching apps. A started run even survives the app being closed. • Your timers and history stay on your devices. A second device connects to this one directly, never through a server. Made for speech-club timekeepers, conference and event organizers, AV crews, pastors, teachers, debate coaches and anyone rehearsing a talk. Talklight is free: every feature, no ads, no account, no subscription. If it has kept a talk on time, there is an optional tip jar. Tips unlock nothing.