lamenting the loss of a great feature

"Smart" phones seems to have lost the "alarm" functionality. My cell phones that were primarily phones with added features were great alarm clocks. They were loud. They'd still give an alarm even when they were turned off. They were great.

I inherited the Cingular 8125 smart phone when Gumby got the iPhone. Maybe I just don't know how to use them, but neither one of these are good at being alarm clocks. The alarm isn't very loud, and they only work when the phone is on. That sucks.

My old Nokia candy phone finally died about a month ago. I had been using it for years as my alarm clock. It also had a timer function that used occasionally. Now I'm using my old Motorola to wake me in the morning; it was my cell phone until about a month ago. I could take a lunchtime nap and be confident that the Motorola would wake me. Not so with the Cingular 8125.

Does anyone have tips for extending the usefulness of the Cingular 8125? I've never updated the OS, so it's still Windows Mobile 5.0. Its main feature for me now is that I can play Sudoku on it.