I've always had an innate sense of timing, or have developed it maybe. I've always like the metronome - it's a blast..

I have an ancient wind up Eiffel tower thing that speeds up and slows down,, but heck... I adjust with it.

Anyway Brendan suggested I play the piece I'm studying with the metronome sounding on the 3rd note of the 4/4 time counting segment, and then on the 2nd.

It is REALLY FUN, particularly when having it sound on the 2nd (or 4th) unstressed note. It creates a whole different melody almost. You should try it. It's seems a speedy effective way of learning the notes too.

I'm not sure I understand Apple. Are you setting the bell to sound on the 3rd note? If so, is it so you can provide more emphasis on that note than on the others?

yes - it's hard and fun...

It's also fun to try and play a piece in swing.

I use a metronome for memorization or working out the kinks in a particular measure mostly, forcing myself to play very slowly.

On my current scherzo, I have the metronome set on the slowest setting, and it is still faster than I would like. I can't do much about it, though because the piece has a lot of triplets, and those are hard to do if you set the metronome for eighth notes.