Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

I hate getting out of bed in the morning, which is probably why I’ve chosen to be a professional blogger, rather than someone who gets up at the crack of dawn every morning and drives to a fancy corporate office (or anywhere really). I’ve seen more wacky alarm clocks that go to extreme lengths to wake you up, but this one takes the cake.

This alarm clock doesn’t roll away, or force you to solve a puzzle at 5am. In fact, it’s as simple to turn off as any basic alarm. However, there is a consequense for failing to turn it off in a timely manner. It will actually hijack your cell phone and start calling random people in your phone book every three minutes until you wake up. Now that’s harsh.

This thing wouldn’t actually do me any good, as I am perfectly capable of turning off an alarm while still asleep. Not to mention I’d be too terrified to actually plug this thing in. There are some people you just don’t wake up with a phone call early in the morning.

[ Alice Wang ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Bucking the trend of alarm clocks that make hitting the snooze button an extremely physical chore is this model from Hammacher Schlemmer that uses advanced speech recognition technology to control the most common functions. So when the alarm goes off in the morning and you don’t feel like getting up, all you need to do is yell ‘Stop’ which will start a 5-minute snooze timer. The alarm clock recognizes 10 different spoken commands including Set alarm, Set time, Check alarm, What is the date, Alarm sound, Stop and Temperature. Alternately, the large backlit LCD panel is also touch sensitive and allows the time and alarms to be manually set the ‘old fashioned’ way. And if you need a little white noise to fall asleep to, the clock even has a voice activated function to start playing soothing sounds like the ocean, chirping birds or a babbling brook.

It’s available on the Hammacher Schlemmer website for $49.95.

[ Voice Interactive Alarm Clock ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Don’t be fooled by the retro looks of this alarm clock. While it does feature a set of real metal bells, it actually wakes you up by playing an MP3 file of your choice. Hidden in the back of the unit is a 22 inch USB cable that allows you to connect the clock to your PC. Using the included software, you can configure the alarm using a small selection of sounds, or upload any MP3 file you want to wake up to. And by ‘any’ MP3 file I mean any file that’s under 45 seconds in length. It seems like a big limitation, since I maybe have a handful of MP3s that are under 45 seconds long, and I’ll probably never go to the trouble of downloading an MP3 editor just to make a particular song compatible with my alarm clock.

It’s available from ThinkGeek for $19.99. And as an added bonus they’ve preloaded a special ThinkGeek Monkey Song for waking up in true geek fashion.

[ DIY MP3 Alarm Clock ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s yet another take on the alarm clock designed for those who’re in the habit of hitting the snooze button instead of actually crawling out of bed. This time, when the alarm wakes you up, you have to use a handheld laser to successfully hit the center of the target situated on the alarm clock itself in order to shut it off. Personally, I’d be a little leery about waving an actual laser around while I was still half asleep, but the handheld device looks remarkably like the phasers seen in Star Trek TNG. So if you’re a Trekkie, there’s another reason for you to pick one up. Ideally the alarm clock should be placed as far away from your bed as possible so that you really have to focus your brain in the morning to hit the target, but a point blank approach with the alarm sitting on your bedside table could be even more satisfying.

You can get it from ThinkGeek for $19.99.

[ Laser Target Alarm Clock ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The alarm clock seems to be quite a popular target for product designers, and I’m sure it must have something to do with mankind’s love/hate relationship with the device that wakes us from our blissful slumbers each morning. Melanie Graf, a Product Design student at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London has added yet another creative twist with her Pandora alarm clock.

Once you hit the snooze button, an animation will be laser projected onto the ceiling above your bed. After drifting off to sleep, you’ll be awakened once again with a bunch of different sounds. When you open your eyes and look up at the ceiling, you’ll see a series of animations which reflect what you should actually be doing as part of your morning routine, instead of sleeping in. And if you keep hitting the snooze button, the animations will eventually reflect the catastrophic consequences if you don’t get out of bed. While I understand the device is designed to ‘guilt’ you out of bed in the morning, it would take a lot more than an animated catastrophe to get me up.

[ Pandora ] VIA [ Cribcandy ]

By Luke Anderson

I used to have an issue waking up in the morning. Actually I still have issues waking up in the morning, but that’s just because I’m not a morning person. What used to happen is that when the alarm would go off, I’d simply shut it off and roll back over without realizing it. I now have a recurring alarm set on my phone that will just keep going off every 5 minutes until I manually deactivate it. Another solution for this issue would be the DangerBomb Clock.

This alarm clock makes you think, at least a little, before your alarm will turn off. Once the alarm sounds a light will come on, and you’ll have to disconnect the correct cable that corresponds with the colored light. So ultimately you’ll wake up and feel like a secret agent every morning. Not a bad way to start the day. The DangerBomb Clock will set you back $59.99.

[ AudioCubes ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I rarely travel for leisure reasons these days, so it seems anytime I’m in a hotel room I’m exhausted from being at a trade show all day. And if it wasn’t for the hotel’s wake-up call service, there’s a very good chance I wouldn’t be rolling out of bed until mid-afternoon the next day. But I can’t say I’m interested in bringing that hotel experience home, which is what this Hotel Phone Alarm Clock promises to do.

It’s designed to sit on your night stand like a normal alarm clock, but it will actually give you a wake-up call in the morning complete with the option to press 5 for a ’snooze call’ 30 minutes later. It’s not a terrible idea (though the built-in LCD clock is kind of small) but I have to admit the thing I like most about wake-up calls in a hotel is that they’re easy to setup, since you’re basically telling someone else to do it for you. The alarm on this phone however requires you to set it manually like with a normal alarm clock, which is not something I’m good at when my mind is preoccupied with sleep. Not to mention the phone also seems to lack the option for calling room service.

You can find it at Thumbs Up UK for about $40, but it looks like they’re out of stock until May.

[ Hotel Phone Alarm Clock ] VIA [ Gear Live ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The MultiBook is from the same people who originally brought us the MultiPot charging station a few years back, but this new version adds a bit more functionality. Instead of a pot, the MultiBook is designed to look like an ordinary book sitting on your bedside table, that is until you turn it on.

Hidden on the spine of the MultiBook is a red LED clock and calendar that allows it to function as a bedside alarm clock. In addition the ‘pages’ of the book will actually glow with a diffuse white light thanks to 74 LEDs hidden inside. And finally, the lid of the MultiBook opens to reveal spots for three different chargers that allows you to keep the mess of cables hidden when they’re not in use.

It’s currently available from Questo Design for about $222 but only comes in a 220 volt configuration at this time.

[ Rotaliana MultiBook ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Oh look! Yet another device designed to draw power from your PC or laptop’s USB ports with minimal benefit to the user. This time it’s a folding alarm clock that includes a built-in thermometer so you can always know what the temperature is 3 inches from your PC.

But believe it or not there is a plus side. While the device does take up one of the USB connections on your computer, it also works as a hub giving you 4 additional ports in return. I guess for a desktop system without a web connection (which would give you access to more detailed weather reports) it could be handy, but on a laptop why wouldn’t you just use a regular USB hub which would put less drain on your battery?

The USB Hub Alarm Clock is available from the Discovery Channel Store for $19.95.

[ 4-Port USB Hub & Alarm Clock ]