Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

The iPod alarm clock market is pretty crowded these days, but once in a while you stumble across a design that manages to spice things up. Case in point, the iDesign SongView. Its most obvious and noticeable feature is a 1.3 inch scrolling pixel display around the base which rotates between the date and time as well as the current song, artist, playlist and album if you happen to be listening to a song from your iPod. This allows you to see what’s playing (or what time it is) even if you’re across the room.

The SongView (oh, now I get it!) comes with a remote for controlling the volume, skipping tracks as well as various alarm clock functions, and it also includes the necessary line out and line in jacks for connecting it to external speakers or hooking up a non-iPod MP3 player. And it’s currently available from Brookstone for $99.99.

[ iDesign SongView ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Whether you’re at home or one the road, this Hello Kitty portable alarm clock will wake you from a blissful slumber with one of three different Hello Kitty chimes, making it perfect for 9 year old girls or creepy 40 year old businessmen. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, weighs just 125g and even features a thermometer, all for just $49 from Geek Stuff 4 U. All-in-all it seems pretty cute and innocuous, but let me remind you that I’ve already speculated about Hello Kitty’s true intentions in past articles. Perhaps this alarm clock is just another tool in the Kitty’s master plan to eventually overthrow and enslave humanity. Think about it…

[ Hello Kitty Alarm Clock ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides flashing lights and authentic game sounds, the Japan Trend Shop website is a little vague as to what this Space Invaders themed alarm clock actually does, particularly when it comes to the on-screen invaders graphics. What I do know is that it’s made by Taito, the original makers of the classic arcade title, and features all of the standard alarm clock features one would expect like a clock, calendar, snooze button etc. But with a price tag of $79 I’d expect, no demand, that I could play an actual game of Space Invaders on it.

[ Space Invaders Alarm Clock ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though this Aurora clock features a generously sized LCD display that should make it easy to read the time from across the room, it goes one step further by slowly cycling through a different glowing color every hour. So no matter how far away you are from it, as long as you can see the clock you should be able to roughly estimate what time of day it is. That is if you’re willing to memorize what hour each of the 12 colors actually represents.

It also features a translucent rubber housing that allows you to turn the lights on or off with a simple tap, and the LCD display is backlit by whatever color happens to be glowing at the moment. There’s also an alarm function that can cause the clock to flash when it’s time to get up, and you get it from the London Science Museum online store for about $26.

[ Aurora Color Changing Clock ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Oh look! Another wacky alarm clock design. This time around though instead of just annoying the crap out of you every morning until you solve a puzzle, hit a target or just plain yank the power cord out of the wall, this Money-Saving BanClock requires you to insert a coin of any denomination or currency before it will shut up.

According to AudioCubes.com, if you’re generous enough to feed it a quarter every morning the clock/bank is able to hold about $25 before it needs to be emptied, but I’m sure after a few weeks most people will fall back on the trusty ol’ penny if they haven’t already disabled the alarm clock altogether. And if you’re really serious about saving money, you can probably just place a coin jar next to your regular alarm clock instead of spending $59.99 for this one.

[ Dreams Money-Saving BanClock ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I don’t know about you, but besides using an alarm clock to get me out of bed every morning, I also rely on it to know what time it is when I roll over in the middle of the night. So while the Sonoro Cubo Elements alarm clock is oozing with style and slick design, it’s already lost quite a few points in my alarm clock scorebook because of its minuscule LED clock. On the plus side it features a black high-gloss lacquered finish with an easy to use brushed metal LED-illuminated dial, and you can choose to wake up to an MP3 from your collection, or your local radio DJs via an AM/FM tuner. There’s also an ‘Internet’ version of the Cubo Elements that can wirelessly stream over 10,000 different online radio stations which is perfect for people like me who wake up curious about the weather and local politics on the other side of the world.

The Cubo Elements also features a full-range upward facing speaker with adjustable bass and treble settings, an aux-in jack for connecting an MP3 player and an optional external iPod recharging dock. I have no idea what they’re asking for it, but it apparently even comes with a key-lock to secure the unit if used in a hotel room, so there’s probably a discount if you happen to run a large hotel chain and pick up 10,000 of them.

[ Sonoro Cubo Elements ] VIA [ Digital Drops ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you happen to find yourself spending the night in a hotel room, there’s a good chance you won’t be sleeping in come the morning. That is of course if you set the alarm clock properly, or remembered to request a wake-up call the night before. That’s why a lot of people bring their own alarm clocks with them while traveling which can be hit or miss when it comes to portability and ease of use, and that’s what motivated Sam Hecht to redesign one from the ground up.

The Jetlag Travel Alarm Clock is about half the size of a passport which makes it extremely convenient to stow away, and features just 4 buttons making it easy to set the time or the alarm no matter how tired you might be. On the side you’ll find two digital displays (with a backlight) showing the current time as well as what time the alarm has been set for, and it even features a simple sliding lock on the underside which prevents the time from accidentally being changed while the clock is banging around in your suitcase or carry-on. The Jetlag will apparently be available sometime in October in three different moulded colors, but there is no pricing info at this time.

[ Jetlag Travel Alarm Clock ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Jonathan Kimak

It’s really no big surprise that this “unique” alarm clock comes from Japan. The alarm, known as Gun O’clock, lets people shoot their clock with a special gun when the alarm goes off. There are two modes, time mode and attack mode.

In time mode the alarm goes off like a regular alarm with the extremely annoying beeping but also raises up a shooting range target. Then the alarm starts mocking you with a voice message saying “Come on!” The beeping and taunting will continue until you take the infared gun and shoot the target. Then I suppose you can go back to sleep again.

In attack mode you must shoot the target in a certain amount of time and must try to hit the bulls-eye. If you succeed you will get some praise from the clock (It says “Excellent”). The price for the clock is $34 but for now it is only available in Japan for kids over 15.

It does look neat but I wonder if it’s good to have millions of people waking up with the instinct to shoot stuff.

VIA [ Crunch Gear ]

By Jonathan Kimak

Not long ago I wrote about the DIY USB bat signal that you could create yourself. But for those of you that would rather have the work done for them there is the Batman alarm clock that comes with a built in bat signal.

The Bat clock has the usual alarm clock features, 12 hour and 24 hour time display, AM/FM tuner, alarm with 8 different tones/melodies to wake up to and an adjustable snooze alarm. The bat signal can rotate 180 degrees so that you can project it wherever you want.

The clock also comes with an AC adaptor for power but can also use 4 AAA batteries when you’re on the road or camping or out fighting crime. The price is a reasonable $20 for any fan.

[ Slippery Brick ] VIA [ New Launches ]