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Author Topic: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.  (Read 10832 times)

superboyac

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Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« on: September 22, 2010, 08:56 AM »
I woke up this morning and I knew that I was done waking up to buzzing or the radio.  I want to wake up to music that I want.  So now I'm looking for a new alarm clock.  Here are my requirements:
1) It needs to have multiple alarms (daily, weekend, or just the ability to have several alarms).
2) It needs to be able to play mp3's.  Not through an auxiliary cable, but in the thing itself.  I should be able to load it in with my computer, usb, camera flash cards, something like that.  But it needs to be able to store some mp3 files (4gb minimum)
3) It needs to automatically adjust for daylight savings.

There.  I don't know what's out there, but most alarm clocks are pretty lame in functionality.  My carpool-mate suggested I just use my cell phone.  It's a good idea, but I want something to be permanently at my bedside.  The idea of an unlocked cell phone, with no service, simply being used as an alarm clock came up.  But unlocked phones with nice features cost quite a bit.  If we're going to go to the $100+ price range, I may just be looking at the Sony Dash.  The Dash is a very weird ipad-like device Sony developed recently.  Everyone was like, "What's the point of this thing."  However, it's often been called a really expensive alarm clock.  So maybe I'll just get that, it does fit all my requirements, I believe.

It's sad that most cell phones have better alarm clock features than actual, dedicated alarm clocks.  In this day and age.  I don't think alarm clocks have changed much in the last 50 years.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2010, 09:03 AM »
Sony Dash is out.  No internal memory.  I have to be connected wifi.  Typical Sony.  That's why Sony will never be Apple.  Bullshit stupid things like this.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2010, 09:10 AM »
Maybe the best solution is an ipod-touch with a speaker docking station.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2010, 09:30 AM »
Actually, even better would be a Zune + speaker docking station.  I'm sure there are several choices for Zune docs, and I'd be able to use the better device.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2010, 09:40 AM »
Or, or....now I'm going to get really crazy here...
An mp3 player (itouch, zune, etc.) is going to run about $200.  A docking station can be up to $100.  That's just about the price of a netbook.  Why not use a netbook??  Then i get everything I want.  All the alarm software I can handle, maximum flexibility.  That's it.  I'm going to use a netbook as an alarm clock.  woo!

daddydave

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2010, 09:55 AM »
I almost posted this EXACT same thing.. you would think it would be easy to find a simple alarm clock with a $5 mp3 player chip grafted into it. But what they're selling is alarm clocks with a stupid port for an iPod, which look ridiculous jutting out from an alarm clock and which is rubbish. For the price of an iPod, it should have an alarm built in as well.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2010, 09:57 AM »
I almost posted this EXACT same thing.. you would think it would be easy to find a simple alarm clock with a $5 mp3 player chip grafted into it. But what they're selling is alarm clocks with a stupid port for an iPod, which look ridiculous jutting out from an alarm clock and which is rubbish. For the price of an iPod, it should have an alarm built in as well.
No kidding.  I keep finding myself in this exact situation.  Whenever I want a device to do exactly what I want, i always end up going back to windows.  So I'm sure people will think it's weird that I bought a netbook just to be an alarm clock, but I see no flaw in my reasoning.

Stoic Joker

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2010, 11:10 AM »
Well if you're getting a netbook ... T-Clock 2010 has configurable alarms, runs on Windows, and plays MP3s.

sri

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2010, 11:22 AM »
If you have an iPhone, there are several free apps that do this like "Alarm Clock - Talking Time Clock" by yong chisheng.
<a href="https://sridharkatakam.com">My blog</a>

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2010, 12:53 PM »
Well if you're getting a netbook ... T-Clock 2010 has configurable alarms, runs on Windows, and plays MP3s.
T-Clock is the one then!  Thanks.  I've always liked T-Clock, but never used it.

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2011, 01:12 PM »
Check it out, you guys are going to think I'm super crazy!
So, I've managed to purchase a Panasonic Toughbook W8 for around $450.  I'm going to use that as my alarm clock!  ;D
I've also discovered the software that will allow me the flexibility I'm asking for.  It's called Alarm++:
http://www.12noon.com/

Alarm++ costs about $25, but if it does what I want, it's totally worth it.  So now I know you guys think I'm doubly crazy: using a toughbook for an alarm clock, and spending $25 on alarm software.  Go ahead, you can proceed to poke fun.

rjbull

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2011, 01:50 PM »
So, I've managed to purchase a Panasonic Toughbook W8 for around $450.  I'm going to use that as my alarm clock!  ;D
The way I feel about alarm clocks, it had better be tough 

You might take a look at Kirby Alarm Pro (or maybe Lite, see the purchase page).  You can use it as a scheduler as well then.
   Run a program automatically
   Pop up a note
   Play a sound
   Send e-mails automatically
   Transfer a file by FTP (pro version only)
   Backup files and folders (pro version only)
   Say the time
   Say the message
   Handy To Do List (with query facilities)
   Plus loads more!

Hmmm...  not sure about mp3 from that.

JavaJones

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2011, 02:05 PM »
Hmm, yeah, $500 for an alarm clock or, you know, something like this for $50: http://www.amazon.co...297799538&sr=1-1
Yes, it's missing your automatic DST, but it has a switch for god's sake, surely you can remember to click it when DST comes around. ;)
This is interesting too:
http://www.amazon.co...97799970&sr=1-23

Or hey, what about a *photo frame* with a built-in MP3 alarm clock? OK, not likely to get all the features you want, but certainly nice presentation:
http://www.newegg.co...82-136-247-_-Product

But I guess you have your solution already...

- Oshyan

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2011, 04:04 PM »
Kirby is good, but the snooze feature is not flexible enough for my purposes.  Just so people know exactly what I'm looking for, I'm quoting my post from the Trout thread:
Most alarm clock software can play a chime or something, that's easy.  Where they all fail is their handling of playlists, since it gets complicated once you start considering that the alarm software is not necessarily a music player.  So does it launch another player?  That's what most of them do, but the problem there is that you lose the snooze functionality.  The alarm program can't snooze another software, but it can snooze it's own built in chimes or other wave files.  That's why most of the programs out there suck, they haven't gone the extra length to handle snoozing of playlists. So they either have no playlist functionality or they do, but there's no snooze.  This is key to what I am looking for.
Also, the program should have a shuffle option.  i don't want to wake to the same music in the same order every day, and I don't want to change the order every day.  One option is to let the program launch the music player, like i said, but then how do you snooze it?
The other missing feature in most software is the scheduler for repetitive alarms.  They can all repeat every Friday, but can they repeat every other Friday?  Hmmm, that's the tough one.  To do that, you need to give the user the ability to set up weird repetitive cycles like that.  Alarm Clock Pro can do it in a funky way.  The best way i've seen it is on mylife organized, where the scheduler can be set to repeat "every X days", so if you set it to 14, it's every other Friday.  That's what I'm talking about.  i can post screenshots of all of these things if it will help.
So that's what it comes down to.  The distinguishing features are:
playlist support
shuffle feature
snooze capability for playlists
flexible repeat alarm scheduler (must cover all possibilities)

rjbull

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2011, 02:59 PM »
Kirby is good, but the snooze feature is not flexible enough for my purposes

Alarm++ checks out for all your requirements?

superboyac

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Re: Recommend an alarm clock mp3 features.
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2011, 03:24 PM »
Kirby is good, but the snooze feature is not flexible enough for my purposes

Alarm++ checks out for all your requirements?
Yes.  The key is having a snooze-compatible audio player program with command line control.  Trout is the only one with the specific "snooze" feature that I know of.  Trout lets you set an option to "stop playing music after x minutes".  So I configure Alarm++ to send the "play" command to Trout every 10 minutes.  But I'll set Trout to STOP playing music after 9 minutes.  One minute later, Alarm++ will make the music play again.  So the snooze feature will work as expected.