IPod IRise - AM/FM Radio And Alarm Clock Review

This thing has constant hum coming from the speakers, even when connected to an iPod nano. At high volume its poor quality shows well, with plenty of distortion and clipping. Clock and alarm are hard to setup. It doesn't control your iPod sound, which is annoying because you have to press the buttoms in the ipod in a incovenient position when docked.
Not worth the price charged in any way.

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Product Description:
Plays iPod through stereo speakers Charges iPod while in dock Features reflective technology speakers for crisp, booming sound Includes alarm clock back-up battery

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Philips USA AJL308 Clock Radio with 7-Inch TFT LCD Color Display and USB/SD Card Slot Review

There is a lot to love about this product. It's sleek. It's stylish. It's bright, bold and clear. (It can be dimmed!) It's a clock-radio with two independent alarms that also plays audio files (.mp3 and .wma), video (mpeg4 and divx codices) and photo slide shows (.jpg only). It has built-in "relaxation" sounds to help you fall asleep. It has so much going for it! And just when you think it can't get any better...

It doesn't get better. It slips a little. You start thinking to yourself, "If only..." and "Why didn't they just take the next step?" Why isn't there a tiny bit of built-in memory so that I don't need a SD card or USB stick to be attached to change the cute-but-becoming-annoying default photo? Why can't I select an audio file on the SD or USB as my alarm music? Why only three built-in sounds for the "relaxation" music? Why isn't there an AM tuner? Why isn't there a headphone jack? Why can I only display JPEG-format images? For a widescreen 7" LCD picture frame, why is the resolution only 480 x 234? Why isn't there a back-up battery?

This is such a near-perfect little gadget that it's painful to see how close Philips came to making the best device on the market. Yet despite these flaws, it is still so wonderful that it demands four stars. Lucky for Philips, there don't seem to be any viable alternatives with all of the features it does have at this price point... yet.

And regarding the day-of-the-week issue: Philips posted a firmware update on their Web site on September 14, 2007, that fixes this issue. Visit the Philips Web site, type in "AJL308" to find the product page, select the Support link tab (just above and to the right of the product image), and scroll down to the Software section. There is a PDF read-me file and a ZIP file with the actual firmware update. Read the PDF and carefully follow its directions to update the firmware. You'll need a USB drive to transfer the firmware update to your AJL308, and it takes several minutes to complete the update, but once it's done the day of the week should be correct.

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Product Description:
Start the day right with the Philips AJL308 Clock Radio, where you can wake up to the 7-inch color showing off your favorite photo, song, or video. In addition to clock, radio and calendar functions, you can even use pre-loaded relaxation music that will help you fall asleep. Built-in USB and SD card slots let you store all of your photos, music and video clips. You can enjoy music or radio channels with FM digital auto tuning and presets. Set dual alarm times and wake up gently with the increasing alarm volume.

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Timex TM80 Dual Alarm Clock Radio for FlashDrive & SD Card or any iPod, MP3, CD or Cassette Audio Player Using the Line-In Audio Jack with Full-function Remote Control Review

After using this for a month, I'm still very pleased with it. The pros far outweigh the cons here.

First and best, this thing sounds GOOD. There are 5 tone presets to choose from. The ported speaker is able to produce amazing sound quality. 5 stars for this alone.

Clock displays time, and when no music is playing, the date. Automatic DST switch. Backlight has 4 levels one of which is off. Backlight color and display text is low contrast, hard for me to see.

Battery backup keeps all your settings.

It remembers quite a bit: If you hit the power button, whatever you were listening to is restored, be it MP3 or radio. If you hit the sleep button, it applies the volume setting in use the last time it turned itself off. If you hit the play button, it plays, from the beginning, whatever MP3 was playing when last turned off.

Sleep times of 120, 90, 60, 30 and 15 mins. After setting the sleep mode, if you click the sleep button again, it displays the time remaining before cutoff. When its time, the sound is gently faded out.

Random and repeat settings for MP3 play. Folder button so you can browse memory contents. ID tag info scrolls while track is played. Select SD slot or USB port for source. Line in for other stereo input. Recessed well for USB drives, with a cover. SD card sticks up a few millimeters from it's slot.

Full featured remote. Yes, it is handy if the clock is just out of reach on the nightstand.

Wake to: radio, mp3, buzzer. There is no way to select "wake to random mp3", but I get around that by putting a 3 second silent mp3 in the memory, select that as the wakeup track, and set for random play.

12 station memories for the radio, arranged in 3 banks, 2 for FM stations and 1 for AM.

The cons:

FM reception is so so. The stations I can get all sound good, but can't pull in distant ones.

The buttons on the front [sleep, power, alarms, wake to, radio preset bank selecter] are impossible to distinguish by touch. Adding a dot of hot glue to a few of them helped quite a bit.

The volume control feels like nothing is there. It works fine, just feels weird.

Can't read the time unless I put on my glasses.

___________

If I didn't already own one, I'd buy it again!



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Product Description:
Timex TM80 Dual Alarm Clock Radio with Full-function Remote Control

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