Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Alarm clock mp3 player

About 15 years ago I bought an alarm clock/radio/cd player combination. The idea was that the alarm would wake one with the soothing sound of a cd, and the combo worked very well for several years. Once I even had the machine repaired, replacing the cd drive. But after a few years, the cd drive stopped working again, and the radio never worked very well, so since then it's been on my bedside table, serving as a clock. My wife's mobile phone wakes us every morning.

Looking at the limited room on the surface of the table the other day, I realised that it was time to get rid of this combo: the space it was occupying was far out of proportion to its utility. Then it came to me in a flash: I need an alarm clock which doubles as an mp3 player. Instead of an alarm going off, the clock starts playing music. I looked and I looked, but couldn't find anything aside from two clocks which I found on Amazon: they appeared to fill my needs perfectly, but received terrible reviews - basically, they don't work.

How difficult can it be to build such a machine? Surely there must be a demand for such a gadget. So this is the first serious idea which I've ever had for a start-up company: making alarm clock mp3 players. The time was ripe for doing so ten years ago, so the technology required is hardly cutting edge.

In the mean time, I've settled on a traveler's alarm clock, which might not have mp3 capability but doesn't take up much room.

2 comments:

john hinman said...

Space on your nightstand is important along with design. This is a nice looking cd,mp3 player alarm clock.http://www.bedsidealarmclock.com/store-products-4949286-RP5640-Dual-Wake-Digital-AM-FM-CD-MP3-Player-with-Audio-Line-in_1096828432.html Take a look and see what you think.

No'am Newman said...

The link doesn't work too well; it's better to look for the Sony ICFCD815. This clock is similar - albeit smaller - to what I have now. The mp3 capability is not built in, though: the clock allows one to connect an mp3 player to it. I was suggesting that the clock have its own memory and software to enable it to play music from itself when needed.