![I’m a man on the edge. A man with a deep, dangerous hatred.
I hate my alarm clock.
It’s not a bad alarm clock. I got it as a gift, and it has served me well for a few years now. But it works hard at bugging me. For example:
If the alarm is going off, and you want to see what time it is, you turn on the screen backlight by pressing “BRIGHTNESS CONTROL”. Except that the “BRIGHTNESS CONTROL” button is also the snooze (“REPEAT ALARM”) button. So the radio stops. And you must start it again. Of course dedicated buttons for these two functions would be crazy, since you need space for a dedicated “SCAN” button
To start the radio again, you press “SOURCE” until the function (FM, DAB, or “3.5mm jack you can put into your phone”) you want is highlighted on the screen. This helpfully remembers whether you had the alarm on earlier, to excite you by changing the number of presses required to get to DAB (I think it is 1 if the radio was on, 3 otherwise). This is a fun game!
If you try to turn one of the two alarms (“AL1” and “AL2”) off using their alarm buttons, you must use the alarm button for the alarm going off. Remember that the screen is unreadable and dark at this point! If you press the other button, it will toggle the other alarm on or off for the next day. This is a great feature for people who like to be surprised by which time they’re getting up.[1]
Whenever the radio is making a sound of any kind, there’s an audible background hum. This renders the fact that it “fades in” the radio when the alarm sounds effectively useless; the clicking on of the hum is loud enough to wake me.
[1] To be completely fair there is an “AL RESET” button snuck up in the corner which apparently resets either alarm.
[Flames image is CC-BY from pgordon on Flickr.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyoh0xqRzH1qz5w0go1_1280.jpg)
I’m a man on the edge. A man with a deep, dangerous hatred.
I hate my alarm clock.
It’s not a bad alarm clock. I got it as a gift, and it has served me well for a few years now. But it works hard at bugging me. For example:
-
If the alarm is going off, and you want to see what time it is, you turn on the screen backlight by pressing “BRIGHTNESS CONTROL”. Except that the “BRIGHTNESS CONTROL” button is also the snooze (“REPEAT ALARM”) button. So the radio stops. And you must start it again. Of course dedicated buttons for these two functions would be crazy, since you need space for a dedicated “SCAN” button
-
To start the radio again, you press “SOURCE” until the function (FM, DAB, or “3.5mm jack you can put into your phone”) you want is highlighted on the screen. This helpfully remembers whether you had the alarm on earlier, to excite you by changing the number of presses required to get to DAB (I think it is 1 if the radio was on, 3 otherwise). This is a fun game!
-
If you try to turn one of the two alarms (“AL1” and “AL2”) off using their alarm buttons, you must use the alarm button for the alarm going off. Remember that the screen is unreadable and dark at this point! If you press the other button, it will toggle the other alarm on or off for the next day. This is a great feature for people who like to be surprised by which time they’re getting up.[1]
-
Whenever the radio is making a sound of any kind, there’s an audible background hum. This renders the fact that it “fades in” the radio when the alarm sounds effectively useless; the clicking on of the hum is loud enough to wake me.
[1] To be completely fair there is an “AL RESET” button snuck up in the corner which apparently resets either alarm.
[Flames image is CC-BY from pgordon on Flickr.]
