Hasta La Gadget!

There are plenty of mornings when I opt to snooze or reset my alarm for a later time. That’s not always good, but if you can afford this luxury, it’s nice to indulge for a few extra minutes of sleep. And if you’re ready to turn off the alarm entirely, it can be a pain to fumble about looking for the alarm “OFF” switch as it beeps incessantly. This Lexon alarm clock allows you to easily turn off your alarm without fumbling around for buttons.

The Lexon Flip Clock was designed by Jeremy and Adrian Wright. It offers a touch-sensitive snooze control on top and can be easily turned off and on, without worrying about which buttons to push. Just flip the clock to the side that says “ON” and the alarm is enabled, and flip it to the side that says “OFF” to shut it off. The display automatically flips over so it always displays the numbers rightside-up. It’s also got EL backlighting which can be flipped on at night with the touch of your fingertip.

The Lexon Flip alarm clock sells for €39 (~$50 USD) over at Lexon in four different colors.

I’m always looking for better ways to wake up, but other than the jarring loud alarm that wakes me up every morning, I haven’t found a decent solution to my problem. This app might do the trick.

The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app is available for iPhone, and it monitors your movement during sleep using the iPhone’s accelerometer. Then, it finds the optimal time to wake you up during a 30 minute window that ends right at the time that you set your alarm.

The goal of this is to wake you at the optimal time to minimize the sleep inertia caused from jarring yourself awake at the wrong point in your sleep cycle. This is because people move differently during the phases of their sleep. During the lightest sleep phase, you move the most and that’s when Sleep Cycle wakes you up.

This seems like a definite improvement over some of the other alarm apps and solutions I’ve come across. The fact that it monitors your sleep using the iPhone itself is also pretty cool. You can get Sleep Cycle for $0.99 at iTunes.

The Doctor is in… especially if you are a huge fan of the Doctor Who series. Well, I am quite sure that you will not find it difficult to wake up from your sleep in order to catch an episode of Doctor Who on TV, but sometimes, getting up from your bed so that you can arrive at your office on time is far more of a Mission Impossible than anything else. Perhaps you would need something from the world of Doctor Who to help you be fully awake, and what better way to do so than with the $39.99 Doctor Who TARDIS Projection Alarm Clock?

Yes sir, you will be able to face a brand new day in style with this TARDIS-shaped timepiece, where you can tell the time after it has been projected against wall or onto a ceiling, bringing it well into the 21st century. In order to up the realism ante, it will flash some light, while TARDIS noises will play for the alarm. Just make sure you have a trio of AAA batteries on hand always to keep this bad boy going, otherwise you will still be late for work as the alarm fails to go off – simply because it ran out of juice. That’d be a bummer now, wouldn’t it?

[ Doctor Who TARDIS Projection Alarm Clock copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The biggest irritation for many people who moved from an older version of the iPhone to the new iPhone 5 was the smaller Lightning port. This meant that without an expensive and wonky adapter, your existing alarm clock dock and other plug-in accessories wouldn’t work with it. Until recently, if you didn’t want to bother with Apple’s adapter, there haven’t been a lot of other options.

Accessory maker iHome has revealed an interesting gadget that will be on display at CES 2013. The device is an alarm clock docking station called the iDL 100. The most interesting aspect of this device is that it has not one Lightning dock, but two.

That means you can charge two iPhone 5s, or 5th gen iPod Touches at the same time, or your iPhone 5/iPod Touch and your iPad mini. If you still have additional gadgets in the house that you need to charge, it also offers a USB connector. Charging capacity is up to 2.1 amps. In addition to being able to play music from docked iOS devices, the clock radio also has an auxiliary input jack for other devices. One other interesting feature is the time autosync, which ensures your alarm clock’s time matches that of a docked iPhone or iPad.

The expected retail price for the iHome iDL 100 is $149.99(USD), and a release date has yet to be announced.

What helps you get out from bed in the mornings? Does it have anything to do with that pet dog of you who slobbers all over your face, signalling that it is time to roll out of bed and be ready to meet a brand new day? Well, most folks would prefer the use of an alarm clock, even better yet is if the alarm clock itself comes with a built-in Snooze function. For video game fans who have a strong love for Tetris, then you can wake up feeling like a kid all over again to the $29.99 Tetris Animated Alarm Clock.

The alarm sound will not be that of an incessant cockerel exercising its throat, and neither will it be the irritating ring of the classic bell alarm clock, but rather, it will play back the classic Tetris theme song. Individual minutes are formed from water falling Tetriminos, and you can literally spend watching your minutes ticking by. Sporting 12/24 hour clock options, it will be updated with modern functions like snooze and a backlit display, carrying a trio of AA batteries with Tetriminos-shaped buttons up front.

[ Tetris Animated Alarm Clock copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]