Before diving into some awesome alarm clocks, here's a word of explanation about how this topic came up. I'm currently working at
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, doing a CPE (
Clinical
Pastoral
Education) internship, and we're getting towards the end of the summer. We're all getting a little tired from how busy the summer has been. Somehow at work today the topic of alarm clocks came up, and, since we're working at the hospital, somehow the hospital's helicopter got mixed in too, getting us talking about unique novelty alarm clock ideas.
Well, apparently there's such a thing as a helicopter flying alarm clock. So, without further ado, here's some other awesome alarm clocks.
Five Awesome Alarm Clocks
5. Coin Deactivated Alarm Clock
This is one of the more brilliant alarm clocks I've seen, and unlike the ones listed below, it's potentially profitable too! The concept of the Banclock is that you have to insert a coin to get it to stop going off. Obviously, you're not going to make much money from yourself by putting in a coin a day, but still, it's a brilliant idea. It could even be a good tool for teaching your kids to save a little money each day. Or, maybe it could work as a tax for your older child who won't get out of bed...think if it required money to press snooze!
Unfortunately, the Banbox looks really difficult to get. It's available on
Amazon, but only for a lot of money and from sketchy looking sellers. Ah well. Cool concept.
4. Helicopter Flying Alarm Clock
The concept here is simple. When the alarm goes off, the "helicopter" is launched into the air, and you have to find it and return it back to the base station. It's a cool idea, but it doesn't sound like it's implemented all that well. The flying part is basically a cheap plastic propeller, and I don't think (although I'm not 100% sure) that it's powered at all. It's basically like those plastic helicopter toys that you pull a string to launch into the air. This would be a much more awesome alarm clock if it was actually a powered helicopter. Still, it's quite cheap
on Amazon, so check it out if you want. Like most of these, I imagine it'd make a great gift. Oh, and it also makes a fake takeoff sound, and a horrible alarm beeping noise that I'm sure would get me out of bed! Here's a video:
3. Silent Vibrating Personal Alarm Clock
This vibrating wearable alarm clock concept has some advantages, but like the others, there definitely seem to be some flaws here too. My wife hates being woken up in the morning, and I hate waking her up when I have to get up first, so the idea of a silent device that could wake up just one person would be great. Of course, if it's like a phone set on vibrate, just the noise might be enough to wake up a light sleeper. Personally, I think a wearable alarm clock that delivered a small electric shock to the sleeping wearer would be great, but I can't find that. Maybe it'd be dangerous to people with pacemakers? Hmm...I can tell I'm working on a cardiac unit at the hospital!
Of course, the other flaw with this one is that it'd be really easy to turn off. You don't have to get out of bed to find it. Heck, you don't even have to roll over and reach for it! Check it out
here on Amazon.
2. Shootable Alarm Clock Target
How could you not want an alarm clock you could shoot? That's pretty much how I feel about my alarm clock every time it goes off! The idea here of course is that you put the clock across the room and have to hit it with your "gun shot" to silence it, and by the time you are able to aim well enough to hit it, you'll be awake. Of course, if I was disciplined enough to put my alarm clock across the room, the mere act of getting up and walking over to turn it off would be enough to wake me up. But then, what fun is that? I want to shoot my appliances! Check out the
gun and target alarm clock here. Unfortunately, from glancing through the Amazon reviews, it doesn't look like this clock is all that durable, which decreases its awesomeness somewhat. Someone else suggested setting up a series of mirrors to make shooting the target with your laser gun more difficult. Either way, it's still an awesome concept for an alarm clock!
1. Clocky Rolling Alarm Clock
Finally, of course, there's the
Clocky Rolling Alarm Clock. This one I'd heard of before today, and I think it's the original of the awesome alarm clocks. Unlike all the others, this one actually seems somewhat durable and practical. It rolls away beeping when it's time to get up, and it's advertised as being capable of jumping/falling off of a three foot high dresser and surviving to go hide from you. This one combines being both fun and practical, since you do have to get up out of bed to turn it off. Obviously, since it rolls around, it's battery powered, which isn't really my favorite thing, but still, this seems like a great alarm clock! Too bad it doesn't have a radio.
My Alarm Clock
Of course, I don't actually own any of these.
Here's the alarm clock I actually own and use. It's about as boringly common as you can get, but it wakes me up, and I trust it more than I trust my frequently malfunctioning cell phone. So, you know, if anyone wants to buy me a more interesting alarm clock, feel free!
Have other awesome alarm clocks? Share in the comments!
I use Microsoft Word's comment feature (Insert menu → Comment) frequently, both when I'm revising other people's work and when I'm working on something of my own and want to come back to it later. Annoyingly, in Word 2008 (the version I'm using) and presumably in Office 2011 as well, there's no keyboard shortcut listed. I finally did some research, and there is indeed a Mac shortcut for inserting a comment!
