I finally purchased a new alarm clock this weekend to replace an old $10 Radio Shack no-named brand I've tolerated for the past 20 yrs. Now an alarm clock isn't necessarily something people think about all the time but I've actually put quite a bit of time and effort looking out for the perfect one. When you've put up with an AM/FM alarm clock that played neither AM or FM but rather a static ridden high pitched steady tone, well, you want the next one to be something really special. 

So I picked up a Moshi - IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Alarm Clock. It's a talking command-driven alarm clock that has a clean Apple-esque design (minus the ipod dock). Though an ipod dock would've been nice, it's actually refreshing that it doesn't offer one. Rather, there are some other unique features that will entertain you such as a night light which cycles mood colours and soothing sleep sounds like birds chirping and water falls. One feature I'd like to see in the next generation of this product is a wifi an the ability to pull in feeds such as my Last.fm playlist, local news, and weather...now that would be great!

With this technology greatly improving over the last couple of years and continuing to improve in our hands-free culture, I'm hoping to see alot more IVR and web enabled tech being integrated into household appliances and lifestyle devices in the near future.