Moshi's IVR Alarm Clock accepts voice commands, harbors own primary directives

The Moshi IVR (Interactive Voice Responsive) Alarm Clock is a chatty one. Instead of those perfectly reasonable physical buttons which have been providing us with additional five minute segments of sleep since time immemorial, the Moshi IVR wants to talk you through your morning. To activate a command, just say "Hello Moshi." Moshi will most likely mutter something threatening under its virtual breath, and then ask you "Command Please," to which you can instruct the clock to tell you the time, set the alarm, inform you of the temperature and a bunch of other things. Sounds great, and we doubt Moshi will be able to murder you in your sleep without any life support systems or pod bay doors under its dominion, but we still fear the prospect of attempting to reason with a too-smart-for-its-own-good alarm clock during one of those dreaded "before noon" hours of the day. Moshi IVR is available now for $50.

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 14th 2008 10:27AM]

I, for one, do not welcome our robot overlords disguised as speaking alarm clocks ready to unleash havoc upon our bedrooms.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Nov 14th 2008 11:05AM]

Don't worry... I think it's defective.... I've been looking at this clock for over 40 minutes and it hasn't changed from 9:45

[sip @ Nov 14th 2008 11:38AM]

Stop it you fools you're all making him sterile!

[Xstream @ Nov 14th 2008 10:28AM]

hmm moshi sounds a lot like pussy in german

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 14th 2008 10:28AM]

Sorry for double post, but I forgot to say:

If they put an Apple logo on it, at least iEye will buy one ;)

[dandaman @ Nov 14th 2008 11:17AM]

looks like iEye is the new clak...

I'm sure you've heard the stories of emotionally unstable teens killing themselves because of something someone said on an internet message board, making us, the internet message boarders, look bad. Well, this is how it begins. I hate super-fanboyism as much as the next guy, but I have another solution -- let's just ignore his super-fanboy comments, and contribute to his thoughtful, insightful tech themed comments when they appear. He already suffers from fanboyism, this is just adding insult to injury. Give the guy a break!

[Big Al @ Nov 14th 2008 10:32AM]

When I first read the headline, I thought it said "Prime Directive"... I miss Star Trek. (TNG, not TOS)

Flame on! :)

[Valicore @ Nov 14th 2008 10:43AM]

Me too... how sad is that lol.

[fieldcar @ Nov 14th 2008 10:45AM]

COMPUTER, Coffee, Black.

[sip @ Nov 14th 2008 10:33AM]

"hello moshi... snooooze"

Cool idea though

[MisterLas @ Nov 14th 2008 10:34AM]

Wow, it that had the ability for 2 alarms (wife and myself), and a snooze, I would sooooo buy one.

[MisterLas @ Nov 14th 2008 10:34AM]

if it had*

[Paul Miller @ Nov 14th 2008 10:36AM]

For a second there I thought you were saying you had two wives, but then I re-read. Glad I straightened that out!

[Pwnge @ Nov 14th 2008 10:37AM]

"FUUUUUUCK YOOOOOU!!!!"
"Sorry, command not recognized, please repeat."

[Pwnge @ Nov 14th 2008 10:40AM]

@Paul Miller
What would you say if he actually did have two wives???
HUH?

[BradS @ Nov 14th 2008 3:30PM]

I'd say he got what he deserves.

[Unique Gift Ideas @ Nov 14th 2008 10:55AM]

It looks cool, but I don't know if I would be able to put together any kind of coherent sentence that early in the morning to tell it to shut it off. Which would undoubtedly lead me to knocking it off my night stand to turn it off like I do now.

[Larry @ Nov 14th 2008 11:02AM]

When the alarm goes off can you yell "Shut the hell up!" or "Wake me in 30 minutes" ?

[Dante @ Nov 14th 2008 11:03AM]

somehow this eeries me the same way the customer service call does..

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Nov 14th 2008 11:05AM]

whatever you do, do NOT tell Moshi to end program or disengage safety protocols!

[Lowest Ranked @ Nov 14th 2008 12:02PM]

What happens if you talk in your sleep and accidentally reset the time by a few hours?

[Electromodo @ Nov 14th 2008 12:11PM]

That's actually happened with my friend's GPS (you know, those with voice commands support). We were talking and dropped the phrase "go home". GPS woke up and said "OK. Routing to Home..."

Scary.

[Electromodo @ Nov 14th 2008 12:12PM]

Great post, Paul Miller! :)

Did you ever think of writing books?

[digita @ Nov 14th 2008 12:13PM]

Michael Marshall Smith anyone?

[Ric Glancy @ Nov 14th 2008 12:14PM]

MOSHI, You need to speak to Shlomi, and get up for the Synagogue, you dont want to be late for y our bar mitzvah! Oy Vey!

Why would they name it MOSHI!!!!!

-Ric (fellow Jew)

[Mihir @ Nov 14th 2008 12:56PM]

where the hell is the snooze command? it doesn't list it on the product page.

[Kali4 @ Nov 14th 2008 12:57PM]

Damn! At first I thouht that this was a badass clock. I like the idea of yelling at my clock to shut it off, so I clicked on through to the website for further investigation. After looking at the site and reading up on the clock I have one impression left of it:


FAIL!!!!!

Before I get flamed for this, let me start by stating that I am in love with the SNOOZE function on all of the alarm clocks that I have ever owned. Moshi, alas, does not have a snooze mode. It accepts twelve commands, none of wich will let you sleep "just a little longer." By the way I noticed at the bottom of their page there was a symbol labled "World Blind Uninon," and it links to the respective site. This begs the question: If this is a clock for blind people, why does it have a "night light" mode? Are you just trying to rub it in or what? You would think that they would have taken out the night light command and put in the snooze command. Do that and I would by one.

Inspired by thinking about nightlights and blindness: Wouldn't it suck to be both blind AND scared of the dark?

[Kali4 @ Nov 14th 2008 1:08PM]

AHA!!!! Mihir found the snooze command! Not quite as good as yelling at it, but it no longer ranks a FAIL. I'll give it a PASS. Can we make it accept alternate voice commands? Hmmm, maybe I'll get two. Make one sound like Darth Vader... No, Hal2000 (I'm sorry Dave, it's time to get up.) Nononono, I got it Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem and I can yell SHUT UP BITCH!!!! HMMMMMmmmmm.... This may take some consideration... *wanders off to secret underground science facilities for nefarious purposes

[Benson @ Nov 14th 2008 1:41PM]

Just make mine sound like a stereotypical euromegacrook.

Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!

[longterm @ Dec 8th 2008 8:05PM]

Wrong, it has a snooze feature. But it still sucks, and here's why:

I had it for 3 days, which was long enough to discover all of the drawbacks. 1) You can't see it in the dark without using the night light feature. When the nightlight feature is on, the clock cycles thru 6 colors, half of which are too bright. Strike one. 2) To enable the alarm, you have to reset the alarm time EVERY time, and for some reason, the makers put in a long prompt to explain how to set the alarm time. Fine. After the first explanation I think I had it down... but no, you have to listen to it EVERY time. Strike two. 3) The voice prompt is too loud, and you can't adjust it. Strike three.

Sent it back.

[Mihir @ Nov 14th 2008 12:59PM]

nevermind. touch the screen to snooze. not a bad gift.

[Rob @ Nov 14th 2008 1:33PM]

"...which have been providing us with additional five minute segments of sleep since time immemorial."

I don't know what alternate universe you're writing this from, or what goofy alarm clocks you've been using, but in my lifetime I have YET to see any alarm clock give you a paltry 5 minute interval. Most in my experience have provided a full 9 minutes of extra sleep per snooze.

[Plothole @ Nov 14th 2008 6:54PM]

I'm practically blind before I put my glasses on in the morning, so this could actually be useful for me. Though I agree it would be better if it had a second alarm.

[Han Solo @ Nov 15th 2008 3:17AM]

No radio?

Pass.....

[Taonas @ Nov 15th 2008 10:33AM]

Does anybody know how to get this outside the US or Canada?

[Chris @ Nov 17th 2008 9:40AM]

50.00 for the clock, but these crooks want 35.00 more for shipping... Unbelievable gouging.

[Interpol @ Nov 21st 2008 2:12PM]

"Hello Moshi, please fetch the stain remover."

[runnr548 @ Nov 24th 2008 9:43PM]

It looked so cool I ordered one. That was November 14. It's now November 24, and they haven't so much as provided a tracking number. Their phone isn't answered, but it has a cheap sounding, preloaded voice on it. So far, I'm not impressed with the company.

[Adam Hicks @ Nov 26th 2008 6:42PM]

Ok I just bought one and listed Engadget as the referrer. Hopefully these guys will throw some advertising bucks back at Engadget for the referral :)