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Lenovo's newest Smart Clock Essential has Alexa and some cute docks
Engadget gets hands-on with Lenovo's newest Smart Clock Essential, announced during CES 2022.
Amazon now offers a smart clock add-on for the Echo Flex
Amazon has introduced a Smart Clock add-on for the Echo Flex that can show timers while you're cooking a meal.
Get a Lenovo Smart Clock for $40 at Best Buy
Remember when you could check the time in the middle of the night without grabbing your phone and getting sucked into a vortex of work email and Twitter notifications? Lenovo has a good solution: the company’s Smart Clock is now $40 at Best Buy, a $20 savings off its usual sale price and half the $80 price tag it carried at release.
Citizen has a fancier alternative to Amazon's Alexa wall clock
If you find Amazon's Echo Wall Clock a tad too drab but still like the idea of a connected timepiece on your wall, Citizen might have what you're looking for. The company has introduced a Smart Clock thatcan accept Alexa commands through other devices to set timers, much like its Amazon counterpart, but offers a more stylish package that could better fit in with your decor. Set a timer and blue LEDs in the minute markers will show the remaining time without making you reach for your phone or twist your arm to look at a watch -- helpful if you're cooking or otherwise don't have a hand free.
Amazon's new Echo Dot has a built-in clock
How is Amazon going to improve on last year's Echo Dot? By turning it into an alarm clock, it seems. The company has introduced a fourth-generation Dot with a clock built into the side. You won't have to ask Alexa what time it is when you wake up prematurely. It can also display extras like the temperature or alarm times to answer some of your other obvious questions. And if you do use it as an alarm clock, you can tap it to snooze the alarm for some extra shut-eye.
Intel i9-9900K explained: The road to 5GHz
Intel has released its new line of desktop processors, including the i9-9900K, an eight-core CPU which can boost up to 5GHz. These chips are certainly fast, but they also showcase some of the challenges Intel and entire chip industry has had in crafting speedier processors. In the 2000s, most people would have predicted we'd have 5GHz chips by around 2008. Though the first 5GHz chips did finally appear in 2013, they were outperformed by most other high-end chips on the market. So how can a processor that runs faster perform worse than a slower chip, and how fast will the i9-9900K really be?
The best alarm clock
By Rachel Cericola This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After spending more than 60 hours setting alarms, swatting snooze buttons, tuning radio stations, and talking to potential shoppers, we've decided that the RCA RCD30 is the best alarm clock for most people. This is the textbook definition of an alarm clock, delivering a reliable, hassle-free wake-up for people who don't want to rely on a smartphone.
Amazon launches Echo Spot, an Alexa-powered alarm clock
Amazon's Alexa-themed event apparently includes Echo speakers for every possible use case under the Sun. The tech giant has introduced the Echo Spot, a cute circular-screened device that's basically an Echo Show squeezed into an alarm clock. You won't watch movies on it (not with a 2.5-inch display), but it can do many of the things its bigger sibling can -- you can look at a nursery camera, watch a video briefing or hold video calls.
Kello trains your sleeping habits without using sensors
While there are already a handful of devices that claim to improve our sleep quality, one little startup from Hong Kong's Brinc IoT accelerator thinks that it can do a better job. Kello is a sleep trainer that comes in the form of an internet radio alarm slash Bluetooth speaker slash home automation hub, and unlike some of the competition, it doesn't use any bed sensor, clip-on device nor wearable to track the user's sleep activity. Instead, it's all about leveraging "simple, effective and scientifically proven techniques" from specialists to help us sleep faster, wake up better and ultimately change our lifestyle.
This giant clock was made by driving 14 trucks in circles
When you're in the business of selling long-distance trucks, it makes a lot of sense to show off how far your vehicles can drive and demonstrate how reliable they can be. Instead of relying on real-world road tests and throwing a bunch of metrics in a specification sheet, Swedish automotive company Scania decided build a 750,000 square foot clock entirely made by 14 of its trucks. The end result is pretty impressive.
BT is looking for the speaking clock's next voice
It's almost baffling to think that despite the many ways we can check the time, especially in our display-saturated era, BT's speaking clock still receives roughly 12 million calls each year. Dial 123 on most phones (at a cost of at least 45p!) and you'll hear the voice of Sara Mendes da Costa telling you what's what "at the third stroke..." Her almost decade-long tenure will come to an end this year, though, as BT has launched a competition to find the speaking clock's next and fifth "permanent" voice.
Barisieur's coffee-brewing alarm clock might actually happen
When we first spotted the Barisieur coffee-brewing alarm clock back in 2014, it was a pet project for designer Joshua Renouf. The plan was always to turn it into a gadget for the masses, and in the months that have passed since, the overall design and the tech that drives the bedside system were refined for production. To help make waking up to a freshly brewed cup of pour over coffee or loose leaf tea a reality, Renouf and his team are looking to Kickstarter to get them over the hump.
EU invests 1 billion Euros to make quantum computing practical
The European Union doesn't want to simply wait around while scientists figure out the fundamentals of quantum computing; it's giving the concept a big financial boost, too. The European Commission has revealed plans for a €1 billion ($1.13 billion) "quantum technologies flagship" that, like other EU-level efforts, aims to turn scientific discoveries into practical realities. The Commission expects the project to help everything from motion sensors in phones to virtually unhackable communications. Honest-to-goodness quantum computers are some of the long-term goals, the EU says.
The magical 'Harry Potter' location clock exists in DIY form
There's a fine line between magic and science, and Redditor tbornottb3 has created a beautiful example of this idea with the "Harry Potter-inspired Family Clock." It's a digital version of the Weasley family's fictional magical location device, which displays when individual family members are at home, work, school, hospital, prison or in mortal peril, among other options. The replica shows "home," "work," "holiday," "mortal peril," "forest" and "on the way."
Troublesome details arise about 'Clock Kid' Ahmed's arrest
The attorney for Ahmed Mohamed revealed new details about the September events in Texas in a letter sent to both school and city officials in Irving, Texas. If you'll recall, Ahmed is the 14-year-old boy who was arrested under suspicions of creating a "hoax bomb," but the device was nothing more than a clock. Early accounts of the events that day detailed one teacher seeing the gadget and thinking nothing of it before a second told him that it resembled a bomb. In a letter of demand, Mohamed's lawyer alleges that school officials never really thought that the clock was an explosive device, as the second teacher didn't initially treat the gadget like she thought it was dangerous. She did escort Ahmed to the office, where the letter alleges that five police officers, the principal and the assistant principal performed an "interrogation." During that time, he was allegedly not permitted to contact his parents and was forced to sign a letter of confession under the threat of expulsion. Eventually, authorities decided not to charge him, but his family says the damage was done.
Beddi smartphone alarm dock hooks up to Uber, Spotify and Nest
We've seen plenty of smartphone -- well, mostly iPhone -- alarm docks in our lifetime, but there's been little development on that end in recent years. OK, there was that one bacon scent alarm from Oscar Mayer, but not much else. That's why we were pretty stoked when we came across Witti's neat and affordable solution dubbed Beddi. This $100 minimalistic dock houses an iOS or Android phone in landscape mode on the top, and recharging is done via your own USB cable -- you get a 2.1A port and a 1A port on the back. But it's really all about the companion app: Once paired up over Bluetooth, you can preset Beddi's three physical buttons to either call an Uber taxi, toggle a Spotify playlist, control the temperature on your Nest or switch on a Philips Hue light. Some of these can even be automated according to your desired schedule.
Google adds more useful features to its Clock app for Android
With Google's focus on improving the custom Android experience, standalone applications like Camera, Calendar and Messenger continue to get better over time. Today, the search titan updated its Clock app with a number of features that will come in handy to many Android users, including those who own a companion Android Wear device. One of the main additions is new progressive alarms and timers, which will gradually increase their volume as they're set off. You can also choose your favorite ringtone, control timers from a notification and dismiss an alarm preemptively -- in case you wake up ahead of time, as any responsible human would do. On the Android Wear side, the Clock app now further integrates with Android Wear, giving you easier management options and interactive alarm notifications. And best of all, it's free for the taking.
Withings unveils a sleep-savvy clock and more Android support
Like the idea of Withings' Aura improving your sleep cycles, but don't need a $300 gadget tracking every last nuance of your slumber? You're in luck. Withings is rolling out a lower-cost device, the $190 Connected Alarm Clock, that keeps the sleep-regulating light and sound patterns while ditching the biometric sensor. And speaking of audio, both the clock and the Sleep System are getting a Spotify tie-in -- you can now use the streaming service's music catalog to fall asleep or wake up, complete with suggested playlists based on both their effectiveness and your genre tastes.
Chronulator: how to make world time both ugly and confusing
I work with people all over the world and it's useful to know in advance what time it is where they are to schedule voice and video calls. Frankly, it's not that complex. The basic iOS Clock app has that covered. Or you could just ask Siri. And there are an endless number of apps that can help you visualize the time difference. Somehow Chronulator manages to make the task of figuring out the time somewhere else a real trial. This free app requires iOS 6.1 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. Here's a test: using the main display from the Chronulator app, tell me what time is it in London? Chronulator uses a large dial set on a black background and displays city or location names as some sort of curved flag or banner. Some, but not all of the locations also include a thin line connecting to a 24-hour clock around the dial's face. The banners make it difficult to quickly glance at the display and determine what time it is in various locations. That defeats the purpose of the app. The app is made even more confusing for those of us who do not think in a 24 hour or "military time" clock. That's another conversion you have to do in your head (what time is 1500 hours?). Yes, I can do math, but the point of an app like this is to make it easy to see what time it is somewhere else, not calculate it. For fun, here's the same display with the app's maximum of 7 locations: I still don't know what time it is in London. You can touch this display dial to turn the clock, so to speak, and see what time it will be in Tokyo when it's 2 P.M. where you are. Apparently you will still be unable to tell what time it will be in London. It's also confusion that Zero hour (12 A.M.) is at the bottom of the dial, not the top. I don't find this app to be useful. I find it much easier to just ask Siri, "What time is it in Tokyo?" Frankly, you don't need any 3rd party apps for this. If you want to see the times in multiple world cities just use the built in iOS clock, which you can quickly display by sweeping up from the bottom of the screen. It's a clean, easy to understand display and it's built right in. If you do need a reference display I recommend the very nicely designed Every Time Zone web site. It works great as a web app on your iOS device, too. Also, check out The Time Is Now. Don't bother with Chronulator. There's enough confusion and ugliness in life as it is.
See what time it is around the world with Time Zones + World Clock Time Converter
Although the included Time app from Apple is useful enough, Time Zones + World Clock Time Converter (free with in-app purchase) goes Apple a few steps better. The attractive GUI features the ability to rename locations, so you can call a place "Mom and Dad". The app displays the time differential in hours for all the locations you enter, and a 'quick check' mode lets you look up a date and time anywhere in the world, converting it to your local time. I could see that being useful for business calls in different time zones. As the day moves along, the colors of the GUI change to reflect the time of day. The app is ad supported, and when you open the app a full page ad comes up that has to be dismissed, which I judge mildly intrusive. A in-app purchase of U.S. $4.99 removes the ads, but I think that is a bit too expensive. I'm getting along with the free version, and if the developer would lower the purchase price to $0.99 I think he would get more takers. Time Zones + World Clock Time Converter is a nicely done app. It's more useful that what Apple provides, and has a nice look and feel. The app requires iOS 7 or later. It seemed to work fine using iOS 8 beta 5, so I don't foresee any issues going forward. Another app with similar features is World Clock Time Zone. It's free too but has a $1.99 in-app purchase which removes the ads. The screens are a little more cluttered, so I prefer Time Zones + World Clock Time Converter for quick ease of use.
