Customer Reviews

Voice Activated Alarm Clock

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I bought this after hearing it on the Daily Giz Wiz, where they were frank about its shortcomings. Its voice recognition is good enough that the mistakes are more comical than frustrating (just make sure the TV is muted). It's very loud, tho, and the cycling of colors of the nightlight is not ideal. I knew that it would work for me in the kitchen, where volume is a plus and the nightlight is of small consequence. There are various alarms--some pleasant and some purposely annoying, but no clock radio, which is what I would want in a bedside alarm. In the kitchen, I just wanted to use it as a timer, date reminder, and thermometer.

The calendar and temperature functions work great. However, the alarm is not quite simple enough to use as a timer. Moshi happily sets the alarm by voice command but doesn't activate it unless you have flipped a switch on the back. I have to use voice commands to set the alarm, then when it goes off, use a voice command to turn it off, then remember to use another voice command to deactivate the alarm so it doesn't go off the next day at the same time, which is what you want a bedside alarm to do. When the alarm is turned off, Moshi automatically tells the time, date, and temperature, which again is great for a bedside alarm but not necessary for a kitchen timer.

Still, it's fun to be able to ask Moshi the time or temperature; and kids love it. Note that Moshi is only listening for a command when it is green (when it's dark, it's only listening for "Hello, Moshi"; and when it's red it's not listening at all). Inexperienced users can become frustrated by trying to interrupt Moshi or otherwise talk when it isn't ready for a command.

I've been using the Moshi voice interactive alarm for almost a year now. I'm pretty good at turning off the alarm in the morning and having to say "turn off the alarm" just right is enough to wake me up. The gong choice of the three alarm sounds is very pleasant to me. It's a great conversation piece. Only drawback is that sometimes it may not understand me and my wife has a hard time being understood by it.

The product description makes it sound fun, user-friendly and very high-tech. Unfortunately, I did not find it to be any of those things. It was extremely difficult to use and did not provide the high-end features it described. The truth is that you would wake up everybody in the house just trying to get this clock to tell you the time. You will save a lot of time and energy by just turning around and looking at a conventional alarm clock. This is one item that is going out on trash day.