Customer Reviews

JBL Time Machine Alarm Clock/Dock for iPod - White

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am an iPod speaker/charger junkie having owned the Klipsch iFi and Bose Sounddock while currently owning a Klipsch iGroove. I have been looking to get an alarm clock to wake-up to my iPod, but the iHome was not quite the audiophile quality that I was looking for.

Positives:
1) Design-If you have a modern bedroom area, this thing is a cool head-turner. Design is underplayed in this market, but it is very important!
2) Sound-The sound is excellent at low to medium levels for both the iPod as well as the radio. The highs are very distinct and bass is noticable.
3) Ability to wake up to any song you like out of thousands on your iPod. I'm not sure what the last reviewer was talking about. I have easily been able to wake up to any song I like on my On Time. I can wake up to Wham or U2 or Rob Zombie, it's my choice!
4) The On Time gradually increases the sound for a gentle wake up experience.

Negatives:

1) The interface is not that difficult, but it's more difficult than the traditional alarm clock. Once you figure out how to do it, you will be fine, but it does take some figuring out.
2) Sound at louder levels is not great, but I'm not sure that's the idea. This item has small room filling quality, but if you have a huge bedroom and want to crank up the sound this might not be for you.
3) The time could be a little bigger on the readout. When I wake up in the middle of the night to check the time, I like to look real quick and go back to sleep. The numbers could be bigger, like the iHome, but are not as bad as some others.

Overall, I would not let the negatives detract you. If you have seen this on display at the Mac Store and liked it, you will like it more once you get it home. It's cool, sounds great and interfaces with the iPod seamlessly.
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A lot of talk has been made about the fact that you can only wake up to the first song in your library. At first, I thought this was not true, because I was able to wake to any song I wanted...then I updated to the newest iTunes and newest firmware for the iPod Video 60GB and BOOM---it only now plays the first song of the alphabetically first artist on the iPod. I called JBL and they said that I actually have to go back and re-install the old software and firmware in order to wake to any song I want! What? I went to the Apple Store and they said, yes, this is true. There is no way to fix this. This is a MAJOR glitch in a product that has great sound and a wonderful design. True, you can go in and re-name any song on your iTunes to be the alphabetically first artist and first song, but who really wants to do that? JBL should stick to making speakers until they can get it right. If you make this purchase, please be aware of this flaw that I was not!

Update 2: This thing crashes every month or so. The display shows gibberish. I have to pull the plug and batteries and then it restarts and I reenter the alarm settings. It happens often enough that I leave the batteries out to make rebooting easier!

Update: Since writing this review I've come across one alarm bug and one glitch:

- The Alarm buttons have 3 functions: set, remove, and, silence alarm. The 3rd function is only active when the alarm has gone off. If Alarm 2 goes off, and you hit the Alarm 1 button in error, the 'silence alarm' function for Alarm 2 is no longer available. You have to turn off the JBL. I think a programmmer forgot to use a state diagram.

- I had an alarm failure which at first I thought was a bug. It turned out that there was an internal iPod alarm set. If it went off before the JBL alarm the iPod would turn on, but of course no sound came from the speakers. When the JBL alarm went off the iPod then went from play to pause. In other words the JBL 'wake up' signal is the same as tapping the iPod play/pause button -- it toggles that state. I've seen a few occasions where tapping the iPod button and the turning on the JBL music manually can cause some device confusion, especially because there's a slight pause between turning on the JBL manually and the iPod's response.

Also, I read one review that described the incompatibility of the current iPods with this device as an "Apple bug". I caution that Apple may not see it that way, and I suspect there will be no "Apple fix". My hunch is that Apple changed its control interfaces and the JBL was not revised to the new interface. That might be nasty of Apple (or not), but JBL should have noted this in their marketing materials and their web site.

If you have a newer iPod and want to use this device, you could try leaving the JBL "on", pausing the iPod, and then setting the internal alarm on the iPod. In other words, using the JBL as a simple external speaker rather than an alarm clock. Clearly, this is suboptimal and you'd want the JBL to be sold at less than half its original list price.

--
I'd rate this device as 2 stars for the 3G iPod (because of the alarm failure, see update above), and 1 star for the 5G iPod.

With the 3G it works as designed. It starts with the last song played. If the context is a playlist it runs through the playlist.

With the 5G it starts with the last song played, but it never plays it. It quickly switches to the first song in the Library. The vendor is said to know about this fatal bug, but they claim it's Apple's flaw. Doesn't matter -- they don't address it in their online support site and they continue to sell the product. Unacceptable. I will avoid JBL products in future.

I'm keeping this one for now - I use it with my old battery-dead 3G. When the 3G dies however, it will be strictly a speaker system, not an alarm clock.

Additional comments:

* It has a really dumb eerie blue glowing LED at the top. I guess that's for those who want to dream of alien abduction. It serves no purpose, it doesn't even illuminate the clock controls (that might have been useful). I taped over it.
* It starts quietly and the volume ramps up. You can't control this. That's the worst "feature" so far (and a surprise -- so much for the Amazon reviewers!); I'd prefer disable this depending on how I arrange my playlist. A remote would have compensated a bit, but ... [update: In practice I've actually grown to like this alarm behavior, so I don't consider it a negative.]
* There's no remote. I decided that was ok because it's one less thing to lose, one less set of batteries, and one less place for designers to move controls to. This thing is, after all, an alarm. We don't get to sleep in. Ever. The volume ramping does make me miss this more than I'd expected however.
* The documentation is weak with multiple typos and grammatical errors. It doesn't tell you what the RDS On/Off setting does, for example. (RDS, I believe, is a system for encoding information in FM broadcast, such as time of day, song title, etc.)
* The sound is very good, even at near peak volume.
* The buttons seem flimsy and cheap.
* It has a big, heavy, wall wart power brick. At least the color matches.

I recently bought this item. It has great sound with loud and clear reception from both the radio and the ipod. It is relatively easy to use and user friendly. The only problem is, you cannot wake up to the song of your choice on the 5G video ipods (30 GB, 60GB). (On the older ipods, it works just fine.) However, on the newer ones, it will instead begin at the start of the entire library. It is not the system's fault, just a bug in the Apple software for the newer ipods.

When contacting JBL, here is the answer they gave me. Good morning and thank you for your inquiry. I can understand the concern regarding the JBL On Time. This issue is not actually an issue with the JBL On Time, but, a software issue with the Apple iPod. The iPod will not remember the last song played when you power on/off, switch inputs, wakeup, or set the alarm on the JBL On Time. It will default to the first song in the library, if you have the following iPod's with the following software:

iPod Nano - software 1.1, 1.1.1
iPod Video - software 1.1, 1.1.1

So, this system is great for looks and sound, but the only draw back in my opinion is the inability to wake up to any song you choose instead of hearing the entire library.

Here's my pro/con list as well as what could be done to improve this alarm clock.

Pros:
<UL><LI>Blue LED - Normally I hate the blue LED thing. Talk about lighting up a room these little lights are quite annoying. Thankfully JBL thought of this, there is a sensor on the left hand side which dims the display and overhead light when the lights go out. I have to give props for that.</LI>
<LI>Start Up Song - Yes this will play whatever song you want as the startup song, you just have to read the manual. Start playing the song you want to hear, and hit the off button. It will start where it left off in the morning.</LI>
<LI>Sound - Great quality.</LI>
<LI>Auto-setting clock - Never have the wrong time, very nice feature.</LI>
<LI>Big Dock Connector Area - I can leave my iPod in my agent 18 (clear plastic) case and plug it in. Very nice indeed.</LI>
<LI>Snooze Button - Nice and big button right on top.</LI></UL>

Cons:
<UL><LI>Auto-setting clock - I know this is a pro but it also was a con for me. It seems that the first radio station this clock picked was 4 minutes off. I wanted it to get the time from another station, but couldn't get it to skip. Finally had to use a FM Transmitter and block the bad station to get it to use another station. Quite annoying.</LI>
<LI>iPod Control - There is no way to control the iPod from the unit. The only way to skip a song or choose another playlist is to change it on the iPod. I consider this quite sub standard.</LI>
<LI>Back Dock Connector - I don't know if I got a bad unit, but if I plug my laptop into the back of this clock, it will not recognize the iPod.</LI>
<LI>Volume - On the quietest setting, this unit is still a little loud for me in the morning.</LI>
<LI>Default to Beep - If you remove (or neglect to put in your iPod at night) the default alarm is a beep. I should be able to set what to wake up to if the iPod isn't in the unit.</LI></UL>


Things it should have for $200:
<UL><LI>Remote - Come on, no reason a remote shouldn't be included.</LI>
<LI>Power By Dock - If I have the dock connector in the back, and I plug that into the wall, why can't that power this clock? It seems to me that this would allow for greater flexibility.</LI>
<LI>Better Instructions - Still haven't found where it talks about what RDS is.</LI>
<LI>Playlist Per Alarm - I'd like to set two different playlists as the separate alarms. There's no way to do this from the unit, again a let down.</LI>
<LI>Softer Sleep Sound - You should be able to set a softer volume for the sleep mode.</LI></UL>

5/8/07 - I purchased a JBL On Time player - very cool looking - but there is a major flaw. When the alarm goes off, it automatically plays the first song in the library EVERY TIME, even though the manual indicates how you can set it to play any song you want...

JBL's answer? Following is the ridiculous answer from JBL tech support:

"Good morning and thank you for your inquiry. The issue is a software bug
with the iPods. The JBL On Time will default to the first song in the
library if you have the following iPods with the following software:

iPod Nano - software 1.1 - current
iPod Video - software 1.1 - current

The current fix is to downgrade the software to 1.0 (iPod Updater
2005-11-17). This download enables you to select any song to wake up to.
Please note, downgrading the software will not work with the new iPod
80gb Video or the 2nd generation iPod Nano."

Can you believe it?!? Yeah right, like I'm going back to the stone age with my iPod software.

To me, JBL needs to work with Apple to resolve this problem with future releases of the software, not make "valuable" customers back date software...

If you are an owner of the On Time product, I hope this helps. Please send JBL support an email letting them know how unsatisfied you are with their product support. Perhaps if they hear from enough of us, they will change there archaic ways...

If you are thinking about buying one, perhaps you should wait for JBL to become more responsible for their own customers' satisfaction...

Cheers.

The iPod alarm clock was purchased for a college student to use in her dorm room. So far she is extrememly satisfied with the sound quality and how easy it is to use. The alarm clock can be set to play a specific song in the morning. The only drawback is that it doesn't have a remote control.

Several considerations to make before purchasing the Ontime.
1. Looks are great. LED's light the controls at night, LCD is clear, buttons are large enough for big fingers, chrome buttons look a bit cheep, style is unique. NICE
2. Sound is average. High frequencies are mounted for multidirectional clearity. Lows are missing, I'd suggest a small woofer for a more broad spectrum of sound reproduction. OK
3. Functions as advertised. iPod is recognized and plays clear. Some nuances may exist, but syncs with iPod fine. Menu navigation is a bit clumsy. Not as intuitive as other clock radios that have more buttons.
However once made, alarm settings are displayed clearly to reveal settings. NICE
4. A bit pricey for the sound quality. Comparable, less costly devices that have the same features are roughly $80 - $120 less and provide better low volume sound quality. NOT
Does not sound as good as Bose's Wave radio... I didn't like the Bose when I got it either - maybe I'm just hard to please.
Verdict - I'm still not convinced. I'm going to acquire a small sub to connect(it has a sub out!)NICE. But that means more money.
Let's see what Amazon's got...

I really like the sound, features and design of this product--I just wish it worked with my iPod video. I recently updated the firmware, which I think has caused even more problems than previously mentioned. When I first started using the clock, I tested out the "sleep", "alarm" and "snooze" features. I noticed that if the iPod was playing and I used the "sleep" feature, the iPod wouldn't turn on when the alarm went off in the morning. I had to reset the iPod (toggle HOLD button once, then press Menu and center button at the same time until the apple appears on screen) in order to be able to use it again.

After resetting the iPod, I figured out that I could not directly power off the iPod using the JBL alarm clock. This also was confirmed when I finally got the alarm to wake the iPod, only to find that the snooze button disables the iPod as well, again requiring a reset.

The workaround: I had to power down the iPod (press play/pause button until it powers down) first and then change to one of the other lisening options (such as FM radio) before using the JBL power off button. The alarm clock would then work fine in the morning, but would play the first song in the playlist--until I changed the advanced menu setting to "shuffle". At least this way I don't have to hear the same song every morning.

A slightly unsatisfactory workaround for alarm clock: connect iPod to unit through headphone jack/auxiliary jack and use iPod alarm clock feature.

On another note, the clock display backlighting is too bright--even when you adjust the contrast and brightness. It makes the clock hard to read. Even the low brightness setting is too bright for people who have attacks of insomnia. It would have been better if the background were black and only the lettering was illuminated.

Conclusion: JBL "power", "snooze" and "sleep" functions cannot be used if the iPod is powered down, unless you want to disable and reset the iPod. So, if you want to use your iPod video as your alarm clock, the JBL is definitely not ideal--especially for the price (and they should have worked with Apple on quality assurance testing--or Apple should make products less proprietary). However, if you just want some nice quality music to wake up to, this is a great clock radio.

This unit has some positives and negatives. It looks cool, sounds very good for its size (it's not a boombox and it's not intended to be one - it's a very good-sounding clock radio/iPod dock!). Two problems:

1. With an iPod Nano, this unit CANNOT CURRENTLY play your choice of song when the unit powers on or comes on for an alarm. This is REALLY annoying! This is a documented issue. JBL insists that it's the iPod's fault, Apple has nothing to say about it! It must work ok with other iPod models, because only a few people seem to be complaining about it.

2. There is another reviewer who mentions the problem with the unit "freezing up" and the screen displaying nothing but "dots." This has also happened to me on two different units now and I'm trying to decide whether to return it yet again for a third try. I really like the system, but this is getting annoying.

Bottom line - this is a nice system, but beware of the "quirks." I haven't been able to find anything out there that is better.

I have now bought and returned three different units all for the same problem. Afer a few days and usualy during the difficult naviagtion of setting alarms the whole LCD display area turns into dots and splotches. I can not believe this has happened three times. I have tried different outlets, room etc. I am supprised that I have not seen another review with the same problem.