Tied to the broader range of Beo home theatre product, the BeoTime is a bit minimalist, even by B&O’s standards—it’s basically a stylised aluminium stick. But, as I’m sure the salesmen will be eager to tell you, it does so much more than an aluminium stick! On top of telling time, it can wireless switch B&O audio and video products on and off with alarms or sleep timers. Menus are navigated with the large centre button, the snooze switch is the device’s accelerometer, which triggers when the device is moved, and the alarm can be totally disabled by depressing the metal plunger protruding from the device’s end. Time, alarm time and alarm source info are displayed on a set of low-res panels.It’s a bit disappointing to find out that a $US375 single-function device is powered by AA batteries (included!), but Bang and Olufsen says each set will last a year. Besides, if you’re wealthy enough to own the full battery of B&O equipment necessary to fully take advantage of the BeoTime, you’ve probably got some manner of battery-changing servant. Available in August. [Bang and Olufsen]

Sadly, the source site doesn’t allow embedding, so I’ve assembled a series of screen grabs to try and capture the raw violence I saw in the original video. The same video, coincidentally, you can catch in the accompanying link. [TechEblog]

I wish this alarm clock—a full replica of Darth Vader’s head—would would say “Luke! Luke, wake up! Damnit Luke, you whiny one-handed son of a Sith you! WAKE UP!” to get you out of bed.

Sadly, its $US30 price tag won’t get you James Earl Jones shouting at you like a Marines instructor. Instead, it will play AM/FM radio or act as a speaker for your digital audio player. However, with its glowing red time indicators I like it better than the Darth Vader alarm clock. [Playthings via Toyology]

I used the Anytime with both my iPhone and my iPod Photo (remember those?) and both worked well, charging while plugged in and easily controllable by the included remote. The sound quality from the speakers is pretty decent – there’s some bass distortion at higher volumes, but this is an alarm clock, and you don’t want it to be too loud.

As well as having the iPod dock, there’s an AM/FM radio and a stereo line in, and you can program the alarm to work off any of these. There’s also a buzzer function, although why you’d use it is beyond me.

One of the most practical, and also gimmicky, features of the Anytime is the inclusion of a motion sensor on top of the unit. This has two functions: Firstly to light up the buttons in a dark setting, so you can see what you’re doing without having to turn on the lights, and secondly as your snooze option.

And I’ve got to say, until you’ve snoozed by waving your hand in the general direction of your alarm clock, you haven’t lived. Sure there’s a big-ass snooze button on top, but you don’t need it. Just wave your hand and enjoy another 10 minutes of sleep. On the downside, this makes it all too easy to have 3 snoozes too many…

The Anytime also has three shortcut buttons that link to playlists in your iPhone or iPod. The catch is that you have to create the playlists and name them ‘1′, ‘2′, or ‘3′ to correspond with the buttons. While that’s not a bad thing in itself, being able to map different playlists to those shortcuts would be even better.

It’s not the perfect alarm dock though. For a start, although there are three brightness settings available for the display, it would be nice to have the softest setting even dimmer. Another hiccup I had was when it crashed completely – normally that would be easy fixed by unplugging the power cord. But the Anytime’s backup 9 volt battery, which you need a screwdriver to get to, meant that the simple act of resetting the device was a horrible ordeal which involved searching for a Philips head screwdriver in the early hours of the morning after partaking in a rather large quantity of alcohol.

Other than that though, my experience with the Pure-Fi Anytime has been one of peaceful wakings and blissful, motion powered snoozes. And you can’t ask for any more from your alarm clock, can you?

[Logitech]

Waving, however, could be a problem for this clock. Because it is buttonless, the only way to control all the settings and switch between the time, date and temperature settings is with motion sensors and gesture controls. I personally wouldn’t want a clock that might turn off my alarm or change my settings every time I lifted my head to check the time in the middle of the night. [Homeloo via Coolest Gadgets via OhGizmo]

Scenario: You’re walking down a dark alley when you get jumped. Someone grabs your bag. They get away. Your nose is broken, ribs bruised. That is, until an alarm goes off in your pocket.

If the blood gushing down your face weren’t enough, the Nio, which measures proximity to your connected Bluetooth devices, confirms that your mobile phone has indeed been stolen. As the high pitched squeal adds the cherry on top to your excruciating head pain, all you can think is, thank goodness I spent $US50 on the thing. Now I know for certain that I cannot call an ambulance. [Nio via Engadget]

The app, which goes along with the new Evangelion movies, looks like the power countdown whenever one of the Eva robots goes on battery mode. Normally it displays the current time (military time, naturally), but you can also set it to count down anywhere from 30 to 1 minute.

Once the counter hits the minute mark it goes into “racing” mode, which then turns into super crazy red light mode when you get under 10 seconds. After that, you get killed by angels. The only downside is that the time is always displayed at a weird angle so you can only effectively read the time when your phone is in landscape mode. It also costs $US3!

There’s also a stamp app that’s not quite as cool. All it does is give you a bunch of EVA things you can place over your own photos. Here’s me with a Rei haircut generating an AT-field and telekinetically holding a knife. Oh and check out that huge necklace.

[Clock App and Stamp App]

The OK to Wake! alarm clock teaches your hellions when it’s okay to leave the confines of their bed by glowing green when you’re ready to deal with them. I’m sure it works perfectly.

We have seen tweeting house plants and thermostats, but in a twitter-enabled home, nothing makes more sense than a burglar alarm.

Using tried-and-true Arduino magic, you can build a device that hooks into your existing burglar alarm. If the alarm is triggered, turned on or off, or malfunctions, you will be notified with a hysterical flurry of tweets. Imagine looking on your mobile phone to find the following: “I think someone is in the house! I’m scared!” Hit the following link for basic instructions on how to build one yourself. [Kelvin's Thunderstorm via Hacked Gadgets via Slashgear]

LCD Clock will display the time and calendar while you are charging your iPhone or even enjoying your music with a dock speaker. It can switch back to 12-hour or 24-hour mode easily, just by tapping the screen. There is an alarm function too, but it won’t work if your iPhone is in silent mode. There’s no guarantee it will work when your iPhone is asleep or locked either–fortunately, there is an option to disable auto-locking.

With the calendar, you can flick up to see the next six months, with Japanese or U.S. holidays highlighted. If you’re in Japan, you can also display the Japanese “Rokuyou” calendar. The calender will also remind you of birthdays and anniversaries. With multiple date and time display options, LCD Clock also gives you the ability to change the display colour. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a purchase to make (Jason, I promise you I can wake up!).