Problem: Old-fashioned clock radios have various inconveniences and fail to offer services that people are now coming to expect in other contexts. Solution: Various problems and solution have been mentioned here. A general and adjustable solution might be of interest. The general idea is to use your computer to manage your wake-up device over your Wi-Fi network. You can get a kit to adapt your speakers to take input from youir Wi-Fi net. Works just as with a networked printer or a networked drive. Use an event timer to run a playlist at a specified time (available, but maybe not easy to use). Give your calendar the ability to set the timer and the playlist. This would now take some Geekwork.
Your playlist could include something from your music library or a precorded news show (there are tuners that attach to your computer and software that lets them act just like a VCR without vision). Alternativly, you could get a news program off the web. NPR probably has a morning feed that would do. You could also have the computer read tasks from your calendar. Tell you what you have to get done today (automated nag). It could read your e-mail if you want. Or run through the headlines on your important RSS feeds. Or run through that briefing you have to give today.
Any respectable Geek could put all this together now. Kludge format. Commercial form might sell well on Sharper Image. Probably takes a Geek, a Product Designer, and a Marketer. Sitting in a bar. The Market Designer turns to the others and says...
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Looks like somebody is already working on this. Roku's Soundbridge R1000 Wi-Fi Radio Alarm Clock does just that, but doesn't support Real Audio's live streaming protocol, which is the one with which my favourite station broadcasts on the internet.Another interesting product is the Philips WAK3300, which is still not on sale, and whose specifications are not known yet.However, there must be a way to rig a laptop into going off with RealPlayer at a definite time in the morning...
This is not so different then what is already available, but it's a good application. All you would need is for the clock radio to have a Wi-Fi connection, store your alarm times in flash memory, and have your desktop stream whatever content you want to come out of your clock radio. Whether that be email on a display and/or ringtones and/or streaming music and/or streaming news from the internet and/or ... Good idea