I’ve had the iHome iH5 Clock Radio for iPod for a few months now and thought I’d blogged about it so I’m doing it now. It’s something I’ve been waiting for somebody to make ever since I got my iPod last November. It’s an alarm clock radio that allows you to wake up and fall asleep to the radio (either AM or FM) or your iPod. It works with every iPod including the Shuffle, Nano, and the new iPod that can play video. The sound quality is amazing. You don’t need the volume turned up very high to hear everything clearly. It’s very similar in sound quality to the Bose systems everyone brags about. The only downside with the radio is that there aren’t any presets which doesn’t bother me too much since I don’t listen to the radio that often. The backlight on the clock is extremely bright on it’s highest setting (of which there are 3). It took me a few nights to get used to even the lowest setting which still illuminates my bedroom better than a nightlight.
There are a few drawbacks to the alarm feature. The first drawback is that instead of using time zone abbreviations such as “ET” or “CT,” the iH5’s display uses numbers 1 through 7. It comes preset for Eastern Standard Time and there’s a +1/-1 switch on the back to spring forward/fall back for when Daylight Savings Time starts and ends. People outside EST/EDT will have to figure out which zone they’re in and adjust the clock accordingly. The second drawback is that there is only one alarm. My old alarm clock radio had two alarms. I could set one for weekdays and the other for weekends. Now I have to change it from one time to the next. The last drawback has to do with the snooze feature. When you hit the snooze button, you get 9 (yes, nine) extra minutes of sleep. Why would they choose a time like 9 minutes? Why couldn’t they do one extra minute for an even 10?
There is an optional remote control for $20 that I’m thinking of getting. When your iPod is in the iH5, you have to change tracks using the click wheel on the iPod. There isn’t a forward/reverse button on the iH5, only a play/pause button. I’ve tried changing tracks a few times and it feels a little strange. The remote allows you to turn the iH5 on and off, switch between radio and iPod modes, control iPod playback, change radio stations, adjust the brightness of the LCD and to snooze the alarm. That last feature I doubt I would ever need but it’s nice to know it’s there.