JBL Time Machine Alarm Clock/Dock for iPod - White

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 have had this product for over 18 months. While it has served me well, it does have some flaws.Pros:* I love the shape of the device, even though it is a bit clunky for an alarm. Friends who have seen it can't seem to stop envying it.* The sound quality is terrific for the price and size. I used the ONTIME at a noisy party with over ten people; everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the music.* Although others have complained about the interface complexity, I found it relatively easy to set up and use.Cons:* The screen for time display is too small. I have excellent vision and don't wear glasses, yet have trouble reading the time in the middle of the night from a short distance.* The alarm volume at the lowest setting is too loud and it escalates upwards very quickly.* Synchronizing the time with a local radio station doesn't always work - sometimes the unit keeps hunting for a station. In fact, I have never had much luck getting the radio to play well on this unit, so it may be that I get poor reception indoors.* This is a big one: after 18 months of moderate use (I took out the iPod only a handful of times since I have another iPod I use when I am mobile), the dock connector for the iPod broke. JBL tech support told me there is no way to fix it. Although I can still connect an iPod using an external connector, it is not as elegant and means that the iPod will not charge while being used with this unit.In summary, I am glad I bought this unit, but really bummed that the dock connector broke, making it hard to use now.

The interface is far more complex than it should be to se the alarms or turn the ipod on for listening.It does sound good and I especially like that it has a sub-out port I added a cheap sub and it really makes a huge difference in sound quality and volume.

This as to be a replacement for my first JBL which I loved.I purchased it for a vacation apt. in Puerto Rico,It arrived just after I was able to return to the US after Hurricane Maria so I wasn't able to hear it then,I finally went back recently,these speakers are not original,the sound it terrible!I believe this was refurbished with inferior speakers and not disclosed,I know what it's supposed to sound like.!It's out of the return / exchange time and I'm stuck with it.Terrible!

Controls a little confusing.