October 13th, 2009 
admin You might know I haven’t managed to find my perfect DAB radio alarm clock and this still isn’t the one. It does not have the microphone jack to allow the use of your MP3 player which would be nice but other than that it works perfectly. I needed one that was reliable and the Pure Siesta happens to fill that need…
March 3rd, 2009 admin 
So my Philips DAB radio didn’t work out due to an annoying buzzing noise which you could only hear in the dead of night. No matter. I returned it and, albeit several months later, I’ve arrived with a replacement. At only £19 this Philips AJ3231 in the style of a mirror lacks many of the functions of its predecessor but is a whole different kettle of fish.
Just by looking at it you notice how it has been designed to look different. I know it may seem a stupid thing to say but most alarm clocks, including my old ones, have been standard block designs just sitting on the edge of your bedside table. It is debatable whether this increase in design compromised the facilities it could offer and you could say that as you definitely won’t find anything mind blowing here. It is a bog standard MW/FM Alarm Clock Radio with the added bonus of an auxiliary 3.5mm input connection for your MP3 player to bring it up to date. It’s a shame DAB is amiss and was one of the reasons I reluctantly bought it…but it’ll last 5 years if it satisfies my needs. Also a Dual Alarm makes an appearance for those people who don’t wake on the first alarm but that seems strange to me, then again I am a light sleeper.
Now I’m not saying the mirror design was a bad idea, on the contrary it looks appealing when you first see it but it brings up so many questions. First of all why would you want to see yourself first thing in the morning? Then again why would you want to use the tiny mirror to get yourself ready when there’s a big digit display right smack in the middle of your face? Also on a side note how long will it be before the nice clean mirrored surface is full of finger marks as you’ve tried to hit the snooze button while half asleep? I’m not saying it’s not been thought out but it just doesn’t seem practical to me.
So a new alarm clock within 2 months and this is nowhere near as good as the last one on first look. However with it’s ever useful dimmer switch I might actually get a better nights sleep without dull buzzing tones or a display bright enough to light a city. Good night!
December 26th, 2008 admin 
Think about it. Your alarm clock is probably your most used gadget in the house. Whether you use it to listen to some tunes or to wake you up for work in the morning it is vitally placed in our everyday lives. So when my old Morphy Richards FM alarm clock was starting to die then Christmas seemed the ideal time to get a replacement. Enter the Philips DAB Clock Radio which not only boasts DAB capabilities but FM and an MP3 Link.
Encased in a rather cheap feeling white plastic case the device makes up for it in the functions and the rather nice display. Although it doesn’t look exactly like it does on the box the screen is backlit by a white light which is different to the majority of the rest on the market. No blue or green LEDs here.
The control system seems simple enough and you cycle through each setting with one button. All the buttons are incorporated into the shell design but the problem with this is in the middle of the night it will take a while to get used to the button placement as they are all close together. There is no real touch to each button which is a bit of a shame when it’s made by Philips but give them credit it looks the part. Oh and the brightness control is a nice extra with three presets so you can turn the display off if you find it too bright if it’s keeping you awake.
The MP3 link was a nice extra and is just a 3.5mm cable that you plug into your players headphone socket. I could have opted for a dock version but this would restrict it to only iPods and to be honest I won’t listen to it much in my bedroom. The advantage of the MP3 link is it is compatible with any audio source and from my tests it doesn’t sound that bad.
So no more dodgy signals from my old FM radio and the DAB paves the way for the future, or at least for five years until DAB+ is mainstream as unfortunately I don’t believe this Philips device to be upgradable or compatible with DAB+. Another useful Christmas present though and I look forward to waking up to clear digital radio in the new year.
September 20th, 2008 admin I’ve always loved radio controlled cars and other gadgets so this soon spread to other vehicles, I’ve got a boat hidden upstairs as well. I even bought an RC Aeroplane that ultimately was a flop as well as a helicopter which was still in beta testing in my opinion but that was a long time ago. Anyway boats are one thing but submarines are another kettle of fish, get the water reference there? I’ll move on. Submarines are complicated machines in real life so I wondered how well they would reference this to a toy version and because of this there is not a wide variety of options in the market. I looked into them and not wanting to spend over £100 on a 50cm proper radio controlled submarine, I plucked for a £25 + P&P 12cm mini submarine off eBay.
I got it in camouflage green and after charging it up fully within 10 minutes off the dedicated pack I was ready to go. You obviously get a standard remote control but with the addition of two switches at the top, similar to L1 and R1 on a Playstation controller. These two switches are key to the whole process and run the diving and surfacing controls. Now unlike a real submarine where ballast tanks are used to surface the sub the mini sub uses a simpler mechanism. A motor in the middle of the sub controls the flow of water up and down, so if the sub wants to dive then the fan operates forcing water upwards and thus diving the sub. It works in the opposite manner to surface the boat and the forward/reverse motion is controlled by twin screws at the back. It’s not a bad system and works the majority of the time with it depending on the forward motion as well. A dual rudder controls direction so I was happy with the quality of the sub however I had very little faith in its effectiveness as an actual sub.
After putting it in the water for the first time my fears soon evaporated and the pleasure began. Ok it wasn’t the worlds best gadget but I was surprised at how well it controlled diving and surfacing. You can even just go up and down without moving forward and backward albeit not as far which I was surprised at but when travelling forward it will go down deeper as it has further momentum. The battery lasts for about 10 mins of normal usage before another charge is required but because the rechargeable battery inside the sub doesn’t take too long to top up it’s not a bother.
Well thats it, how cool is it? Pretty awesome in my opinion on first look. It won’t be still in your most used items within the year, unless you have your own swiming pool, but definitely brings a laugh or two. Remote controlled gadgets are getting better and more varied by the year so it’ll be interesting what appears soon.
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