Product Description

JBL On Time - Wake Up. Rock Out.JBL On Time is a high-performance sound center that lets you wake up to music stored on your iPod. Just connect your iPod, MP3 player or other music source to JBL On Time and experience clean, powerful and dynamic sound. The upward-firing tweeter and horizontal low and midrange transducers provide a 360-degree sound field. JBL On Time includes a radio, clock and dual alarm, and is the world's first time machine to include a menu-driven, intuitive user interface.

Product Details

• Brand: Harman
• Model: JBLONTIME
• Dimensions: 12.25" h x 10.25" w x 10.50" l, 11.00 pounds

Features

• Wake up to favorite songs stored on your iPod--also includes radio and dual alarm
• Large backlit LCD is easy to read, making menu navigation a snap
• O-shaped, two-way speaker design with 6 watts of power per channel
• Upward-firing tweeter and horizontal low and midrange transducers provide a 360-degree sound field
• Compatibility: iPod nano (1G and 2G), iPod mini, 3G iPod, 4G iPod with click wheel, iPod Color, iPod Video

Amazon.com Product Description
Rise and shine every morning to your favorite music stored on your iPod instead of fuzzy radio stations with the uniquely designed JBL Time Machine Alarm Clock/Dock. The speakers are encased in an O-shaped bridge above the dome-shaped dock with digital clock. In addition to the iPod dock, it includes a radio, clock and dual alarm. Its two Phoenix aluminum-domed full-range transducers are driven by powerful neodymium magnets. The Ridge tweeter provides accurate high frequencies. This two-way design provides a full, rich frequency response from the lowest bass to the highest highs.

Features:

• Compatibility: JBL On Time incorporates the Apple iPod Universal Dock adapter and is compatible with most docking versions of the iPod, including nano and 5G versions. A stereo mini jack connection allows you to enjoy high-quality audio from a variety of other devices, including the iPod shuffle, MP3 and CD players, desktop and laptop computers (all platforms), and satellite radio.
• Easy-to-Use Music and Navigation Controls: Just a touch increases or decreases the volume; another touch allows you to choose iPod, radio or auxiliary as your source. The five FM and five AM radio channel presets are simple to program. And JBL On Time remembers your source and the last volume setting, even after your music source is turned off.
• Time and Alarm Features: Wake up to a favorite song youÕve stored on your iPod. The intuitive user interface allows for all functions to be programmed easily using navigation buttons that provide instant access to the menus. Change settings such as language, alarms and snooze. The automatic time-set feature provides one-button time setting.
• Display: The large backlit LCD is easy to read, making menu navigation a snap. Automatic dimming provides the correct brightness level in any environment. A dome light provides a glow for your iPod; lighted buttons are easy to find in the dark.
• Halo Acoustics: The horizontal acoustic level optimization, or Halo acoustics, design provides a full, rich sound field from any direction. The upward-firing tweeter and horizontal low and midrange transducers provide a 360-degree sound field.
• OnePoint Design: The OnePoint iPod connectors provide the connection to your computer. Connect the standard iPod cable to the rear of JBL On Time and, every time you dock your iPod, youÕll have a connection for synchronizing.
• Evercharge Topology: Provides power to charge your iPod, even when itÕs not connected to the computer, or the system is off.
• Backup Battery: The unit's memory is kept by a backup battery. Even with the power out, JBL On Time will provide the alarm function.
• TimeCrawler: You can set the clock automatically from any local radio station that transmits the time in its signal.
• OCT (Optimized Compression Topology): JBL On Time utilizes a proprietary compression technology to ensure clean, accurate sound at high output levels.
• Power Output: 6 Watts per channel (left, right, tweeter)
• Dimensions: 10 by 10 inches (WxH)

What's in the Box
Clock/speaker dock, AC adapter, iPod universal dock adapter, remote control, printed operating instructions

iPod Compatibility
iPod nano 1G, iPod nano 2G, iPod mini, iPod 3G, iPod 4G (Clickwheel), iPod Color, iPod 5G/5.5G Video

Customer Reviews

An Adjustment to my previous Review-2 Stars, NOT 4!
I am an iPod speaker/charger junkie having owned the Klipsch iFi and Bose Sounddock while currently owning a Klipsch iGroove. I have been looking to get an alarm clock to wake-up to my iPod, but the iHome was not quite the audiophile quality that I was looking for.

Positives:
1) Design-If you have a modern bedroom area, this thing is a cool head-turner. Design is underplayed in this market, but it is very important!
2) Sound-The sound is excellent at low to medium levels for both the iPod as well as the radio. The highs are very distinct and bass is noticable.
3) Ability to wake up to any song you like out of thousands on your iPod. I'm not sure what the last reviewer was talking about. I have easily been able to wake up to any song I like on my On Time. I can wake up to Wham or U2 or Rob Zombie, it's my choice!
4) The On Time gradually increases the sound for a gentle wake up experience.

Negatives:

1) The interface is not that difficult, but it's more difficult than the traditional alarm clock. Once you figure out how to do it, you will be fine, but it does take some figuring out.
2) Sound at louder levels is not great, but I'm not sure that's the idea. This item has small room filling quality, but if you have a huge bedroom and want to crank up the sound this might not be for you.
3) The time could be a little bigger on the readout. When I wake up in the middle of the night to check the time, I like to look real quick and go back to sleep. The numbers could be bigger, like the iHome, but are not as bad as some others.

Overall, I would not let the negatives detract you. If you have seen this on display at the Mac Store and liked it, you will like it more once you get it home. It's cool, sounds great and interfaces with the iPod seamlessly.
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A lot of talk has been made about the fact that you can only wake up to the first song in your library. At first, I thought this was not true, because I was able to wake to any song I wanted...then I updated to the newest iTunes and newest firmware for the iPod Video 60GB and BOOM---it only now plays the first song of the alphabetically first artist on the iPod. I called JBL and they said that I actually have to go back and re-install the old software and firmware in order to wake to any song I want! What? I went to the Apple Store and they said, yes, this is true. There is no way to fix this. This is a MAJOR glitch in a product that has great sound and a wonderful design. True, you can go in and re-name any song on your iTunes to be the alphabetically first artist and first song, but who really wants to do that? JBL should stick to making speakers until they can get it right. If you make this purchase, please be aware of this flaw that I was not!

Works with older iPods only and crashes
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.

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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.

Does not work with 5G video ipods
I recently bought this item. It has great sound with loud and clear reception from both the radio and the ipod. It is relatively easy to use and user friendly. The only problem is, you cannot wake up to the song of your choice on the 5G video ipods (30 GB, 60GB). (On the older ipods, it works just fine.) However, on the newer ones, it will instead begin at the start of the entire library. It is not the system's fault, just a bug in the Apple software for the newer ipods.

When contacting JBL, here is the answer they gave me. Good morning and thank you for your inquiry. I can understand the concern regarding the JBL On Time. This issue is not actually an issue with the JBL On Time, but, a software issue with the Apple iPod. The iPod will not remember the last song played when you power on/off, switch inputs, wakeup, or set the alarm on the JBL On Time. It will default to the first song in the library, if you have the following iPod's with the following software:

iPod Nano - software 1.1, 1.1.1
iPod Video - software 1.1, 1.1.1

So, this system is great for looks and sound, but the only draw back in my opinion is the inability to wake up to any song you choose instead of hearing the entire library.