Well, my curiosity got the best of me and here is what I came up with…
Go to the High level View section for the best, not-so-technical explanation. I’m not really sure this answers the OP comletely, but it is interesting.
<<I see them all over the place. Try any big-time store like Target or some such store in your town.
That’s where I’ve seen them. >>
After visiting the link, I see why I’ve never noticed them…I’m usually checking out the cheapo ones. I winced at paying $20 for an alarm clock simply to get one with an LED readout big enough for me to read.
Thanks, I’m sure I’ll see them all over now.
Corr
I have one - well it’s actually a nokia cell phone. the cell phone (or the service) sucked as a phone but makes a kick-ass alarm clock. I can direct enter the time. I have since discontinued the cell service but still use the phone as an alarm.
and get this - I have 4 days of backup power if the a/c fails. Talk about battery backup
Here’s one from Target for $14.99.
GE Model 7-4648b
Two Wake times.
I love mine and no you can’t have it:)
An alternative would be to buy a second alarm clock.
No, not the solution. You know the story about a man with two watches…
would that be ‘man with watch knows what time it is, man with 2 watches is never sure’?
I had a Radio Shack alarm clock (not a clock radio) that had a keypad for setting time and alarm, and it was very convenient. But it died in a few days. I liked it so much I bought another, which also died. It’s frustrating that there are hundreds of different clocks with the same stupid limitation, and only one (that I found) designed reasonably but defectively.
If they can sell pocket calculators with keypads for half the price of a cheeseburger, it’s obvious that they could sell a clock with a keypad for the $30 that I’d probably pay.
On a related note, now I have an alarm clock that follows the atomic time signal from Boulder, so it’s always very accurate. I like that. But this clock has the worst design I’ve experienced - it tapers upward so you can barely pick it up with one hand, and setting the alarm takes manipulating two buttons with several stages that are time sensitive (ie holding a button for several seconds so its immediate funciton is canceled and a setting mode is enabled). The display is medium dark silvery green gray numbers on a medium silverey green gray background, and much of the display is taken up by a map of the United States to show which time zone the clock is set to. Setting the time zone, BTW, has its own button and is very easy. I change the alarm time several times a week and move between time zones about every 20 years.
So I can’t help but reach the conclusion that until I design an alarm clock myself, every alarm clock in the world will have an unsatisfactory and indeed stupid design - incredible but true…
I do the exact same thing as k2dave. I have three alarm settings, and, through much practice, have mastered navigating the menu and adding 15 minutes to the third alarm with my eyes closed – if my samsung only had a snooze button, it would be a great deal simpler…