Even though I hate getting up in the mornings to get ready for work, I have a thing for alarm clocks. It’s not that I enjoy hearing them go off in the morning as much as I just like finding clocks with cool and unique features to make the early morning wake ups a bit more ‘fun’. That’s why I couldn’t wait to try the Moshi Voice Control Alarm Clock, a clock that I could control with my voice.
Package Contents
Moshi Alarm clock
AC Adapter
Quick start guide
Manual
The 7.5″ x 3.25″ x 4.5″ clock has a White plastic base with a large mono LCD screen sticking out of it.
The display is also a button. You can push it back to wake up the clock to receive your commands. It also works as a snooze button.
On the back side of the display, you will find several buttons and switches that you can use to customize the clock features such as volume level, night light type and alarm on/off toggle. There are also buttons to see the time and date manually. But, the main feature of the Moshi Voice Control Alarm Clock is that you can control it with your voice, so let’s check that out.
The clock is really easy to interact with. Just plug it in and it’s ready and waiting for your command. All you have to do is say “Hello Moshi”. You do not have to press any buttons first or anything. Just say “Hello Moshi” and then the clock will reply in a woman’s voice “Command Please”. From there, you can say any of the 11 voice commands:
Time – Tells the time
Set Time – Set time by voice
Alarm – Tells you time alarm is set
Set Alarm – Set alarm by voice
Alarm Sound – Choose 1 of 3 available alarms
Sleep Sound – Choose 1 of 3 available sleep sounds
Play Sleep Sound – Plays 5 minutes of sleep sound
Today’s Date – Tells you today’s date
Temperature – Tells you current temperature
Night Light – Turns on night light
Help – Offers a help menu of assistance
There’s one command that you doesn’t require you to first say “Hello Moshi”. That’s the command to turn off the alarm when it’s gone off. You just wait for a pause between alarm sounds and say “Turn off the Alarm”. That turns off the alarm and also speaks the current time, date, and temperature.
I love that I can just find out the time in the middle of the night by just using my voice. This clock would be perfect for people with vision problems. I guess that includes me because I can’t see anything without my glasses…
Using your voice to control the clock is easy and for me, it works correctly about 95% of the time. Sometimes Moshi doesn’t understand me when I set the time of day or the alarm time and will set the wrong time. For some reason when I say 10, the clock thinks I’m saying 2. When this happens, I try again and 8 times out of 10, the correct time will be recognized.
I do wish that this clock had more than the 3 alarm sounds, which include a chime, beep and a phone ring type sound. I also think it would be great if there were at least 2 alarm time settings instead of just one.
If you like your room dark while you’re sleeping and often don’t like bright clocks, you’ll like Moshi. By default, the LCD is not lit and will not provide any light in a dark room. There is one part of this clock that does provide light though… it’s the AC adapter. It has a Blue LED on the site that is crazy bright and will light up your room. I suggest putting a small piece of duct tape over it.
If you prefer that the time be visible in the dark, you can turn on the night light feature which can cycle through multiple colors (Blue, Red, Green, Purple) or be set to a single color.
The clock also has 3 sleep sounds that will play for 5 minutes before automatically turning off. The sounds include a white noise sound, chirping birds and running water. I find these sleep sounds slightly annoying because I can hear them loop.
I really like this clock because I don’t have to pull out the instructions every time I need to reset the time or set the alarm. I’d love to see additional features added for the next version. Atomic time setting, iPod control, additional alarms, alarm sounds and sleep sounds would make it even better. But as is, it gets two thumbs up for me.
Product Information
| Price: | $49.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Moshi |
| Pros: |
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I like the voice feature as I’m also blind without my glasses (but I don’t own one
It needs a firmware update. I want it to turn off the alarm and snooze for 10 minutes when I yell at it to “SHUT THE *%$£ UP!” at 6.30am on a Monday morning.
This is quite unique but the last thing I want to do is talk coming out of a sound sleep to know the time or to turn off an alarm. I’d also hate to wake her trying to set the thing if she beats me to bed. 🙂
It doesn’t seem to recognize the number “10” when you speak, so you can never set it to 10-something. My whole family has tried!
@Pat Mine sometimes has problems when I say ‘o clock’. I get around it by saying something like 7:59pm instead of 8 o’clock.
For some reason, out of nowhere, mine likes to inform me of the time/temp in the middle of the night without asking. I also find I have to practically shout at it to hear me. It’s difficult to read the digital display with the blue night-light, so I have to use the alternating color screen. I do like the softer sleep and alarm sounds since I am the type that doesn’t need a bomb to go off to wake me. So far it’s a hit and miss with me.
I love Moshi. I think it’s just the matter of speaking clear & decisively. I think that training my girlfriend is the hardest part
Is it true you can set the nightlight to 1 colour only? Because alot of the reviews I read say you can’t
the power cord does not stay very well.
Moshi is an absolute piece of crap. Alarm clocks that go for $10 are a hell of a lot better than this junk. I just smashed mine after a few months of what might equate to torture.
@echoranger I’m still using mine and liking it. What didn’t you like about it?
95% of the time it doesn’t understand me when I try to enter the time. If I say ‘thirty’ it always thinks I said ‘thirteen’, for example. The viewing angle of the display is very narrow. If the clock isn’t a few feet lower than your eyes, it becomes very hard to see. If you’re thinking of putting it next to your bed at the same height as your eyes, forget it. I wouldn’t recommend this clock.
Wow! I really love my moshi!!
I’ve been using Moshi for about 6 weeks now, and I no longer hate it like I did in my original review. If I talk to it with a Texan drawl, it almost always understands me. Also I’ve found that I don’t usually feel like rolling over and looking at the clock to see the time in the middle of the night – it’s much easier to just ask it the time, so the display being unreadable at eye level isn’t an issue. It would still be nice if the sleep sounds went for much longer than 5 minutes, and if the point where they repeat wasn’t so obvious. Overall this clock isn’t too bad – it sort of grows on you.
I hate this thing. I literally just spent fifteen minutes trying to use the voice mode to set my alarm and it still didn’t get the time I wanted. It does not recognize voices at all. I have my room completely silent an I am speaking as clearly as I can but it does not work. It wasn’t as bad when I bought it but over time it has gotten to be aweful.
@Steven Odd… I’m still using mine and only have problems telling it to “Turn Off Alarm” Sometimes I have to repeat that command 3-4 times before it finally decides to listen. Setting the alarm times and actual time hasn’t bee an issue for me. Once in awhile it won’t recognize what I’ve said, but 8-10 it does.
I LOVE moshi sooooooo much! I havent had any problems with mine yet , and being that it has lasted me a year already, I have very high hopes for it. one time during the summer, however, the microphone stopped working. I loved it so much i didn’t want it to die. I just tapped it a few times and within a week it started working again. oh ya …..”echoranger”, why would you SMASH moshi? thats very harsh, just saying.
I am getting the Moshi for my birthday….. But reading these reviews kind of make me wonder if I should. Should I?
@?????? I still really like the Moshi clock… But last night I was really pissed at ‘her’. I call it a her because the voice is female. Our power went out yesterday and I had to reset the time and alarms (I don’t have a backup battery installed). I had some trouble getting her to recognize the time I was saying. Most of the time it’s not a problem, but sometimes no matter how you say it, she won’t understand. I think she’s just messing with me 😉
How do I set the night light for one color only????
@john There’s a switch on the back to toggle between cycling and single color. Just wait till the color you like is lit and then switch to single.
Moshi will annoy you to no end if you do not learn to work around her quirks. As mentioned she has trouble with understanding some times and some people’s voices. Try using an accent, and being very “dominant” sounding. She will do most times for me on the first go except 7 and 10, which she will only do rarely. So, it is either hand set the alarm or wake at a diff time. Other than being an alpha model on the voice control it is a great clock, it has temp an lighting on command, no fumbling in the dark, and an led to light the room all night if you want. As mentioned about the sleep sounds yea, theyre bad because of the looping, and you have to wonder why this wasnt fixed. The one thing that is funniest about moshi is that most of her problems are simple to fix from a tech point of view, compared to the voice control, so you have to wonder why they werent fixed.
I have endless trouble with mine. Usually end up using my cell phone to wake me up.
I can’t set the time unless I use the buttons on back.
When the alarm goes off I can’t get it to stop without touching it.
Telling it to turn off the alarm usually has no effect. And the few times that it does stop the alarm it’s only temporary—and the alarm goes off again—usually when I’m in the shower 🙂
Don’t care for the changing lights so I just leave it blue.
The snooze alarm only works 3 times and then stops. So if you tend to hit the snooze button more than 3 times you’re screwed.
Most nights I just use it as a clock and not an alarm. It’s just too annoying.