Aluratek AIRMM01 Internet Radio Alarm Clock with built-in WiFi (Black)

Comment: We've had one of these for about 10 months and it's worked so well I just ordered a second one to use in another part of the house. This little box contains a great selection of features for the price, is very easy to setup and use, and doesn't take up much space on a shelf. The only thing it lacks is a decent speaker, but adding a good quality pair of external speakers like the Bose Companion II set makes it sound great.

Comment: I have had this internet radio for more than a year now, and I am very satisfied. The first unit I bough had the defective firmware many people complained about, and one day completely froze. I sent it back and got a new one that works almost perfectly. You can add stations yourself, all new units have this capability. MP3 player is very picky: It will only accept a real USB flash drive but not a USB mass storage device such as an SD card reader or an MP3 player. It will only support FAT 16 or FAT 32, no support for NTFS or exFAT. Streaming from a computer works flawlessly. Internet Radio and FM tuner also work very well. The only glitch I've found is that it refuses to set the sleep function after 11 p.m. If you use the snooze button to set it, it will cut out the sound stream and if you set in in a menu, it sets it, but does not actually work. It could use wireless n support. However, these are relatively small glitches and they do not significantly affect the device. I love some of its features like AP capability: It can work as an access point if you plug it in with an Ethernet cable! Also, unlike some other units, the Wi-Fi antenna is removable, so you can in theory upgrade it to a higher gain antenna. All that needs to be done is for Aluratek to release a firmware upgrade allowing you to use NTFS and exFAT and fix the sleep function glitch. For the price, there is no better unit!

Comment: I thought this radio alarm clock was the answer to all my prayers as far as music selection and convenience. However, the product was hard to program and the CS people were quite encouraging and helpful and as a result I sent the product back. I'm sure it's a good radio but it did not serve my purpose. This was no fault of the CS personnel or a quality issue of the radio. I'm somewhat old school and somewhat computer illiterate. This had some factor on my decision to return the product. Thank you. Rob Cowan, Deerfield, IL.

Comment: I don't know where to begin, this was such an awful piece of equipment. I was able to connect to my wireless network without any problem, but that was the high point of my ownership experience.

1) It is unable to connect to the DNS server to get a list of radio stations (and I tried this with a hard-wired ethernet connection as well)

2) It connects to the time server (I think) but the time reported has no resemblance to reality. At 5 in the evening, it reported the time to be 2 am. Then 7 pm. Then 2 pm. I checked and reset the time zone, so I know that wasn't the issue. When the clock started running backwards, I started losing all hope.

3) Online tech support is useless.

4) I thought perhaps a firmware upgrade was called for. Of course, to do so requires a thumb drive, which I don't have anyway (I'm at my parents' house, and don't carry a drive with me at all times).

5) When I looked online, the website reported that the most current firmware is 1.37. I called customer support and they said the current version is 1.48. So apparently the website is out of date (see complaint #3). Of course my device shipped with 1.47a. The "a" by most standards would indicate this to be an alpha version of the firmware, which is software in early development - if this is true, it should never be sent to a customer.

Do all my issues relate to bad firmware? Perhaps, but I have a profound philosophical issue with manufacturers who ship hardware with alpha versions of their software, and then would require me to pay for additional hardware to restore a functionality it should have existed in the first place.

Comment: Great ease of use and love the great selection of internet radio stations from this thiing!