Sharper Image Radio-Controlled Atomic Alarm Clock (ET255)

this clock looks pretty cool but the quality needs to be improved. it's absolutely not worth of $$.
i bought one with an AC adapter last year which cost me $$ more. i like the LCD to constantly show the time at night so i didn't care the extra $$.
it took a long time to receive the radio signal from Coloroda. but it was pretty easy setting the calendar, date, day, time and alarm. i was very happy about it until this February. the LCD suddenly went partially blank. i wouldn't even guess what time it was showing. i thought the batteries ran out so i replaced with a new pair. yet it still couldn't display the time properly and the LCD turned totally blank in a day.

I've had this clock for several years now, and it's always worked fine for me. I'm a bit nearsighted, so the extra large numbers and the fact that it lights up when it goes off is very helpful, not to mention I can pick it up and hold it in front of my face without ripping out wires. Sometimes (in some places) it does take a while to get a signal from Colorado but for the most part it's never been an issue. The screen has stayed bright on mine, only dims a little when the battery is about to die. I've only had to replace the batteries once. Nice snooze and travels well too.

One hint - if you need to replace the AA batteries, the easiest way I could get off the cover (brute force didn't work) was to put a piece of tape on the back cover and pull sideways. Hopefully they fixed this on the newer versions so that it's easier to open.