InventorSpot

The Citizen M-stock Melody Download Alarm Clock offers a refreshingly different wake-up "call" to those jaded by boring beeps, bells and buzzers: your favorite cell-phone ring tones! On the face of it, waking up to a ringtone makes perfect sense - we're already conditioned to perk up and pay attention whenever that jaunty little tune begins to play, so the same effect should yank us out of whatever fluffy dream we happen to be ensconced in.

Daily recall from dreamland takes a bit of doing, however. First off, your ringtone of choice has to be bought & paid for from muPass , so one hopes their song catalog is to your liking. The muPass infrared data-exchange system empowers your cell-phone to beam ringtones directly into the M-stock clock, quickly and invisibly. Look Ma, no wires! We're assuming only one ringtone at a time can be downloaded, but when the current tune fails to get you off - or up, as the case may be - simply go through the download process again and you're back in business.

The Citizen M-stock Melody Download Alarm Clock is marketed by Japan's Rhythm Watch Co. , Ltd. and also by 7dream.com , the online marketing arm of 7-Eleven Stores in Japan. For those who don't know, there are more 7-Eleven stores in Japan (11,500 of a total 28,123 worldwide) than anywhere else, and the stores are markedly upscale compared to their American counterparts.

You won't find Big Gulps or Slurpees in Japanese 7-Elevens, but you WILL spy an assortment of CDs, DVDs, electronic gear and innovative new products like the Melody Download Alarm Clock.

The Citizen M-stock Melody Download Alarm Clock is available from 7dream.com in Japan at discounted prices ranging from 5,880 Yen for the White model 532 to 7,140 Yen for the glitzy model 533 versions in Blue Metallic and Beige Pearl (via Digital World Tokyo ).


Steve Levenstein
Japanese Innovations Writer
InventorSpot.com