Buyer's Remorse

So I bought this thing:

I liked the form factor and I needed a phone charger for my office. So I've had it for a little while now and I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

What we first find is that even though the thing says it is iPhone compatible I don't think they meant 3G. So when I seat my phone it tells me it doesn't work with that phone. Mostly it does though. It's supposed to be able to get the time from the phone and it can't. But otherwise it does seem to connect like it's supposed to. It does charge the phone.

Then it says it isn't optimized for the phone. I am beginning to think any device with a radio that hooks to a phone says it isn't optimized so when you hear the phone ping tune network through the radio you aren't surprised. Whatever.

The radio works well. The remote is nice. The app that runs on the phone to be the clock hands is nice too. I wish it would launch automatically when you dock the phone. Maybe it does on a better phone.

With all of that I think I'd be absolutely satisfied with the purchase.

Except for this: the clock doesn't keep time. As it runs the clock loses maybe four minutes per hour. If first thing in the morning I reset the time by the end of the day it is behind by almost a half hour. It reminds me of stories from East Germany, where the electrical generation didn't have a reliable frequency. People were always coming to work late. Made for real problems when the city unified.

So the clock/radio/charger is just a radio/charger. I guess I should return it, but it looks like I'd rather be disappointed. Maybe I can fix it. Seems like it's probably a problem with the power supply. Maybe a project for my spare time.

If you were also enchanted by this form factor, I guess my advice is to look for something else.