Cool Thing of the Month

The Travel Soother 20
What's the worst part of your day? How about the first five seconds of it, when your ANNOYINGLY LOUD alarm clock blasts you out of bed: BRAAAK BRAAK BRAAAK... That's no way to wake up, my friend. You need the Travel Soother 20 from Sharper Image Design on your nightstand. Then you'll gently wake to any one of twenty different digital soundscapes, including innovative ones like "Fireside," "City" and "Wind Chimes," plus natural sound environments like "Rainforest," "Surf's Up" and "Summer Night." Even better, the Travel Soother has a ramp function that'll slowly turn up the volume, starting from inaudible, and gradually increasing all the way to "11." Once you've experienced the joy of being gently wakened this way, you'll never want to go back to your medieval alarm clock. Did I mention the interactive snooze button? By repeatedly tapping it, you can adjust the next wakening time from a safe 10 minutes to a "You're fired, clean out your desk" 30 minutes.

True to its name, the Travel Soother 20 will also accompany you on your journeys away from home, running on AA batteries. When you're staying in a typical hotel with its paper-thin walls, filled with inconsiderate hall talkers, door slammers, and late night partiers, you'll really appreciate the 20 different noise-masking sounds, including a very effective "white noise" setting. Unlike most white noise generators, the TS20 has an auto-off function, adjustable between 15 minutes and two hours. That way, you won't be awakened by the sound effects after you've fallen asleep. The TS20 also has a surprisingly good AM/FM digital radio and an extraordinary speaker with state-of-the-art aluminum cone driver technology. From The Sharper Image exclusively. $99 and worth it.