It has some clever ideas, and it looks great on a shelf, but ultimately, it’s still an alarm clock. But what a cute alarm clock it is. Alarmo is a red cylinder with a rotund white button / knob on top and a 2.

The Alarmo connects to the internet to update its firmware, download new themes, and sync with your Nintendo account for vague purposes (Nintendo requires you to have a paid Switch Online account if you want to pre-order the clock ahead of its November launch, which might be the only reason).

It’s not often that we get to write about Nintendo here on The Ambient but we couldn’t ignore this… the Japanese gaming giant had launched a smart alarm

The Verge’s senior entertainment editor Andrew Webster will have a full review of Alarmo coming up, but I wanted to check it out for myself. Mostly, I was curious about the audio quality. If the speaker in this relatively tiny clock sound tinny or shrill, that would ruin the whole concept for me.