A new twist on the bedside alarm clock from Sony could wake you up with local news, weather, photos from friends and even unreleased videos from your favorite artist.
The device, which was unveiled by Howard Stringer during his keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show, looks like a digital picture frame and needs to be connected to the Internet to gain its special functions.
"We've been thinking about how much more useful this could be," Stringer said by way of an explanation to Sony's digital take on the type of radio-alarm clock that many people have next to the bed.
As part of its alarm function the device can deliver a music video every day to wake up its owner. The videos can be pulled from Internet sites and, said Stringer, "Sony Music can even provide videos before they are released to the general public."
Other content demonstrated included text news headlines, weather forecasts and photos from friends that had been delivered to the alarm clock overnight.
Stringer didn't provide any details on when the device might go on sale.
Sony has embraced network connectivity and is keen to use the Internet to deliver all sorts of content and information to its products. It has set a goal of having 90 percent of its product categories network-enabled by 2012.
