mac.iLounge

Yantouch’s new JellyWake2 ($150) will look very familiar if you’ve seen our coverage of this company’s earlier JellyWake—a beautiful ambient lamp that caught our editors’ attention last year. But this sequel sports some major improvements: in addition to its unique color-shifting LED light system, JellyWake2 now doubles as an analog desktop clock, adds an Infrared remote, and includes new audio effects. Now you can experience the up close magic of its novel gesture-based controls, or use buttons to change its light show from afar.

As was the case with the prior version, JellyWake2 is primarily a nightstand or desktop lamp, using a collection of bright, color-changing LEDs that gently flow across the entire rainbow or lock into a single tone and brightness you prefer. Using integrated timers, a speaker on the bottom plays cricket noises to put you to sleep at night, bird chirps to help you wake up in the morning, and either cave dripping or wave-like water noises as desired—the latter new to JellyWake2. Also new is the ability to shift the unit’s face from lamp to clock mode, both for actual analog time, and for setting the wake up and sleep timers using a standard clock face. Thanks to the remote, it’s considerably easier to make time and feature adjustments than before, though there’s still a learning curve due to the iconography. We’ll have more to say on JellyWake2 soon, but it suffices to say for now that this is a real improvement on the original model.