Q: I am the lucky owner of a new iPod shuffle, and I was looking for something compatible with it that would allow me to wake up every morning to my favorite music. I had a look at the iH5 radio, but I had the impression that it does not work with shuffles. Am I right? Are there any alternatives?
– Marco
A: You probably won’t be able to find a very elegant way of doing this.
The iHome iH5 Alarm Clock Radio has the ability to use an iPod or iPod mini’s dock connector to instruct the iPod to start playing when it’s time to wake you up. The iPod shuffle, however, has no such ability to be controlled by an external device.
While the iHome can connect to the iPod shuffle using the included miniplug-to-miniplug cable and does include a shuffle stand (See our Review here), you’ll need to leave the iPod shuffle playing all night long and hope it’s still playing (i.e.
not dead or out of music) when the iHome turns the speakers on in the morning.
Also, other iPod shuffle-compatible speakers won’t be any better. They’ll be worse, as they won’t have the alarm capability.
