Thanko comes up with a lot of strange gadgets, but at least this time it is something useful. This pair of earphones features an integrated alarm so if your music puts you to sleep, you can always wake yourself up again.

It’s probably most useful for travelers and commuters and anyone with narcolepsy. But if you tend to fall asleep while wearing your earphones a lot, you might want to listen to something more upbeat or drink some coffee.

Apple’s iPhone alarm clock experienced a strange glitch with the new year and failed to wake users on New Year’s Day and January 2. This is caused by a bug that Apple still hasn’t fully explained, but the company did make a statement yesterday saying that the failure of its clock app only happens when you set a one-time alarm, and that it will somehow fix itself on January 3. However despite that, the problem still apparently exists.

So if you want to make sure that you wake up on time and don’t piss off your boss, here’s how to work around the problem until we get a proper fix.

If you are always worried about your wallet being stolen, the iWallet might help ease your mind and keep your cash and credit cards safe. The iWallet is a Kevlar and carbon fiber wallet that features a fingerprint reader, so that only you can open it.

It also has built-in Bluetooth so that the wallet can detect when it’s too far away from your cell phone(stolen) and sound an alarm. Thing is at $600, or just $300 for the fiberglass version, what money will you have left?

Ambient has recently launched their first alarm clock and weather station combo so that you won’t have to check out the weather channel first thing in the morning. The Ambient Flurry Weather Station & Clock will automatically connect to Ambient’s free InfoCast wireless network for accurate network time and two-day weather information for 150 U.S. locations.

The Flurry also offers your choice of two different alarms. You can set one for weekdays and one for weekends if you need a varied wakeup. The Ambient Flurry Weather Station And Clock will cost you $129.99.

In a society that lives inside of their computers, it makes sense to incorporate some online features into our daily lives. Or maybe I’m just taking something that’s extremely geeky and trying to justify it. This concept from Mint Pass takes the familiar progress bar and turns it into a clock or timeline.

The orange tabs are labels that mark events for the current day. Just clip it onto the proper time and it’s there as a reminder. It’s a prototype and not for sale yet, but this one may have a chance at hitting the consumer market. The clock is equipped with 24 alarms that you can configure to sound at whichever time of day those tabs are placed.

Clockman is designed to wake you every morning with a bunch of annoying chat and goofy facial expressions. Go ahead and hit the snooze button. It won’t help. He doesn’t shut up. He doesn’t know how. Since Clockman speaks Japanese, we have no idea what the hell he is going on about.

It gets weirder. You’re supposed to choose a Clockman based on your blood type. AB, B, O and A versions. We have no idea why. Maybe it bonds with you and sucks your blood at night. Clockman arrives in Japan this September.

Clocks have always been our enemy. Clocks are the goons of that evil entity we call time. They do all of the dirty work and urge us onward throughout the day, whipping us into submission without even touching us. Now imagine a clock that takes it’s job to the next level, nagging you every few minutes and giving you updates on its countdown timer.

Yes. Pure unadulterated evil. So stay away from the Morning Countdown Clock if you want to have an actual ‘good’ morning. However if you like punishment, the Morning Countdown Clock is just $33.

Philips’s new Wake-up Light Alarm HF3490 won’t jolt you awake. Instead it will wake you up gradually by increasing the amount of light a little at a time. That way you can wake up the way nature intended. With light, not harsh sounds.

If you want you can also use the FM radio, natural sounds or music from your iPod or iPhone. You can pre-order it now for $199.99. It’s great for those living in apartments where the lighting may not be great.

I have never been one to have a hard time getting up in the morning. My alarm goes off to music and I am up and about my day. My wife on the other hand could sleep through a tornado and never wake up. Her alarm usually wakes me up and then I have to shake her awake to get her to turn it off.

If you are the sort that needs more than a buzzer or music to wake up, the new iLuv iMM153 alarm clock with bed shaker for iPod may be just what you need. The clock supports all dockable iPods and has a 3.5mm auxiliary jack for the devices that can’t be docked.

This little gadget is supposed to look like a standard canned drink, so it can blend into the surroundings in your fridge. Even though no one would ever mistake it for a real drink called “Fridge Recorder”. It’s light activated, so whenever someone opens the fridge door, the recorded message of your choice will play.

Stuff Like, “Step away fatty!” or “Haven’t you had enough junk today? Look at that fat ass.” or even “Obey the fake drink can. The fake drink can is now your master.” If you have roommates, this might help to stop them from stealing your stuff. It’s likely to be entertaining for a full 5 minutes.

At first glance the Echo Bot Voice Messenger looks like a webcam. It isn’t and it is designed to fool people in just that way. It’s really a motion detector that will guard your desk or cubicle from others who might intrude.

The idea is that you record messages that are triggered by the motion detector. Just record your message,(We would advise something nasty and filled with some particularly colorful metaphors about respecting your stuff) then let the motion detector do it’s thing. If your co-worker invades your space they are going to get a nasty surprise.

The Early Bird alarm clock from Fred & Friends will wake you up gently with the sounds of birdsong. The little bird icon even glows, like some sweet avian angel of addiction, subtly reminding you that Twitter awaits on the intertubez.

This bird themed alarm is easy to set and comes with automatic snooze. Which I suppose beats a shotgun sound effect to quiet those birds.

This latest Arduino project turns it into a twitter home security system of sorts. The Arduino is used to monitor a home burglar alarm and send out status messages should the status change: Like when the alarm was activated or shut off, error messages, or just when the alarm actually sounds because you are being robbed.

The Arduino’s digital IO pins are wired up to the alarm’s output signals. An XBee wireless module was added, because the alarm control panel is some distance away from the ethernet hook-up, and a simple Linux server (with the USB XBee receiver) monitors any changes and sends the Twitter messages. @alarmdude By the time help gets here I’m gone. Left the zune on your desk.

Want to wake up in the morning only to have your brain trained with a retro memory game? Here’s the ticket. This alarm clock will not shut up until you play a version of the vintage game and get it right.

If you correctly remember the sequence of lights and press the buttons on the clock in the correct order, you can earn some peace and quiet, then either get out of bed or go back to sleep. On the other hand, you can always smash it to bits. I don’t see any info on price or availability.

Out of all of the gadgets that we own, alarm clocks are our least favorite. They are probably the most hated gadget period. Anything that wakes you from your peaceful slumber on a daily basis deserves to be smashed, if not thrown out the window to be run over by a dump truck.

That’s the idea behind the Smash Clock. To turn off the Smash Clock’s alarm, there’s no fumbling required to find the right button. Just punch it. The top is nice and soft. By punching it aggressively, you wake up more fully, not to mention the fact that you’ve gotten some aggression out of your system first thing.