Midland WR100 Weather Radio

• Compact alert monitor for weather, civil emergency, and other hazards
• Receives 7 NOAA channels with flood, tornado, thunderstorm, and other warnings
• SAME programming sounds an alert only when specific counties are threatened
• 25-county memory system; 90 dB siren, voice alert, and flashing LED warning systems
• Built-in clock with alarm and snooze; measures 5.12 x 2 x 6.25 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty

This unit sets up in about 10 minutes, has excellent reception, and works exactly as advertised. The good thing is, you can put it in your bedroom and be assured of getting woken up in time to get to shelter during tornado alerts and warnings (serious stuff here in the midwest). The bad thing is, you get the same shrieking alert for severe thunderstorm warnings, something I'd just as soon sleep through. It's worth the hassle to keep your family safe, but just be aware that while you can select what SAME areas you're getting alerts for, you can't select which types of alerts you'll get.

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I live in Oregon, which is not noted for severe storms, but I was really caught "off guard" last week when a severe thunderstorm with a large amount of hail blew through. Severe weather can occur almost anywhere! Shortly after the storm, I ordered one of these weather alert radios to keep me more aware of any local hazard that could pose a threat.

The radio itself is quite sensitive, and provides reception of several more distant weather stations that can not be picked up by less sensitive receivers such as the general purpose (AM/FM/TV/Wx) Sony 410 (see my review of the Sony).

The big deal here is the weather alert function... The radio can be set to be silent until it receives a specially coded message from the NOAA weather station. The radio can be programmed to respond to "codes" from one area or several, so you can adjust your "zone of protection" to suit your needs. When a warning that affects the area that you have programmed in (by setting specific SAME codes) is detected, a loud alarm or flashing light or voice alert will sound (your choice).

If it is desired to hear a weather report, just push the "weather" button on the unit and listen... very much like those old Radio Shack "weather cubes" that were very popular 20 years ago, but with better reception.

Everyone should have one (or more) of these!

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This Midland WR-100B is a must for every homeowner to have as a safety warning device.

I purchased mine in January after a tornado hit a town in indiana at 3:00 AM and caught many who were sleeping off guard and since then it has given us piece of mind at night and while we are sleeping. on most occasions the warnings are always 7 to 10 minutes ahead of the tv and radio alerts.

The LEDS advise you if theres a warning or a watch and it also scrolls along the screen along with a very loud auduble alarm, it also has the S.A.M.E. programming so you can pinpoint the correct NOAA weather station for your town or county eliminating false alarms that may alarm you from another area or town.

After having this radio I would not be without one and this radio performs great. There is also a red strobe light that you can purchase optional that also inhances the warnings at night to catch your attention should you be sleeping this also has performed well.

Overall this radio has performed great and has alerted us of a couple of tornado warnings and has given us ample time to react and prepare.

I hope this reveiw may help you this weather radio is a bargain for the price.

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This purchase was my third one of these radios! They are a GREAT value, as far as I'm concerned. All the buttons are laid out in logical order and the LCD display is easy to read. I now have two at home and one a work. They monitor the weather, 24/7, and the forecast is only a button press away.

I especially like the S.A.M.E. capability, since I can program in the counties I want watch/warning statements for. You can program as many as 25 counties into this receiver. Amazing! This is convenient so I don't get warnings which will not affect me over 80 miles away! And the warning alarm is LOUD! I also like the small LEDs for Warning, Watch, and Statement. If you miss the actual broadcast, the LEDs will light-up during the duration of the statement. This way, if you have been away from the radio, you know immediately when you return, that something is active and can then review it with the Weather button.

The radio supports all seven NWS NOAA frequencies in the 162Mhz FM band. Plus it has an alarm clock! The most important function for me is the 'battery backup' it has. With (3) AA batteries, your radio will work after you lose AC power!!!

Overall, a GREAT WX radio by Midland!

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Right now it is almost 1am. I've had this weather radio for a few days, and like a few things about it, but let me tell you the deal-breaker: IT BEEPS FOR EVERYTHING. You can set it to beep only for emergencies in your area, which is great, but it still beeps for EVERYTHING in your area! All I care about is tornados, but it beeps for heavy rain, thunderstorms, high wind... everything.

The alarm volume CANNOT be adjusted. It sounds like a life-size foreign police car inside your bedroom every time it goes off. It doesn't take a bomb going off to wake me up, the volume should be something I can change. Overall, I liked the price and look of this unit, but it isn't user-friendly (or sleep friendly!).

We're under tornado watch tonight, so I haven't yanked the cord from the wall, but I keep getting woken up with a shot of adrenaline wondering what the 900,000 decible noise is, only to find it is an alert saying that there's still a thunderstorm outside. Thanks, radio!

If you are looking for a radio for your home, I'd look for one with an adjustable alert volume, selective alert types, and SAME technology. This one will drive you insane!

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Duracell Coppertop Alkaline Batteries

I'm pretty used to buying batteries online and finding they had been made long before I ordered them (had some CR123 with experations the next month from another vendor). In at least my case, my batteries from this vendor show a production date of 3/30/10...and I ordered them on April 18th. You can't get any younger batteries (exp is Mar2016). I'll be checking this distrbutor out for the rest of my battery needs.

The 4 batteries arrived in 4 small ziplocs rather than in sealed Duracell packaging as shown in the picture. I have no idea if they are new or used.

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The batteries were covered in an oily goo. I couldn't tell if it was from the batteries or not, but some of them were discolored and slightly misshapen. Not what I expect from a brand name battery!

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Picked up a pair of Duracell AA batteries on a vacation when my rechargeables died. The batteries started leaking after about two months of light use in the camera, and the clear liquid that came out couldn't all be cleaned from the camera, which now refuses to turn on with new batteries despite it being in near perfect condition otherwise.

I am in the market for a new camera... and I don't plan to buy Duracell again (I'll remember an extra set of rechargeables next time).

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Edit, 12/14/2010:

I have gotten a bit of flack for putting a negative review on these batteries (just 1 out of 5 helpful, which is pretty typical when putting a negative review on Amazon). My review is to note that I got a lemon product. I realize it is probably rare, and there are plenty of folks who review the batteries who got a good set. But so long as there are lemons, there should be an occasional negative review on a product.

Reviews are almost entirely based on anecdotal evidence. Some folks happen to get a bad product (a lemon), so we rate the product we got, not the product we might have gotten. Other folks who purchased a good product (not a lemon) do the same. Looking at all the reviews, you get an overall impression of the integrity and utility of the product.

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Batteries were purchased in June 2012, but product received had expiration date of Feb 2012. Also they did not arrive in the advertised packaging, so am not sure if they are genuine. Could be good deal but make sure you check the dates when you receive the product.

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Dual MXCP66 In-Dash Marine AM/FM/CD/MP3 Receiver 6 1/2-Inch Speaker Combo Pack - White

• Complete marine solution includes Dual MXCP66 receiver and pair of Dual DMP66 speakers
• AM/FM Radio, CD, CD-R/RW, MP3/WMA receiver with front-panel USB port and auxiliary input
• 50 x 4 watts maximum power with three 2V preamp outputs (front, rear, subwoofer) for expansion
• 6.5-inch dual cone speakers with injection poly cones, poly-coated cloth surround, integrated grille
• Receiver features rust-resistant chassis and coated circuit boards; speaker corrosion and rust resistance
• Marine CD, MP3, WMA, AM/FM Receiver, Detachable faceplate, Single DIN
• 30 Station presets (18FM/12AM)
• Front panel USB connection
• Play MP3/WMA files from most mass storage devices, Charges most USB devices such as a cell phone, iPod, etc.
• 6.5 inch Dual cone design -Corrosion-resistant ABS construction

I bought this for a Christmas present for my husband. We have a basic bass boat and just wanted some music for fishing and what not...He installed this and it works awesome! He loves it too. Sound is really good (its actually louder then we expected) and its just what we wanted. Some people wrote that the speakers were "ok" but I think they are just fine. No complaints and we have enjoyed it so much. Would recommend!

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This radio works great in my pontoon! I was expecting a $100 radio and what I got was something much more! I am very impressed with how well this radio works. It sounds great as I added the 2 speakers to my existing speakers so now there are 4 hooked up! Plenty of power and range! Would definitely buy again for different boat! Very happy for the the money spent and I am an Audiophile. My cars are all JL Audio and Eclipse and Alpine decks and I just didn't want to spend that money on a boat that is used 25 times a year.

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Lots of features for the price. I bought this to replace an identical unit to simplify installation. Previous unit didn't seem to hold up well in the weather. So hope this one lasts longer

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First off the speakers said they were rated at 50 watts. When I got them I noticed stamped on the back of the speaker was 20w. Sure enough after I hooked them up they sounded tiny and distorted quickly. I do not see how this is a marine grade radio either. All they did was wrap it in black tape which you end up popping a hole in when you take it out of the sleeve with the puller tool. The is not a power constant so I lose all my settings every time I turn it off. Not to mention every time I turn it on it ejects the CD. Falsely advertised because it is CHEAP. You might as well by cheap speakers and stereo that are not marine grade and they will be of better quality than this and will probably be more durable.

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For only $104 you can't expect much more than this package offers. Quality seems good, sound is acceptable, even decent, considering you are on a boat. If I was looking for sound quality I would pick a different venue. Installation was simple if you have any skills at all. I listen to music/audio through my Droid X either from my SD card via the USB or from numerous apps such as pandora. When playing music from apps though, you have to connect a 3.5mm jack between your device and the deck. Also found that the charging feature only maintained my battery rather than recharge it. In other words, if you hook it up with a half charged battery, I found it kept it at half charged and didn't drain any further. That could be because the smart phones use a considerable amount of power running music, apps, and communications/data. A simple IPOD or MP3 player, or lesser phone might charge just fine. I would buy again. It is perfect for my recreational use while fishing or just cruising around. If you want to impress your friends or try to outblast the other boats, look elsewhere or add amps and better/more speakers

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Philips DS3600/37 Docking Speaker with Bluetooth for iPod, iPhone and iPad

• Bluetooth wireless music streaming from iPod, iPhone or iPad
• DBB to preserve low tones for deep bass at any volume level
• 20 watts of total output power
• Precisely tuned bass pipes for deep, tight bass reproduction
• PC synchronization with your iPod/iPhone/iPad

I have had this dock for 2 months without any problems at all. It pairs easily and the sound is phenomenal. It is so crisp and LOUD. I use it with my ipad to watch movies and there is no lag time as I have had in the past with some bluetooth speakers. I am very very happy with my purchase.

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Good sound for an small apartment, charges the iphone while playing... exactly as advertised. Oh, and it can connect via bluetooth if you want to have the iphone with you or connect other non-Apple slates.

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I saw this at the Amazon showroom (Best Buy), and it sounded great. But after I ordered and received it, I quickly decided that I needed to send it back.

Although it has a standard Apple connector, the unit links to the iPod via Bluetooth, not through the Apple connector. It appears that the connector is only there for charging the iPod, iPhone, iPad. Why is this important? Because the only sound sources that the speaker will stream are iTunes and the DockStudio app. So, I can't use it for Amazon MP3 streaming, Pandora, Google Music, or any of my other music apps.

Also, even though the description says that it will work with the iPod, it will not work at all with the iPod Nano sixth generation, because the Nano does not have Bluetooth.

Why did Phillips design the product in this way? I should just be able to plug-in any Apple product, and have it link through the Apple connector, without having to install any apps or use Bluetooth.

Do yourself a favor, don't waste your time or money on this product.

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The main reason I bought this docking station is that I could charge my I phone 4s with out removing my Otter Box.The connector tilts forward to connect. Bluetooth works great. Sound was also great. I would recommend this product. I really look at reviews hard before I buy. This dock is a keeper.

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Adquirí el ipod touch 4g e inmediatamente el dock philips. Es mi primera experiencia con un producto de apple y con un dock de estas características. Mi idea era armar un pequeño centro multimedia en mi habitación y realmente lo logré. Enlacé mi telefono nokia, el ipod, tablet samsung y notebook sony vaio, todos vias bluetooth al dock. Suena muy bien, realmente me sorprendió. No le puse 5 estrellas porque skype solo lo escucho por el ipod cuando este está conectado al dock. No probé hacerlo via bluettoth a la conexión de audio de skype.

Yo estoy muy conforme, era lo que estaba buscando de acuerdo a mis necesidades.

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Blaupunkt Helsinki 220 BT World AM/FM/MW/RDS CD Receiver with Built-in Bluetooth

• In-dash AM/FM/MW/RDS, CD/CD-R/CD-RW MP3, WMA Receiver with remote
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR. Supports HFP and A2DP audio streaming. Pairs up to 5 phones. Accept calls, reject calls and redialing.
• 4 x 45 watts maximum power with two-channel 2V preamp outputs
• One-line 9 digit dot matrix display
• Front panel USB and Auxillary inputs

We got the 420BT as an upgrade to the first aftermarket Blaupunkt head unit that's in our 2003 Volkswagen Eurovan. The first Blaupunkt unit that the 420BT replaced came after the original stock head unit, which was also manufactured for VW/Audi by Blaupunkt. We upgraded from the VW stock radio to the first Blaupunkt to get CD and CD changer functionality. It served us very well for 7 years, and it matched the VW eurovan's interior motiv very well--complete with red and blue lights, and a nice subdued black finish. It looked like it should have been original equipment. So when we saw that Blaupunkt was again being offered in the US (it disappeared for several years between 2008 and 2012), we decided to upgrade again to the 420BT because of the Bluetooth capability, both for hands-free phone, and for audio streaming, since we both use iphones for music storage and podcasts.

First, the good. The 420BT maintains the same exact wiring harness that they have always had, and which is fully compatable with the stock VW wiring harness for the 2003 Eurovan (and probably for all VWs and Audis of that vintage.) So, installing it was extremely simple again--just plug and play, and the standard DIN size fits the dash opening perfectly. The drawback for styling on the 420BT is that the front bezel trim ring and the radio face changed from a subdued black finish to a gloss black finish that seems to be made of much thinner plastic. So, while the radio fits well, it now stands out a little more from the other dashboard controls, looking a little more aftermarket than like original equipment. However, Blaupunkt did stick with the same red and blue light combination on the 420BT, so at least that aspect matches our VW motiv well.

The 420BT features that will take some getting used to are the controls. There is a lot of scrolling through menus using the dials to get to functions for bluetooth and audio controls like the fader (which we use a lot in the van for the kids). Even the equalizer functions setup is not all that intuitive. And to go along with all those menus, there is a very prominent (loud) confirmation beep for each button press or scroll dial. Very annoying. The phone pairing and playback setup is also not very intuitive either. And there are some features lacking on the phone and streaming that would be nice, like the ability to control the gain (volume) on the bluetooth device input.

The 420BT's other features will also take some getting used to. The built-in microphone does not have an adjustment for gain volume. It doesn't do very well in picking up voices, and it also doesn't reject car noises very well. It is difficult to hear the driver on a phone call. There is a 2.5mm jack on the rear for an external condensor mic. Apparently, it's not yet being distributed through Blaupunkt as of yet. But when it is available, I think the external Mic will be a necessary upgrade, installed on the driver's sunvisor, and hopefully would improve the telephone sound quality. One other fature I'm not sure of yet is the front USB connection. It has a nice rubberized dust cover, but I fear with repeated use, the cover will break off. What I may do instead is route a USB extension cable through the ashtray to connect to the stereo's rear USB connector, and just not use the front USB connector at all.

There is also a SD card slot for music behind the faceplate. We have not used that, and probably won't use it. But it does seem to be a good feature to have available just in case we ever have a SD card device in the future. I believe that the unit will also control satellite radio unit through the back connectors, though I'm not sure. And, sadly, Blaupunkt deleated the CD changer control inputs on the back, which would have been a very welcome feature for our keeping our venerable old changer going.

Bottom Line, There are some good features on the 420BT and many that will take some getting used to, and also some features that I wish it had. However for a one hundred fifty dollar price point, I would say it is good value for money and does primarily what we intended for it to do as an upgrade with Bluetooth functionality. If it grows on us as we become more familiar with it, we may improve the rating.

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I've owned and have been around Blaupunkt radios for 40 years being in the Porsche and Mercedes business. I was excited to upgrade my old Blaupunkt unit for one with all the latest goodies. The tuner on this unit is horrible, very poor FM reception and no AM. I waited writing this because the only thing worse than the reception is Blaupunkt customer service. I've been waiting two weeks for them to respond to my problem. I reinstalled my old one and am now looking for something else. Oh, if you really must have one I'll sell you this one.

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I bought this particular model because of Blaupunkt's reputation (I've always wanted one) and it seemed it would be compatible with the Harmon Kardon factory system of my 1995 Saab. The Bluetooth connectivity to my phone and the ability to play from a USB stick were also great features to modernize the Saab.

Things did not turn out quite as well as I hoped. In short, yeah, it's working fine on radio and USB, but connectivity to my phone is entirely random and it doesn't turn off when the ignition is off, as the manual claims it should. It also took me a couple weeks to get it installed. Very frustrating.

The mechanical aspects of installation were great the DIN-standard slide mount fitted easily where my old radio came out, the sockets for power and speakers matched my harness almost exactly. I had to bridge the Saab amplifier power-on wire to the antenna power output of the Toronto and that's where the installation problems started. After bridging the amplifier and antenna together, I found that the Toronto was not capable of powering both of them.

Hours of testing and research later, I ended up building a dumb little power reduction circuit so that the Toronto could drive the antenna and amp turn-on circuits. While figuring this out with the Toronto on a bench, I did a little testing to see what it was capable of driving. Not much as it turns out. The antenna and amp turn on circuits together turned out to need about 80ma. The Toronto manual claimed it could handle 150ma, but when I went to see how much it really could take I found that the voltage dropped when it faced a 40ma drain.

Once past the power issues, I looked forward to getting music from a USB drive and so copied a few GB onto a stick and tried it out. "USB ERROR". Dug into the manual. Reformatted drive to FAT32, loaded a few GB. "USB ERROR". Formatted a different stick to FAT32, loaded a few GB. "USB ERROR". Tried a smaller USB stick. Reformatted. Loaded half a GB. "USB ERROR". Eventually, after a second unit gave the same result, I realized that I was loading MP4a from iTunes and the Toronto could only accept MP3. Sure, that's in the manual, on the specifications/features pages, but not on the operation page. And it might be nice to give something more informative than "USB ERROR" since that's simply a lie there's nothing wrong with the USB stick, its just that there's nothing on it that the Toronto can play. "No MP3" or "USB EMPTY" or even no error would be better than "USB ERROR".

My phone is an old Treo 650, solid and reliable, that I've used with Bluetooth headsets and sync to my PC frequently. After pairing with the Toronto, I was able to make one test call and was told that it sounded great on the other end nice though admittedly I was stationary in my driveway. But I've never been able to take a call through it since. It connects and disconnects at random and there's no easy way to prompt it to connect again. There may still be something I'm missing, but it's not documented in the manual and the factory website has nothing to help.

According to the manual, if the car's harness provides an ignition wire that is on only when the car is running, the Toronto will use that as a signal to turn off when the car is off. Never happened yet.

The user interface two knobs, a row of presets/function buttons is adequate. The interaction design button push, knob turning and pushing is straightforward but nothing innovatively intuitive or easy to use when driving. Blue highlights, red buttons, white lettering doesn't really match the decor of my car. Plus the font is just ugly.

So, overall, I'm not super pleased. It works fine in the core areas radio, music but the features around it just don't seem to be ready for prime time. Let's hope they run a rev on the firmware.

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I was looking for a car radio to replace the garish CD player in our '79 Porsche 911. For many years, Porsche used Blaupunkt radios as their original equipment car audio supplier. I was glad to find that Blaupunkt radios are still available, and still look great in a Porsche dashboard. It even has two "knobs" that approximate the Blaupunkt radios of the '60's.

It's icing on the cake that the radio not only works well, but it offers current features like Bluetooth and USB audio streaming and telephone connectivity. Both features work well with my iPhone 4, and were easy to set up. I was also pleasantly surprised that the price was so low, as I was expecting to pay quite a bit more for this brand.

Only downside to this radio was that the Blaupunkt-supplied image of the faceplate doesn't really show the finishes accurately. I was expecting an all-black faceplate, but the actual finish is mostly black with a lighter metallic trim piece that surrounds the central display area. I'm getting used to it, but would have preferred all black. Given that this lighter trim fingerprints easily, it's not the best finish for the bottom row of buttons that get used often.

All in all, a great upgrade to our classic car!

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This a very good system, I like the Bluetooth streaming with my Phone 5. I could also plug my iPhone 5 to the available usb port it comes with and have full control of my music. You can also save your music on an SD card chip very cool!!! Many more features to long to list but I would recommend this system.

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AT&T uSpin - iPhone Dock

• Play & charge your iPhone or iPod
• Spin to landscape for videos, slideshows and cover flow
• Crystal clear LED clock display with dual alarm
• FM radio with 20 station preset memory
• Full function remote control

I was looking for a clock radio and one that had a dock for an Apple device build-in. I own an iPhone 5 and knew it would not work as with every other dock on the market; they all used a 30pin connector. But I also owned an iPod Touch that I really was not using.

The iPod snapped right into the uSpin which when turned on and playing music from the iPod sounded great. I mean read clear sound and good volume. Included with your purchase is a remote control, that can be used to set the time or tune into a local FM radio station.

What I found as a bonus, is that if I use my Wi-Fi connection on the iPod and use any Radio Streaming app, such as iHeart or Radio.com, I can tune-in to any radio station or service load and clear. You could go out and buy an Internet Radio, but you do not have too.

The uSpin is a good looking device that sounds great and I am very happy with my purchase.

Update I now have a Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter and can say that my iPhone 5 does work with the uSpin.

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I have a very thin case on my iPhone 4. I can squish my iPhone (with thin cover) into the clamp but it will not charge. I'm not going to take my cover off ever day in order to use the uSpin device. This seems like a design flaw since almost everyone I know has some type of cover on their iPhone.

The second disadvantage to this alarm clock is that it doesn't seem very simple to use. I didn't have time to read the instructions before deciding to return from the non-charging issue above but it wasn't easy to set the time...and when I did, I accidentally set the alarm which woke me up the night before I packed everything back up for return.

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