I've noted in past reviews the somewhat curious habit of manufacturers providing a remote control for an alarm clock--a device you usually use within arm's length. Clearly Altec-Lansing was listening, for the company decided to give you two remotes with the Moondance Glow. In addition to the small conventional remote control, the Glow comes with a small, decapitated pyramid billed as a "snooze remote." You plug a similar-looking transceiver into the back of the alarm clock and then pair the two by holding down a button on the bottom of the transceiver and pressing any button on the snooze remote twice.

The snooze remote does only a few things. By pressing down on the whole thing--two of the little feet on the bottom of the snooze remote are actually physical buttons; it took me a while to realize that the unit wasn't touch-sensitive--you can either Play/Pause your music or snooze your alarm. There are also physical Alarm 1 and Alarm 2 buttons on the front of the snooze remote that allow you to deactivate the respective alarm. That's the best feature of the remote--it's actually much easier to turn off the alarms via the snooze remote than via the unit itself. (The latter requires you to find the correct alarm button and then hold it down for a couple of seconds.) The snooze remote is also also useful in situations where you have two people sharing a bed and each wants control over the alarms, though it also introduces the temptation for the later sleeper to shut off the earlier sleeper's alarm (which, of course, isn't Altec Lansing's fault).

The other remote, an infrared model, would be largely useless if not for the fact that it's the only way you can set or use radio presets. There are four preset buttons, P1 through P4, which, in addition to letting you store and quickly tune to radio stations, are also assigned to _different_ features when you're playing music on your iPod--totally non-obvious features that require a thorough perusing of the manual. For example, P1 shifts between song and album shuffle while P3 accesses the previous playlist.

Lest these control issues make the Moondance Glow sound terrible, I have to note the good qualities. For one thing, the unit produces good sound for its size: there's solid bass reproduction, clear midrange, and no distortion, even at higher volumes (and the unit can crank out some pretty high volumes). FM reception is very good, as well--among the better of the iPod "clock radios" I've tested.

The alarm functions are good too, even if setting them can be a bit laborious. I loved that the Moondance Glow lets you choose to have alarms go off everyday, just weekends, or just weekdays--as far as I'm concerned, these should be standard options on all alarm clocks. The alarms are also loud and suitably annoying. (Sometimes too loud, in fact; I ended up choosing the Low volume setting because even medium was a bit much for me early in the morning.)