At one point in 2005 I created a quite sophisticated alarm clock. It was based on a Windows system which accessed playlists that were automatically exported from iTunes every night. I had a wireless remote with a keypad that I could use to enter various commands to snooze, start music, etc. I used the Altec Lansing ATP3 speaker system--very decent 3-way speakers. The computer was even in an adjacent room and a audio cable was ran through the wall, so there was no computer noise.
Unfortunately, it had many issues that were annoying. And now with MC, things are much different. I'm just curious if anyone has created a solution for this issue. I like the MP101's and have a nice universal remote that I could theoretically setup to turn it on and start music at a certain time, but there are many potential problems--extra delays could mess up the remote commands, and a million other chances for problems.
What would be nice is if there was something like the Apple product where you plug it into ethernet and it can play audio. Just imagine an alarm clock with an ethernet port or wifi that was a UPnP compatible device! In the worst case, I am tempted to run another dedicated system, but it isn't an ideal setup.