Olympia Infoglobe With Caller Id By op12 on Feb 26, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

The Olympia Infoglobe with Caller ID is a great little clock and Caller ID display. It should be noted that the Infoglobe can sometimes be found with different branding...there's a Sharper Image Infoglobe that appears to be the exact same product.

The device is basically a solid base with a clear blue dome top. Inside the top, an arm spins around extremely rapidly, and the ends of the arms have a strip of LED lights that ends up forming words as shown in the picture. The effect is very cool-looking, and also practical as you can see the information from all direction. The clock display generally alternates between date and time, showing them in a variety of formats to keep things interesting. It will automatically display special messages for holidays, and you can program up to 3 messages of your own as well. They alternate with the date and time as well.

The unit can also display Caller ID information if connected to a phone line, though I've never even used that feature and I've still found it to be worth the money.

The biggest issue with the clock is the noise. It is a subtle sound, but in a quiet room you can hear a very quiet vibration while the clock is operating. However, this is not a problem even if you choose to put this in a bedroom, because the clock lets you program a tun-on and shut-off time. So I have the clock automatically turn off before I go to bed, and it automatically turns back on in the morning.

I have seen some claims in online reviews that the globe may stop working due to power surges or moving around, but I have had the globe for 2 years and it's been through a couple of moves without any issue. As long as you're a little delicate with it, you should have no problems.

The controls are not completely intuitive, but the manual will get you through any operations you can't guess the operation of.