Sorry, I'm not going to haul along a gadget that will take me a year to learn how to use and will require me to pack an instruction book! One of the reasons I go backpacking is to get away from that sort of thing! I certainly can't read books on a tiny screen (my DIL has an iPhone and there's absolutely no way I could use most of the apps). I don't even read books on my home computer screen (gives me a headache). I do very little reading on backpacking trips anyway.

Normally I don't worry about getting up early. However, there are occasions in which I need to start at the crack of dawn--during hot spells when I need to get my dog Hysson off the trail and in deep shade by noon, and in the Rockies to get across exposed areas before the afternoon thunderstorms hit.

I'll look for that Nike watch (yes, it has been discontinued) and also for lightweight travel alarms (I'll take my scale with me!). My past experience with travel alarms is that they are quite fragile, but that was 10 years ago.