The Cuckoo clock is basically a voice message system, and yes it does show the time. It has an answer phone that can be dialled into from any normal landline or cell phone. You then record a voice message and also program in a time that it has to played out at. Now at the desired time, the cuckoo comes out and plays the recorded message. All you need to do is connect to your Home Network (via Ethernet) and it is ready. This is what the inventor has to say "It is not an attempt to create a sense of intimacy between the sender and reciever, I want the sender to leave stupid, drunken messages of lust to be played out at half past four on a sunday morning". The Cuckoo IP clocks has been features on a number of Tech TV shows and magazines.

How it works

The Cuckoo IP requires a network to operate. A tiny low cost chipset named (TINI) is what controls the Cuckoo Clock. The chip runs a subset of Java as an operating system and can function as a webserver with the help of HTTP. The chipset asks the webserver every minute if any message has been left for it to playback. If there is then the sound fle is then relayed by the server to the clock over TCP / IP. The sound file is then played through the speakers of the clock. The server has a GSM gateway to recieve calls from phones. It responds by picking up and then guiding the caller by simple voice instructions. The trigger time is set by the caller pressing the required keys on his phone. The clock has a simple memory to store the sound file so that it does not get hampered by network disturbances.
Via - Phoneyworld