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Microsoft Shows Off Watch, Portable Media Player

gmt-time points to this New York Times article with a report from the in-progress Consumer Electronics Show, excerpting "Microsoft, continuing its effort to extend its reach beyond computers, today introduced designs for a new class of watch that gives more than the time and a pocket audio and video player." According to the article, several manufacturers are committed to producing both the watches (mentioned yesterday as well) and the audio/video players. I wonder if they'll play Ogg Vorbis and my DivX;) files ...

8 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. And the point is? by oliverthered · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok,
    The Weather, umm... look at the sky, that's how I get my forcast.

    Sport, well GPL's a fun game to help play against Microsoft.(I never did see the attraction in watching somone else play)

    The Time, umm... I already have a watch thankyou, maybe not atomicly perfect but it'll do.

    Music, lar lar lar lar, lar lar ,lar lar, any one name that tune? Humm.. Wistle, be creative fine, music on my watch, boring.

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  2. Why should I need a watch... by simi-lost · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When I have a cell phone that fits in my pocket, that has the time on it, surfs the web, brings me the news, does text messaging.. AND doesn't run on a OS that is well known for bugs?

    --
    Mine means my own, but how can this be if I owe for it?
  3. DRM2Go? by runtimeerror7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The media player, called Media2Go, resembles the Apple iPod......"...."The device will not be able to hold movies from DVD's. But it will store and play home movies and video downloaded from the Internet"

    is that a way of stopping DVD piracy? DRM? or it just cant hold all my *future* LOTR DVD's together?

    well 7 inch screen to watch LOTR? geez, i cant even see the ring let alone sauron. ::akbar

  4. Can't you guys relax? by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I REALLY hate to see everyone bashing Microsoft every time they attempt something new. Sure, it may possibly exend the so called "monopoly" but the thing is how may times have we seen something like this fail? Now Microsoft is trying their hand at it. Will it work? Somehow, I doubt it. The things I hate seeing brought out AGAIN:

    1. Oh no now my will BSOD! BSOD's are actually getting to be less of a problem. This thing will probably not have a regular NT kernel, but probably something related to CE or more likely, something totally different. CE, for me has been very reliable (in the PocketPC form). I usually don't have a problem with CE in general. PocketPC problems are usually something wrong with the device or the vendor specific code. Usually with in a few months or so most of the bugs get worked out via flashes and they just work.

    2. Oh no now I will have to reboot my 4 times a day! Even if you did, it would only take 2 seconds or less to do and I doubt you'd have to reset it 4 times a day!

    3. Oh now I need a DRM compliant ! This is just bashing for sake of bashing. Yeah, DRM sucks, but in every implementation I have seen (WMP 9) it allows you to disable it! Also, you can always download Winamp 3 and use it.

    Your bashing the product before you even truely see it because Microsoft is attached to it. This kind of thing is just Juvenile and

    Oh and these things usually come from those who use a Microsoft mouse on thier Linux boxes. You got to admit that the come up with some great mice!

    --

    Gorkman

    1. Re:Can't you guys relax? by BWJones · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I REALLY hate to see everyone bashing Microsoft every time they attempt something new. Sure, it may possibly exend the so called "monopoly" but the thing is how may times have we seen something like this fail? Now Microsoft is trying their hand at it. Will it work? Somehow, I doubt it.

      Perhaps it is because Microsoft really is doing *nothing* new. Name one innovative product to come out of Microsoft that they have not purchased from someone else or outright copied........Clippy? Bob? Please. People are reluctant to want to support Microsoft because of bloated and inefficient programming and third rate design and implementation among many other reasons.

      Oh no now my will BSOD! BSOD's are actually getting to be less of a problem.

      But they still happen fairly frequently. Just yesterday on an XP box, I got a blue screen from plugging in a Firewire HD. On the other hand, I have been using OS X heavily since September of 2000 and have had one kernel panic (when running the beta), and experienced a hard crash maybe twice (post beta), and one of them was my fault with bad code. Or for more of a portable OS, look at Palm OS. It is small, fast, reliable and I have never seen it crash.

      Oh no now I will have to reboot my 4 times a day! Even if you did, it would only take 2 seconds or less to do and I doubt you'd have to reset it 4 times a day!

      And when it does, do I need to reset the time or re-synch the time?

      Oh now I need a DRM compliant ! This is just bashing for sake of bashing. Yeah, DRM sucks, but in every implementation I have seen (WMP 9) it allows you to disable it! Also, you can always download Winamp 3 and use it.

      Or I can use Quicktime, the best media solution out there that also happens to be open standards compliant and no DRM junk.

      Your bashing the product before you even truely see it because Microsoft is attached to it.

      It's expected outcomes based upon a number of years of proven behavior. If I touch the stovetop four times, and get burned four times, what is the likelyhood that I will not get burned if I touch it again?

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
  5. First to market with what? by Snart+Barfunz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    'He said that Apple was thought to be working on a version of the iPod with video ability, but it lost an opportunity to be the first to market when it did not announce the product as some people expected at the Macworld conference on Tuesday.'

    First to market with product or just an announcement? I thought Archos got there first. This sounds like a spoiler against someone about to announce something real. Given the choice of an Archos or a Microsoft Press Release - which would you choose?

    --
    --- Yx3 = Delilah ---
  6. Its true for a lot of stuff by swb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I got an Intel MP3 player as a gift from a vendor. Like most fixed-config flash-based players, its kind of limited with only 128M of storage. But its good for running or other activities where movement inhibits use of a mechanical storage device.

    Anyway, I was putting the software for it on my wife's computer since she uses it more than I do and I noticed that its EOL by Intel. You can still get the software for it, but it will be useless more than likely after either some XP service pack or some future Windows version.

    This is nuts! Barring a serious breakage incident, this thing could be functional for years but its only an FM radio once the inteface software that loads files onto it isn't available.

    I'm starting to get more and more dubious of any gizmo I buy that *requires* a computer. The idea that a perfectly functional object is junk because the vendor stops making interface software is pretty bad.

    I'd hope that vendors would start making the devices emulate generic USB/Firewire devices (eg, storage) so that the computer link isn't dependent on the software but on OS support for the generic device type, which is likely to have a much longer life.

  7. Re:No! Trustworthy Wrists host watch. by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple drives the perfection of technology. they dont invent it but they make it all work. they tame it, and thus transform the industry. It's like the scultor that sees the thing they will cut out of the block of granite. Dynamic memory is a perfect example. Other computers that used it were totally un reliable. most foldks used Static ram Apple 2: first to tame the following stable dynamic memory refresh, interlace screen graphics, game sprites early mac: first to tame the following: GUI, mouse. WSIWIG editors. Cut and paste graphics between apps. Graphica interface multi-tasking. Impact Printers that printed graphics and text that worked seemlessly with all applications. Postscript printing Next: Display postscript for true WSISWIG. Optical disks. Grid Computing (all NeXTS could share their unused cycles across internet) . shaded Pixar Rendering built in, elegant industrial design for office computers. scully period: mostly crap. abandoned software. newtons, OpenDoc,Quciktime. copland Jobs era: firewire, ipods, imac1 imac2, osX well history will decide. But every year we see people trying to clone mac innovations.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.