Slashdot Mirror
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 ...
.. they had an interview with Bill and I'm sure he said the "media to go" was going to be manufactured by Intel.
The article doesn't seem to mention this but perhaps I just misheard the TV broadcast.
As I mentioned in the article I posted to Slashdot yesterday, I had to trash my Seiko MessageWatch because the company decided to exit the FM data business, leaving me with an expensive piece of scrap metal. Is Bill G. giving guarantees as to how long MS is committed to broadcasting the time, weather, sports, and email?? Will watch buyers again be left holding the bag in a short period of time when MS finally decides this business model doesn't work any better for MS than it did for Seiko?? Why the *^&% should I again shell out the big bux for a watch that I am eventually going to wind up smashing with a sledgehammer like I did the MessageWatch??
My nightmare is that by next year we will all be be wearing MS wrist watches. It will happen like this
Microsoft announced that to prevent piracy they will be assessing $100 to anyone who has a wrist even if the MS wristwatch is not intalled. The BSA has proposed challenge audits, in which all persons hanving one or more wrist must be able to document thay have paid the $100 wrist- site liscence or that they have purchased a MS wrist watch.
"it is just to easy for someone to remove the watch from the wrist and install it on another unlicensed Wrist" said a microsoft spokes person, " that is a violation of the EULA". He went onto hint that the forthcoming "palladium wristwatch that once implanted..err.. I mean worn, cannot be removed, only upgraded from a 'trusted' member of the collective."
Not even the all-powerful reality distortion field of steve Jobs could make a data-watch seem like a major research achievement, or even new, or even something you would want touching your arm. (they are as stylish and practical is a pocket protector).
It seems to me that this has got to be an all time low point for announcements of innovation in consumer electronics. Why? Maybe its because of the down turn in the tech-market means new products are not being developed. Another possibility is that microsoft's moves into hardware production(x box,phones) and Hardware specification (palladium, watches, media player, smartScreens) is having a chilling effect on the electronics industry. Recently they (allegedly) tried bankrupt a phone maker and move his technology to a competitor. Shades of Stacker and all the other software companies microsoft co-opted, ruined then bought their technology.
There is little doubt that MS stifled innovation in software. Just the fact that jobs could tweak an open source project to tripple the speed of a web browser over IE, when IE has had a clear field to innovate for five years or more, speaks volumes about the MS innovation stifle field. How could apple even dream they could technologically beat MS in the Power point market, but they did.
Does anyone else find these MS offerings utterly tepid compared to Apple innovation the day before?
Bill gates announces a recylced idea for a Nerd watch that shows sport scores, headlines. The debut the smartScreen, a 1500$ screen-only that hooks to your compute by wi-fi but cant play movies or mp3s, then they announce that anyone who already bought was is out of luck since that they will be changing the specs to use 802.11a to get better bandwidth for movies. then an oversized so-called "video" ipod that also cant show DVD movies, for more bucks than a ipod.
The only thing I thought was interesting was that they decided to switch to 802.11a for the smartScreens and not 802.11g. I dont know much about these standards except what Jobs said. 802.11a is dead, because it is not backwards compatible with 802.11b hotspots whereas 802.11g is.
How is it possible that one company can lead the entire market year after year going back all the way to the taming of dynamic memory. While the other company can lead the bussiness world and innovate nothing.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I had one of those pager watches Slashdot had an article about in early 2000.
All I remember from it's (short) time on my arm is that it took 3 watch batteries, which died after 30-60days requiring a new set. It was bulky, and it didnt work very well.
In fact, the only thing I did like is it would synch it's time to wherever I went to, which I really liked.
I'm afraid that the battery life in the MS watch will be dismal at best, especially processing video and audio.
I like watches that aren't obtrusive, and have a battery time of over a year using ONE thin battery.
I dunno about you guys, but I stick with my old watch.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!